Tekashi 6ix9ine has shown time and time again that he cares about his position on the charts. Ever since he first started gaining attention, his entire modus operandi was to rub it in everybody's faces how he continually gets hits on the Billboard Hot 100. 

While other artists -- *cough* Doja Cat -- seemingly could care less about their standing on the charts, Tekashi will be the first to remind people of how poorly they lived up to the hype.

During his 45-minute live-stream with DJ Akademiks, Blueface came into the conversation as 69 claimed that the man was a "one-hit-wonder." The Los Angeles rapper fought back, giving proof of all the songs he's charted in the last couple of years before his rainbow-haired rival packed a personal punch.

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#tekashi69 and #djakademiks debate if #blueface is a 1 hit wonder. Via @iamakademiks

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"This kid sold 12K with all these hits?" asked Tekashi 6ix9ine on Instagram, referring to the first-week sales for Find The Beat. The album came out during the same week as Rich The Kid's BOSS MAN but both artists were outshined by the deluxe edition of Lil Uzi Vert's Eternal Atake. Because of that, 6ix9ine decided to come after both rappers.

How do you see this progressing? Do you think Blueface and Tekashi 6ix9ine will meet up for the next cringe-worthy boxing display?

We must be getting to that time in quarantine when everybody is in their feelings because, for no good reason, Frank Ocean saw two of his albums have tremendous sales weeks.

The reclusive singer re-emerged with acoustic versions of two previously-previewed singles "Dear April" and "Cayendo" and it appears as though the interest surrounding those two releases carried over to his past work.

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Frank Ocean hasn't released a full-length body of work in years. That wouldn't fly for most artists. However, Frank is in a league of his own. Much like Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Beyoncé, and others, he can strategically choose whenever he wants to drop and it'll always be a hit with the fans. Either his following has started to miss him dearly, the new singles reminded them of what used to be, or it's just been a rough week in quarantine for everybody. Whichever option applies the most, it has been reported that sales figures for Blonde and Channel Orange both jumped tremendously in the last week.

According to Chart Data, Blonde was up 25.2% in the United States while Channel Orange was up 26.5%. Usually, an artist will see this sort of jump when they announce a new project. Frank Ocean doesn't even need to do that. He just needs people to get sad.

Are you bumping Blonde and Channel Orange this week?

PARTYNEXTDOOR and Joyner Lucas both released their highly-anticipated new albums last week but, according to the first-week sales projections, neither will have a strong enough week to take The Weekndout of the top spot on the charts.

Despite all the excitement surrounding PARTYMOBILE and ADHD, it would appear as though neither one of those projects will have what it takes to dethrone The Weeknd as the Canadian crooner seems poised to spend another week at No. 1. According to Billboard, After Hours is likely to earn an additional 100,000 album units in its second week out. While it is still early to tell, that should be enough to keep him at the front of the pack.

His competition includes the new releases from Dua Lipa, Pearl Jam, and 5 Seconds Of Summer. All of those are set to debut higher than PND and Joyner.

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As it pertains to PARTYMOBILE, which features Drake and Rihanna, the latest OVO Sound release is looking at a start of approximately 45,000 album units moved. Joyner Lucas will likely finish right behind the singer with 30,000 sales figures.

Do you think these are good numbers for PARTYNEXTDOOR and Joyner Lucas? With The Weeknd looking set for another week at the head of his kingdom, who do you think will end up dethroning him?

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The Weeknd has officially broken his previous personal best, moving 444,000 equivalent album units with After Hours in its first week, which is enough to claim the top spot on the Billboard 200. 

According to Billboard, this is the fourth time that The Weeknd has managed to snag the first position on the chart. With such astounding numbers from the Canadian singer, it marks an even greater accomplishment that After Hours would still have been No. 1 if it hadn’t sold a single physical or digital copy. With such high streaming numbers, The Weeknd still beat out Lil Uzi Vert‘s Eternal Atake, which now sits at the second spot with 115,000 units.

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This is the most impressive sales week for any artist this year, moving more copies than BTS did with their chart-topper Map of the Soul: 7. Elsewhere on the chart, Lil Baby has moved down to No. 3, Bad Bunny dips to No. 4, and Conan Grey debuts at No. 5.

The Weeknd released a triplet of new songs to complement the After Hours album, sharing them with fans this morning. That will surely help to bolster another strong week from Abel Tesfaye, despite album releases by PARTYNEXTDOOR, Jeezy, and others. 

What did you think of After Hours? Did it live up to the hype?

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Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke was tragically murdered last week in the Hollywood Hills just days after releasing his most-consumed project to date, Meet The Woo 2. At the time of his death, Smoke was at the height of his popularity, only continuing to open more eyes to his version of drill rap. Experiencing solid first-week numbers, the rapper was beginning to hit his stride and critics were excited to hear what the 20-year-old would come up with next. As we all know now, his story came to an abrupt end but that doesn't mean that his music will lose its appeal. In fact, it has surged even higher since his death and, in a new sales projection report, Meet The Woo 2 is expected to match its first-week numbers in its second week out.

Pop Smoke may be a newcomer to the rap game, but he and his recent Meet The Woo 2 album have already come out swinging. Still feeling the residual success of his breakout single “Welcome To The Party,” Smoke’s momentum has ultimately led to a respectable first-week haul for the young artist. Especially considering the lack of prominent features from A-list talent, often employed as a not-entirely-subtle tactic to boost streaming numbers. 

