We're still waiting on the exact numbers for what may be the biggest week in hip-hop since 2006 (Kanye West's Yeezus, J. Cole's Born Sinner, Mac Miller's WMWTSO and Kelly Rowland's Talk A Good Game all dropped on the 18th of June), but projections for the sales show that Cole is closer to 'Ye's numbers than we previously thought. Both Mac and Kelly are still projected to do respectable numbers as well, especially considering the releases they're competing with. While we wait to find out where exactly Yeezy and friends will debut on the Billboard 200, this week we have a new entry with The Lonely Island. They debuted within the top 10, at #10 exactly, which gives them their second top 10 debut. While some true hip-hop artists struggle to do numbers, the comedy troupe did pretty well considering. No doubt the fame they got due to Saturday Night Live helped developp their fan-base.
1) Justin Timberlake—The 20/20 Experience: For whatever reason, maybe just because it’s Justin Timberlake, The 20/20 Experience saw a spike in sales this week, pushing the album back up to the #3 spot from #9, a spot which JT had held onto for quite some time. The singer sold 35, 430 copies of his album over the past week.
2) The Lonely Island—The Wack Album: The comedic hip-hop trio dropped their new album, The Wack Album, on June 7th, and managed to debut at #10 on the charts, which isn’t half-bad considering their in somewhat of a niche market. The album moved 26, 228 units opening week.
3) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis—The Heist: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ The Heist comes in at #15 this week, dropping three places from last week. Fans purchased 22,677 copies of the LP.
4) Lil Wayne—I Am Not A Human Being II: Weezy F Baby continues to make his way down the charts, dropping further this week to #39 from #33. The album was still able to push out another 10k.
5) Kendrick Lamar—good kid, m.A.A.d city: We can’t seem to rid ourselves of K. Dot on the charts, which definitely isn’t a bad thing for Compton native. This week the rapper holds onto the #50 spot on the charts (one spot up from last week), with 8,011 copies of his Aftermath-released album sold.
6) French Montana—Excuse My French: The Bad Boy signee’s debut album has already fallen off the top 50 of the Billboard 200. This week Excuse My French comes in at #55, which is quite a drop from last week’s spot. He’s been charting for four weeks.
In related chart news, singer Chrisette Michele released her new album, Better, recently, and she debuted just below The Lonely Island at #13, moving 24,895 opening week. Our other frequent Charts Don’t Lie singer, Ri Ri, finally finds herself below the top 50, coming at #60 this week. One last singer for you, The-Dream’s IV Play had a severe drop, all the way down to #88 on the Billboard 200, after three weeks on the charts. Single-wise, Ace Hood’s new song, “We Outchea,” which features Lil Wayne, is the top new entry in the Urban songs chart, entering at #36.