Two debuts make their Top 3 mark on this week’s Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. Lecrae breaks into the #1 spot with Anomaly while Jhene Aiko arrives in the #3 slot with Souled Out. Elsewhere, Jeezy’s Seen It All: The Autobiography sees a drop in sales, but remains in the Top 10 while Rittz’s Next To Nothing also makes it debut, landing at #14.
Lecrae’s Anomaly Lands At #1
Lecrae’s Anomaly has arrived at #1 this week. The album, which earned a 3.5 out of 5 in its HipHopDX review, moved 88,587 units in its first week of availability, removing Maroon 5 from the #1 spot it occupied last week with V. “Perhaps Anomaly’s biggest triumph is also its quietest: it adds on to mounting evidence that Lecrae is the most impactful Christian rapper ever,” critic Jay Balfour writes in the HipHopDX review. “It may not be a label he himself will flaunt, but he became the first Hip Hop artist to win a Grammy for Best Gospel Album last year and has assimilated into the mainstream more fully than any other emcee of his kind. At the same time, part of what makes Anomaly and its artist compelling musically is that he’s so bent on pushing against Hip Hop as he continues to become a bigger part of it. It’s a fitting practice because for every new piece of success he achieves he also appears more as himself. At its base, Anomaly is about being different, that Lecrae actually is makes it genuine.”
Jhene Aiko’s Souled Out Sold Enough For #3
Lecrae’s Anomaly was not the only debut this week to land in the Top 3. Jhene Aiko’s Souled Out also arrived, making its mark with 69,844 units sold in the album’s first week of sales. Souled Out, which also earned a 3.5 out of 5 in its HipHopDX review, joins Anomaly as the only Hip Hop or R&B albums in this week’s Top 5. “Jhene Aiko is a rare artist that an ear, heart and soul must grow into loving,” critic Marcus K. Dowling writes in the HipHopDX review. “The reason? She’s a creative soul who thankfully, for the listener, has a life that can’t be boxed into four-minute radio anthems. On this album, a story finally begins in earnest for the Hip Hop styled chanteuse weaving her magic onto melodic mattresses resting on boom-bap box springs with spellbinding results.”
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Jeezy’s Seen It All: The Autobiography Sees Drop In Sales
While Lecrae and Jhene take the Top 3 spots, Jeezy fell from last week’s #2 placement, landing just out of the Top 5 this week with Seen It All: The Autobiography. This week, Seen It All dropped 73 percent in sales from 121,190 last week to 33,074 units sold. Overall, Jeezy has moved 154,539 units of Seen It All. Like Anomaly and Souled Out, Jeezy’s Seen It All earned a 3.5 out of 5 in its HipHopDX review, a review which saw critic Sheldon Pearce call the project “a glimpse into how Jeezy can make his living on the back nine in a crowded subgenre with no use for him anymore.”
The Top 10 Billboard Top 200 Rap & R&B Albums For The Week Ending 09/14/2014
#1. Lecrae – Anomaly – 88,587 (88,587)
#3. Jhene Aiko – Souled Out – 69,844 (69,844)
#6. Jeezy – Seen It All: The Autobiography – 33,074 (154,539)
#14. Rittz – Next To Nothing – 21,627
#18. Iggy Azalea – The New Classic – 17,027 (351,549)
#23. Wiz Khalifa – Blacc Hollywood– 11,934 (152,154)
#30. Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP 2 – 8,327 (2,203,601)
#44. Trey Songz – Trigga – 6,304 (242,593)
#55. Beyonce – Beyonce – 5,212 (2,067,826)
#75. Pharrell – G I R L – 3,766 (519,521)
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