Lil Wayne Achieves Fifth No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart with ‘Funeral’

Plus: Top 10 debuts for Russ, Kesha, Louis Tomlinson & Yo Gotti.

Lil Wayne’s Funeral — which debuts at No. 1 — leads a packed top 10 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, where five albums bow in the region.

Funeral is the fifth leader for Lil Wayne, and it enters with 139,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 6, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. The album was released on Jan. 31 via Young Money/Republic Records and follows Lil Wayne’s chart-topping Tha Carter V, which was released in 2018.

In addition to Lil Wayne entering at No. 1, the top 10 also welcomes four further debuts in the region, from Russ, Kesha, Louis Tomlinson and Yo Gotti, marking the first time five albums have debuted in the top 10 simultaneously in seven months.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new Feb. 15-dated chart, where Funeral starts at No. 1, will be posted in full on Billboard‘s websites on Feb. 11.

Lil Wayne previously topped the Billboard 200 with Tha Carter V (2018), Tha Carter IV (2011), I Am Not a Human Being (2010) and Tha Carter III (2008).

Funeral not only secures Lil Wayne his fifth leader, but also his 12th top 10 effort. He first hit the Billboard 200 just over 20 years ago, on the list dated Nov. 20, 1999, when Tha Block Is Hot debuted and peaked at No. 3.

Streaming activity drove 72% of Funeral’s first-week units, as, of its 139,000 total unit start, 99,000 were in SEA units. (That translates into 134 million on-demand streams for the album’s songs in its first week.) The remaining unit sum of its total first week was provided by 38,000 in album sales and 2,000 in TEA units. Funeral’s first-week album sales were bolstered sales from by a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer, as well as an array of merchandise/album bundles sold via his website.

At No. 2 on the new Billboard 200, Roddy Ricch​’s Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial falls one spot with 86,000 equivalent album units earned (down 9%). Eminem’s former leader Music to Be Murdered By dips one rung to No. 3 with 69,000 units (down 22%), though the set’s album sales perked up by 55% to 22,000, as the album’s CD arrived in stores following its initial commercial release on digital download only.

Russ’s Shake the Snow Globe bows at No. 4 with 65,000 equivalent album units earned (with 39,000 of that sum in album sales, pumped by a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer, as well as merchandise/album bundles). It’s the third total and consecutive top 10 effort for the hip-hop artist, and it matches his highest-rank on the chart, first achieved with 2018’s Zoo. He also visited the top 10 with There’s Really a Wolf in 2017, debuting and peaking at No. 7.

Rap rules the entire top five on the Billboard 200, as Post Malone’s former No. 1 Hollywood’s Bleeding is steady at No. 5 with 55,000 equivalent album units earned (up 1%). The last time the top five albums were all rap titles was a little over a year ago, on the Jan. 26, 2019-dated list.

Billie Eilish​’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? slips 3-6 with 52,000 equivalent album units earned (down 16%). A week ago, the former No. 1 surged 10-3 in the wake of its multiple Grammy Award wins on Jan. 26, including album of the year.

Kesha snares her fourth top 10 album, as High Road bows at No. 7 with 45,000 equivalent album units. Of that starting sum, 35,000 were in album sales, aided by a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer with her upcoming tour, as well as merchandise/album bundle sales via her official website. Kesha previously clocked top 10s with Rainbow (No. 1 in 2017), Warrior (No. 6, 2012) and Animal (No. 1, 2010).

Halsey’s Manic descends four spots to No. 8 with 43,000 equivalent album units earned (down 23%).

Louis Tomlinson’s debut album Walls bows at No. 9 with 39,000 equivalent album units earned. Album sales comprise 35,000 of that sum, driven by a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer with his upcoming tour, as well as merchandise/album bundles.

Walls was released via 78/SYCO/Arista Records, and brings the relaunched Arista back to the top 10 after nearly nine years. The last time the venerable label appeared in the top 10 with a new album was on April 16, 2011-dated chart, when Jennifer Hudson’s then-new I Remember Me spent its second and final week in the top 10 (and No. 7), after debuting at No. 2 on the April 9, 2011-dated list. (In 2012, after the death of Whitney Houston, a number of her old albums, all released via Arista, revisited the top 10.)

Tomlinson is also the fifth and final member of One Direction, which landed four No. 1s of its own, to chart on the Billboard 200. Zayn was first out of the gate with Mind of Mine (No. 1 in 2016), and he followed it with the No. 61-peaking Icarus Falls in 2018. Then came Harry Styles with his self-titled debut (No. 1 in 2017) and his recent sophomore set, Fine Line (No. 1 in 2019). Niall Horan​’s debut Flicker entered at No. 1 in 2017, and he is prepping for the release of his second album Heartbreak Weather on March 13. Liam Payne was the fourth member of the group to reach the list, as his debut full-length album LP1 topped out at No. 111 in December.

Closing out the new top 10 on the Billboard 200 is Yo Gotti’s Untrapped, which starts at No. 10 with 35,000 equivalent album units earned. It’s the fourth top 10 effort for the rapper, and follows the No. 6-peaking I Still Am in 2017. Untrapped was driven largely by streaming activity, as SEA units comprise 27,000 of its total starting sum. It also netted 7,000 in album sales (bolstered by merchandise/album bundle sales) as well as a little under 1,000 in TEA units.

Source: billboard.com