Is Kanye West’s latest album a hit? It’s certainly being talked about everywhere; even Lou Reed weighed in on the record, “Yeezus†(Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam), calling it “majestic and inspiring.†But so far its sales are far from blockbuster.
“Yeezus†had a softer than expected opening week, and now in the album’s second week out its sales have fallen precipitously. “Yeezus†sold 65,000 copies last week in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan â€" a drop of 80 percent from the 327,000 it enjoyed at its opening, sending the album down two spots on Billboard’s chart to No. 3. In percentage terms, its second-week plunge is the greatest since Madonna’s “MDNA,†which in April 2012 had a historic drop of 87 percent.
But the pattern isn’t much different from what Mr. West has experienced in the past. His last album, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,†in 2011, opened at No. 1 â€" with 496,000 sales â€" and in its second week out fell 78 percent, as Billboard noted. At the moment, “Yeezus†is the top streaming album on Spotify. Maybe it will play the long game.
Rap dominates the top spots on the chart for a second week in a row. Wale’s latest album, “The Gifted†(Maybach Music Group/Atlantic), opens at No. 1 with 158,000 sales, and J. Cole’s “Born Sinner†(Roc Nation/Columbia) holds at No. 2 for a second week with 84,000 (down 72 percent). The Christian rock band Skillet bows at No. 4 with just less than 60,000 sales of its new album, “Rise†(Atlantic/Word), while Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories†(Daft Life/Columbia) is No. 5 with 31,000 sales in its sixth week out.
On Billboardâ€! ™s Hot 100 singles chart, Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines†holds at No. 1 for a fourth week, with 423,000 downloads and 5.4 million streams in the United States on services like Spotify and YouTube.
