Ed Sheeran’s No. 6 Collaborations Project has continued to have a strong hold on the Billboard 200’s coveted spot after debuting at No. 1 last week. Trailing behind is The Lion King: The Gift album, which thanks to the Beyoncé touch, has debuted at No. 2 for the week ending July 25.
Nas’ The Lost Tapes 2 also made its entrance on the chart this week, barely squeezing into the Top 10, while Iggy Azalea’s In My Defense struggled in its first week, settling in at No. 50.
Meanwhile, Hip Hop/R&B is still dominating the chart with Lil Nas X, J. Cole and Dreamville, Chris Brown, Lizzo, Khalid and Post Malone all holding steady in the Top 10.
Who’s World Is This?
Following Nas’ seminal debut, 1994’s Illmatic, the Queensbridge Hip Hop legend nabbed his first No. 1 album with 1996’s It Was Written. Since then, 1999’s I Am…, 2006’s Hip Hop Is Dead, 2008’s Untitled, 2012’s Life Is Good have all landed in the coveted spot.
AD LOADING...
With Nas’ latest effort, The Lost Tapes 2, he earned a No. 10 position with 23,345 total album equivalent units, with a whopping 11,619 pure albums and a streaming count of 14,160,149. However, it’s a step down from last year’s NASIR,which hit the chart at No. 5 with roughly 77,000 total album equivalent units sold in its first week.
Read The Lost Tapes 2 review here.
Hakuna Matata
As The Lion King continues to rake it in at the Box Office, the Beyoncé album intended to supplement the film, The Lion King: The Gift,has landed at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The project sold a total of 53,578 album equivalent units with 11,438 of them coming from pure album sales. The 27-track effort also collected a streaming count of 50,255,527.
AD LOADING...
The Gift marks the pop superstar’s second Top 10 debut of 2019 (following Homecoming: The Live Album) and ninth Top 10 effort as a solo artist. 2016’s Lemonade also revisited the Top 10 this year.
Read The Lion King: The Gift review here.
In Her Defense …
Iggy Azalea’s latest effort, In My Defense, has made its chart debut at No. 50 with 11,261 total album equivalent units, 5,779 pure album sales and a streaming count of 6,672,064.
AD LOADING...
The Aussie pop rapper is aware the project is getting bad reviews, which she recently addressed on Twitter.
“Babe, relax,” she tweeted. “Critics have literally NEVER given any album I’ve made a good review, and I’m still here! What did you think was gonna happen.”
In My Defense is Iggy’s first studio album since her 2014 debut, The New Classic, which hit No. 3 upon its release thanks mostly to the massive success of “Fancy.”
AD LOADING...
Read the In My Defense review here.
Top 10 Billboard 200 Rap & R&B Albums For The Week Ending 07/25/2019
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.
- Beyoncé — The Lion King: The Gift — No. 2 — 53,578 (11,438) [50,255,527]
- Lil Nas X — 7 — No. 4 — 43,147 (384) [53,402,001]
- J. Cole & Dreamville — Revenge Of The Dreamers III — No. 5 — 41,421 (802) [55,347,521]
- Chris Brown — Indigo — No. 6 — 37, 070 (2,284) [43,915,330]
- Lizzo — Cuz I Love You — No. 7 — 32,566 (4,036) [33,020,573]
- Khalid — Free Spirit — No. 8 — 32,050 (5,529) [34,167,515]
- Post Malone — Beerbongs & Bentleys — No. 9 — 24,503 (1,253) [31,379,496]
- Nas — The Lost Tapes 2 — No. 10 — 23,345 (11,619) [14,160,149]
- DaBaby — Baby On Baby — No. 11 — 22,897 (242) [32,429,346]
- Drake — Scorpion — No. 15 — 21,668 (482) [28,087,474]
