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The Kid LAROI’s ‘F**k Love’ Jumps to No. 1 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart
Plus: EST Gee’s “Bigger Than Life or Death” vaults into top 10 in second chart week.
A little over a year after The Kid LAROI’s F**k Love album was released, it surges from No. 26 to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart for its first week atop the list, following multiple reissues that added additional tracks to the project. The set, now in its 53rd week on the chart, earned 85,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending July 29 (up 409%), according to MRC Data. Streaming activity powers the bulk of that figure.
F**k Love was originally released on July 24, 2020, as a 15-track album and debuted at No. 8 on the Aug. 8, 2020-dated chart. It was reissued on Nov. 6, 2020, with seven additional tracks and bounded 81-3 on the Nov. 21, 2020, chart – its peak until this week. It was then reissued a third and fourth time this July 23 and July 27, adding seven and six tracks, respectively, including his current Billboard Hot 100 top five hit “Stay,” with Justin Bieber. The album’s total tracklist now stands at 35.
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). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Aug. 7, 2021-dated chart (where F**k Love hits No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Aug. 3. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of F**k Love’s85,000 equivalent album units earned in the tracking week ending July 29, SEA units comprise nearly 82,000 (up 403%, equaling 113.97 million on-demand streams of the album’s tracks), album sales comprise 2,000 (up 978%) and TEA units comprise just under 2,000 (up 458%).
F**k Love is the first album to be No. 1 without also debuting on top since the Nov. 30, 2019-dated chart, when the soundtrack to Frozen II rose 3-1 in its third week on the list. F**k Love is also the first album to reach No. 1 more than a year after its release since Prince’s The Very Best of Prince re-entered at No. 1 on the May 7, 2016, chart, following his death, more than 15 years after its release in 2001. (The last album to take 53 or more chart weeks to No. 1 was the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which hit No. 1 in its 63rd week, rising 2-1 on the Feb. 23, 2002-dated chart following its Grammy Award win for album of the year. It debuted on the Jan. 13, 2001 chart.)
F**k Love is the second album to jump from outside the top 10 and straight to No. 1 in a single week this year. Taylor Swift’s Evermore vaulted 74-1 on the June 12 chart, for its fourth nonconsecutive week atop the list, following its vinyl LP release.
The 17-year-old The Kid LAROI (born Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard) — who turns 18 on Aug. 17 — is the youngest artist to reach No. 1 since April 13, 2019, when Billie Eilish was 17 years and three months old when When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? debuted at No. 1.
The Kid LAROI is the youngest solo male artist to be No. 1 since 2015, when a then-16-year-old Shawn Mendes hit No. 1 with Handwritten (May 2, 2015-dated chart, when Mendes was 16 years and eight months old).
The Kid LAROI, who was raised in inner-city Sydney, is the first Australian act to be No. 1 since rock band AC/DC launched atop the list dated Nov. 28, 2020, with Power Up. The Kid LAROI is the first solo Australian to be No. 1 since Sia debuted at No. 1 on July 26, 2014, with 1000 Forms of Fear. And, he’s the first solo male Australian to be No. 1 since Keith Urban, when his Fuse debuted at No. 1 on the Sept. 28, 2013, chart.
Olivia Rodrigo’s former No. 1 Sour steps 3-2 on the latest Billboard 200 with 69,000 equivalent album units earned (down 11%), Doja Cat’s Planet Her rises 4-3 with 57,000 units (down 4%), Morgan Wallen’s former leader Dangerous: The Double Album climbs 5-4 with 44,000 units (up 1%) and Pop Smoke’s Faith falls 1-5 in its second week with 38,000 units (down 56%). Lil Baby and Lil Durk’s former chart-topper The Voice of the Heroes is steady at No. 6 with 32,000 units (down 11%).
Rapper EST Gee lands his first top 10 album on the Billboard 200 as Bigger Than Life or Death vaults 65-7 in its second chart week, earning 30,000 equivalent album units (up 141%). The album was released on an off-cycle Wednesday, July 21 (instead of on the usual Friday for new releases), so it debuted on the July 31-dated Billboard 200 at No. 65 with 12,000 units from just two days of activity in the week ending July 22. In the tracking week ending July 29, the album earned 30,000 units, and, of that sum, SEA units comprise 27,000 (up 137%, equaling 38.03 million on-demand streams of the album’s tracks), album sales comprise 2,000 (up 219%) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum.
Polo G’s former No. 1 Hall of Fame dips 7-8 with just over 29,000 equivalent album units (down 11%). Swift’s chart-topping Folklore flies back into the top 10, climbing 56-9 with 29,000 units (123%), after the album’s wide release on vinyl LP on July 22. The album sold 15,000 copies in the week ending July 29, with vinyl LP sales comprising the majority of that number. Previously, the vinyl LP edition of the album was available only via Swift’s official webstore and Target stores.
Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia rounds out the top 10, falling 8-10 with 28,000 equivalent album units earned (down 4%).
Source: billboard.com