Nicki Minaj’s ‘The Pinkprint’ Debuts At No. 2 In This Week’s Album Sales (12/24/2014)

In our sales recap last week, we wondered out loud whether or not Nicki Minaj's The Pinkprint would be able to dethrone J Cole's for the biggest debut week sales crown. Well, the numbers are in and it isn't even close. Though Nicki debuted at No. 2 this week on the charts, she fell short of J Cole by over 100,000 units. Nicki moved 244,000 units of her third studio album, The Pinkprint, which is good for the second best debut week for a hip-hop album this year. Though the numbers outperformed the sales predictions from last week—it had the LP moving 170,000 to 180,000 units—this is the least amount of albums sold in a debut week for Nicki. Her 2010 debut Pink Friday moved 375,000 units in its first week, and her 2012 sophomore LP Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded moved 253,000 copies. Nonetheless, this is a solid performance for Nicki in a year where hip-hop releases have not done particularly well on the charts.

2014 Forest Hills Drive

2014 Forest Hills Drive is the first 2014 hip-hop release to attain Gold certification in the United States, and he did so in only two weeks. An amazing accomplishment. Congratulations to Cole and his fans.

Outside of the hip-hop world, D'Angelo's first release in almost 15 years, Black Messiah, grabbed the No. 5 spot on the charts with 117,000 units moved. The album is D'Angelo's third charting album.

2. Nicki Minaj, Pink Friday, 253,000
4. J Cole, 2014 Forest Hills Drive, 135,000
5. D'Angelo and The Vanguard, Black Messiah, 117,000

[Billboard]