The road to ye was a tumultuous one for Kanye West — from his flood of controversial comments, to the Wyoming listening party spectacle, to last-minute changes made to the album, the rollout wasn’t exactly smooth. But evidently it was all worth it. West’s follow-up to 2016’s The Life Of Pablo has debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 for the week ending June 7.
Elsewhere on the chart, Black Thought’s Stream Of Thought Vol. 1 EP made its entrance at #62, while Pusha T’s DAYTONA and A$AP Rocky’s Testing albums dropped significantly.
It’s A “ye” Thing
Despite fans’ polarizing views on Yeezy, ye still took the Billboard 200 crown, racking up 208,316 total album equivalent units (84,860 in pure album sales and a streaming count of 180,085,322). This is his eighth straight #1 debut, and he did it with the fifth biggest sales-week of 2018, behind Post Malone (461,000), J. Cole (397,000), Justin Timberlake (293,000) and Cardi B (255,000).
‘Ye’s previous album, The Life Of Pablo, also debuted at #1 upon its initial release but only sold around 94,000 units in its first week (including 28,000 in pure album sales).
West’s creative burst isn’t over yet. After releasing Pusha T’s DAYTONA on May 25 and ye on June 1, he dropped his collaborative project with Kid Cudi, Kids See Ghosts, on June 8. He still has a Nas album he said would arrive on Friday (June 15) as well as a project from Teyana Taylor.
In the meantime, check out the ye review here.
Black Thought Makes Modest Debut
Despite its glowing reviews, Black Thought’s new project, Stream Of Thought Vol. 1, made a modest debut on the chart. With 9,864 total album equivalent units (7,978 in pure album sales and a streaming count of 2,603,171), the 9th Wonder and Soul Council-produced project landed at #62.
The Roots frontman hasn’t officially released a solo album but since his monster Hot 97 freestyle last December, people have been hoping to get one soon.
Read the Stream Of Thought Vol. 1 review here.
DAYTONA & Testing Pump The Breaks
Pusha T’s DAYTONA took at 61 percent dive in sales and wasn’t able to stay in the Top 10 in its second week. With 29,464 total album equivalent units (10,665 in pure album sales and a streaming count of 27,140,265), he wound up at #13. The new album was released on May 25 and debuted on the chart at #3.
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This marks the G.O.O.D. Music president’s first album since 2015’s King Push – Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude, which debuted at #4, selling 84,000 copies in its first week.
Read the DAYTONA review here.
Likewise, A$AP Rocky’s Testing album couldn’t maintain its Top 10 placement, dropping from #4 to #15 after a 64% decrease in sales. The project moved 26,638 equivalent album units (1,401 in pure album sales and a streaming count of 37,084,991).
Check out DX’s Testing review here.
Top 10 Billboard 200 Rap & R&B Albums For The Week Ending 06/07/2018
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.
- Kanye West — ye — #1 — 208,316 (84,860) [180,085,322]
- Post Malone — Beerbongs & Bentleys — #2 —98,825 (10,170) [120,525,220]
- Cardi B — Invasion Of Privacy — #5 — 42,073 (3,868) [59,038,837]
- Juice WRLD — Goodbye & Good Riddance — #6 — 43,323 (1,052) [59,326,975]
- Lil Baby — Harder Than Ever — #9 — 37,286 (473) [53,900,474]
- J. Cole — KOD — #12 — 29,491 (3,934) [37,103,425]
- Pusha T — DAYTONA – #13 — 29,464 (10,665) [27,140,265]
- A$AP Rocky — Testing – #15 — 26,638 (1,401) [37,084,991]
- Post Malone — Stoney — #12 — 26,089 (2,180) [32,948,996]
- Migos — Culture II — #14 — 22,485 (1,346) [29,376,829]
AYE, we no longer care album Sales…. Carry on.
Y do y’all word it like it’s a big drop when it’s still in the top 100, 50 and 20. Albums are still doing better than well when it’s in those numbers. Stop trying to make the consumers think albums are bad if it’s not in the top 10.
Plus you notice they dont end round numbers
pusha sold 55k with darkest before dawn…actually look shit up when you write articles for a living….n didn’t the migos do 225k?
You literally have no idea what you’re talking about haha wow.
How come when a record drops after the first wk numbers yall dont add up the shit and say how much a albulm sold
At the end of the year
Cardi B sold more than Kanye first Week?? SMMFH
DAYTONA WAS FULL OF COCAINE NURSERY RHYMES…. IT WAS SO ELEMENTARY – FIRST TIME COKE PUT ME TO SLEEP
-Drake fan
Good for Ye but Black Thought comes in at 62 and DAYTONA can’t even stay in the top ten for more than a week. And Post Malone had a number 1 album for weeks straight.. and still has two albums in the top ten overall. One untalented white rapper is somehow managing to outsell some of the best MCs in the game.
White “rappers” I use the word rapper very loosely with this guy. Always out sell black rappers. Em, vanilla ice, mac Miller, lil dicky, shyt Macklemore won a Grammy over Kendrick Lamar. My point is that white ppl buy more music than blk ppl. And There are just more white ppl in America than any other race. So of course they gonna sell more. Lol sales don’t mean you nice. It means ur good at making pop songs or that your white. When that the “catch me outside” girl drops she gonna do numbers too.
You seem to the word “sell” loosely too, among other things. Then you brought up Grammy Awards. Some things to consider: of the few rap albums that have ever gone Diamond, only two have been from a white rapper, both from the same dude. Don’t have to know the first thing about hip hop to guess who.
Then there’s the fact that whites make up the majority of America, not every white person fucks with hip hop. Particularly those grown adults who aren’t the primary target audience of contemporary popular music. Hence why there are hundreds of pop, R&B and rock bands/artists who have gone diamond several times over in their career, but to this day only 7 rap albums have managed to do the so.
Here’s the main crux of it: when any rapper (be they Kendrick, Kanye, or Lil Yachty) drops their single/album, there’s a horde of white rappers just as (or in the case of Lil Yachty way more) talented that don’t nor will ever have any chance of going Platinum plus like they did.
You think when Soulja Boy/Hammer topped the Billboard and went Platinum (/10x Platinum), there wasn’t some white rapper like Apathy or Pete Nice somewhere who thought: “This some bullshit. Dudes’ll take anyone who happens to look like em.”
Soooo that makes 8 straight #1 Debuts
“Its over for Kanye”
-Joe Budden
Not on anything Ye’s been saying or doing, save KSG solely because of Cudi and maybe that Cobain sample, but I just had to do that.