Both artists lead the list for the first time with a third visit to the ranking.
Anderson .Paak and Cordae Kaito / Courtesy: EMPIRE
Anderson .Paak and Cordae combine forces on their first collaborative set to reign on Billboard’s Top Rap Albums chart with Heavy Is the Crown. For each artist, the project becomes a first leader on the list.
Heavy Is the Crown launches with 30,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States for the tracking week of Oct. 23-29, according to Luminate. Album sales contributed 19,000 units to the total, streaming activity brought in 11,000 units, and there was a negligible amount of track-equivalent sales activity. (One unit equals the following levels of consumption: one album sale, 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 1,000 paid/subscription tier or 2,500 ad-supported tier of official on-demand audio and video streams for a song on the album.)
Before the Crown coronation, Anderson .Paak reached Top Rap Albums with Yes Lawd!, under Nxwrries, his duo with producer Knxwledge, which reached No. 3 in November 2016, and Oxnard, which peaked at No. 5 in December 2018. The performer, whose music spans hip-hop, R&B and other genres, has also been a consistent R&B presence with his own albums, including Malibu and Ventura and via his Silk Sonic collaboration with Bruno Mars, whose An Evening With Silk Sonic album debuted at No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
For Cordae, Heavy Is the Crown follows The Lost Boy, a No. 6 success in August 2019, and From a Birds Eye View, which earned a No. 4 best in January 2022.
Elsewhere, the new collaborative album opens at No. 2 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and No. 11 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
“Airbender” leads the album’s 11 tracks in terms of songs performance, with a No. 21 debut on Hot Rap Songs. With 2.4 million official U.S. on-demand streams, it was the album’s most-streamed song of the week. The entrance secures Anderson .Paak’s first entry on Hot Rap Songs, while Cordae lands his fourth; he first arrived when he and Jack Harlow featured on Eminem’s “Killer,” a No. 16 hit in August 2021, and followed with a NF collaboration (“Careful,” No. 20 in April 2023) and a teamup with Lyrical Lemonade and Juice WRLD (“Doomsday.,” No. 15 in July 2023).
