Last month, New York rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie set a record for lowest pure sales for a No. 1-charting album with his sophomore release Hoodie SZN, selling less than 1,000 copies. Today, Billboard reports that he’s broken his own record as Hoodie SZN once again maneuvered its way to the top of the Billboard 200, this time with an even lower total copies sold at just 398.
Of course, those are only traditional units sold, as in someone going to an online retailer like Amazon, Apple Music, or Google Play, clicking “Buy This Album,” and paying $9.99 or however much for a download. No one really does this anymore in 2019 — streaming is rapidly replacing outright purchases as the first choice for a music consumer looking to get a fix and A Boogie is one of the biggest beneficiaries of this shift. His equivalent album sales, encompassing individual track streams, streams straight through his 20-track album, and traditional sales, actually shook out to around 47,000 copies.
While Stereogum points out that’s still a low total for a No. 1 album, it’s not record-breaking low, and the recent slow release week allowed A Boogie to return to the spot he last hijacked from the currently-detained 21 Savage, whose own I Am > I Was actually returned to the No. 2 spot this week, likely as a response to fan curiosity after his name appeared in so many headlines.
Of course, A Boogie took the original news in stride when asked about it, so he’s likely not sweating breaking his own record. After all, those streams equate to money in his pocket and a sign that his fans are still loving his album, which is all any artist can ask for.
Get Hoodie SZN, featuring the hit record “Look Back It,” here.
A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie is a Warner Music artist. .
