Grammy-winning rapper Kanye West has all the bragging rights. The hip-hop superstar’s new Donda album has secured the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Top 200 chart.
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Kanye West’s ‘Donda’ Goes No. 1
Despite dropping on a Sunday, the project still crushed everything around it. The debut elevated Ye’s status as one of only seven artists with at least 10 chart-topping albums in the chart’s 65-year history.
Kanye West lands his 10th No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, as Donda debuts atop the list with the year’s biggest week for any album: 309,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 2, according to MRC Data. It surpasses the year’s previous best week, when Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour started with 295,000 units (on the chart dated June 5). (Billboard)
Based on official estimates, Kanye’s long-awaited studio effort was expected to do the opposite of flop. The project was estimated to push out at least 327,000 copies in just its opening week.
“[email protected]’s ‘DONDA’ to debut at #1 on the US albums chart with 327K sold first week. It earns the biggest debut of the year (via @HITSDD)”
Kanye West’s ‘Come To Life’ Video Is Flames
Earlier the same week, the hip-hop star came through with the visual treatment to his “Come To Life” anthem off his newly released Donda album.
Less than a week since dropping Donda to the masses, Ye has blessed fans with a video from the project. Instead of opting for a closed set video, Ye actually used his third album listening event footage as the basis.
From Kanye actually setting himself on fire to reuniting with ex-wife Kim Kardashian, the video comes packed with stunning moments.
Kanye West’s ‘Donda’ First-Week Projections
The Grammy-winning rapper can’t help but win, no matter how controversial he is. Whether he really put out Donda or Universal forced his hand, the project was expected to do ridiculous numbers in its opening week.
The LP is expected to do insane numbers in a day and time when digital streams reign supreme. The LP is slated to put out at least 300,000 audio listens by this time next week.
After one (partial) day, Kanye West’s Donda (G.O.O.D./Def Jam) is now trending at or above 300k for its first week. Given the album’s arrival on Sunday, typically the lowest streaming day of the week, there aren’t many, if any, models to project from. So call this one our best guess for now. Can Kanye beat J. Cole’s 308m first-week audio streams for the largest total of 2021 thus far? Kanye West (G.O.O.D./Def Jam): 300k-300k+ Halsey (Capitol): 95-115k total activity, 70-85k albums Lil Tecca (Galactic/Republic): 30-35k, 1-2k OneRepublic (Mosley/Interscope): 21-24k, 16-19k (HDD)
Universal Records Calls Cap On Kanye West
The huge estimates came following some heated words from Ye to his label Universal over the project reaching the masses without his official approval.
Unnamed sources have called Kanye’s claim about his 10th studio album, which dropped Sunday morning, “preposterous”. Universal representatives have not chimed in on the matter, but some people in the company have anonymously spoken about the matter.
Representatives for Universal had no comment on the allegation, but sources at the company called it “preposterous.” (Variety)
