On the Charts: Lil Uzi Vert, XXXTentacion Invade Top Two Spots
New albums from a pair of emerging rappers debuted atop the Billboard 200 as Lil Uzi Vert‘s Luv Is Rage 2 opened up at Number One, one spot ahead XXXTentacion‘s 17.
Luv Is Rage 2 chalked up 135,000 total copies in its debut week, helped in part by the rapper’s MTV Video Music Awards appearance alongside Ed Sheeran. Of the 135,000 haul, 100,000 copies came from streaming equivalent albums, or SEAs, Billboard reports.
The Philadelphia rapper previously peaked at Number 37 with his Lil Uzi Vert Vs. the World mixtape in January.
Florida rapper XXXTentacion also reached a new personal Billboard 200 best with 17, which sold a total of 87,000 copies in its first week (67,000 SEAs). That’s a massive improvement over the Number 44 peak of the rapper’s Revenge mixtape just two months.
It was a debut-heavy week in the Top 10 as seven new albums entered the upper tier of the Billboard 200: Queens of the Stone Age‘s new Villains settled at Number Three and 73,000 copies; however, 69,000 of that total were traditional album sales, making Villains technically the week’s best-selling LP.
Fifth Harmony‘s first album of the post-Camila Cabello era, Fifth Harmony, bowed at Number Four and 46,000 total copies; the now-quartet’s 2016 album 7/27 also peaked at Number Four. A$AP Mob’s Cozy Tapes, Vol. 2: Too Cozy and Old Dominion’s Happy Endings opened at Numbers Six and Seven, respectively.
At Number 10, the War on Drugs staked their first Top 10 album with A Deeper Understanding, which sold 31,000 copies in its first week; by comparison, the group’s acclaimed 2014 album Lost in the Dream maxed out at Number 26.
Of the returnees, Kendrick Lamar’s Damn. led the way again at Number Three, with Khalid’s American Teen (Number Eight) and Kodak Black’s Project Baby Two (Nine) also back for another week.
Next week, LCD Soundsystem will look to claim their first Number One album with their comeback LP American Dream.