Kanye West, Nicki Minaj Expected to Debut Big on Charts
Hip-hop looks to dominate next week’s Billboard charts. After a week filled with high-profile releases, Kanye West and Nicki Minaj are on track to outsell the competition and take the top two spots.
According to HITS Daily Double, which forecasts album sales, Kanye West’s highly-acclaimed fifth album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is expected to sell 525-575,000 copies in its first week in stores, coming in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Meanwhile, ‘Ye’s collaborator Nicki Minaj will have a “Monster” opening week herself with 375-400,000 copies of her debut Pink Friday. Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill currently holds the title for most albums sold by a female MC in one week with 422,000 when it debuted in 1998.
Elsewhere on the charts, Rihanna’s Loud is benefiting from Thanksgiving week sales in its second week with 140-160,000, with her labelmate Justin Bieber’s My Worlds Acoustic on par with those numbers. Despite delays and an early leak, Ne-Yo’s fourth LP Libra Scale could dance away with 120-140,000, putting it in the top 10.
These figures could see a boost due to the busy Black Friday shopping weekend.