Kanye West’s new album, Jesus is King, grabbed the top spot on BillBoard’s Top 200 chart with an impressive 264,000 equivalent album units in the US. This marks the ninth consecutive time Kanye West has debuted at #1 on the charts, which now ties him with rapper Eminen for most consecutive number #1 album debuts in a row. Eminen did it last year with his ninth chart topper, Kamikaze, but now it looks like he has to share the title.
Every album Kanye West has released since back to 2005 has been a number one hit debut, the only exception being his 2004 offering, College Dropout. Jay Z actually holds the record for most number one album debuts across all acts, with a stunning fourteen albums taking the top spot on Billboard 200 in the first week – but they weren’t consecutive.
For Jesus is King, the numbers break down like this… 109,000 come from traditional album sales, 3,000 (TEA) track equivalent sales, and 151,000 (SEA) streaming equivalent sales. People seem to be listening to the whole body of work, 11 tracks. Kanye released the album through his own record label, G.O.O.D. Music, on October 25th and the numbers were compiled through November 2nd. Billboard will update their site to reflect Kanye West’s big win on Tuesday.
Jesus is King is shaping up to be one of the biggest releases of 2019 – congratulations to Kanye West on all his success! Until the next time it drips…
