The rapper's latest album dethrones last week's winner, J.Cole's 'Born Sinner', after selling 527,000 copies in its first week, according to preliminary data from Nielsen SoundScan.
- Jul 17, 2013
AceShowbiz - Jay-Z's "Magna Carta... Holy Grail" will debut at the top spot on Billboard 200. According to preliminary data from Nielsen SoundScan, the album has sold 527,000 copies in its first week. It marks the second-biggest sales week for an album this year. It trails behind Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience", which opened to 968,000 last March.
Jay-Z's latest release gives the rapper his 13th No. 1 album. The number includes his three collaboration albums with R. Kelly, Linkin Park and Kanye West. The only artist who has more chart-topping album is The Beatles. The British band has 19 No. 1 album. Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Presley are other artists with the most No. 1 album. Both singers have 10 each.
"Magna Carta... Holy Grail" is the fourth rap album in four consecutive weeks that sits at the chart's No. 1. Previous winners were West's "Yeezus", Wale's "The Gifted" and J. Cole's "Born Sinner".
Featuring appearances from Timberlake, Beyonce Knowles, Frank Ocean and Timbaland, Jay-Z's 12th studio album was officially released on July 7. Billboard doesn't count Jay-Z and Samsung's deal to give away 1.2 million copies of the album to Galaxy mobile users.
The album also set a new record after having more than 14 million streams in its first week on Spotify.
