Hip Hop Album Sales: Rihanna, Kevin Gates & G-Eazy

Rihanna climbs the charts in her second week on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart. Kevin Gates’ Islah makes its debut and G-Eazy increases his sales.

Rihanna’s ANTI Is Crowned #1

Rihanna’s ANTI was certified platinum by the RIAA less than one day after its release to TIDAL because the singer sold more than one million copies of her album within 15 hours. Billboard did not recognize these statistics because Rihanna’s partnership with Samsung contributed to the album purchase total. After debuting at #27 with 460 album sales, Rihanna tops the chart in ANTI‘s second week. The album sold 166,322 equivalent units, sold 123,815 albums and was streamed more than 14 million times.

Kevin Gates’ Debut Album Sees Success

Kevin Gates’ Islah album reaches the #2 spot on the chart in its first week. The Baton Rouge, Louisiana rapper sold 112,057 album equivalent units. Islah was streamed 15 million times.

G-Eazy Returns To Top 10

G-Eazy returned to the Top 10 this week with When It’s Dark Out landing at #10. The album saw 15 percent growth over last week’s sales, selling 31,329 album equivalent units this week. The LP debuted at #5 in December and beat out Rick Ross’s Black Market album for highest-selling Hip Hop album that week.

Top 10 Billboard Top 200 Rap & R&B Albums For The Week Ending 02/04/2016

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 Rihanna – ANTI – 166,322 (123,815) [14,215,661]

#2 Kevin Gates – Islah – 112,057 (92,856) [15,057,140]

#9 Bryson Tiller – Trapsoul – 31,843 (11,996) [23,001,467]

#10 G-Eazy – When It’s Dark Out – 31,329 (11,383) [17,583,212]

#12 The Weeknd – Beauty Behind the Madness – 30,385 (73,767) [17,976,860]

#18 Fetty Wap – Fetty Wap – 22,561 (4,606) [15,677,555]

#20 Chris Brown – Royalty – 19,218 (10,208) [8,179,989]

#21 J. Cole – 2014 Forest Hills Drive – 19,000 (6,258) [14,580,823]

#22 Flo Rida – My House – 18,916 (1,784) [7,534,549]

#28 Drake and Future – What a Time to Be Alive – 17,687 (2,562) [16,150,789]