This week Trey Songz's Trigga makes its debut on the Billboard 200 at #1, giving Trey his second #1 album in a row, following up Chapter V. Although Chapter V sold more records in its opening week (135k), Trigga came close under it with 105k. That's still a respectable follow up-- something we unfortunately cannot say about Robin Thicke. Thicke attained worldwide success with 2013's Blurred Lines, thanks in part to the radio-friendly and extremely catchy title track. Barely a year later, he announced Paula, in honor of his wife whom he is (very publicly) trying to get back. We're unsure why his camp would approve of such an endeavor, as the immediate reaction following his announcement wasn't very receptive, but nonetheless they went through with it. The album is what we can safely call a flop, if first week sales are how we judge it. It moved 22k in the U.S., which was the best it did anywhere in the world-- Canadians copped 550 copies, Australians only bought 54, and the U.K. was responsible for buying 530 copies, as we reported earlier this week. See how other releases fared on the Billboard 200 below.
1) Trey Songz—Trigga: Trigga comes through taking over the Billboard 200’s coveted #1 spot for his debut week. The r’n’b album sold an impressive 105,000 units opening week, and landed his second #1 debut, following 2012’s effort Chapter V.
2) Robin Thicke—Paula: Unlike Trey Songz, Robin Thicke was not able to mimmick the success of his last album, Blurred Lines. While Blurred Lines made a #1 debut in 2013, moving 177,000 units opening week, Paula has entered the 200 at #9, barely making it into the top 10. Thicke’s sales were equally unimpressive, moving 24,000 units.
3) Iggy Azalea— The New Classic: Ms. Azalea keeps her #19 spot on lock, remaining there since last week. After 11 weeks of charting, her debut album sold another 14,029 units, while her total sales are 220,283.
4) Michael Jackson—Xscape: Xscape lands the #21 spot this week, after moving 13,083 units. This is only a few spots down from last week #18. MJ’s total sales are up to 352,037.
5) August Alsina—Testimony: R’n’b newcomer August Alsina comes in at #23 this week, which is way up from last week’s #67, proving he’s still a force to be reckoned with. The album shipped out another 11,942 units. Total sales are at 150,461.
6) G-Eazy— These Things Happen: G-Eazy made a pretty nice impact on the charts with These Things Happen last week, however this week he’s dropped over 20 spots down to #26. Still, he moved 9,654 units, bringing his grand tally to 55, 745.
7) Pharrell— G I R L: Skateboard P rises up this week from #37 to #29. He’s been charting for 18 weeks, and another 9,323 copies of his LP flew off the shelves this week. His total sales are slowly approaching the 500k mark, right now they stand at 461,304.
8) ScHoolboy Q—Oxymoron: Although it was Ab-Soul who recently dropped a new project, for some reason ScHoolboy Q’s Oxymoron has returned to the top 50 of the Billboard 200 this week.The album rose up from #69 to #43 this week, moving 6,260 units.
9) 50 Cent— Animal Ambition: Fitty Cent’s recent release has done the same numbers as he did during the heyday of his career, but it’s to be expected given he also went the independent route for this release. He’s fallen to #52 this week, after selling 6,086 units.
10) Eminem— Marshall Mathers LP 2: You can never keep Em down for too long. He briefly sat at the #60 spot, but this week made his way up five spots to #55. After charting for 35 weeks, his total sales are 2,151,000, while he moved 5,000 units just this past week.
With the announcement of a release date for her debut LP this past week, Jhene Aiko's Sail Out EP rose up from #82 to #61. Ab-Soul's new album These Days... has quickly fallen off, and may not be on the 200 for much longer at this rate. Soulo dropped down from a #11 debut to #91, finding himself even below Kendrick Lamar's GKMC (which rose up to #89 this week). Mariah Carey's new album is also descending quickly, dropping 10 spots to #80 this past week.