Kanye West Has His Worst Opening Sales Week ::Kanye West News ::antiMusic.com

Kanye West Has His Worst Opening Sales Week

06/27/2013
. (Radio.com) In the battle of Yeezus versus Born Sinner, Yeezus has emerged the winner. After a close race that only got closer as the week pressed on, Kanye West scores the No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 album chart this week, edging out J. Cole's sophomore release, Born Sinner. Yeezus sold 327,000 copies in its debut week, while its closest competitor moved 297,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan data.

Yeezy's victory caps a tense few weeks, during which Cole vowed to upstage West and take the distinction of the country's No. 1 album, calling it "fate" that the two should go head to head in album sales.

But despite a leak that diminished original expectations of around 500,000, Yeezus maintained the top spot, becoming West's fifth solo No. 1 and sixth overall, counting his 2011 collaboration with Jay-Z, Watch the Throne.

However, Yeezus marks a continuing downward trend of sales for Kanye. It's his first album to sell less than 400,000 in its opening week, and lowest first-week bow since debut album The College Dropout moved 441,000, according to Billboard.

However, the album is still the third-best-selling album of 2013 in terms of first-week sales, debuting behind Daft Punk's Random Access Memories (339,000 sold) and Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience (968,000 sold). It's also rap's best-selling album this year, garnering the best first-week sales for a record in the genre since Drake moved 631,000 for Take Care in November 2011. more on this story

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