Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign’s ‘Vultures 1’ Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart
Written by djfrosty on February 18, 2024
Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) and Ty Dolla $ign’s joint project Vultures 1 debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Feb. 24), giving Ye his 11th leader and Ty his first. The set earned 148,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 15, according to Luminate, following its release on Feb. 10.
Plus, Usher scores his highest charting album on the Billboard 200 in over a decade, as his latest studio release Coming Home bows at No. 2 with 91,000 units earned.
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The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Feb. 24, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Feb. 21, one day later than usual, owed to the Presidents’ Day holiday in the U.S. on Feb. 19. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of Vultures 1’s 148,000 units earned in the tracking week ending Feb. 15, SEA units comprise 129,000 (equaling 167.78 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs), album sales comprise 18,000 and TEA units comprise 1,000.
Vultures 1 was only initially available via streaming services and as a digital download album for purchase. The original 16-track set was available through all major streamers, and sold through leading digital retailers, as well as Ye’s own official webstore. Physical versions of the album on CD and vinyl are expected to be released at a later date, and Ye’s store is accepting pre-orders for both presently. The set’s first-week sales were boosted by aggressive sale pricing.
The album boasts appearances from collaborators Travis Scott, Playboi Carti and Chris Brown, though none are given billed artist credit on the tracklist. Ye’s 10-year-old daughter North also contributes vocals to the set’s “Talking.”
Vultures 1 is the first studio album for both Ye and Ty released outside of the major label system, and arrived on Feb. 10 via Ye’s own label YZY after a number of delays (it was originally slated for release last October). Vultures 1 is Ye’s first album since his string of hate speech and antisemitic remarks, which resulted in companies like Adidas and Def Jam Recordings distancing themselves from Ye. (Def Jam released all of Ye’s previous studio albums, including his last widely released album, 2021’s Donda.)
Vultures 1 was issued on Feb. 10 and had a bumpy first-week in the marketplace. Its initial independent distributor, FUGA, took down the project on Feb. 15. The set then found a home with another indie, Label Engine (part of Create Music Group), that same day.
Meanwhile, one of tracks initially included on the Vultures 1 — “Good (Don’t Die)” — was removed from the streaming edition of the album on Feb. 14 on Spotify, and then other streamers and digital retailers on Feb. 15. The song appears to interpolate elements of Donna Summer’s 1977 single “I Feel Love,” which Summer’s estate claimed West used without permission and alleged “copyright infringement.” On Feb. 15, with “Good” removed from the album’s tracklist, the album was no longer purchasable in digital retailers like the iTunes Store and Amazon. (It was, however, still available to buy, with “Good” intact, through Ye’s official webstore.)
Ye ties Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand with 11 No. 1s each. Ahead of them are only The Beatles (a record 19 No. 1s), Jay-Z (14), Drake and Taylor Swift (each with 13). Vultures 1 is Ye’s 11th consecutive charting album to debut at No. 1, the most of any artist. (Overall, Jay-Z has the most debuts at No. 1, with 14, but they were not consecutive.)
For Ty, Vultures 1 brings him his first leader and second top 10-charting effort. He’s logged a total of eight entries on the list, going as high as No. 4 in 2020 with Featuring Ty Dolla $ign.
Vultures 1 was preceded by the single “Vultures,” featuring Bump J, which reached No. 38 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in December.
At No. 2 on the Billboard 200, Usher achieves his highest-charting album in over a decade, as his new studio set Coming Home starts in the runner-up slot. The album was released on Feb. 9 and earned 91,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 15. Of that sum, album sales comprise 53,000, SEA units comprise 34,500 (equaling 45.82 million official on-demand streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise 3,500.
Coming Home’s release date was announced last September, hot on the heels of news that Usher would headline the 2024 Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 11.
The 2024 Super Bowlitself was the most-watched broadcast in American TV history, with 123.4 million viewers across CBS and the game’s simulcasts across Nickelodeon, Univision, Paramount+ and other digital platforms. Usher didn’t perform any material from the new album during the halftime show, focusing instead on familiar favorites from the past, such as “My Boo” (with Alicia Keys), “U Got It Bad” (with H.E.R.) “OMG” (with will.i.am) and the show-closing “Yeah!” (with Lil Jon and Ludacris).
Coming Home marks Usher’s ninth top 10-charting album on the Billboard 200 and his highest-ranking set since Looking 4 Myself debuted at No. 1 in June of 2012. He then charted with Hard II Love (No. 5 in 2016) and the collaborative set A with Zaytoven (No. 31 in 2018).
Coming Home is Usher’s first independently distributed album after a career with majors BMG and Sony (through the labels LaFace, Arista and RCA). The new project was released via mega (Usher’s own company in partnership with L.A. Reid) and Gamma (helmed by Larry Jackson), and distributed by Vydia (part of the Gamma organization).
Coming Home was available to purchase in its first week as a standard digital download, a standard CD, five different vinyl variants, two deluxe boxed sets and a deluxe digital album with a bonus track and alternative cover art. The latter was promoted as a SKIMS exclusive (alongside Usher’s new starring role in a SKIMS campaign) and sold for a limited time via SKIMS’ official store and Usher’s own webstore. Like Vultures 1, the Coming Home digital album was deeply discounted during its first week.
Coming Home was preceded by the single “Good Good,” with Summer Walker and 21 Savage. The track peaked at No. 25 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 in November, marking Usher’s first top 40 since 2017, and highest-charting track since 2015, when “I Don’t Mind,” featuring Juicy J, reached No. 11.
Noah Kahan’s Stick Season climbs 5-3 on the Billboard 200, matching its peak rank, spurred by the release of its new deluxe edition. Stick Season surges with 85,000 equivalent album units earned (up 74% — its best week yet by units earned), following the bow of a deluxe edition of the album on Feb. 9 with nine additional tracks. That deluxe iteration is dubbed Stick Season (Forever) and added collaborations with Post Malone, Kacey Musgraves and others. The original Stick Season album debuted in 2022 with 14 tracks, was deluxed last June with an additional seven tracks (which prompted its jump from No. 100 to No. 3), and then deluxed again on Feb. 9 with nine more tracks. All versions of the album are combined for tracking and charting purposes.
The rest of the top 10 on the new Billboard 200 is comprised of former No. 1s: Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time falls 2-4 (64,000 equivalent album units earned; down 1%); SZA’s SOS dips 3-5 (51,000; down 4%); Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) rises 8-6 (50,000; up 3%); Swift’s Lover moves 9-7 (48,000; up 7%); Swift’s Midnights falls 5-8 (46,000; down 9%); Toby Keith’s 35 Biggest Hits tumbles 1-9 (46,000; down 31%); and Drake’s For All the Dogs descends 6-10 (45,000; down 8%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.