This past week the Drake frenzy surrounding Nothing Was The Same came to a peak when the actual first week sales were released. The rapper's album had the best opening week of this year second to Justin Timberlake's come back effort-- he even topped Jay Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail first week sales. Nonetheless, his reach hasn't quite made the 1 million mark yet, although, if he continues on this path, it could very well happen on his next effort. While many of his rap counterparts, like 2 Chainz and Big Sean, could not live up to their debut effort in terms of sales, Drizzy was able to surpass his-- a feat, especially in the time when sales are continually declining and leaks abound. It shows that his fan base is extremely loyal and supportive, not to mention, growing. On the other hand, Nelly, who dropped his new (and also come back) album M.O. on September 30th seems to have lost a ton of fans during his hiatus from the game. Since the rapper dropped Nellyville his album sales have been on the decline, but M.O. is the worst yet. His last album, 5.0, in 2010 and managed to move 63,000 units the first week and at least it still charted on the Billboard 200. M.O. is looking to move a measly 12,000 to 15,000 units opening week. We doubt he'll be charting with those numbers, and compared to the 714,000 Nellyville did, it's kind of sad. Justin Timberlake is another artist who's looking like he won't live up to his last release. The 20/20 Experience 2 is projected to move less than half The 20/20 Experience did, with 350-375k. It's not bad by any means, but it's definitely not the 968,000 copies the first release did. Was it a good move for JT to release a follow-up this soon after the first? And where did all the Nelly fans go?
1) Drake—Nothing Was The Same: The King of Toronto is now taking over the rest of the world too, with his new album Nothing Was The Same selling the most copies opening week this year, only behind Justin Timberlake’s monstrous The 20/20 Experience. NWTS moved 658,000 units in its first week on sales—which is not quite the million optimistic Drizzy hoped for on his “Versace” remix, but it’s impressive enough. It’s also the biggest week for a rap album since Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter IV pushed 964,000. And of course, that landed him the #1 debut on the Billboard 200.
2) 2 Chainz— B.O.A.T.S II: #METime: 2 Chainz said in a vlog this past week that he doesn’t give a fuck about album sales (which kind of contradicts what he said in that Breakfast Club interview, about how he cares about sales), and he affirmed, “slow motion is better than no motion.” This week, B.O.A.T.S II continues its slow motion drop down the charts, which may not have been the direction Tity Boi wanted. The album fell from #15 to #7, and moved another 15,967 units, which is a decrease in sales of 25%. His total sales are now at 115,000.
3) Robin Thicke— Blurred Lines: Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines dropped five spots from last week, at #12 this week, after 9 weeks on the Billboard 200. The singer sold around 16k, which is drop in sales of 10%.
4) MMG— Self Made Vol. 3: The MMG crew were not able to hold on to a spot in the top 5 of the Billboard 200 for very long. They debuted at #4 but they’ve quickly dropped all the way to #19. The album moved another 16,000 units, which makes for a total sales of 66,000 thus far. We’ll have to see how long they’re able to chart for, if they continue along this way it may not be for too much longer.
5) The Weeknd— Kiss Land: Kiss Land did well upon its debut, but we’ll have to see if Abel can maintain that. This week the singer’s LP drops from #9 to #21, moving 15,000 units. Total sales for Kiss Land are now at 137,000 copies.
6) Jay Z— Magna Carta Holy Grail: Jay Z’s MCHG is still pushing copies off shelves, moving another 14,000 units this week, which is only a drop of 9% in sales. Coming in at #27 this week, Hov dropped five spots from last week. His total sales now surpass a milly, with 1,004,000 units.
7) John Legend— Love In The Future: R’n’b singer John Legend’s new album isn’t doing too shabby on the Billboard 200, however, he saw a steep drop on the charts this week, from #13 to #33. After 4 weeks on the charts, Legend sold almost 13k this past week.
8) Justin Timberlake— The 20/20 Experience: Justin Timberlake’s album isn’t going anywhere fast. Although the second part of The 20/20 Experience is out now (and looking like it’ll do less than half the numbers this one did), JT continues to chart, after 28 weeks. He dropped only a few spots this past week, from #37 to #33, and moved 12,444 units.
9) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis— The Heist: The Heist is finally dropping down the charts, but we can never be too sure if it’ll suddenly spike back up after another one of their records goes platinum. For now, the duo are at #49, from #36 last week. They moved 9,000 copies, making their grand tally 1,089,000.
Juicy J’s Stay Trippy is no longer in the top 50 of the charts, having dropped to #62 this week, selling 7,000 units (his total is now at 114,000 copies). Kendrick Lamar is still appearing on the Billboard 200, right under Juicy J in fact at #66. GKMC was able to sell another 6,000 units pushing his total sales to 1,046,000. On top of dominating the top of the charts, Drizzy Drake is also dominating Billboard’s Hot 100—he has 12 songs on this week’s chart, which is a feat only accomplished by one other solo artist, who happens to be his Young Money boss, Lil Wayne. Finally, Big Sean’s Hall Of Fame drops to #81 from last week’s #75 spot.