Nipsey Hussle’s life was cut tragically short when he was shot and killed on March 31 outside of his Los Angeles clothing store. As a result, his Victory Lap debut has returned to the No. 2 spot on the Billboard 200 for the week ending April 4.
Released in February 2018, the Grammy Award-nominated project featured Kendrick Lamar, YG, Puff Daddy, CeeLo Green and The-Dream, among others. It originally debuted at No. 4, selling roughly 53,000 total album equivalent units in its opening week.
Elsewhere on the chart, NAV’s former No. 1 album, Bad Habits, dropped to No. 6, while Drake’s Scorpion returned to the Top 10.
Victory Lap Indeed
Nine days after Nip’s senseless murder, his debut album is sitting atop of the charts. With 66,497 total album equivalent units, 16,582 pure album sales and a streaming count of 61,682,182, the album has jumped 999 percent to land in the No. 2 spot.
In the wake of his death, his music sales have dramatically increased across the board — from Amazon to iTunes. Nip’s other releases — Crenshaw, The Marathon, Mailbox Money and Slauson Boy 2 — have also re-entered the chart.
The Grammy Award-nominated rapper was gunned down on March 31 after his alleged killer, Eric Holder, walked up to him outside of his Marathon Clothing store and shot him at least six times. Holder has since been arrested for the crime and his bail is set at $5 million.
Read the Victory Lap review here.
NAV Drops 58 Percent
NAV’s former No. 1 album, Bad Habits, has dropped 58 percent to wind up at No. 6. With 31,565 total album equivalent units, 2,694 pure album sales and a streaming count of 39,345,818, it was enough to keep the Toronto native’s latest project in the Top 10.
Top 10 Billboard 200 Rap & R&B Albums For The Week Ending 04/04/2019
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.
- Nipsey Hussle — Victory Lap — No. 2 — 66,497 (16,582) [61,682,182]
- Juice WRLD — Death Race For Love — No. 5 — 44,081 (1,174) [66,092,300]
- NAV — Bad Habits — No. 6 — 31,565 (2,694) [39,345,818]
- Post Malone — Beerbongs & Bentleys — No. 7 — 31,565 (2,694) [39,345,818]
- A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie — Hoodie SZN — No. 9 — 31,414 (171) [47,603,423]
- Drake – Scorpion —No. 10 — 29,399 (2,292) [36,228,267]
- Various Artists — Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse — No. 11 — 28,491 (4,619) [30,893,317]
- Meek Mill — Championships — No. 16 — 24,255 (429) [32,137,407]
- Travis Scott — Astroworld — No. 17 — 24,207 (1,238) [31,317,792]
- DaBaby – Baby On Baby — No. 19 — 22,027 (396) [29,006,324]
No disrespect to Nipsey, although I never listened to him, but why is he suddenly being venerated like the second coming of Christ when he was never very popular when he was alive? Like did he even have any mainstream hits?
Hey…. easy with the ignorance buddy!
Yes he did you just wasn’t in tune it’s not your fault though.
That’s a completely fair question. It’s because he was independent. For real. Not fake independent like these artists who have major deals on the low and are encouraged to play like their independent as a publicity stunt. Real independent. So no, he doesn’t have any songs that you would hear on the radio 3 times an hour 24 hours a day. But he had a helluva following for an independent artist. And he’s suddenly being venerated like the second coming of Christ because he carried himself that way. Don’t start with his music. Just go to youtube and watch his interviews. That’s what a lot of people are doing now and they are realizing what they missed out on. For those of us who have been rocking with him for years (for me it’s been since 2011), he was really a “Christ”-like figure. Always making the right moves and thinking of creative, inspirational actions that nobody else had thought of. He was a special breed.
“Christ” like??? You know he did put his pants on one leg at a time like you do.
Christ would’ve put pants on the same way, he was a man to!