Brent Faiyaz is currently on track to do something no R&B singer has done since Summer Walker’s Still Over It album — debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. According to HitsDailyDouble, early projections for the singer’s sophomore full-length album Wasteland are between 105,000 to 115,000 total album-equivalent units.
If the figure holds, Faiyaz would be challenging Bad Bunny for the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 and chasing a bit of history in the process. If Faiyaz does indeed reach the summit of the Billboard chart, he’ll become the first truly independent artist since 2018 to achieve a No. 1 album.
Wasteland marked Faiyaz’ first full-length release since 2017’s Sonder Son, but he’s continued to build his fanbase through EP releases, singles, guest appearances and more. The 19-track album comes stacked with guest features from the likes of Drake, Alicia Keys, Tyler, The Creator, DJ Dahi and The Neptunes.
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In an interview with Vogue, Faiyaz detailed the recording process behind Wasteland, utilizing film scores as an inspiration to tie the album’s theme together.
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“It was less of an album process and more of a life process,” he began. “I just made a collection of songs and tied a story line together once I saw that they all kind of shared a similar theme. I didn’t really realize I was working on an album until I was maybe a little over halfway through. Then I realized, Wait a minute, this is a body of work.”
“I was watching a lot of Tarantino films. I was watching Jackie Brown over and over again. I was also watching Vanilla Sky on repeat. I pulled a lot from that. But mostly I was inspired by the different people that I locked in with, from The Dream to Alicia Keys. I was just soaking up game from artists like Raphael Saadiq and No I.D., who have been doing this longer than I have.”
Revisit Wasteland below.
