[lastfm]Drake[/lastfm]’s first full-length album, Thank Me Later, entered the charts at #1, with first-week sales of 447,000. This constitutes one of the biggest openings ever for the debut album by a rap artist. It’s bigger than [lastfm]Eminem[/lastfm]’s first week with The Slim Shady LP in February 1999 (283,000). It’s even bigger than [lastfm]Kanye West[/lastfm]’s first week with The College Dropout in February 2004 (441,000). And today’s sales climate is less favorable now than it was back then (to put it mildly).
Only three debut albums by rap artists have had had bigger first weeks than Thank Me Later just achieved. 50 Cent’s Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ sold 872,000 copies in its first week in February 2003. Snoop Doggy Dogg’s Doggystyle sold 803,000 copies in its first week in November 1993. Puff Daddy & the Family’s No Way Out sold 561,000 copies its first week in July 1997.
Drake has 13 songs on this week’s Hot Digital Songs chart. That’s more than Justin Bieber and the cast of Glee combined.
