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Mac Miller’s Balloonerism bows at No. 1 across multiple Billboard album charts, including Top Album Sales, Top Rap Albums, Vinyl Albums and Indie Store Album Sales. Plus, seven of the album’s tracks dot the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Balloonerism’s songs date back to 2014, but the project was shelved in favor of other releases.
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Balloonerism is the second No. 1 on Top Album Sales for Miller, who died in 2018. It’s also his third leader on Top Rap Albums, his sixth chart-topper on Vinyl Albums and his first on the Indie Store Album Sales ranking.
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Balloonerism sold a little over 41,000 copies in the U.S. in the tracking week ending Jan. 23, according to Luminate. Vinyl sales comprise the bulk of that sum – 32,000, marking his best sales week ever on vinyl.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album (TEA) units and streaming equivalent album (SEA) units.
On Top Album Sales, Miller triumphs over a surging Gracie Abrams, whose The Secret of Us vaults 33-2 with 21,000 sold (up 689% after the vinyl and CD release of a deluxe edition of the album). Rounding out the rest of the top 10: the Wicked soundtrack (moving 2-3), Stray Kids’ HOP (5-4), Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (3-5), Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet (holding at No. 6), Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft (9-7), ROSÉ’s Rosie (11-8), Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (13-9) and Tyler, The Creator’s IGOR (15-10).
On the Billboard 200, Balloonerism debuts at No. 3 – the eighth top 10-charting set for Miller on that ranking.
Miller On the R&B/Hip-Hop & Rap Charts: Miller earns his third No. 1 on the Top Rap Albums chart. He first ruled with Blue Slide Park in 2011 and followed with The Divine Feminine in 2016, both of which led for one week. On the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums list, Balloonerism debuts at No. 2 andgives the late rapper his seventh top 10 effort. In addition to the No. 1s Blue Slide Park and The Divine Feminine, he also reached the region with Watching Movies With the Sound Off (No. 3 in 2013); GO:OD AM (No. 2, 2015); Swimming (No. 3, 2018) and Faces (No. 3, 2021).
Seven of Balloonerism’s tracks land on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, led by a No. 16 debut for “Funny Papers.” The arrival instantly makes it Miller’s second-highest peak on the chart among his 23 entries, trailing only the No. 10 best for “Good News” in 2020.
Notable among the other tracks, “5 Dollar Pony Rides” bolts 32-19 in its second week on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and wins the weekly Streaming Gainer and Sales Gainer honors. “DJ’s Chord Organ,” featuring SZA, begins at No. 23 and opens at No. 7 on the Hot R&B Songs chart.
Over On the Billboard Hot 100: On the all-genre, multi-metric Hot 100, four of the album’s songs debut: “Funny Papers” (No. 77), “5 Dollar Pony Rides” (No. 85), “DJ’s Chord Organ” (No. 95) and “Stoned” (No. 97).
Miller Hits a New Peak on the Billboard Artist 100 Chart: Activity surrounding Ballonerism drives Miller 66-2 on the Billboard Artist 100, a new peak for the rapper at his 83rd nonconsecutive week on the chart. The Billboard Artist 100 measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption – album and track sales, radio airplay and streaming – to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of the most popular artists in the U.S.
J. Cole has decided to start a blog. The Carolina rapper posted the first entry to The Algorithm on his Inevitable website, which also hosts his podcast of the same name. “This is just a place for me to share,” he wrote. “I been wanting a lil blog for years. Somewhere to post random sh– […]
Max B and Young Thug spoke over the phone recently, the imprisoned rapper revealed this week. The Boss Don — who is reportedly coming home later this year on Nov. 9 — posted a clip of himself talking to Young Thug over the phone on his Instagram Stories. “Man, I’m in here grinding this sh– […]
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Manchester-based rapper Aitch has fired back at Central Cee after the latter dissed him on his recently-released album Can’t Rush Greatness (Jan. 24).
