Playboi Carti’s ‘Music’ Bows at Number One

Playboi Carti’s Music debuts at Number One on the Billboard 200 albums chart, the publication reports. It’s the Atlanta artist’s second Number One album, further cementing his commercial stature ahead of his upcoming stadium tour. 

The project debuted with 298,000 album equivalent album units in the U.S., according to Luminate. Of those units, streams comprise 283,000 (equaling 284 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs). With Music‘s 30 songs tallying a total of 384 million on-demand official streams combined, it becomes the biggest streaming week for any album in nearly a year. The last big streaming earner came back in May 2024, when Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poet’s Department garnered 428.54 million streams of its songs collectively in its second week.

Music is Carti’s third album to hit the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 and bests the 100,000 first-week units earned from his first Number One album, Whole Lotta Red, which bowed on the chart in January 2021. Whole Lotta Red was certified gold in January 2022. His debut album Die Lit, also accredited gold, debuted at Number Three with 61,000 first-week units. 

The rapper’s long-awaited new album had been promised for more than a year, with a four-pack of 2023 singles spurring anticipation that the project would be dropping in 2024, and on “2024” he rapped, “2024…music,” further teasing its impending arrival. 

Last September, he rolled out pre-order information and began taking orders for physical copies of Music, and also shared merch on his official site. The site proclaimed that the digital album would be available “no later than six months from September 12th, 2024.” The album dropped two days after the purported March 12 deadline. 

Playboi Carti’s Music unseats Lady Gaga’s Mayhem, which after debuting at Number One last week, slips down a notch to Number Two with 74,000 units. Elsewhere on the albums chart, Kendrick Lamar’s GNX falls to Number Three with 71,000 units; PartyNextDoor and Drake’s $ome $exy $ongs 4 U garnered 66,000 units and moved from the Top Three to Number Four; and SZA’s SOS also moved down a notch to round out this week’s Top Five, earning 62,000 units.

From Rolling Stone US.