J. Cole dominated the Billboard 200 albums chart with the debut of his fourth studio album, 4 Your Eyez Only. Post Malone and Tech N9ne also debut in the Top 15 with their projects while The Weeknd and Bruno Mars maintain strong sales.
J. Cole Sells Nearly Half A Mil With “4 Your Eyez Only”
J. Cole sold incredible numbers with the release of 4 Your Eyez Only, which lands at #1 on this week’s chart. The LP sold 492,217 equivalent album units and was streamed 176,949,538 times its first week, more than The Weeknd’s Starboy upon its debut last week. The album’s debut numbers are this year’s third most for an album release this year, following Drake’s VIEWS and Beyoncé’s LEMONADE. This release means all of J. Cole’s albums have reached the top of the 200 albums chart.
Post Malone’s Debut Puts Up Numbers
Riding the wave of “White Iverson” success, Post Malone’s debut album, Stoney, makes an impact with a #6 chart position in this sales cycle. The project pushed 57,538 equivalent album units and was streamed 51,680,334 times in its first week.
Tech N9ne Storms Onto The Charts With Latest LP
Tech N9ne lands at #12 with The Storm selling 36,851 equivalent album units and being streamed more than 6 million times in its first week. This follows the success of last year’s Special Effects, which peaked at #4 as the Kansas City MC continues his independent reign.
Top 10 Billboard Top 200 Rap & R&B Albums For The Week Ending 12/15/2016
Note: The first number below is this week’s “total album equivalent units” count, an intersection of album sales, single sales, and streams implemented by Billboard’s new rating system. A pure album sales figure is available in bold in parenthesis and information about each album’s streaming count is available in brackets.
#1 J. Cole — 4 Your Eyez Only — 492,217 (362,789) [176,949,538]
#3 The Weeknd — Starboy — 109,289 (37,288) [90,708,360]
#4 Bruno Mars — 24K Magic — 73,779 (49,985) [19,542,496]
#6 Post Malone — Stoney — 57,538 (18,935) [51,680,334]
#12 Tech N9ne — The Storm — 36,851 (31,264) [6,193,207]
#14 Various Artists — The Hamilton Mixtape — 36,140 (29,340) [8,483,776]
#17 Drake – VIEWS — 30,505 (5,924) [33,044,513]
#20 Childish Gambino — Awaken, My Love! — 26,944 (14,513) [17,282,156]
#25 Various Artists — Suicide Squad: The Album — 23,464 (12,085) [10,794,255]
#26 Rae Sremmurd — SremmLife 2 — 23,070 (2,046) [21,393,645]
so i guess poor Charles Hamilton didn’t manage to make any waves with his debut LP, huh? That’s a shame, it was a good album but it wasn’t a good idea to drop it the same day as Ab Soul and J Cole and Tech N9ne. I hope his label doesn’t drop him and he manages to get some buzz in the future, maybe his best bet would be to sign with an independent like Rhymesayers (he made a beat for the first Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman EP) or Stones Throw. They could probably market him to their audience better than any major label could.
What’s Ab Soul?
It sold about 7,500. I guess they didn’t think it was worth mentioning it.
Sorry but 4yeo isn’t worth it. It was a big disappointment tbh.
justifying the half assed shit he just dropped…we still buy it though. Playing his old shit (Friday Night Lights) knowing he won’t top it… false prophets.
How do you build a career on hope and inspiring people to follow their dreams then soon as you reach yours all your musics about no go fold clothes, its better being broke. Your only saying that because you arrived. Hey i didn’t give up but you should. fuck outta here.
i wanted to like it – i mean there are 3 / 4 good songs – immortal , deja vu, neigbours and 4 your eyez only. But it seems like a pretty lazy album. You cant listen to the production quality on friday night lights and the lyrical densisty and deliver and say it hasn’t fallen off on this album. He sounds asleep on this shit. Delivery and production wise. I mean yeah he got a story to tell but atleast make it musically interesting to listen to like say Good Kid Mad City. The only good thing people say about this album is the story. which he only really gets to on the last song. Justifying the half assed shit he just dropped…we still buy it though. The irony. Listening to his old shit knowing he wont top it.
Charles Hamilton album was better. He didn’t have any marketing though. Should have done a press run or a sway freestyle. Something.
J Cole dropped a classic!!!