Hip Hop is King of Charts
Hip hop made history this month as rap albums continued to dominate the top three spots on the Billboard 200 charts for the third consecutive week.
This has been quite the summer for blockbuster rap albums and the Billboard numbers are clearly reflecting that. This week J. Cole's Born Sinner nabbed the No. 1 spot, followed by Wale's The Gifted and Kanye West's Yeezus rounded it out in third place.
The hip hop tsunami began on June 18th (dubbed "Super Tuesday" by Billboard) when Kanye's critically acclaimed and boundary pushing Yeezus debuted at No. 1.
Super Tuesday also saw the release of J. Cole's Born Sinner, which took No. 2, and Mac Miller's Watching Movies With the Sound Off, which came in at No. 3.
The next week, Wale claimed the throne, then J. Cole and West, respectively.
J. Cole is now sitting pretty on top, but the hip hop streak does not seem likely to end there. Jay-Z's much-hyped Magna Carta Holy Grail is easily on track to reach Number 1—even without Billboard counting the one million copies purchased through the rapper's unprecedented deal with Samsung.
And, according to Billboard, if Magna Carta Holy Grail does indeed take No. 1, it will mark another historical milestone for the genre: The first time that four separate rap albums stayed at number 1 for four consecutive weeks.
The best part is that with rising stars in the rap game topping off lists of today's hottest MCs, the future of hip hop has never looked brighter and the this roll is not likely to slow down anytime soon.
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