This week’s Billboard 200 features three new Hip Hop albums at the top of the chart, led by another strong first-week debut from Wale who easily claimed the #1 spot with his The Album About Nothing. The Hip Hop-heavy soundtrack to Furious 7 climbed up to #2 as the movie debuted last weekend. Meanwhile, Ludacris’ ninth album is in the Top 3 and Kendrick Lamar’s third fell to #4 despite consistent album sales.
Lower down the list, Drake fell from #8 to #14 and Big Sean from#14 to #25. After his Top 10 debut last week, Action Bronson’s Mr. Wonderful fell nearly 50 spots to #55 and Earl Sweatshirt’s latest fell more than 100 from #12 to #166 a week after its release. Death Grips’ new album, Powers That Be, cracked the Top 100 at #72 with just over 9,000 albums sold in its first week of availability.
Wale Nabs #1
Wale’s The Album About Nothing has just become his second consecutive release to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200. The DMV rapper’s new album easily took the top spot thanks to first week sales of 88,210 units and a total activity count of 100,245, an amalgam of record sales, stream activity and single song sales. The album, which was built out of an extended collaboration with comedian Jerry Seinfeld, has been streamed nearly 7 million times since its release.
Wale’s last album, The Gifted, bowed at the top spot in 2013 with over 150,000 first-week sales.
Ludacris Enters Top 3
Ludacris’ ninth album, Ludaversal, barely missed the #2 spot but ended up in the Top 3 nonetheless with more than 62,000 album sales a week after its release. Despite his #3 standing, Luda sold the second-most albums on the chart, nearly twice as many as the actual runner-up but trailed behind due to relatively lackluster single song sales.
Kendrick Lamar Falls To #4
After spending his first two weeks on the chart at #1, Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly fell three spots to #4. The TDE rapper’s latest album suffered a 47 percent drop in total activity since last week but kept up with steady sales of 53,456. While the album has now sold a total of 484,410 copies since release, it has enough total activity units to have surpassed the required half-a-million units of a Gold album. If taking sales alone, the album will likely break the Gold record milestone next week.
Top 10 Billboard Top 200 Rap & R&B Albums For The Week Ending 04/05/2015
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. Wale – The Album About Nothing – 100,245 (88,210) [6,888,472]
#2. Various – Furious 7 – 73,526 (33,146) [4,280,324]
#3. Ludacris – Ludaversal – 72,627 (62,289) [4,805,013]
#4. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly – 65,088 (53,456) [11,492,708]
#14. Drake – If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late – 40,811 (16,454) [19,237,448]
#15.Empire Cast – Original Soundtrack From Season 1 – 40,315 (31,309) [4,151,643]
#23. Jodeci – Past, The Present, The Future – 28,041 (26,651) [563,211]
#25. Big Sean – Dark Sky Paradise – 24,123 (10,317) [8,741,741]
#26. Nicki Minaj – Pinkprint – 23,441 (7,147) [6,263,210]
#28. Mark Ronson – Uptown Special – 22,382 (3,264) [3,895,908]
For additional Wale coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
Drake’s streaming numbers are ridiculous given how long ago that album dropped. People can’t get enough of the OVO Don Dada.
what about my boy NF hiphopdx?
Ikr! Mansion is crazy good but was slept on.
Wale heading towards platinum again.
None of Wale’s albums went platinum, this one won’t be different.
Why do you stalk me creep?
When did replying to someone’s comment mean stalking?
Luda album is trash
Yo, what’s with the talk of Wiz Khalifa’s Downfall? He’s got a new top ten hit with see you again.
Tha shitty soong only made the top 10 thanks to Furious 7. It will quicky fall out of the top 10 and it won’t make up for Wiz’s lackluster album sales.
It made the top 10 because it was an emotional song about a loss of a friend, something people love. It’s already a hit and will help with the promotion of his next album. Plus no other single from a fast and furious album made the top 10.
Cosign. It’s the new I’ll be missing you. It’s dope.
Although that 2 chainz and wiz single from fast 7 made top 20.
No, it made the top 10 because of the Furious 7 movie, no other reason. That song got the most promo out of the other songs and it won’t help promote Wiz’s next album (the song will already be forgotten by the time Wiz does release an album).
Stoner and Dan are the same person. That trash See You Again will never be the new I’ll Be Missing You. Plus that trash song Wiz did with 2 Chainz only made the Top 20 because of Fast & Furious 6 and it fell off quick.
No one was even talking abou Wiz Khalifa here.
Ill be missing you is dope
See You Again was the only dope part in a shitty film.
No, it isn’t.
Yes it was. The film was shit but the song was dope. It’s like when puff released a song about biggie.
No, it wasn’t. The song is shit.
The film is shit you mean.
No, I mean the song is shit.
Funny how Wiz had to crawl to a movie for a hit song.
We both agree the film is wack though right?
Ja Rule gonna be in Fast 8.
This song was originally going to be for blacc hollywood until the director of Fast 7 begged for Khalifa to hold it over for the film.
No, it wasn’t. Blacc Hollywood was already released by the time the song was made. That song was made for that film specifically. Wiz begged the Furious 7 director to let him make a song for the movie.
The song was made before blacc hollywood came out and James wan (director of Fast 7) loved it and wanted to use it for the film. He held it over for fast 7.
The song was made after the release of Wacc Hollywood. Wiz came to James Wan and begged him to let him make a somg for the movie. Your story is bullshit.
Idiot. Wikipedia said it was made in 2015.
Either way, Wiz is winning, not losing.
More like Wiz cheated. His album sales are still shit and he relied on a movie for a hit.
See you Again was good BUT NOT AS AWESOME AS FURIOUS FROM THE FIRST FILM!!
RIP Dentaldamboy
I remember when HHDX, these album sales articles specifically, used to get 200-300 comments. This site has fallen the fuck off.
They need to upgrade the comment section and switch it to Disquis accounts ….that would help… this format is dated as fuck..
yea its because the fucking idiots @ DX don’t understand that these new album sale numbers are idiotic as fuck
WHAT ABOUT NF?!? lol
so hip hop is going to ignore the hot kid Fashwan,his album is way hotter than some the listed shit,,im mad..its ignorance or hate #soundscan#hiphopdx..one minute love and ya fakes cut him off
you are right the shit was hot but they ignore it like it is trash
Damn ,Wale only sold 88K. He wants to be mentioned with J Cole, Drake and Kendrick but he’s selling a quarter of what they’re selling. Wale’s album will die out around 200-225. While the other three rappers all sold that or more in their first week.
Luda album sold 62, shocked. Fast 7 helped those sales.
That’s what happens if you don’t keep grinding and associate yourself with whoever is hot at the moment (hint: Rick Ross). Wale was up with J. Cole, Kendrick or Drake back in 08-09 when it comes to potential, the difference is that the others stayed in their lanes and kept pushing their own stuff. Now they’re enjoying the well-deserved fruits of their labour, while Wale (despite being #1 at the charts) keeps whining as usual. He clearly set his priorities wrong and couldn’t even deal with the consequences like a decent man. See, that’s the problem with dudes like him: they don’t even recognize by themselves that respect is not to be asked but to be earned. Wale hasn’t produced anything worthwhile in the past years that’d put him in the same category as the others above, so maybe he should focus on that instead of constantly crying in the media how unrecognised he is.