Hip Hop Album Sales: Playboi Carti’s “Die Lit” Makes Solid Billboard 200 Debut

Hip Hop is once again a strong presence on the Billboard 200 chart for the week ending May 17. Post Malone’s Beerbongs & Bentleys remains in the #1 spot and Playboi Carti’s Die Lit made its debut at #3.

Tee Grizzley also made his grand entrance at #10 with his Activated album, while J. Cole’s KOD dropped 22 percent to land at #6.

Elsewhere on the chart, XXXTENTACION’s ? project has stayed in the Top 15 even with the 10 percent drop in sales and Spotify’s new Hate Content & Hateful Conduct policy, which resulted in the removal of X’s music from Spotify-curated playlists.

It’s Lit

Playboi Carti’s new project Die Lit hit the chart running with 60,904 total album equivalent units sold (4,752 in pure album sales and a streaming count of 82,113,921) to settle at #3, even as a surprise release.

It serves as the follow-up to 2017’s self-titled mixtape, which peaked at #12 on the Billboard 200. In that project’s first week sales, Carti moved roughly 28,000 units thanks in part to the success of “Magnolia.”

Again & Again

Post Malone’s Beerbongs & Bentleys continues to dominate the chart for its third week with 147,343 total album equivalent units sold (18,053 in pure album sales and a streaming count of 183,141,122). The Texas-bred rapper’s debut, 2016’s Stoney, also remains on the chart. Despite the five percent dip in sales, it still landed at #13.

Beerbongs & Bentleys went platinum almost immediately upon its release due to the success of the project’s lead singles, “Rockstar” featuring 21 Savage and “Psycho” featuring Ty Dolla $ign. Since then, it’s broken several records, including one Billboard record previously held by The Beatles for 54 years.

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GRRRR

Rising Detroit rapper Tee Grizzley made his chart debut for Activated, his inaugural studio album. The project landed at #10 with 32,883 total album equivalent units sold (5,518 in pure album sales and a streaming count of 39,345,915).

Activated follows 2017’s My Moment, which peaked at #44 on the Billboard 200 and #22 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

Top 10 Billboard 200 Rap & R&B Albums For The Week Ending 05/17/2018

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.

1. Post Malone — Beerbongs & Bentleys — #1 — 147,343 (18,053) [183,141,122]
2. Playboi Carti – Die Lit — #3 — 60,904 (4,752) [82,113,921]
3. J. Cole — KOD — #6 — 53,269 (9,738) [63,401,112]
4. Cardi B — Invasion Of Privacy — #7 — 52,697 (4,245) [66,748,154]
5. Various Artists — Black Panther: The Album — #9 — 33,044 (8,591) [32,343,646]
6. Tee Grizzley — Activated — #10 — 32,883 (5,518) [39,345,915]
7. Rae Sremmurd — SR3MM — #11 — 27,784 (852) [38,359,015]
8. Migos — Culture II — #12 —26,872 (1,332) [35,599,248]
9. Post Malone — Stoney — #13 — 26,640 (2,033) [34,549,972]
10. XXXTENTACION — ? — #14 — 24,900 (604) [34,696,001]

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