The Billboard charts are a tricky beast, but Kanye West's new album The Life of Pablo has dominated them. Nearly two months after the album's reveal and initial Tidal-exclusive release, the "Famous" rapper's new LP has topped the charts, besting new(er) releases from Lukas Graham, Weezer and the Big Sean/Jhene Aiko project Twenty88.
According to Billboard, The Life of Pablo's debut at No. 1 is the first-ever LP to have more album equivalent units from streams than sales at No. 1. The album, which moved a total of 94,000 units, had only 28,000 (or 30 percent) of its units from sales. The rest, of course, come from all streaming services, which first started streaming TLOP last week.
The album, which was first exclusive to Tidal and West's website, is now available as a wider release, and its data was finally revealed, Billboard reported.
So, even though the odd technicality gave West his latest chart-topping album, plenty of new releases got their fair dues. Danish band Lukas Graham, best known for its hit single "7 Years," debuted at No. 3 with 59,000 units. Despite the strong single sales of "7 Years," which is spending a second week at No. 2 on the top singles chart, 38,000 of those albums were pure sales.
Other big debuts came via Weezer's latest self-titled album, dubbed "The White Album," which started at No. 4 with 49,000 units (almost exclusively from pure sales -- 45,000) and Twenty88 from the R&B duo of the same name, which debuted at No. 5 with 45,000 units.
And though there were four debuts on the chart this week, No. 2 is an old favorite: Chris Stapleton's Traveller. Like his first appearance in the top 10, which was a No. 1 position, his six-position rise was courtesy of an award show, the Academy of Country Music Awards, wherein he swept many categories. Thus, he moved 59,000 units.
Other releases are familiar, like Traveller. Former Nos. 1 from Rihanna (ANTI), Zayn (Mind of Mine), Justin Bieber (Purpose) and Adele (25) take up spots 6 through 9, in that order. Twenty One Pilots' Blurryface rounds it all out at No. 10.
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