After news broke that his surprise album release set a new benchmark for first-week album streams on Spotify, the official sales numbers are in and Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late is the #1 album in the country. Drake’s latest first-week album sales are more than double that of the #2 album on the Billboard 200 and his record-breaking stream count boosted his Total Activity Count even further.
In the same week that his fellow Young Money label-mate Nicki Minaj fell out of the Top 10 entirely with The Pinkprint, Drake’s is the only Hip Hop or R&B album currently in the upper tier of the chart. More than a dozen spots below, J. Cole’s album regained three of the five spots it lost last week while Ne-Yo’s Non-Fiction fell eight.
Lower down the charts, Rae Sremmurd has managed to stay in the Top 40 with just under 6,000 albums sold over the latest sales period and Kid Ink has fallen more than 30 spots since the Top 20 debut of Full Speed last week.
Drake’s Surprise Album Debuts At #1
In December, J. Cole earned the highest first-week sales of any Hip Hop album in 2014 with just over 350,000 sold through the first seven days of his album’s release. A few months later, Drake has set a new standard for the measure in 2015 with 494,746 albums sold in the first week of availability of If Youre Reading This Its Too Late. While he almost broke Gold in a single week, the album’s streaming numbers are perhaps even more impressive and helped the no-promo release to a total activity count of more than 535,000 as of Sunday (February 15).
Nicki Minaj Drops Out Of Top 10, Breaks Gold
After hanging on to her spot in the top tier for more than two months, Nicki Minaj’s The Pinkprint has finally fallen out of the Top 10. The rapper’s third album bottomed out at #12 this week but still sold more than 22,000 albums in the process. Minaj’s consistently strong streaming numbers—just under 12 million most recently—have kept her steady on the charts up to this point and fans scooped up another 190,000 single song sales from the The Pinkprint last week.
Still, Minaj finally broke the Gold record milestone with last week’s numbers and has now sold a total of 509,022 copies of her latest album.
J. Cole Climbs Back To #16
While he’s ahead of Minaj on a pure album sales measure, J. Cole’s single song sales and relatively lower streaming count find him at #16 this week, a three-spot improvement from last. Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive pushed another 22,386 units as of Sunday and brought his total sold count up to 768,111 in the process.
Top 10 Billboard Top 200 Rap & R&B Albums For The Week Ending 02/15/2015
Note: The first number below is this week’s “total album equivalent units” count, an intersection of album sales, single sales, and streams implemented by Billboard’s new rating system. A pure album sales figure is available in bold in parenthesis and information about each album’s streaming count is available in brackets.
#1. Drake – If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late – 535,054 (494,746) [14,552,821]
#12. Nicki Minaj – The Pinkprint – 48,839 (22,009) [11,746,341]
#13. Mark Ronson – Uptown Special – 42,269 (7,389) [6,096,837]
#16. J. Cole – 2014 Forest Hills Drive – 31,207 (22,386) [7,112,768]
#24. Ne-Yo – Non-Fiction – 23,475 (15,779) [3,039,797]
#34. Beyonce – Beyonce – 16,961 (8,083) [4,881,298]
#39. Rae Sremmurd – Sremmlife – 16,310 (5,679) [5,276,403]
#41. Pitbull – Globalization – 16,208 (4,201) [3,754,656]
#45. Kid Ink – Full Speed – 13,067 (8,131) [3,119,037]
#48. John Legend – Love In The Future – 12,566 (6,561) [2,437,221]
For additional Drake coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
j cole sold 910,000 as of now. you niggaz is countin backwards
It’s not total sales, it’s weekly sales.
Its all birdman’s money anyway.
