Beyoncé has put an end to J. Cole‘s run of number one albums on the Billboard 200.
The singer’s new country album Cowboy Carter topped the chart for a second week running after earning 128,000 album-equivalent units in the last seven days, according to Billboard.
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It debuted at No. 1 earlier this month with over 400,000 opening week units — the largest sales tally of 2024 so far.
The project outsold Cole’s surprise mixtape Might Delete Later, which came in at No. 2 on this week’s chart with 115,000 equivalent units in its first week.
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In doing so, Beyoncé has ended the Dreamville’s rapper’s streak of six successive No. 1 albums, which began with 2011’s Cole World: The Sideline Story and continued through to 2021’s The Off-Season.
The 2019 Dreamville compilation Revenge of the Dreamers III also peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, marking Cole’s seventh chart-topper overall.
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Despite missing out on the top spot, all 12 songs on Might Delete Later charted on the Billboard Hot 100.
His Kendrick Lamar diss track “7 Minute Drill” was the most successful, debuting at No. 6. However, the song has since been removed from streaming platforms following Cole’s controversial apology to K. Dot.
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Elsewhere, “Crocodile Tearz” debuted at No. 19, followed by “Huntin’ Wabbitz” at No. 28, “Pricey” at No. 29, “H.Y.B.” at No. 35 and “Ready ’24” at No. 38.
J. Cole previously collaborated with Beyoncé in 2011 on a remix of “Party,” with the music video racking up 111 million YouTube views to date.
During an interview with the Rise & Grind Morning Show that year, Cole explained how he almost appeared on the album version of the song before André 3000, while discussing his experience working with Bey.
“You know how many verses I did for that song?” he said. “I did a version of that before her album 4 even came out. I did two verses. I love these verses too, but they ended up going with André’s verse and André killed it.
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“Then she reached out to me and she wanted me to get on the remix. I did two more verses. Out of the second set that I did, she picked the first verse. But my second verse, I just gotta say for the record, it was just too long. I think she was looking for something shorter and more to the point.
“It’s just a blessing to even be able to work with her. I’m on my defensive rapper, like yo man. When you follow in André’s 3000’s shoes, you’re expected to really go in.”
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He continued: “Just the fact to even be on the song with her and shoot the video with her and just be in her presence. She’s such a hard working, incredible artist.
“I’ll never forget that day we shot the video, I’ll never forget being able to be on that song, and hopefully we got more as time goes on.”
