This week r'n'b singer and hit-maker extraordinaire, The-Dream, enters the charts with his latest effort, IV Play. The-Dream is an interesting artist to analyze, because while he creates hits on top of hits for tons artists in the game, his own fan-base is much smaller, yet extremely devout to the singer. The-Dream writes (and produces) tracks of all kinds for huge stars like Rihanna, Kelly Rowland, Beyonce etc. It's kind of strange to think that all your favorite female singers get their content from one man. The-Dream's dedicated fan-base came through for him on his latest release, at least, somewhat. Compared to past album sales ranging from 58,000 to 151,000, the 22,000 The-Dream moved opening week doesn't seem that impressive. Nonetheless, we must remember that Terius find himself in a much smaller genre, which generally won't reach album sales that hip-hop artists have (plus, we could bring up the ever-decreasing album sales fact). Thus The-Dream's 22k isn't the worst (we've seen hip-hop artists debut with much less). Besides, The-Dream made $15 million off "Umbrella" alone (!), so these album sales are probably pocket change.
1) Justin Timberlake—The 20/20 Experience: Justin Timberlake continues his slow creep down the charts, this week dropping from #8 to #9. If he continues to drop just one spot at a time, we’ll be seeing JT for a while. The 20/20 Experience sold another 29k this past week.
2) The-Dream—IV Play: The-Dream’s IV Play didn’t sell as much as the Radio Killa’s past albums, but it’s still strong given the fact that he is in the r’n’b genre which has a smaller reach than hip-hop. So The-Dream’s 22k copies is respectable (and it's slightly higher than projected). Terius Nash was still able to debut on the Billboard 200, coming in at #16.
3) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis—The Heist: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis come in under The-Dream this week, with The Heist at #18. The Heist was able to push another 21,917 copies off shelves.
4) Kid Ink—Almost Home EP: Kid Ink’s first major label release (via RCA) was his Almost Home EP, which will be followed by his major label debut album. The EP was able to move 14,235 in its opening week. The West Coast native comes in at #27 this week.
5) French Montana—Excuse My French: Coke Boy French Montana recently capped off the performances at HOT 97’s Summer Jam this past week, bringing out some of his big features like Rick Ross and Lil Wayne to help him. Although his album is stacked full of features, it’s not enough to keep French in the top 10. This week the New York native plummets to #28, having moved 13,487 units of Excuse My French over the past seven days.
6) Lil Wayne—I Am Not A Human Being II: Lil Wayne comes in this week at #30, having dropped several spots from last week. IANAHB2 sold 12,535 copies this week.
7) Kendrick Lamar—good kid, m.A.A.d city: Kendrick Lamar remains within the top 50 of the charts this week, with good kid, m.A.A.d city sitting at #43. The rapper’s debut major label release keeps doing numbers, selling around 8k this week.
This week Daft Punk still has the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 locked, while Rihanna’s Unapologetic comes in at #41 after 28 weeks of charting. In singles news, 2 Chainz and Wiz Khalifa’s “Fast & Furious 6” collabo seems to be doing well, having jumped from #19 to #2 on the Digital Songs Charts, with a 138% rise in downloads. Wale’s single “Bad” holds the #1 spot on the Urban songs chart for the seventh week in a row, while his newest single “LoveHate Thing” off The Gifted debuted on the Urban chart at #37.