Billboard has announced that Jay-Z‘s critically acclaimed new album, “4:44,” has topped the album chart for the sales week that ended Thursday, July 13. That’s not a surprise. “4:44” went platinum in just five days. It’s been out since June 30, and it certainly would have topped the chart last week had it not been exclusive to the Tidal streaming service when it first dropped. But just how big a bow did Jay-Z have?
“4:44” is number-one with 262,000 equivalent album units. In calculating units for the chart, Billboard considers not only traditional record sales but also individual track sales and online streams, and this number for Jay-Z gives him the fourth biggest week for any album on the chart in 2017 so far. And that includes an impressive 174,000 traditional album sales.
Those numbers are certainly strong, if not groundbreaking. Where the album does break new ground, however, is by extending Jay-Z’s record for the most number-one albums in history for a solo artist. This is his 14th chart-topping record, which puts him even further ahead of Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand, who have posted 11 number-one albums each. But he’s still got some catching up to do if he wants to match The Beatles, who are the all-time leaders with 19 number-one albums.
Have you listened to “4:44” yet? Is it among Jay-Z’s best? Comment below, and join the discussion on this and more with your fellow music fans in our forums.
