Rick Ross Earns Fifth #1, Pharrell Debuts Strongly at #2, Ashanti Scores Fifth Top 10

Rick Ross’ ‘Mastermind’ Album Cover

If you think last week was a good week for rap/hip-hop, then this week may be considered a great one.

Miami-based rapper Rick Ross has earned his fifth #1 debuting album on the Billboard 200 Albums chart , with his sixth studio effort Mastermind .

Released on March 3, 2014, the album has managed to sell a total of 179,000 copies in the week ending March 9, 2014.

While it starts with slightly fewer sales than 2012’s God Forgives, I Don’t , which debuted at #1 with 218,000 copies, Mastermind ‘s sales are up to par with the rapper’s usual debut sales, which range between 158,000 to 198,000.

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All six of Ross’ albums released through a major label have reached the top two positions on the chart, with only 2010’s Teflon Don missing the #1 spot.

Among all rap acts, Rozay joins just a handful of artists that have notched five #1 albums throughout their careers: DMX and Tupac, who also have five #1s, while Nas and Kanye West each have six. Eminem has seven, and Jay-Z leads the pack with a total of 13.

Pharrell Williams ‘G I R L’ Album Cover

Coming in strongly at #2 this week with first week sales from his second studio album is Pharrell Williams ‘ G I R L , with sales of 112,000 in its first week.

This could be due to the album’s lead single “Happy,” which, for a third week, is the #1 song in the country.

I’d also like to thank his feel good performance at the 2014 Oscars performance for helping him with this feat.

While it didn’t win the trophy for Best Original Song, it did win the viewership award for great live performance at a long and semi-boring event.

The decision to release G I R L on an off-cycle Monday (bucking the trend of normally releasing albums on a Tuesday) motivated the rest of the industry’s major new releases last week to move to Monday as well.

That jump mirrors what has happened in the past whenever a significant artist (say, Justin Timberlake last year with The 20/20 Experience, 2 of 2 ) opts to release an album on Monday instead of Tuesday.

Coming in at #3, fresh off its Academy Award win for Best Original Song, is the soundtrack to the hit Disney film Frozen with sales of 100,000 copies

Totaling 1.3 million copies sold to date, it will be the first album to surpass 1 million this year by next week.

Featuring a total of five debut albums, this week’s chart is rounded out by Glee star Lea Michele ‘s debut album Louder at #4 with 60,000 copies, followed by country group Eli Young Band ‘s fifth studio album, 10,000 Towns at #5 with 36,000 copies sold.

Ashanti’s ‘Braveheart’ Album Cover

R&B singer Ashanti debuts her fifth studio album Braveheart at #10 with 28,000 copies sold.

Filling in those gaps are Beck ‘s Morning Phase at #6 with 33,000 copies and Lorde ‘s Pure Heroine at #7 with 31,000 copies.

Last week’s #1, ScHoolboy Q ‘s Oxymoron , falls to #8 with 30,000 and Eric Church ‘s The Outsiders holds the #9 spot with 30,000 copies. Thoughts?

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