Prince has a crazy number of albums under his belt, and a loyal following at that. After taking a four-year break, he returned this year with not one, but two new albums. He put them out at the same time, and managed to move units on each, with each debuting within Billboard 200's top 10. While Prince's popularity may not be as high as it once was, there's still a fanbase there. It would be difficult to compare all his sales since he's got 33 solo albums on deck, but it's safe to say he's no longer doing numbers like his multi-platinum breakthrough 1999 or, perhaps his most successful, Purple Rain (which has sold over 20 million copies). While he will probably never attain such numbers again, he still moved a total of 77,000 copies between his recent two album releases. Childish Gambino also made a Billboard 200 debut this week, with the iTunes release of his KAUAI EP, the second half of his STN MTN/KAUAI project. It's definitely a good concept, to put a mixtape up for free and have a paid-for second half, because fans still aren't shelling out a whole lot of money, but in return, they're getting quite a bit of music. The fans came through for Gambino, as he moved 16,000 copies opening week without so much as a promo roll out (and you know they could have just as easily bootlegged the EP). While we await first week numbers from Keyshia Cole and Tinashe to arrive, check out what else went down on Charts Don't Lie.
1) Prince— Art Official Age: Prince’s new album (one of two) makes its debut this week, just within the Billboard’s top 5 at #5 exactly. Art Official Age sold 51,000 copies opening week. It might not be Purple Rain numbers, but we are in a new age after all.
2) Prince— PLECTRUMELECTRUM: The second album from Prince, with his backing girl band 3RDEYEGIRL, has a slightly lower, but still strong, debut at #8. This one managed 26,000 copies opening week.
3) Chris Brown— X: Chris Brown’s latest album X drops down this week to #9, from last week’s #6. After three weeks of charting, Breezy sold another 24,000 units, which brought his grand total up to 206,000 copies.
4) Childish Gambino—KAUAI EP: While STN MTN is currently available for free download here at HNHH, the second portion of the concept album, KAUAI, is available to purchase on iTunes. Impressively enough, Gambino is already charting with KAUAI debuting at #18, and selling 16,000 units.
5) Lecrae— Anomaly: Lecrae continues to prove himself with his new album Anomaly. The album is make slow drops down the Billboard 200, this week arriving at #28. The Christian rapper moved another 12,369 copies, while his total sales currently stand at 149,333.
6) Jeezy— Seen It All: Jeezy’s Seen It All has been charting for one week longer than Lecrae, but comes in right below him at #29. This week the album pushed 11,740 copies off the shelves (or e-shelves, depending how it was purchased), with total sales of 202,098.
7) Jhene Aiko— Souled Out: Jhene hasn’t been able to keep up with Lecrae, as her debut album continues to fall down the Billboard charts. This week she plummets to #42 from #30 last week, selling 7,812 copies over the course of seven days. Her grand tally is 109,457.
8) Iggy Azalea— The New Classic: Just as Iggy Azalea drops down to #50 on the charts, she’s revealed a new title and cover artwork for the re-release of this LP, now Reclassified. The New Classic itself has a had a good run on the Billboard 200 lately, charting for 24 weeks and coming in at #32 last week. The debut moved 6,655 copies. Her total sales are 376,681.
9) Wiz Khalifa— Blacc Hollywood: Wiz’s lacklustre album is also lacking sales performance. Blacc Hollywood drops down to #53 this week, after charting for 7 weeks. It sold 6,414 units this week, bringing Wiz’s total number up to 175,114.
10) Trey Songz— Trigga: R’n’b singer Trey rounds out this week’s list, with Trigga coming in right below Wiz at #54. The album sold 6,334 copies this week, while his total sales have reached up to 263,657. He’s been charting for twice as long as Wiz too, 14 weeks total.
In singles charting, ILoveMakonnen & Drake's "Tuesday (Remix)" climbs up to #79 after a #90 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. Rae Sremmurd's "No Type" produced by Mike WiLL Made It made quite the leap over the last week, jumping up to #56. Kendrick Lamar's new single "i", on the other hand, made a 9-spot drop to #48. Bobby Shmurda continues to be a trending rapper with his "Hot Nigga" record jumping up 2 spots to #12 on Billboard's Hot 100. Finally, as you may now, Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda" single reached platinum status, selling 1 million copies.