3 years after releasing Coloring Book, Chance the Rapper returned with his highly anticipated album The Big Day, which is expected to sell 125,000 records the first week. As with most albums these days, a majority of those sales come from streaming. While this is a huge number for most artists (especially since this is technically Chance’s first album), many fans expected Chance to take a step further and join the biggest names in hip-hop, who usually sell 300,000-700,000 in the first week. Despite this, the album is still a successful project for Chance, who will have his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart.
The biggest surprise of the week is NF, whose album The Search is projected to sell 110,000 albums and debut at No. 2 on the charts. The Michigan born rapper has quietly been building a huge following, and he even had a No. 1 album in 2017 with Perception. That album, however, only sold 55,000 albums the first week, so this is easily NF’s biggest debut.
YBN Cordae is projected to see his debut album, The Lost Boy, sell 30,000 the first week. This is a strong debut for the young rapper, who showcased his lyrical abilities and snagged some high profile features to form a great project. He also helped pave the way for other members of the YBN collective to drop their official debut albums.
While projections are not in for every project that dropped last week, Young Dolph and Key Glock appear to have a successful collaboration as Dum and Dummer is projected to sell 45,000 albums. The Memphis rappers represented their hometown well, and it appears the city, along with the rest of the country, are showing their appreciation.
Top 2019 First Week Sales in Hip-Hop
- 172,377 – Tyler the Creator, Igor
- 164,076 – Juice WRLD, Death Race For Love
- 131,717 – DJ Khaled – Father of Asahd
- 125,251 – Future, The WIZRD
- 125,000 (projected) – Chance the Rapper, The Big Day
- 115,000 – Dreamville, Revenge of the Dreamers III
- 110,00 (projected) – NF, The Search
- 108,000 – Chris Brown, Indigo
- 89,955 – Gunna, Drip or Drown 2
- 88,311 – Offset, FATHER OF 4
- 82,000 – Nav, Bad Habits
- 81,417 – Logic, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
- 81,000 – ScHoolboy Q, CrasH Talk
- 77,000 – Lil Nas X, 7
- 64,960 – 2 Chainz, Rap Or Go To The League
- 55,000 – Anderson .Paak, Ventura
- 54,270 – Lil Skies, Shelby
