Rap stars from the US and UK dominate the charts this week.
In the albums rankings, Travis Scott has secured his first No.1 album. Utopia (RCA) debuted at the summit with sales of 25,027, according to the Official Charts Company.
Meanwhile, Dave & Central Cee have secured a ninth week at the singles summit with Sprinter (Live Yours/Neighbourhood Recordings).
Texan rapper Travis Scott’s digital-only album secured the UK's biggest weekly album streams of 2023 so far – 24,738, an achievement tipped to happen by Music Week. Utopia had already broken Spotify and Apple Music records for streams in 2023 in the US.
The last album to secure a higher weekly streaming total was Drake & 21 Savage’s Her Loss in November 2022 (35,705 sales-equivalent streams). As revealed in Alan Jones’ charts analysis, Her Loss was also the last album to reach No.1 without a physical element until this week.
Utopia is Scott’s second Top 10 entry. His last solo studio album, Astroworld, peaked at No.3 in 2018 on consumption of 18,609 units (including 17,089 from streams). It has sales to date of 369,819.
Utopia finished at No.1 after a tight chart race with Anne-Marie, whose Unhealthy (Atlantic) opened at No.2 on consumption of 23,778 units. At one point earlier in the week, there was just one sale between them.
Travis Scott’s album also produced three charting singles: Meltdown (feat. Drake, No.10, 24,523 sales), Fein (feat. Playboi Carti, No.13, 21,871 sales) and Hyaena (No.21, 18,304 sales). All of the remaining 16 tracks from Utopia would have made the Top 75 but for Official Charts Company rules, which only allow three entries for primary artists.
Meanwhile, in its ninth week at the summit, Dave & Central Cee hit Sprinter’s consumption was down 9.9% week-on-week to 53,518. The single – which held off a challenge by three tracks from Barbie The Album – is now certified platinum with overall consumption of 636,886 units (3,123 digital downloads and 633,763 sales-equivalent streams).
If Sprinter can hold on for another week, Sprinter will match Flowers by Miley Cyrus as the single with the longest reign of 2023 so far.
In the 2020s, Bad Habits by Ed Sheeran has the longest reign at the summit (11 weeks), followed by As It Was by Harry Styles and Flowers by Miley Cyrus (both 10 weeks). Sprinter is in fourth place alongside Olivia Rodrigo’s Drivers License.
PHOTO: Ben Awin
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