With the holiday season underway, a handful of albums were knocked out of their previous positioning on Billboard’s Top 200 chart. The only Hip Hop and/or R&B album to break into the Top 20 this week was Mary J. Blige’sThe London Sessions, which was released last week. Despite breaking into the Top 10 last week, Eminem’s ShadyXV, Rick Ross’ Hood Billionaire, and Beyonce’s Beyonce [Platinum Edition] have all fallen out of the Top 20.
Other Hip Hop and R&B artists to break into the Billboard Top 200 chart include Mariah Carey, Chris Brown, T.I. and Iggy Azalea.
Mary J. Blige’s “The London Sessions” Debuts At #9
With close to 57,000 albums sold this week, Mary J. Blige’s The London Sessions has debuted at the #9 spot on the Billboard 200 chart. Recorded primarily in London, England, Blige recruited the assistance of Sam Smith (his In The Lonely Hour album reached the #4 spot on this week’s Billboard Top 200 chart), Emeli Sande and other artists for The London Sessions. The album serves as the Yonkers, New York songstress’ first studio release since 2013’s A Mary Christmas.
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Wu-Tang Clan’s “A Better Tomorrow” Unable To Break Into Top 25
Despite serving as the Wu-Tang Clan’s first joint album since 2007’s 8 Diagrams, A Better Tomorrow was unable to break into the Top 25. With approximately 25,000 units sold, A Better Tomorrow debuted at #29 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. Making it a slightly lower debut than 8 Diagrams, which debuted at #25. The release of A Better Tomorrow has faced numerous challenges since it was announced in early 2013. Raekwon spoke on those challenges during an appearance on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” in August.
“I would say it’s all of these things,” Raekwon said. “We’re trailblazers in the music business. We’re doing our job. I consider this a sport. So, I think it’s an important, as an athlete of music, to make sure you have your business together and make sure that you feel happy at whatever you want to do. You just gotta feel good about it and know that, at the end of the day, you got your i’s dotted and your t’s crossed in business because we have families.”
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Eminem’s “ShadyXV” Slides To #21
After debuting at #3 on the Billboard Top 200 chart last week, Eminem’s ShadyXV compilation album had dropped down to #21 with 28,000 units sold this week and a stream activity count of 2.3 million.
Top 10 Billboard Top 200 Rap & R&B Albums For The Week Ending 12/07/2014
Note: The figures below represent this week’s “total activity,” an intersection of album sales, single sales, and streams. A pure album sales figure is available in parenthesis and information about each album’s streaming count is available in brackets.
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#9. Mary J. Blige – The London Sessions – 56,670 (54,638) [729,080]
#21. Eminem – ShadyXV – 33,212 (28,474) [2,360,716]
#29. Wu-Tang Clan – A Better Tomorrow – 25,032 (24,386) [45,801]
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#39. Beyonce – Beyonce – 19,906 (10,778) [5,476,232]
#40. Pitbull – Globalization – 19,889 (13,900) [2,101,307]
#42. Rick Ross – Hood Billionaire – 18,757 (15,513) [1,903,450]
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#43. Mariah Carey – Merry Christmas – 18,451 (11,427) [2,695,511]
#49. Omarion – Sex Playlist – 16,191 (12,644) [817,527]
#54. Chris Brown – X – 13,983 (7,049) [4,741,618]
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#64. T.I. – Paperwork – 12,130 (8,007) [2,724,862]
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