Wale Bumps Kanye West Off Top Of Album Chart, ‘Yeezus’ Sales Drop 80%

Robbie Daw | July 3, 2013 12:37 pm

Kanye West‘s bean counters are in for a bit of an 808-less heartbreak this week. Yeezus sales started out sturdy last week, at 327,000 copies sold. (Though, with regards to ‘Ye’s own standards, the album marked his lowest opening ever.) When the dust settled on second-week sales, however, the LP had dropped off by 80% (65,000). The good news is that Kanye was still spared a record-setting MDNA-like plunge.

This all brings us to the latest installment of the Billboard 200 album chart, which sees Wale‘s third LP The Gifted go in at #1 (158,000), thus bumping Yeezus down to #3. J. Cole‘s Born Sinner hangs in at #2 (84,000) for a second week, and posts a less steep decline than West.

You know, releasing actual singles to promote an album — maybe not such a bad thing after all? Here’s hoping that “Black Skinhead” promo kicks in, now that the song has officially gone to radio.

The Top 10 Of The Billboard 200 Chart

1. Wale, The Gifted *new* *1 week* 2. J. Cole, Born Sinner 3. Kanye West, Yeezus 4. Skillet, Rise *new* 5. Daft Punk, Random Access Memories 6. Florida Georgia Line, Here’s To The Good Times 7. India.Arie, SongVersation *new* 8. Imagine Dragons, Night Visions 9. August Burns Red, Rescue & Restore *new* 10. Black Sabbath, 13