IMPRESSIVE DRAKE HATS OFF TO U FOR A BIGGER OPENING SALES WEEK THAN J.COLE BUT DON’T GET TO EXCITED DRAKE FANS J.COLE IS STILL IN THE LEAD AS FAR AS PURE ALBUM SALES GO AND HE IS GETTING EVER SO CLOSER TO PLATINUM STATUS EVERY WEEK HE IS THE CHARTS AND IS ALREADY CLOSING IN ON 800K IN A FEW MORE WEEKS GETTING IN TO MORE UNCHARTED TERRITORY WITH ALBUM SALES FOR J.COLE HIS LAST TWO ALBUMS DIDN’T GO THIS FAR LET ALONE BE ON THE CHARTS FOR 10 STRAIGHT CONSECUTIVE WEEKS GOES TO SHOW J.COLE HAS STEPPED UP AND PUT EVERYONE ON NOTICE THAT HE IS THE GOD OF THIS RAP WORLD WE ARE LIVING IN I MEAN WHO ELSE IN THE NEW SCHOOL GAME CAN RAP AND SPIT THE TRUTH IN THEIR LYRICS, WHILE SINGING FOR THE LADIES LIKE DRAKE DOES, ALLOW FANS INTO THEIR CHILDHOOD HOME TO LISTEN TO THEIR ALBUM BEFORE IT DROPS, COME TO YOUR HOUSE ON A RANDOM NIGHT AND LET U LISTEN TO THEIR ALBUM BEFORE IT DROPS, MARCH WITH PROTESTING PEOPLE ON THE BRUTALITY OF POLICE OFFICERS ON OUR CITIZENS, AND ALLOW SINGLE MOTHERS TO COME LIVE IN THEIR CHILDHOOD HOME RENT FREE FOR TWO YEARS NONE OTHER THAN J.COLE MOTHERFUCKERS DRAKE AIN’T DOING THOSE THINGS NOW IS HE LOL GOES TO SHOW U J.COLE A MUCH BETTER ARTIST IN HIP HOP OVER ALL FACE FACTS HATERS COLE WORLD
You sound like a groupie. Calm down. Cole is cool, but writing an essay on how he’s a God? C’mon now.
drake stays winning. when he dies, he will be a legend. don’t fight it, haters. #6God #IYRTITL
Wrong and wrong. Aubrey will never be a legend making mediocre shit.
He doesnt need your support to continue to be successful.
Who said anything about support? He’s still overrated and his music is mediocre.
He’s already a legend and one of the all-time greats in the history of music. #OVOovereverything
No, he isn’t. He’s far from a legend and far from an all-time great. To be those things, he has to make classics, which he doesn’t have.
Hahaha! These haters are so salty. So Far Gone and Take Care are definitely classics.
So Far Gone and Take Care classics? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Thanks for the laugh. Those weedplates aren’t classics.
^Salty.
^ Nah, you’re the salty one.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA SO WILL J.COLE YOUNGSTA J.COLE HAS BEEN SUFFERING FROM SUCCESS SINCE HIS DEBUT BACK IN 2011 AND HASN’T FALLEN OFF YET COLE WILL DIE A LEGEND OF THE HIP HOP GAME AND THEY WILL BURY HIM RIGHT NEXT TO DRAKE AND IT WILL SAY ON HIS TOMBSTONE KING COLE WORLD SIMBA THE GOD BETTER THAN EVEN DRAKE LOL DON’T GET MAD DRAKE FANS J.COLE IS BETTER HE IS THE PEOPLE’S CHAMP FACT END OF DISCUSSION
Does anyone know exactly how to read these charts? They’re kinda confusing.
For example:
It says Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late sold 535,054 (494,746) [14,552,821]
.. I know he sold 535k+, but what does the “(494,746)” & “[14,552,821]” symbolize?
my point exactly!!
I think it’s retarded
Album sales, single sales, and streams implemented. I guess
Nope. Its combined album sales & streams, then album sales, then streams. 14,5mil streams equals about 40,5k album sales it seems.
The 494,746 is actual album sales for the week. The 535k is total sales (actual plus streaming). They convert singles downloads and streams to album sales now since numbers have been going down in recent years. One hundred streams from sites like Spotify, Beats Music, Rdio, Rhapsody, and Google Play equal 1 download. Fifteen downloads/1,500 streams equal one album sale. (That’s how billboard explains it.)
YouTube and Vevo are included as well.
Who the hell be buying Drake and J.Cole albums? Bitch boys and females cause it ain’t real hip hop
I dunno about Drakes shit but J Cole makes dope ass music, stop hating just because it isn’t gangsta rap.
you mussa buy Nicki cd LOL
The king of this rap shit. Just know all you drake haters are a small minority. At this point even drakes haters are admitting that drake runs the rap game. Only a matter of time before drake will go down as the greatest ever. If drake came out during the 95 he would have diamond albums presently everyone downloads and yet drake still puts up these numbers with no promo. Drake is hip hop with out drake hip hop music would be irrelevant.
Do you ever get tired of repeating the same oies over and over again? Do you even have a life?
How can you tell the actual sales figure. This format is stupid. Just make it the way it was!!!
Real gangstas don’t talk when they send a target a message it want be on the internet in which lets you know its 100% garbage J Prince you lost a few cool points wit this stunt ,Despite what Suge has gone thru if he was on the streets he wouldn’t hide, Puffy is a snitch and connected in the illuminati wont nothing happen,after all this worthless talking nothing is going to happen