On the LP’s “5 Star,” Central Cee (real name Oakley Neil Caesar-Su) came for Aitch in a line that referenced the latter winning a BRIT Award over him at the 2023 ceremony. Aitch triumphed in the hip-hop/grime/rap category over Central Cee, Dave, Loyle Carner and Stormzy. Central Cee has been nominated for the award a number of times and has yet to grab the prize
“I felt like a p—k when I went to the BRITs and they gave the award to a guy called Aitch/ I had my acceptance speech prepared like, ‘Long live F’s,’ I’m goin’ insane,” he said. The latter line references Central Cee’s close friend Fernando “FDot Johnson” who was murdered in January 2023.
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Later that afternoon (Jan. 24), the Manchester rapper responded to the diss with a track “A Guy Called?” which was uploaded directly to his Instagram with the caption “leave me alone” alongside a picture of his BRITs trophy. On the track’s opening line Aitch claims that Central Cee is an “influencer” and that he will “jump in the booth for something to do.”
Further references in the track allude to Cench’s BRITs barb, saying: “Little boy is just there to be spun, gettin’ mad at the BRITs, there’s bare to be won.” Later in the track, Aitch adds: “Bringin’ the BRITs up two years later, f— my life, you should go live yours.”
Elsewhere Aitch alleges that Central Cee employs ghostwriters (“All your songs get wrote by Clint, in the booth, one mic, two c—s”) and makes reference to Central Cee’s ethnicity (“Clint was p—d ’cause Cench got beat by a white MC, Cench is as white as me”). Speaking to British Vogue in 2024, Central Cee said that he was born to an English mother and a father of Guyanese and Chinese ancestry.
A number of their U.K. rap contemporaries including Kairo Keyz, ArrDee and M1llionz have commented on Aitch’s Instagram post. Central Cee responded to the track by commenting “fair enough” alongside a flame and laughing face emoji. Listen to the track below.
Aitch released his debut album Close to Home in 2022 and which reached No. 2 on the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart.
Central Cee is nominated once again in the hip-hop/grime/rap category at the 2025 BRITs which take place March 1, where he will go up against Dave, Ghetts, Little Simz and Stormzy for the prize.
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Nikola Jokic is apparently a big fan of 50 Cent, especially the Queens rapper’s song “Many Men.”
After Denver Nuggets teammate DeAndre Jordan recently revealed that the 2003 song is Jokic’s favorite, the NBA on TNT crew joked with the three-time MVP about him supposedly knowing every word and pleaded for him to rap the words during a postgame interview.
“No, no, no, I’m not,” Jokic laughed, refusing to rap. “D.J. is a bad teammate. I love the song, I love the song, but I’m not going to [rap it].”
“Peyton Watson is our locker room DJ, so anytime Nikola request a song, if it’s not, like, Serbian folk music, it is ‘Many Men’ by 50 Cent,” Jordan shared on the Run It Back podcast. “He knows the words from start to finish. … That’s his song, man, he loves it.”
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Jordan couldn’t confirm if the Serbian big man had ever seen 50’s 2003 movie Get Rich or Die Tryin’, but he said he’s going to get him a tape if he hasn’t. “You know what, I don’t know, but if he hasn’t, I’m going to get it for him on VHS.”
However, the Joker bashfully denied Jordan’s claim, but said he’ll learn the words and maybe perform the song sometime in the future.
“No, no, he’s lying. I don’t know the words. But I’m going to [learn] it. Maybe I’m going to perform, I think,” he said as they egged him on and suggested he do the performance during the upcoming All-Star weekend in February.
The highlight of the clip, though, is Adam Lefkoe rapping the hook and Shaq attempting to rap the words in Serbian (or French, maybe Creole, depending on who you ask.)
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Roc Nation is expanding its music business portfolio with a trailblazing partnership. The Roc has teamed up with South Korean fintech company Musicow to launch what it describes as the first Music Equity Service Provider in the United States. Musicow aims to offer Americans the opportunity to invest in music royalties. This partnership allows music […]
Yo Gotti has welcomed another addition to the CMG family as Zillionaire Doe signs to the Memphis native’s imprint. Billboard learned on Tuesday (Jan. 21) that the ink is dry on the deal with the burgeoning Dallas-bred rapper, who looked up to Gotti growing up. “I’m really excited to work with Gotti and the CMG […]