Childish Gambino’s ‘Kauai’ EP Unexpectedly Cracks The Top 20 In This Week’s Album Sales (10/8/14)
In this age of the Internet, where illegal downloads are just a click away, and where musicians and labels pay exorbitant amounts of money for promotion of projects in an effort to boost sales in a struggling record industry, it is not often that a project that is dropped without any prior warning is able to break into the Top 50. But that's exactly what Childish Gambino's Kauai EP did this past week, taking the No. 17 spot on the charts this week, with 15,903 units sold. Shortly after dropping the free mixtape STN MTN last week, Gambino followed it up with the other half of the project, Kauai, which could be purchased on iTunes. It seemed the strategy employed by Gambino worked, reeling in fans through the release of free music, and quickly following up with the release of music for purchase. It will be interesting to see if other artists follow in Gambino's footsteps.
The rest of the hip-hop world remains extremely quiet this week. Iggy Azalea's The New Classic, which has been a mainstay on the Top 50 charts for the majority of the year since its release in April, has fallen out of the Top 50 this week, leaving only four hip-hop albums in the Top 50 this week. The aforementioned Kauai was the highest charting hip-hop album this week, at No. 17, followed by Lecrae's Anomaly, which has fallen four spots to No. 26, selling 11,462 units this past week. Jeezy's Seen It All has dropped to No. 30 on the charts this week, selling 10,571 copies. The last hip-hop album in the Top 50 is Wiz Khalifa's Blacc Hollywood which finds itself at the No. 47 spot, selling 6,209 units over the course of the past week.
Though the past couple weeks have not been the best for hip-hop album sales, with albums from big names such as The Game, T.I., Logic, Lil Wayne, and Stalley all planed to drop this month, the Top 50 charts should see an injection of hip-hop projects over the course of the next few weeks.
Outside of hip-hop, Chris Brown's X continues to do well on the charts, placing at No. 9 this week, selling 22,362 copies. Jhené Aiko's Souled Out finally reaches the 100,000 total albums sold threshold this week, selling 8,775 units of her album. Jennifer Hudson's JHUD album dropped 15 spots after debuting at No. 13 last week, selling 8,420 copies. Finally, Trey Songz's Trigga rose one spot to capture the No. 45 spot with 6,418 units sold.
9. Chris Brown, X, 22,362
17. Childish Gambino, Kauai, 15,903
26. Lecrae, Anomaly, 11,462
30. Jeezy, Seen It All, 10,571
35. Jhene Aiko, Souled Out, 8,775
38. Jennifer Hudson, JHUD, 8,420
45. Trey Songz, Trigga, 6,418
47. Wiz Khalifa, Blacc Hollywood, 6,209
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