As predicted, Travis Scott’s Astroworld album has made its debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart for the week ending August 9. Scott’s third studio album successfully dethroned Drake’s Scorpion, which had dominated the chart since its June 29 release.
Elsewhere, Mac Miller’s Swimming and YG’s Stay Dangerous enter the chart in the Top 5, while Moneybagg Yo’s Bet On Me and H.E.R.’s I Used To Know Her: The Prelude make Top 20 appearances.
The usual suspects — Post Malone, Cardi B, XXXTENTACION and Juice WRLD — round out the Top 10.
La Flame Is Lit
With an incredible 537,449 total album equivalent units sold, 269,719 in pure album sales and a streaming count of 349,434,718, Astroworld easily landed in the No. 1 spot this week. The debut is particularly impressive because it knocked Drake’s Scorpion down a notch, a spot the 6 God had held for the past five weeks.
Scott’s sophomore album, Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight, also debuted at No. 1 upon its 2016 release, selling 53,000 copies in its first week.
Astroworld features a sizable number of guests, including Kid Cudi, Frank Ocean, Drake, The Weeknd, James Blake, Swae Lee, Gunna, Nav, 21 Savage, Quavo, Takeoff, Juice Wrld, Sheck Wes and Don Toliver, among others. Producers such as Mike Dean, Allen Ritter, Hit-Boy, Sonny Digital and Thundercat also contributed to the project.
Read the Astroworld review here.
Fisherman Dives Into No. 3
Mac is back. Following the 2016 release of The Divine Feminine, the Pittsburg-born rapper has returned with Swimming. Boasting 65,740 total album equivalent units sold, 29,843 pure album sales and a streaming count of 45,956,872, the 26-year-old’s fifth studio album made its entrance at No. 3.
The project was anchored by the singles “Small World,” “Self Care” and “What’s The Use?” and features production from J. Cole, Flying Lotus and Dâm Funk, among others. He handled the bulk of the production under his Larry Fisherman pseudonym.
Read the Swimming review here.
“Stay Dangerous” Hits Top 5
Tekahsi 6ix9ine drama aside, YG’s Stay Dangerous has just given the Compton-bred rapper his second Top 5 album. With 55,845 total album equivalent units, 11,163 pure album sales and a streaming count of 57,644,200, the project squeezed into the No. 5 spot.
His only other album to enter the Top 5 was 2014’s My Krazy Life, which sold roughly 61,000 copies in its first week and debuted at No. 2.
YG’s last album, 2016’s Still Brazy, peaked at No. 6 and served as his second Top 10 album on the Billboard 200. [apple_news_ad type=”any”]
Read the Stay Dangerous review here.
Top 10 Billboard 200 Rap & R&B Albums For The Week Ending 8/9/2018
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.
- Travis Scott — Astroworld — No. 1 — 537,449 (269,719) [349,434,718]
- Drake — Scorpion — No. 2 — 117,348 (9,324) [138,015,395]
- Mac Miller — Swimming — No. 3 — 65,740 (29,843) [45,956,872]
- Post Malone — Beerbongs & Bentleys — No. 4 — 57,583 (4,872) [67,705,100]
- YG — Stay Dangerous — No. 5 — 55,845 (11,163) [57,644,200]
- Juice WRLD — Goodbye & Good Riddance — No. 6 — 37,765 (955) [56,487,676]
- Cardi B — Invasion of Privacy — No. 7 — 34,953 (1,554) [40,457,189]
- XXXTENTACION — ? — No. 8 — 33,096 (1,643) [48,375,703]
- Moneybagg Yo — Bet On Me — No. 11 — 25,253 (5,543) [24,731,110]
- Lil Baby — Harder Than Ever — No. 15 — 21,150 (292) [28,503,368]
Nicki Minaj’s Album FLOPS . . . Queen To Sell Less Than 100K Units!!
You haters can’t stop my man crush, Drake. His own album was replaced with another album featuring him, so he’s still at #1. I’m so happy for him, yay! Where’s that fake drug dealer Pusha T at?
Well. There it is. Drake is washed up. All the click farms and fake streams can’t save blackface the porn star raw dogging simp now… 5 weeks at no. 1, and this guy supposedly has sold more albums than the Beatles, yet he has Eminem money? Hahahaha