Quavo & Takeoff’s ‘Links’ Launches at No. 1 on Top Rap Albums Chart
Written by djfrosty on October 20, 2022
Quavo and Takeoff’s collaborative album, Built for Infinity Links, yields a No. 1 debut on Billboard’s Top Rap Albums chart as the project starts atop the list dated Oct. 22. Links earned 33,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Oct. 13, according to Luminate.
Streaming fuels the album’s entrance, with 30,500 of the 33,000 units deriving from the consumption method. The 30,500 streaming-equivalent album units equal 41.1 million official on-demand streams of Links’ songs in the tracking week. Two thousand of the remaining units come from traditional album sales, with the outstanding 500 balance owed to track-equivalent album units. (One unit equals the following levels of consumption: one album sale, 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams for a song on the album.)
Elsewhere, Links debuts at No. 3 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and at No. 7 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
The new champ gives Quavo his second solo chart-topper, after Quavo Huncho ruled for one week upon its debut in October 2018. Takeoff, meanwhile, achieves his first leader, after a prior No. 2 best for his The Last Rocket in November 2018. The pair has also visited the summit as two-thirds of the trio Migos, whose Culture and Culture II led the list in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The group’s future is uncertain – Quavo and Takeoff have said Migos is on an indefinite hiatus, while the trio’s third member, Offset, has announced a solo album for release on Nov. 11.
As Links arrives, three of its tracks debut on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart: “To the Bone,” with YoungBoy Never Broke Again (No. 24), “Nothing Changed” (No. 44) and “Chocolate,” with Gunna (No. 48). “Bone” leads the album’s songs in streaming, with 5.8 million official U.S. streams in the week ending Oct. 13.
In addition, the previously released Links lead single, “Hotel Lobby (Unc & Phew),” rallies 37-19 from the album release’s impact. The track returns to its highest rank since the July 5-dated list (also at No. 19). The track’s 50% surge in streams to reach 5.6 million in the week and 356% swell in sales to 1,000 downloads secure it both the chart’s Streaming Gainer and Digital Gainer callouts.