Given all that has happened in the last couple of weeks, there haven't been too many high-profile album releases. Labels and artists have pushed back their scheduled singles and projects out of respect as there is something much more important happening in America. With the lack of new music being uploaded to streaming services, rap fans have been listening to their favorite albums from 2020 and, as a direct result, it looks like Lil Baby might end up at the #1 spot next week.

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According to the most recent chart projections, Lil Baby is set to reclaim his spot at the #1 placement on the Billboard 200. Moving approximately 60,000 equivalent album units of My Turn in the last seven days, the Atlanta rapper seems poised to get back on top, upstaging Lady Gaga and her latest release. He's currently got some close competition but he's inching out the second position ever-so-slightly.

Lady Gaga just dropped her new album Chromatica, which is battling Lil Baby's My Turn for the top spot. As it stands, she will remain strong at #2 with approximately 55,000 equivalent album units moved.

It looks like Lil Baby released an album that will stand the test of time. Is My Turn one of your favorite projects of the year?

Kendrick Lamar hasn't released a new album since 2017's DAMN, but there's something he has that many of his peers lack -- longevity. When K Dot drops an album, said album can sustain its presence for years on end; such is the benefit of writing songs packed with meaning, a testament to his Pulitizer Prize-winning pen-game. Now, with the world standing up against police brutality and systemic racism following the death of George Floyd, many have once again turned to the wisdom of Kendrick Lamar for inspiration.

While it goes without saying that To Pimp A Butterfly is an appropriate protest record, so much so that it recently re-entered the Apple Music Charts, Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid, maad City and DAMN have also seen renewed signs of life. As of last week, both of those projects re-entered the Billboard Top 200, with Good Kid climbing to 97 and DAMN sitting pretty at 106. 

According to Chartdata, To Pimp A Butterfly has also experienced a massive boost in numbers, with Chartdata pointing to a one-hundred-and-twenty percent increase in sales -- look for that to appear in the updated Top 200, unsurprising given that songs like "Alright" and "The Blacker The Berry" have regained life as protest anthems. Clearly, the world is hungry for some new music from Kendrick Lamar, and given everything that has transpired in the world since his last release, we can only assume that he's about to come out swinging.

Have you been revisiting some K Dot classics?

Lady Gaga has a clear path to debut at the top spot on next week’s Billboard 200. 

The pop superstar has been leading the field in terms of first-week sales projections and, in a batch of updated figures, it looks like she’s still charging forward as the leader of the pack. With a total of approximately 285,000 equivalent album units moved, she’s looking guaranteed for an easy route to the #1 spot. On top of all that, the majority of her numbers account for pure album sales.

As for hip-hop, we’re still represented well in the top-moving albums of the week. Several of the genre’s most popular characters, including Lil Baby, Future, Lil Uzi Vert, Gunna, Post Malone, Drake, and DaBaby, are within or just outside of the Top 10 for this week’s biggest albums.

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Lil Yachty and Freddie Gibbs (with The Alchemist) came through with some booming new albums this week too, but neither of which is expected to debut within the Top 10 of the Billboard 200. 

Lil Yachty’s Lil Boat 3 is currently anticipated to move up to 37,000 equivalent album units, making it good for a debut around #12. 

Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist are two spots down at #14, looking at up to 32,000 equivalent album units with the majority of them accounting for pure sales.

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Are you surprised by any of these numbers?

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In 2015, Kendrick Lamar dropped off his third solo album, and second on a major label, To Pimp A Butterfly. Immediately hailed as a modern classic, the project was praised for its themes of racial identity and sociopolitical equality; songs like “Alright,” “Institutionalized,” “Complexion,” and the masterful “Blacker The Berry” continue to resonate to this day, perhaps now more than ever.

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Clearly, there are many who feel like revisiting the project amidst the George Floyd protests — so much so that the five-year-old album has once again entered the Top 100 charts on Apple Music. As of this moment, the album has managed to climb to the 76th spot on the U.S. Top 100, clocking in at 44th in the overall hip-hop charts — just behind Joyner Lucas‘ ADHD. Pretty impressive considering the album has been 

The return to the charts is a testament to Kendrick’s impact as a songwriter, one capable of shifting an entire zeitgeist. Though fans have been eagerly awaiting his triumphant return, the recent protests have once again breathed new life into the album — and should the revolution continue, it’s likely that To Pimp A Butterfly is only going to continue thriving. Have you been putting To Pimp A Butterfly back into rotation? 

