How to lease: Drake Scores Year's Second-Biggest 'Billboard' Debut With 'Nothing Was The Same'

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Drake Scores Year's Second-Biggest 'Billboard' Debut With 'Nothing Was The Same'

'Nothing' moved 658,000 copies, putting it just behind Justin Timberlake.
By Gil Kaufman

Drake
Photo: Ethan Miller/ Getty Images

Forget starting from the bottom. Drake will most definitely start from the very top next week when his Nothing Was The Same  kills the game thanks to sales of 658,000 copies, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

As predicted, that not only landed him a third #1 debut in a row, but it also puts him behind the first part of Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience (968,000) for the second-best debut of 2013.

Best Week Ever
The solid open not only secured Drake a spot among the year's best, it also gave the OVO domo his biggest first week ever. Nothing blew by the chart debuts of 2010's Thank Me Later (447,000) and 2011's Take Care (631,000). It's also the biggest first week for a hip-hop release since Lil Wayne sold 964,000 copies of Tha Carter IV in September 2011.

With help from the top 10 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop singles "Started From the Bottom," (#2), "Hold On, We're Going Home" (#3) and latest track, "Wu-Tang Forever" (#13), Nothing takes its place alongside Adele, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga as one of the best-selling albums since 2010. According to Billboard, only seven releases have had bigger weeks since then, including Timberlake's 20/20, Swift's Red (1.2 million), Adele's 21 (730,000), Wayne's Carter and Lady Gaga's Born This Way (1.1 million), Swift's Speak Now (1 million) and Eminem's Recovery (741,000).

Mechanical Animals
Kings of Leon had a welcome return to the charts with Mechanical Bull , which hit #2 (110,000), matching the best debut of their career. Though it equaled the first week runner-up slot of 2010's Come Around Sundown, the new album, led by single "Supersoaker" , fell around 74,000 copies short of Sundown's opening frame.

Further down the list, Chvches debuted at #12 with The Bones of What You Believe (#12, 21,000) and Icona Pop hit #36 with their first release, This Is ... Icona Pop (12,000). Next week's chart should be totally dominated by the sex-aphor-heavy  second part of Timberlake's 20/20 Experience.

Lorde Have Mercy
New Zealand phenom Lorde kept her iron grip on #1 on the Billboard Digital Songs chart with "Royals" (294,000). Holding on just behind her were Katy Perry ("Roar," 239,000) and Miley Cyrus ("Wrecking Ball," 221,000), with Eminem moving up four spots to #5 with "Berzerk" (134,000). Drake made some noise on that chart as well with the highest top 10 debut of "All Me," (#9) which moved 101,000.

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