Cardi B
Rapper Cardi B‘s debut record Invasion of Privacy dominated the newest Billboard 200 chart, with the second-largest week of the year and the biggest streaming week of all time for a female artist. Invasion of Privacy earned 255,000 equivalent album units, second only to Justin Timberlake‘s Man of the Woods for 2018. Nielsen Music notes that 103,000 were in traditional album sales, which was the biggest sales week for an R&B or hip-hop album in 2018. Cardi B is only the fifth female rapper of all time with a #1 album on the Billboard 200, joining Nicki Minaj, Eve, Foxy Brown and Lauryn Hill.
Invasion of Privacy topped Beyoncé’s Lemonade for the biggest streaming week for a female artist, which had 115.2 million streams compared to Cardi’s 202.6 million. Also looking at streaming figures, it was the second-biggest streaming week in 2018 (after Culture II from Migos), the largest streaming week for a debut studio album ever and the seventh-largest streaming week for an album since Nielsen Music began tracking streaming data. Also, Invasion of Privacy‘s 103,000 traditional album sales are of note since the album was only released digitally.
At #2, Jared Leto‘s band Thirty Seconds to Mars landed their highest chart position ever with the album America. The record earned 62,000 units, which were partly driven by a concert ticket-album bundle.
My Dear Melancholy from The Weeknd comes in at #3, followed by the soundtrack to The Greatest Showman at #4 and XXXTENTACION’s ? at #5. The aforementioned Migos land at #6, with Black Panther: The Album at #7, Rich the Kid at #8 and Post Malone at #9. The top ten is rounded out with one more debut, Total Xanarchy by rapper Lil Xan.
