Playboi Carti and Kendrick Lamar prime charts, however Morgan Wallen looms : NPR

Playboi Carti‘s supersized blockbuster MUSIC holds at No. 1 in its second week of launch, nevertheless it needed to fend off a powerful cost from one other new file — Selena Gomez and benny blanco‘s I Mentioned I Love You First — so as to take action. On the Sizzling 100 singles chart, Kendrick Lamar‘s “Luther (feat. SZA)” holds at No. 1 for a sixth consecutive week, whereas Morgan Wallen has simply charted a fifth prime 10 hit from an album that is not even out but.

TOP ALBUMS

Final week, Playboi Carti’s long-awaited blockbuster MUSIC debuted atop the Billboard 200 albums chart, because it skilled the strongest single week of streaming since Taylor Swift‘s The Tortured Poets Division practically a yr in the past. All 30 of MUSIC‘s songs cracked the Sizzling 100 singles chart, together with two tracks within the prime 5. It was a giant week to be Playboi Carti.

On this week’s Billboard 200, MUSIC nonetheless sits at No. 1. However it wasn’t straightforward, because the blockbuster first-week streaming numbers subsided and Carti confronted a powerful problem from the duo of Selena Gomez and her producer/fiancé benny blanco. The pair’s new collaborative album, I Mentioned I Love You First, debuted at No. 2 — and got here inside 11,000 “equal album items” (the cocktail of gross sales and streaming that determines the Billboard album rankings) of taking the highest spot.

Gomez and blanco’s crew pulled out all of the stops to take the highest spot: They launched many variant editions, each bodily (vinyl and CD) and digitally, and supplied deep reductions for the album’s 9 totally different obtainable digital variants. However Carti and his crew weren’t content material to coast on final week’s shock-and-awe debut, both: They really launched a deluxe version of the week-old MUSIC, including 4 new tracks to streaming companies in an try to maintain followers streaming the album. It labored, however the closing tally of equal album items — 131,000 for Carti, 120,000 for Gomez and blanco — was surprisingly shut, given how effectively MUSIC carried out in its first week.

Even with the decline in his second-week numbers, Playboi Carti is best positioned for sustained chart success: MUSIC‘s chart energy is fueled primarily by its streaming numbers, whereas greater than half of I Mentioned I Love You First‘s numbers come from gross sales, which do not carry over from week to week. Subsequent week, MUSIC‘s greatest competitors could effectively come from Kendrick Lamar’s GNX, which remains to be mendacity in wait — and holding regular — at No. 3.

Elsewhere within the prime 10, stasis reigns, although Woman Gaga’s MAYHEM seems to be fading a bit: The album dropped from No. 2 to No. 7 in its third week on the chart.

TOP SONGS

For individuals who crave volatility on the Billboard charts, this is a bit of fine information: Absolutely half of final week’s prime 10 singles — Playboi Carti’s “EVIL J0RDAN” and “RATHER LIE,” Chappell Roan‘s “The Giver,” Billie Eilish‘s “Birds Of A Feather” and Doechii‘s “Nervousness” — have slid out of the highest 10 to make room for various songs. Now, this is the unhealthy information: 4 of the 5 beneficiaries are outdated as filth. Does it depend as a refresh when 4 new tracks (the entire above minus “Birds of a Feather”) slide all the way down to make method for the return of fossils like Benson Boone‘s “Stunning Issues” (up from No. 15 to No. 8 in its 61st week on the chart) and Teddy Swims‘ “Lose Management” (up from No. 12 to No. 6 in week No. 84)?

There’s nothing unsuitable with a still-dominant track like Kendrick Lamar’s “Luther (feat. SZA)” holding at No. 1 for a sixth consecutive week; that observe has solely been in circulation since December. Neither is the rise of Roan’s “Pink Pony Membership” — from No. 9 to a brand new peak at No. 5 — something to lament, provided that Roan has been on a sizzling streak and the track remains to be gaining steam on its lengthy and winding journey from obscurity to dominance. However it’s wild to see Shaboozey‘s “A Bar Music (Tipsy),” which topped the Sizzling 100 for a record-tying 19 weeks final yr, rise from No. 6 to No. 3 in its fiftieth week on the chart. There are different songs, individuals! A few of them are even by Shaboozey!

Simply two songs on this week’s prime 10 got here out throughout this calendar yr: Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR‘s “Nokia,” which climbs from No. 11 to No. 7, and Morgan Wallen’s “Simply in Case,” which debuts at No. 4. For extra on Wallen’s newest feat — which incorporates an accomplishment nobody had ever pulled off till now — maintain studying.

WORTH NOTING

With the Sizzling 100 debut of Morgan Wallen’s “Simply in Case” at No. 4, the nation star has accomplished one thing nobody has ever accomplished earlier than. However first, a fast explainer.

There are a lot of efficient methods to roll out a brand new album. The normal method is to make an announcement months upfront, then enable new info — and advance singles — to trickle out within the run-up to the discharge date. One new-school, streaming-era method has main stars dropping albums with little to no advance discover, as when Kendrick Lamar dropped GNX with no warning in December, or when Playboi Carti launched MUSIC on a day’s discover a number of weeks in the past. There are dangers and rewards to each approaches, and to the various approaches in between, however most artists (and their labels and administration groups) nonetheless prefer to work with a little bit of a runway. Advance discover builds anticipation, will get followers excited, lays the groundwork for radio airplay and makes it simpler to line up promotional alternatives.

For Wallen’s forthcoming album I am the Downside — which drops Could 16 — the pre-release runway stretches all the way in which again to final summer time, when the nation star dropped “Lies Lies Lies.” That track peaked at No. 7 final July and caught across the prime 40 for months, although it is since slipped off the Sizzling 100. Final November, one other single (“Love Any individual”) debuted at No. 1; it is nonetheless within the prime 20. In January, “Smile” peaked at No. 4; this week, that track rises from No. 74 to No. 43. A number of weeks later, I am the Downside‘s title observe debuted at No. 2, and this week climbs from No. 21 to No. 11. And now, with the debut of “Simply in Case” at No. 4, Wallen has charted 5 prime 10 singles from an album that is not even out but — and he is the primary artist ever to take action. (This is not even counting “I Had Some Assist,” his chart-topping duet with Submit Malone, which additionally got here out final yr. That track holds at No. 19 this week.)

Previous to Wallen’s feat, two artists have landed 4 prime 10 singles within the run-up to an album’s launch: Submit Malone with 2019’s Hollywood’s Bleeding and Taylor Swift with Crimson in 2012. However Wallen stands alone with I am the Downside, and he may even not be accomplished but: The album would not come out for one more six weeks — and yet one more of its songs, “I am a Little Loopy,” debuts at No. 17 on this week’s chart.

There’s little query that I am the Downside shall be one in every of 2025’s greatest albums, given its pre-release success and the truth that its predecessor (2023’s One Factor at a Time) nonetheless sits within the prime 10 two years after its launch. What stays to be seen is which Wallen track — if any — is ready to escape as a dominant, “track of the summer time”-style chart-topper. He did it in 2023 with “Final Evening,” and he and Submit Malone did it final summer time with “I Had Some Assist.” Wallen has already purchased six tickets for this yr’s “track of the summer time” sweepstakes. Who is aware of what number of extra shall be set to repay within the weeks and months to return?