Wale has the No. 1 record in the country with The Gifted. The MMG rapper’s third album sold 158,000 copies its first week while its nearest competitor was J. Cole’s Born Sinner, which sold 84,000 units.
Coming in third was Kanye West’s Yeezus album, which sold an additional 64,000 copies. Interestingly, Billboard reports that the 80% drop in the second week sales of Yeezy’s new album is the fourth largest since SoundScan started being used to track album sales back in 1991.
While Wale claims his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart this week, as “The Gifted” debuts with 158,000 copies sold according to Nielsen SoundScan, last week’s No. 1, Kanye West’s “Yeezus,” falls by 80% to No. 3 — the largest second-week percentage drop for a No. 1-debuting album in over a year. It sold 65,000 in its sophomore frame. A week ago it bowed with 327,000.
Comparatively, the average second-week drop for a No. 1-debuting album in 2013 is 69%. (West’s last solo album, 2010’s No. 1-bowing “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” slid by 78% in its second week.)
No. 1 debuts that were particularly front-loaded in their first sales week this year were “Yeezus,” Justin Bieber’s “Believe: Acoustic” (down 79% in week number two), Chris Tomlin’s “Burning Lights” (down 78%) and Fall Out Boy’s “Save Rock and Roll” (down 77%). On the other end of the spectrum, the smallest second-week erosion for a No. 1 bow belongs to Josh Groban’s “All That Echoes,” which fell by just 50% in its second frame.
But West isn’t the only rapper to experience a record second week drop in sales. Mac Miller’s Blue Slide Park had an 82.54% sales dip in December 2011 and Jay-Z’s Kingdom Come fell by 79.42% in December 2006.
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Photo: Moet Rose Lounge
