Dancehall

Spice & Vybz Kartel Debut In Top 10 On Billboard, Shows Strong First Week Sales

Spice and Vybz Kartel debut in the top ten of the Billboard Reggae Album Chart this week.

Dubbed as “The King” and “Queen” of Dancehall, Spice and Vybz Kartel are known for their immaculate talents they’ve portrayed throughout their careers. Whether it’s singing, songwriting, or even stage performance, this is the level of artistry that has allowed them to rack up quite a list of impressive numbers over the years. Spice’s “10” and Vybz Kartel’s Born Fi Dis are just another confirmation of how good the artists are at producing good projects.

Since its release, Spice’s album, 10 has garnered great attention, even acquiring numerous first place chartings and multiple trending positions on YouTube with songs like “Frenz” and “Go Down Deh” and “Send it Up,” respectively.

Born Fi Dis, debuts on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart latching on to the ninth spot, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

The “Coloring This Life” singer took to his Instagram page to relay his feelings, “NO major Label. NO promo. NO video. NO interview. NO gift Card. NO freedom,” he captioned the post.

Vybz Kartel Born Fi Dis cover

“YES #GAZANATION,” he continued, adding a world emoji, along with a grey heart and a peace symbol beside it. “…. not bad… #BornFiDisPrelude OUT NOW! KEEP STREAMING!!!”

The post shared an image of an article regarding the album stats.

Vybz Kartel’s album “Born Fi Dis” opened at No. 9 on the Billboard Reggae Album chart. The number one spot still belongs to Bob Marley, who is spending his 84th week on top with Legend: The Best of Bob Marley and the Wailer’s A Greatest Hits Collection, first released in May 1984 by Island Records.

“Born Fi Dis” has sold 605 in pure album sales with an equivalent of 1,290 total units of consumption from sales and streaming in the United States from its first week of release. According to data from MRC, the 12 track album had 812,638 audio streams and 182,880 video streams in the US during its first week.

Born Fi Dis is Vybz Kartel’s eighth entry on the chart Billboard Reggae Chart. In descending order, they are; Kartel Forever: Trilogy (2013), which climaxed to No. 11, Reggae Love Songs & Other Things (2014), and Kingston Story (2011), which snatched No. 7, Of Dons & Divas (2020), and Vybz Kartel Roots & Culture (2013) which elevated to No. 6, Viking (Vybz Is King) (2015) which made it to No. 3 and lastly, King Of The Dancehall (2016) which peaked at No. 2.

Conversely, 10 has a total of 1,447 units of consumption. The 15-track album’s total first-week consumption included 676 in pure album sales. It was released by VP Records, opened at No. 6 on the sales and streaming-driven Billboard Reggae Albums chart.

Spice TEN cover

According to data by Billboard’s sales tracker MRC Data, 10 had the equivalent of 1,447 total units of consumption from sales and streaming in the United States in its first week of release, including 851,299 audio streams and 210,005 video streams.

10 has allowed Spice to obtain #1 on both the Apple Music reggae chart and the iTunes reggae charts. It also enabled Spice to have her third entry on the chart following her first full-length project, a mixtape titled “Captured (2018)” which aided in her receiving that No. 1 position on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart and her So Mi Like EP (2014) which made it to No. 14.