Rapper J. Cole scored the largest Billboard 200 chart week of 2018 with his new album KOD. The record, which was announced with little advance notice, earned 397,000 equivalent album units, passing the 293,000 units that Justin Timberlake‘s Man of the Woods opened with. KOD gives Cole the fifth #1 album of his career. It’s also the largest week for a Hip-Hop release since DAMN. from Kendrick Lamar in May of last year. KOD had the largest streaming week of any album in 2018 with 215,000 units. In fact, Nielsen Music says that KOD had the third-largest streaming week of all time, behind DAMN. and More Life from Drake. Finally, KOD had the second-biggest sales week of the year with 174,000 in traditional album sales, also behind JT’s Man of the Woods.
At #2 is Invasion of Privacy from Cardi B, followed by another debut, Eat the Elephant from A Perfect Circle. It is the rock group’s first new release since 2004. At #4 is The Greatest Showman soundtrack with Jason Aldean‘s Rearview Town (last week’s #1) slipping to #5.
XXXTENTACION comes in at #6, with Migos at #7, The Weeknd at #8 and Black Panther: The Album at #9. The last top ten debut this week is from rock group Lord Huron as their third album Vide Noir arrives at #10.
