Well, it looks like DJ Khaled will in fact not be suffering from success with his latest album. His second week on the charts finds him plummeting more than 20 spots, and moving less than 10,000 units. However if there is one rapper we could say has suffered from success, it is most definitely Eminem. Em's highly anticipated album, Marshall Mathers LP 2, finally dropped this past week, and the sales projections are typical for Em-- in fact, they're in line with what his 2010 album, Recovery, sold. Eminem will take over Drake's spot for the second biggest-selling opening week of the year, with projections of 700,000 - 750,000 (he will be surpassed only by Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience, of course). These numbers are also an increase from what Relapse did (608,000 opening week), interestingly enough. So even though we've seen a lot of criticism around the web surrounding MMLPII, it looks like Eminem's fans are still supporting the record-- however are those his mainstream/pop fans or hardcore hip-hop heads? Does it matter? We'll have to wait til next week to see the damage done on the charts by MMLPII, but we'll leave you with a question for now. Do the high sales projections match the quality of the LP?
1) Drake— Nothing Was The Same: Mr. Drizzy Drake fell down two spots this week, as several new pop entries made their way onto the Billboard 200. Nothing Was The Same sits at #5, while the YMCMB rapper still pushed 38,274 units off shelves, with a drop in sales of 11%. His total sales are now 1,029,000.
2) Justin Timberlake—The 20/20 Experience 2: Justin Timberlake reached platinum certification this past week for 2 of 2, which, although it didn’t happen as quickly as the first (which is now 2x platinum), is still impressive—considering this is his second album within the span of a year. Justin dropped to #13 this week, moving another 25,531 copies. He decreased by 20% in sales compared to last week.
3) DJ Khaled— Suffering From Success: After two weeks of charting, Khaled has dropped to #29 following his #7 debut. DJ Khaled managed to move 9,000 more copies, bring his total sales up to 36,000. That’s also a drop in sales of 69%.
4) TLC—20: The TLC compilation album which was created as the soundtrack for the VH1 biopic climbed up to #12 last week after an extremely low debut, but this week has dropped back down to #32. TLC is doing similar numbers to Khaled actually, moving 9k this week with total sales of 35,000.
5) John Legend—Love In The Future: John Legend’s album hasn’t been faring too badly on the Billboard 200. This week the singer only dropped one spot to #35 after charting for nine weeks. Legend had sales this week just under 9k.
6) Robin Thicke— Blurred Lines: Robin Thicke comes in right below John Legend this week, with Blurred Lines dropping from #31 to #36. After fourteen weeks on the charts, Thicke still sold 8,038 units, down in sales by 10%.
7) Pusha T— My Name Is My Name: Pusha Ton fell quite a bit over the week, from #26 last week to #44. The drug-talking rapper sold 7,000 units of MNIMN, with total sales of 113,000.
8) Jay Z— Magna Carta Holy Grail: We’ve seen Jay stay atop the charts with MCHG for a long time now, and now we’re seeing him slowly fall down. He’s reached the #50 spot this week, so we may find him below the Top 50 in the coming weeks, but you never know. After seventeen weeks on the Billboard 200, Hov still pushed 7k copies. His grand total is 1,048,000.
9) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis—The Heist: Our Charts Don’t Lie mainstays, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, are falling below that Top 50 of the 200 chart. This week they dropped three spots to #53, while selling 6,000 units. The Heist has total sales of 1,124,000.
10) Kendrick Lamar— good kid, m.A.A.d city: Kendrick Lamar’s debut album remains persistent on the charts, and stays higher up than rappers who dropped within the past month. GKMC fell this week from #42 to #67, but still sold 5,000 units. K. Dot’s total sales are 1,077,000.
2 Chainz is definitely not matching his sales for Based On A T.R.U. Story with B.O.A.T.S II-- the second installment has only just surpassed the numbers that Based On A T.R.U. Story did in its debut week. This week Tity Boi sold another 5k, bringing his total sales to 153,000-- while his debut album did 147,000 units opening week alone. MellowHigh, consisting of Hodgy Beats, Domo Genesis and Left Brain, dropped their self-titled album on Halloween, which made it's entrance on the Billboard 200 this week at #89. Juicy J's Stay Trippy comes in below MellowHigh this week, dropping to #102, with sales of 4,000 units (total sales of 138,000). On a side note, although Eminem's MMLPII has yet to hit the Billboard 200, three of his past albums have resurfaced on the charts in the wake of his return: Recovery comes in at #99, The Eminem Show at #100 and the Marshall Mathers LP at #106. Plus, Curtain Call: The Hits, an Em greatest hits album, is charting at #157.