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In a year where hip-hop albums fell flat when it came to overall sales, J. Cole and Nicki Minaj saved the day and closed out 2014 strong with the releases of 2014 Forest Hills Drive and The Pinkprint, respectively. With the slate wiped clean now that the new year is upon us, hip-hop has a chance to redeem itself on the charts.

Rae Sremmurd, the turned up duo from Mississippi, seemingly came out of nowhere in 2014 and provided two of the biggest surprise hits of the year with "No Flex Zone" and "No Type." Striking while the iron was hot, Rae Sremmurd dropped their debut project, SremmLifeto universal praise and proved that people are interested in hearing more than their popular club anthems. Mike WiiLL Made It's protege's came in at No. 5 this week with 33,000 traditional units sold and was the only debut album to appear in the top 10 this week.

J. Cole and Nicki Minaj landed in the top five once again. 2014 Forest Hills Drive jumped from No. 6 to No. 3 with 34,025 albums sold this week and The Pinkprint remained at No. 4 thanks to another 33,139 albums sold. Further down the charts, D'Angelo's Black Messiah climbed one spot to No. 18, Fabolous' The Young OG Project fell seven spots to No. 20, K. Michelle's Anybody Wanna Buy A Heart? climbed from No. 26 to No. 24, Mary J. Blige's The London Sessions saw a dramatic jump from No. 39 to No. 25, and the SHADYXV compilation stayed put at No. 29.

3. J. Cole, 2014 Forest Hills Drive, 34,025
4. Nicki Minaj, The Pinkprint, 33,139
5. Rae Sremmurd, SremmLife, 33,005
18. D'Angelo & The Vanguard, Black Messiah, 11,124
20. Fabolous, The Young OG Project, 9,846
24. K. Michelle, Anybody Wanna Buy A Heart?, 8,246
25. Mary J. Blige, The London Sessions, 7,386
29. Various Artists, SHADYXV, 6,757

[HITS Daily Double / Billboard]

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