DMX once had a long history of ruling the Billboard 200 chart.
As streams of his music went up 1,000 percent following his death on April 9, many believed it would translate to a renewed desire for his Exodus album. Instead, Billboard reports the Ruff Ryders legend’s eighth studio effort bowed at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling roughly 32,000 total album-equivalent units in its first week.
The album, backed by features from Nas, JAY-Z, Bono of U2, Alicia Keys and more, represents X’s seventh Top 10 debut. His first five albums, beginning with 1998’s It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot and ending with 2003’s Grand Champ all debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, making him the first rapper to achieve such a feat.
Exodus, however, pulled in more than 22 million on-demand streams of the album’s tracks.
In terms of posthumous efforts, the project’s first-week sales pale in comparison to other rappers in recent memory whose albums have been released after their deaths.
Pop Smoke earned his first No. 1 album in July 2020 when his Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon album set a record for biggest posthumous release with over 251,000 total album-equivalent units earned. Later in the month, Juice WRLD’s Legends Never Die album would break the record when it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with nearly 497,000 total album-equivalent units earned.
Ruff Ryders Producer Dame Grease Says He Has 50 Unreleased DMX Songs + Wants Def Jam To Release Them
Reviews to Exodus have been mixed, with most of the blame going to Swizz Beatz who handled the bulk of the production.
Producer Dame Grease, who helped create the bulk of X’s beloved 1998 debut album, revealed he had more than 50 unreleased X recordings sitting in the vault and wanted to get them released by Def Jam Recordings.
Only time will tell if another posthumous X album is on the way.
Listen to Exodus by DMX above.
Why didn’t y’all post Banks new album
I agree where the hell is it at!!!
You got it right
Because Fiddy done got dude blackballed. Das why.
look, when you hear a dmx album you wanna hear fire like his track “here we go again” (jayz diss) with Jadakiss – – – – – > ” nlggas can’t fck with kiss I meanie dat had to stop eating so much red meat because I ate too many beanie macks (woo!)”
I didn’t like this album as much as I wanted to. I believe Swiss Beats made it a pop album to get my man some sales. Which is fine. But it wasn’t gutter like I wanted it to be.
Wrong nowhere near a pop album straight x album. If it was pop would have sold less
I wouldn’t say it was pop but it sure as hell wasn’t a straight x album the album was garbage.. you don’t know much x if you think it was a x album.
just announce its Dark and hell is hot 2. Put Cardi on the track, Migos, Da Baby and SZA
Dusko Floppington.
Swiss done X wrong, made him a guest on his own album, I’d ike to count the total verses the Dog delivers, it’s not much, total fail.