The end of the year is always a difficult time to release new music, especially during a pandemic. Christmas 2020 fell on a Friday, the typical day for new album releases. While it was dry, for the most part, the long-awaited second album from Playboi Carti arrived on its 24 entire songs.


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Whole Lotta Red it took almost two years to do. The rapper made fans look forward to his release. And although he was a star in his own right, it seems that WLR certifies Playboi Carti as a mainstream giant. Immediately after its launch, sales projections for the first week emerged and were quite high. Industry analysts predicted he would be pushing somewhere between 125,000-135,000 in his first week, earning Carti its first # 1 on the Billboard 200.

You see, Taylor Swift’s latest album is also going strong on the charts, so it seemed that even with the high projections, there was a chance that he wouldn’t be able to reach the top spot. According to Hits Daily Double, Carti’s last album made under his initial projections, but even so, Carti is essentially sustained to maintain the top spot on the Billboard 200. With 110k-115k units moved, Carti will certainly top the charts this week, marking the first album # 1 of 2021.

Meanwhile, Lil Durk’s The voice rose 65k-70k in its first full week, earning Durk third place on this week’s chart.

Stay tuned for the official Billboard 200 announcement.

[Via]