Future‘s position as one of the game’s commercial heavyweights has yet to be tested. In some ways it feels like the abundance of baby mama drama that so frequently plagues him actually serves to enhance his musical image, providing him with further fuel for his lyrical content. Like a snake eating its own tail, ouroboros. It’s been a formula that’s served him well throughout the years, with a collection of number one albums to prove it. A collection that has officially come to include his latest, High Off Life.

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Clocking in with an impressive sum of 153,000 first week total streams, with 16,000 in traditional sales, Future took a moment to reflect on his latest accomplishment. As per usual, he remains a man of few words. “7 number 1 albums. Lucky Me,” he reflects, looking like a Winter Anniversary event unlockable skin. It’s actually a humble approach for Future, chalking his success up to luck rather than skill. But let’s be honest, he’s never been one to shy away from some self-love.

While it’s clear the people appreciated High Off Life, it’s hard to say if it stands alongside his best studio work — which is to say, DS2, Future, HNDRXX, and The WIZRD. Still, the man knows what he’s doing, and those of us who have enjoyed the journey thus far can still find enjoyment in Future’s musings. Congratulations to the Atlanta rapper for another win in the column. Are you still enjoying High Off Life?

Tekashi 6ix9ine had the whole music industry upset over the last couple of days thanks to his countless rants about Billboard and how artists were supposedly manipulating their numbers so they could get better placements on the charts. 6ix9ine singled out Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber specifically as their collaborative track "Stuck With U" was starting to catch momentum at the right time.

After achieving her number one record, Grande took to Instagram where she addressed the manipulation accusations and also sent some subliminal shade at 6ix9ine, telling him and artists like him to stay humble. Recently, 6ix9ine hopped on Instagram to clap back at Grande, noting that she doesn't understand his struggle.

Per 6ix9ine:

"@arianagrande All I’m saying is I worked super hard to make it out of Brooklyn NY. I speak for the millions of kids who aren’t as fortunate as you. The millions who weren’t fortunate to be on T.V.. LIFE is REAL when you’re on welfare LIFE is REAL when you grow up with out a father. You don’t know what that is like. You say for me to be humble .... I don’t think you know what humble is.......... YOU ARE VERY TALENTED AND BEAUTIFUL GOD BLESS YOU. But you will NEVER UNDERSTAND MY PAIN ?"

Tekashi 6ix9ine has been taking swipes at pretty well everyone as of late and the entire hip-hop world is watching with a rightfully judgmental eye. At this point, it feels as though no one is off-limits for 6ix9ine, even the popstars. For instance, 6ix9ine recently released a brand new single called “GOOBA” and his main goal was to get the song to number one on the Billboard charts. Throughout the last week, Tekashi has been keeping fans up to date on his progress and at one point, he took some shots at Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber as he claimed that they were manipulating the charts.

In fact, 6ix9ine was back to his old tricks today, as he had even more harsh words for Billboard. None of his tactics worked, as eventually, the song landed at number 3 and Grand and Bieber took the top spot with “Stuck With U.” Following her big win, Grande took to Instagram with what could only be described as subliminal shots for 6ix9ine.

Per Grande:

“I would like to address a few things which i don’t usually do (i don’t give my energy to drama or strange accusations normally but this has gone a little too far)…my fans bought the song. JUSTIN’S fans bought the song. OUR fans bought this song (never more than four copies each, AS THE RULES STATE). they are ride or die motherfuckers and i thank god every day that i have them in my life. not just when they fight for us to win (even when i ask them not to as i did this week) but because they’re some of the greatest people i know. sales count for more than streams. u can not discredit this as hard as u try. to anybody that is displeased with their placement on the chart this week or who is spending their time racking their brain thinking of as many ways as they can to discredit hardworking women (and only the women for some reason…..), i ask u to take a moment to humble yourself.”

Considering Tekashi was the only one talking about his numbers this week, it’s pretty clear that Grande was talking about him. Not to mention, 6ix9ine had also mentioned the likes of Doja Cat and Nicki Minaj, which just furthers Grande’s claims that the person in question only had something to say about women.

