For now, rap releases have slowed down, but new ones are on the way. The month of June promises to be one full of album drops-- which all fall under a few different dates. The biggest date by far, is, of course, June 18th. The date which 'Ye tweeted a month ago is (unsurprisingly?) turning out to be a huge one in terms of hip-hop. We'll be getting a matured Mac Miller's Watching Movies With The Sound Off, J. Cole's highly anticipated sophomore effort, Kanye West's Yeezus, and Kelly Rowland's LP. It'll definitely be interesting to see where everyone lands on the charts-- 'Ye seems to have almost no promotion for his album thus far, apart from his guerilla marketing for "New Slaves." The cover art of Yeezus was revealed, as was a pre-order link on his website, which disappeared soon after. It makes us wonder if 'Ye will really drop on the 18th-- but he's not the kind of rapper who seems to be in to pushbacks. On the other hand, the Cole World rapper has done a very good job at getting the word out about Born Sinner, especially after he decided to push up his release date. While it seems obvious that Yeezy will sell more (even if he doesn't promote it at all, it's Kanye West after all), we think J. Cole will still give him some good competition. As for Mac Miller-- from what we've heard thus far, his album sounds like it'll be strong, showing his growth as an artist. We'll have to wait and see if his fan base is willing to grow with him.
1) Justin Timberlake—The 20/20 Experience: This week Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience has dropped one spot further down from last week, at #7, as his album sales continue to slowly drop. Last week the singer moved around 65k, and this week there were 42, 742 copies of the album sold.
3) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis—The Heist: Mack and Ryan Lewis keep the #11 spot on lock since last week. The duo sold 27,718 units of The Heist this week as they continue to dominate airwaves around the world.
4) Lil Wayne—I Am Not A Human Being II: Weezy’s new album continues to maintain its status in the 20-somethings on the charts. This week he comes in at #22, down only one from last week. Wayne’s album was able to move 14k over this week.
5) Rihanna—Unapologetic: Rih Rih joins Charts Don’t Lie once more this week, after being pushed off for a period of time because of an influx of rap releases (which we will be seeing again soon). Nonetheless, while she was absent from here, Unapologetic still maintained strength on the charts. The album comes in at #32, having sold 11k this week.
6) Kendrick Lamar—good kid, m.A.A.d city: The good kid’s climb back up the charts continues. Although he dropped slightly last week, this week GKMC is back up again, at #39. K. Dot sold 9,540 copies to nab the spot.
7) Eve—Lip Lock: Eve’s come-back album, Lip Lock, managed to enter the Billboard 200 this week. The rapper dropped her album on May 14th, and debuts on the charts at #46 this week, after selling around 9k.
Other rap releases which land below the top 50 of the Billboard 200 this week are Kid Cudi, whose album INDICUD dropped to #58 this week, after 5 weeks on the charts. He’s followed by Tyga, with Hotel California dropping only one spot down from last week, at #67. Much further below those two, we find Will.i.am at #106 with #willpower (that’s after 4 week of charting) and Talib Kweli’s Prisoner Of Conscious LP at #112.