Buoyed by clever album promotion and ahem, saavy song curation, Travi$ Scott‘s Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight debuted at no. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and Rap Albums charts. It became the fifth Apple Music exclusive to land atop the Billboard 200 this year, behind Future’s EVOL, Drake’s Views, DJ Khaled’s Major Key, and most recently, Frank Ocean’s Blonde. Of Birds in the Trap‘s 87,972 total album units sold, 52,577 were pure album sales. The album was streamed 50 million times, second to Views‘ 63 million total streams.
Meanwhile, TDE’s Isaiah Rashad set a personal best as he debuted at no. 17 on the Billboard 200 with his sophomore effort, The Sun’s Tirade, topping the no. 40 debut of 2014’s Cilvia Demo. More importantly for the young artist, The Sun’s Tirade debuted at no. 2 on the sales-only Rap Albums chart with 11,166 album sales. Last week’s surprise no. 1 rap album, De La Soul’s and the Anonymous Nobody, fell to a still impressive no. 5 on chart.
Here are the 10 best-selling hip-hop or R&B albums on the Billboard 200 for the week ending September 8, determined by total equivalent album units. Pure album sales are in parentheses, with total streams in brackets.
1. Travi$ Scott – Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight – 87,972 (52,577) [50,170,304]
3. Drake – Views – 60,458 (9,483) [63,655,288]
4. Suicide Squad: The Album – 55,377 (22,174) [26,416,378]
8. Rihanna – ANTI – 30,144 (6,107) [27,242,192]
9. Beyonce — Lemonade — 29,991 (20,981) [1,910,144]
10. Frank Ocean – Blonde – 28,586 (15,621) [19,448,035]
16. DJ Khaled – Major Key – 19,800 (4,300) [17,498,856]
17. Isaiah Rashad – The Sun’s Tirade – 19,481 (11,166) [11,602,440]
20. Bryson Tiller – Trapsoul – 16,659 (4,782) [16,127,233]
21. Kanye West – The Life of Pablo – 16,562 (0) [23,768,309]
Currently country singer Jason Aldean is set to top next week’s Billboard 200, but Usher’s early release of Hard II Love could give him a run at the top spot.
(Via Billboard 200)
