Playboi Carti’s new album, Whole Lotta Red, debut at the top of the chart.
Playboi Carti has defied critics of his latest work, Whole Lotta Red, and scored his first No. 1 Billboard 200 album. Billboard revealed that the rapper’s highly-anticipated album soared to the top of the charts as it sold more than 100,000 total album-equivalent units in its opening week.
Most of the album’s sales came from streaming. It earned an impressive 90,000 streaming equivalent album units, which were mostly due to 126 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs. Playboi Carti can claim another accolade because his album was released on Christmas Day, and he now officially holds the title of being the first artist to have a No. 1 album in 2021.
Billboard made the announcement via Twitter. They posted, “Billboard 200: #1(new)
@playboicarti, Whole Lotta Red 100,000 [126.43 million streams].”
Billboard 200: #1(new) @playboicarti, Whole Lotta Red 100,000 [126.43 million streams].
— chart data (@chartdata) January 3, 2021
Many of the early projections for “Whole Lotta Red” indicated that it would debut at No. 1 even though many fans seemed to be at odds with the prediction. Carti bested his last Billboard showing, which was in 2018. His platinum-selling “Die Lit” came in at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart then. That project sold 61,000 equivalent album units in its first week. In 2017 he got to No. 12 on the chart with his self-titled debut mixtape.
As has become the norm with Playboi Carti, there were several controversial issues surrounding the release of his latest work. While fans practically begged for the album’s release, ardent supporter Mario Judah released his own version of “Whole Lotta Red.” Then just after the release of the official version, Carti’s ex and his child’s mother, Iggy Azalea, took to social media to blast the Atlanta rapper for not being there for his child. Carti responded to the claims by posting photos of himself and his son in the studio together on social media last Sunday, December 27.
