The Weeknd didn’t need much promo to secure his third consecutive #1 debut on the Billboard 200. The hit-making singer’s My Dear Melancholy EP continued his hot streak despite its abrupt release. Elsewhere on the chart for the week ending April 5, Rich The Kid’s inaugural LP performed well enough to reach #2.
The Weeknd’s “My Dear Melancholy” EP Takes Top Spot
At the end of March, The Weeknd surprised fans by teasing a brand new project and dropping it a few days later. Despite the lack of major promotional campaign, his fans supported his My Dear Melancholy in droves and helped it reached #1 on this week’s Billboard 200.
The EP moved 168,570 total album equivalent units with 68,480 coming in pure album sales. His total numbers beat out his closest competition by over 100,000 units, and he may not be done yet following another tease.
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Rich The Kid’s First Album Lands At #2
Rich The Kid’s debut album, The World Is Yours, landed at #2 in its first week on the chart. The Rich Forever Music founder’s LP achieved the feat by raking in 59,095 total album equivalent units.
The inclusion of the Kendrick Lamar-assisted “New Freezer” and popular single “Plug Walk” certainly helped the streaming numbers (74,278,829 in total) for Rich. The World Is Yours sold 6,413 in pure sales, so most fans were listening through their streaming service of choice.
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DJ Esco’s Future-Assisted “Kolorblind” Cracks Top 40
DJ Esco’s Kolorblind project was the third-highest Hip Hop debut of the week, but it was nowhere close to The Weeknd and Rich The Kid’s releases. Despite Future’s heavy presence on Esco’s latest work, Kolorblind was all the way down at #38 in its first week.
Billing it as a collaborative project with Future — similar to 2016’s Project E.T. — probably would’ve bolstered sales, especially since the Freebandz boss is featured on every song. For his first week, the “Coolest DJ In The World” garnered 12,632 total album equivalent units.
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Top 10 Billboard 200 Rap & R&B Albums For The Week Ending 04/05/2018
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. The Weeknd — My Dear Melancholy — #1 — 168,570 (68,480) [140,817,851]
2. Rich The Kid — The World Is Yours — #2 — 59,095 (6,413) [74,278,829]
3. XXXTENTACION — ? — #3 — 56,945 (3,430) [74,545,984]
4. Various Artists — Black Panther: The Album — #6 — 43,345 (5,573) [49,638,313]
5. Migos — Culture II — #7 — 40,975 (2,679) [51,613,367]
6. Post Malone — Stoney — #8 — 28,612 (2,313) [35,741,490]
7. Logic — Bobby Tarantino II –#10 — 26,654 (2,589) [34,282,811]
8. Kendrick Lamar – DAMN. — #15 — 19,624 (3,401) [22,569,192]
9. Khalid — American Teen — #17 — 19,213 (2,044) [23,405,293]
10. Bruno Mars — 24K Magic – #18 — 18,619 (4,872) [15,031,631]
