DaBaby’s ‘Blame’ Tops Album Chart, as Fiona Apple’s ‘Bolt Cutters’ Comes in Third
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DaBaby has officially become the first artist of the pandemic to portray himself wearing a face mask on the cover of a No. 1 album. The prolific rapper’s third album in 13 months, “Blame It On Baby,” debuted atop the Rolling Stone Top 200 Albums chart with 120,000 album units.
Fiona Apple has kept up a very different release schedule from DaBaby. Her first album in eight years, “Fetch the Bolt Cutters,” premiered with 44,000 album units to come onto the chart at No. 3.
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Apple can claim the highest-selling — as opposed to streaming — album of the week. “Bolt Cutters” sold 30,000 copies in album form, all of them digital, since there were no CD or vinyl editions being pressed of an album she didn’t announce until the lockdowns were already underway. (Apple is the kind of artist whose fans will largely want a physical copy, and those won’t arrive before summer.) That high number of album sales offset her song streams, which, at 16.3 million, were the lowest for anyone in the top 10.
DaBaby sold a significantly lower number of albums — only 11,600 — but had a commanding 129 million song streams.
Perennial charttopper the Weeknd saw his two-month-old album being pushed down to No. 2 by DaBaby’s debut. “After Hours” was in second place in its ninth week, with 55,000 album units (7,500 album sales combined with 55 million song streams).
At a time when fewer new albums are being released, the biggest debut after DaBaby’s and Apple’s was DVSN’s “A Muse in Her Feelings,” all the way down at No. 23 with 17,500 album units.
Other artists with top 10 albums included Lil Baby, Post Malone, Bad Bunny, Roddy Ricch, Lil Uzi Vert, Rod Wave and Tory Lanez at Nos. 4-10.
Country singer Morgan Wallen is enjoying a surge, with his debut album “If I Know Me” reaching its peak to date, No. 17, moving slightly ahead of albums by more established genre stars Luke Combs (No. 18) and Sam Hunt (No. 20).
On the Rolling Stone Top 100 Songs chart, Drake’s “Toosie Slide” enjoys a third week at the top, with 22 million streams.
DaBaby has four songs entering in the chart’s top 20, the favorite being “Rockstar” at No. 2, followed by “Jump” at No. 5, “Pick Up” at No. 15 and “Lightskin S—” at No. 18.
“American Idol” alumna Gabby Barrett’s “I Hope,” which just topped the country airplay chart, reaches its peak to date on the Rolling Stone songs rankings after 20 weeks, moving up to No. 14 with 9.3 million streams.
The top-debuting song on the chart that is not by DaBaby is the Sam Smith/Demi Lovato duet “I’m Ready,” premiering modestly at No. 21 with 8 million streams.
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