As the past few months have been slow all-around when it comes to music, we are not seeing many, if any, new hip-hop entries on the charts. However this shortage of music is coming to a close; the past week or two have seen many big songs drop, and a mixtape or three. We'll definitely begin to see some new names on Charts Don't Lie as early as next week, with Justin Timberlake's 20/20 Experience dropping on March 19th. Nonetheless, album-wise, we aren't seeing anything new this week. Instead, we have T.I. and The Weeknd re-enter the top 50 in the charts, while mainstays Rihanna, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Kendrick Lamar and A$AP Rocky continue to consistently sell.
1) Rihanna—Unapologetic: Rihanna leaves the #8 spot after sitting their two weeks in a row, she’s now rose to #5. However, that rise isn’t equal to a rise in sales, as Unapologetic sales were down 1% over this past week, moving 28,172 units.
2) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis—The Heist: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis take Rih Rih’s #8 spot this week, moving 24,663 copies of The Heist, selling almost half of what they sold last week.
3) Kendrick Lamar—good kid, m.A.A.d city: The good kid rose up 6 spots from last week’s #27. K. Dot’s album pushed another 15k off the shelves over the past week. A preview of the remix to Kendrick’s stand-out single “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe” which features Jay-Z and new verses from K. Dot surfaced this past week, and once more amped up TDE fans. As well, another single "Poetic Justice" went gold this past week-- so congrats are in order.
4) A$AP Rocky—Long.Live.A$AP: The die-hard fans of the A$AP Mob continue to cop Rocky’s debut album. The LP sits at #33 this week on the charts, up from the #41 spot last week. 11,364 copies of Long.Live.A$AP were sold.
5) The Weeknd— Trilogy: Although consisting of old material (which was previously released for free) The Weeknd’s Trilogy has once again popped back up on Charts Don’t Lie. This week Trilogy comes in at #38, with a surge of sales of around 10k, and thus making its way back in the top 50.
6) T.I.—Trouble Man: Tip is keeping himself afloat on the charts, if only just, at #50 this week with 8,579 copies of Trouble Man sold. It’s interesting to compare Tip’s success with Trouble Man to that of his veteran rapper counterpart, Game. The two released their respective LPs around the same time in December, both deemed quality LPs, however Game’s failed to do well on charts, whereas the Kang has maintained. We wonder what’s to blame?
In other chart news, Swizz Beatz’ wifey Alicia Keys remains consistent on the charts with Girl On Fire rising to #30 this past week, with 12k sold. Single-wise, “Thrift Shop” remains the #1 on the Digital Songs chart impressively enough for the ninth week straight—this is the longest consecutive run at the #1 spot since Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” single in 2009.