At this point, it really feels like Tekashi has upset the entire music industry, and not just hip-hop.

Tekashi 6ix9ine hasn’t stopped yelling since his release. When he speaks, there’s an intensity to his cadence that suggests a perpetually frantic state — one that has yet to fade, even after Judge Englemeyer strongly advised the young rapper to cool his jets and think before speaking. Yet since his release, 6ix9ine has already engaged in a variety of wars, including an increasingly tense feud with Billboard over their charting practices. 

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By now, it’s no secret that he’s been voicing his concerns about Billboard, including a recent rant that pointed to Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber‘s teams purchasing streams on six different credit cards. As he tells it, there’s something afoot — and lord knows, he’s become quite the elaborate sleuth since his big return. Unfortunately for him and his “GOOBA” aspirations, Billboard appeared ready with the counterstrike — as of now, 6ix9ine’s chart history has been conveniently removed from the Billboard archives. 

In response, 6ix9ine continues to break his self-avowed week-long social media break to intensify the battle. Taking to his Instagram story, the rapper tagged Billboard and invoked the words of both Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj to further his point. “YOU CHEATED,” he writes. “Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj were right, people buy their number ones. Nothing is real. You guys are frauds.” Who’d have thought this man would be so passionate about his chart placement? One has to wonder how Jay-Z and Nicki feel about being pulled, albeit very tenuously, into this madness…

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Fat Joe joined R&B legend Ashanti on Instagram Live, Saturday, and revealed that Irv Gotti and Ja Rule originally wanted to swap out Ashanti for Jennifer Lopez, because they wanted “the Latinos on this.”

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“Irv and Ja had called me, and they woke me up [at] like 3 in the morning, and they say, ‘Yo, come down, we made a song for you,” he recalls. “I go to the studio, it was like 4 in the morning. They played ‘What’s Luv?’ and you on it. And they was telling me, ‘Yo, this is for you and J. Lo. We want the Latinos on this.”

Joe says he was taken away by Ashanti’s vocals and said she deserved to be there: “I was like, yo, J. Lo? She [Ashanti] sound amazing on here. I was like, ‘Nah, we leaving her there.'”

The story was news to Ashanti as much as it was news to any of the listeners. She reacted with an emphatic “What?,” after Joe finished.

“What’s Luv?,” featuring Ashanti’s vocals, went to peak at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and remained on the charts for 20 weeks. It remains one of the most popular tracks on both artist’s discographies.

[Via]

Tekashi 6ix9ine was in disbelief after Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber's "Stuck With U" jumped ahead of his song, "Gooba," in a forecast of next week's Hot 100 chart, so he decided to send a public message to Billboard. “Imma make this real quick, ‘cause I’ll be real disappointed if Billboard gets paid for No. 1s [and] somehow manipulate the charts," he declared in an Instagram video. “I want the whole world to see this, because what I’m about to show you is a forecast of what every label in the world gets: Atlantic, Interscope, Republic, Columbia, Sony, Universal Music, every label gets this." 

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@billboard explain this to the millions of artist who never got #1 because you guys play favorites.

A post shared by IM BACK AND THEY MAD (@6ix9ine) on May 15, 2020 at 11:38am PDT

He proceeds to show said forecast that his label received on Thursday (May 15th), which shows Doja Cat and Nicki Minaj remaining at No. 1 with “Say So (Remix),” while “GOOBA” sits at No. 2. Below them are The Weeknd’s "Blinding Lights" (No. 3), Megan Thee Stallion and Beyoncé’s “Savage (Remix)” (No. 4), and Ari and Justin at No. 5. However, he indicates that “Stuck With U” submitted 60,000 units "out of nowhere” at the “last second” on Thursday night, which he claims is “completely illegal.” Now, a new forecast reads that “Stuck With U” has reached No. 1, “GOOBA” remains at No. 2, and “Say So (Remix)” is now at No. 3.

MICHAEL CAMPANELLA/Redferns/Getty Images

“They went from being fifth place to first place out of nowhere,” he says about Ari and Justin. The kicker for him, though, is that Billboard was promoting a signed CD bundle for Ari and Justin, which he believes helped to "manipulate the charts" and get "Stuck With U" to No. 1.