Gunna Debuts at No. 1 on Album Chart, as Black Artists Claim the Six Top Spots
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The second album by rising rapper Gunna debuted at No. 1 on the album chart, a place where it’s recently been abundantly clear that black art matters. Reflecting African American musicians’ ongoing dominance of popular music this year, black artists claim the top six spots on the chart this week, seven out of the top 10 positions, and 18 of the top 30.
Gunna’s “Wunna” bowed atop the Rolling Stone album chart with 109,300 album units. The main contributing factor to that tally was, of course, song streams, with Gunna’s music being streamed 127.6 million times during the frame.
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In second place was Lil Baby’s “My Turn” with 64,800 album units; his song streams total was 64.8 million. Last week’s chart topper, Future, fell to third place, with “High Off Life” collecting 62,800 album. Polo G’s “The Goat” was No. 4 with 51,900 album units, Drake came in at No. 5 with 47,300 in his mixtape’s fourth week out, and DaBaby was in sixth place with 42,800 album units.
The second-highest debuting album was rock band the 1975’s “Notes on a Conditional Form,” in at No. 7 with 41,400 album units. As is typical with rock acts, the group had a higher number of actual album sales than anyone ahead of the band on the chart (27,200 full albums sold), but a much lower streaming figure (16.8 million streams).
The third-highest bow belonged to Agust D, also known as Suga of the K-pop group BTS. His solo effort debuted at No. 10 with 33,200 album units. His tally broke down into a modest number of album sales (14,200) and adequate streaming (12.2 million) but, compared to others on the chart, an unusually high number of song sales (93,800). His album, “D-2,” was subject to modification after its release, as Big Hit removed a controversial snippet of a speech by deadly cult leader Jim Jones that had been included in one of the songs.
The Nos. 8-9 spots on the album chart belonged to perennials the Weeknd and Post Malone.
Few other debuting albums made much of an impact this week. The only other premieres in the top 50 albums were Key Glock’s “Son of a Gun” at No. 36 and Florida Georgia Line’s “6-Pack” at No. 48.
On the Rolling Stone songs chart, Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande’s “Rain on Me” debuted at No. 1 with 205,600 song units. Gaga’s full-length “Chromatica,” which came out Friday, is expected to top the album chart next week.
Holdovers accounted for the rest of the top 10 songs, with “Rockstar” by DaBaby featuring Roddy Ricch at No. 2 in its sixth week out, followed by Megan Thee Stallion and Beyonce, the Weeknd, Doja Cat featuring Nicki Minaj, the Scotts, Drake, Ricch on his own, Saint Jhn and the Drake/Future teaming.
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