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Though he wasn’t quite able to topple Roddy Ricch‘s seemingly unwavering Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial, Pop Smoke did manage to crack the Billboard top 10, coming in at number seven. Clocking in a total of 36,000 album-equivalent units, the project marked a new milestone for Smoke, validation that his early success was far from a fluke. Unfortunately, not even a thoroughly introduced Woo was enough to conquer the enduring powers of Green Day, who waged war on trap music and “Swedish Songwriters” with their critically maligned Father Of All album.

In any case, a top ten chart placement remains a big win for Pop Smoke, and we can only hope he continues to keep the streak alive — lord knows that an artist can little afford any breathing room these days, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him back in the booth before long, barking a barrage of baritone bars into existence. 

Atlanta rapper Russ has one of the most interesting stories in hip-hop right now. The 27-year-old is disliked by a number of influential genre-centric commentators, yet he boasts a massive fanbase all around the world. His artistic growth has been nothing short of tremendous, happening organically as he continues to sell out arena shows across the globe. Russ is easily one of the most successful rappers out today but, for some reason, people still hate his guts. He doesn’t take it to heart though. Even though it’s “cool” to hate on him, Russ experiences some of the biggest sales numbers when compared to his peers. If you need some hard evidence on that, look no further than right here.

Russ recently shared last week’s final Billboard sales totals, which show his name on top of some other notable new releases. While his project was not streamed more often than Lil Wayne’s Funeral, which also debuted in the same week, Shake The Snow Globe sold more pure copies than anybody else. The body of work was packaged strategically with merch on his website but Russ’ fans made sure to go out and buy physical copies of the album as well, keeping him ahead of pop stars Kesha and Louis Tomlinson, and Detroit legend Eminem.

“Most albums sold this week, Best fans in the world,” celebrated Russ on Instagram, clearly impressed that he was able to pull off such a feat. Congratulations to him!

Commonly believed to be the greatest rapper alive, Lil Wayne is about to enjoy another successful album release with Funeral. At the end of last week, the rapper delivered his first non-Carter project in years, delivering the fun-filled Funeral, which contains a total of twenty-four songs. With features from Big Sean, Lil Baby, XXXTentacion, Adam Levine, and more, a tribute to the late Kobe Bryant, and plenty of love for his reported fiancée La’Tecia Thomas, Wayne’s world is about to be on top yet again as the body of work is projected to enjoy its first week at the pole position on the Billboard 200.

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Roddy Ricch just reclaimed the top spot on the chart, beating out Eminem’s Music To Be Murdered By and getting yet another gold medal for Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial. The way things are looking though, the Compton native is set to give up that spot for Lil Wayne this week, with Funeral expected to move up to 125K album units. In terms of debuts, Russ will be the runner-up in the battle with his new studio album netting approximately 75K units moved. Pop artists Kesha and Louis Tomlinson follow them up.

In comparison to Tha Carter V‘s first-week sales numbers, this is a massive decline for Lil Wayne. However, the novelty surrounding that project could be what boosted it to enjoy such a tremendous debut. Still, 125K is nothing to scoff at. Have you been messing with the new albums from Wayne and Russ?

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Roddy Ricch is having himself a moment in 2020. Starting off the new decade with a ferocious bang, the Compton rapper turned the world upside down by absolutely dominating the charts and causing pop stars to reconsider their promotional strategies. In order to even have a chance against Ricch, Justin Bieber needed to inform his fans on how to cheat the streaming algorithm. The following week, Selena Gomez begged her fans to buy out their local department stores to boost her numbers. While the latter's strategy actually worked, Ricch's album has proven to have more longevity, creeping back up to the top spot in next week's chart projections.

Kelis has come forward about some shady business practices performed by production duo Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, aka The Neptunes. When The Neptunes produced Kelis’ first two albums,Kaleidoscope and Wanderland, she was told that the three of them would split the profits evenly, but apparently, that never happened. Kelis claims that she never saw the money for her work, but instead was “blatantly lied to and tricked” by “the Neptunes and their management and their lawyers.” She initially didn’t notice the missing profits, though, because she had finally started to make money from touring and “just the fact that I wasn’t poor felt like enough,” she indicated. However, when she did eventually confront Pharrell and Chad, they blew it off as a non-issue.

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“Their argument is: ‘Well, you signed it,'” she explained, referring to her recording contract that she signed with them when she was 19 years old. “I’m like: ‘Yeah, I signed what I was told, and I was too young and too stupid to double-check it.’” Their ploy was especially hurtful, because Kelis, Pharrell, and Chad were all friends. This conflict lead Kelis to seek out other producers to work with instead, which The Neptunes were not pleased about. “I could tell they were really offended,” she said.

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They had somewhat of a falling out, but Kelis reveals that she has run into Pharrell since. He nodded to her from the stage at an industry event to make “it seem[] like there’s mutual respect,” a gesture she returned somewhat begrudgingly. “I’m like, OK, I’m not going to yell back: ‘You stole all my publishing!’ So you end up nodding back and everyone thinks everything’s great. Like, whatever.” Yikes. Kelis will be releasing the 20-year reissue of Kaleidoscope on February 21st.