Soon Jay-Z is going to be on the charts, undoubtedly dominating the top spot, which belonged to J. Cole this week. Jay-Z's new album has made waves not only for it's creative rollout but for changing the rules of RIAA, in order to ensure the album went platinum before it even dropped, unlike our other chart-toppers this week, who are working their way to platinum the old-fashioned way. On top of Magna Carta Holy Grail already being platinum, it's also on track to sell a more-than-solid 350-400k units opening week. That's a projected 25k more than what 'Ye sold opening week with Yeezus. And Yeezus has since been dropping in sales quite quickly, this week coming in with only 40k units. Hova might not have this same problem, because his album is much more 'hip-hop' and thus much more what we 'expect' fans would want. But the debate still remains on how good the album is-- chime in with your thoughts in the comments below.
1) J. Cole—Born Sinner: J. Cole’s album has climbed up the charts this week, three weeks after the release of Born Sinner he nabs the #1 spot on the Billboard 200. After sitting at the #2 spot for the past two weeks, allowing Wale and Kanye to take their #1 spot, J. Cole, ever the polite rapper, now grabs his own. The Roc Nation artist sold 58,000 this past week, which is only down 33% from last week.
2) Wale—The Gifted: Wale’s new album dropped down one spot from his debut, thus landing him at #2. The rapper recently compared J. Cole, himself, and Kendrick Lamar to Jay-Z, Nas and Kanye West. He equated himself with Nas, since they each have the lowest amount of sales in comparison to their rap counterparts. We’ll have to see if Wale is able to keep his sales on The Gifted up though, this week he dropped by 68%, moving 48,870 units.
3) Kanye West—Yeezus: Yeezus sits at the #3 spot this week, the same as last week. Many rap fans have been quick to dismiss Kanye’s latest experimental album, which may account for his steep drop in sales following the album release. Are people just not fucking with it? This week the album still moved 40,366 copies.
4) Macklemore & Ryan Leiws—The Heist: This is just getting ridiculous. But we’re sure Macklemore & Ryan Lewis don’t mind. This week The Heist made its way back into the top 10 of the Billboard 200, at #8. They sold around 23k, which is an increase in sales of 2%. They had another platinum single recently, with "Same Love."
5) Justin Timberlake—The 20/20 Experience: Justin Timberlake, who is already promoting new music, is still pushing out copies of The 20/20 Experience. This week the RCA album rose from #18 up to #12, seeing an increase in sales of 12%. The singer moved 19,411 copies.
6) Mac Miller—Watching Movies With The Sound Off: Mac has fallen away from the pack this week, having been pushed down to #23 (below Kelly Rowland even) from #14 last week. The independent rapper still managed around 13k, with a drop in sales of 42%.
7) Kendrick Lamar—good kid, m.A.A.d city: K. Dot is another unstoppable force as of late, climbing up the charts week by week with his debut album. The rapper is up five more spots, at #32 on the Billboard 200 this week, moving around 10k.
Miss Kelly Rowland isn’t doing half-bad on the charts with her solo album Talk A Good Game. This week she charts at #19, moving just under 15k. Lil Wayne’s I Am Not A Human Being actually rose up the charts this week, for whatever reason, coming in at #42 after fifteen weeks on the Billboard 200. Single-wise, Travi$ Scott has his first-ever charted song with “Upper Echelon” debuting at #35 on the Urban songs chart. Jay-Z also debuts this week on multiple platforms, with “Holy Grail” featuring Justin Timberlake coming in at #40 on Urban, #32 on the Top 40, and #31 on Rhythmic.