Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, 1965@ in an effort by the magazine to further expand into the field of rhythm and blues music.[1] It then went through several name changes, being known as Soul LPs in the 1970s and Top Black Albums in the 1980s, before returning to the R&B identification in 1990 and affixing a hip hop designation in 1999 to reflect the latter's growing sales and relationship to R&B during the decade.
From 1965 through 2009, the chart was compiled based on reported sales at a core panel of stores with a "higher-than-average volume" of R&B and/or hip-hop album sales to monitor buying trends of the African-American community. This panel included more independent and smaller chain stores compared to the high percentage of mass merchants that account for overall album sales.[2] The core panel of stores continued to be monitored with the advent of SoundScan technology in the early 1990s but was dissolved at the end of 2009 when the methodology of the chart changed to "recap overall album sales of current R&B/hip-hop titles."[3]
Billboard's respective top R&B and rap albums charts, which respectively rank contemporary R&B and rap albums within their own charting positions are consolidated into the overall Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.[citation needed]
Chart name history
The chart debuted in 1965 as the Hot R&B LPs. In 1969, Billboard renamed both singles and albums contingents of the R&B charts as Soul charts. In 1978, they were renamed again as Hot Black Singles and Top Black Albums. In 1990, the charts returned to the R&B designation (Top R&B Albums, Hot R&B Singles). In 1999, Billboard renamed them again as Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks, in an effort to recognize the growing sales of hip hop music and the genre's influential relationship to contemporary R&B.[4]
Album achievements
Most weeks in top ten
| Weeks | Album | Artist | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 77 | Stoney | Post Malone | [5] |
| 76 | Thriller | Michael Jackson | [5] |
| 64 | Whitney Houston | Whitney Houston | [5] |
| 63 | The E.N.D. | The Black Eyed Peas | [5] |
| 59 | The Heist | Macklemore & Ryan Lewis | [5] |
| 58 | Recovery | Eminem | [5] |
| Can’t Slow Down | Lionel Richie | [5] | |
| 56 | Control | Janet Jackson | [5] |
| 55 | Rapture | Anita Baker | [5] |
| 54 | 24K Magic | Bruno Mars | [5] |
Most weeks on chart
| Weeks | Album | Artist | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 268 | Take Care | Drake | [6] |
| 185 | Breathless | Kenny G | [6] |
| 179 | 2014 Forest Hills Drive | J. Cole | [6] |
| 175 | Curtain Call: The Hits | Eminem | [6] |
| 156 | Views | Drake | [6] |
| 153 | Greatest Hits | 2Pac | [6] |
| 146 | good kid, m.A.A.d city | Kendrick Lamar | [6] |
| 145 | Beauty Behind The Madness | The Weeknd | [6] |
| 140 | The Eminem Show | Eminem | [6] |
| 140 | Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) | Wu-Tang Clan | [6] |
Top Rap Albums
Billboard began the Top Rap Albums chart on the weekend of June 26, 2004,[7] although its first publication on print commenced on the week of November 20, 2004.[8] Pop Smoke's posthumous debut, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon holds the record of most weeks at number one on the chart with twenty non-consecutive weeks.[9]
Albums with the most weeks at number one
| Weeks | Album | Artist | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon | Pop Smoke | [10][9] |
| 19 | Recovery | Eminem | [10] |
| 16 | Take Care | Drake | [11] |
| 14 | The Marshall Mathers LP 2 | Eminem | |
| 13 | Paper Trail | T.I. | |
| The Heist | Macklemore & Ryan Lewis | [12] | |
| 11 | Damn. | Kendrick Lamar | [13] |
| 10 | The Blueprint 3 | Jay-Z |
Artists with the most number-one albums
| No. of albums | Artist | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Drake | [14] |
| 10 | Kanye West | |
| 8 | The Game | [15] |
| 7 | Eminem | [16][17] |
| Jay-Z | [18] |
Top R&B Albums
Billboard introduced the Top R&B Albums chart in 2013 for R&B-specific albums, returning the use of the chart name for the first time since the original chart changed to its more encompassing title in 1999. The Weeknd's After Hours leads all acts with 40 weeks at number one on the chart.
Most weeks at number one
| Weeks | Album | Artist | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | After Hours | The Weeknd | |
| 33 | 24K Magic | Bruno Mars | |
| 26 | Planet Her | Doja Cat | |
| 19 | Lemonade | Beyoncé | |
| 18 | American Teen | Khalid | |
| 15 | 17 | XXXTentacion | |
| The Highlights | The Weeknd | ||
| 14 | Over It | Summer Walker | |
| Beauty Behind The Madness | The Weeknd | ||
| The 20/20 Experience | Justin Timberlake | ||
| 13 | Merry Christmas | Mariah Carey |
References
- ^ "Billboard's R&B Section". Billboard. Vol. 77, no. 5. January 30, 1965. p. 14. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
- ^ "New Store Panel Updates R&B Charts". Billboard. Vol. 116, no. 49. December 4, 2004. p. 16. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
- ^ Trust, Gary (November 17, 2009). "Billboard 200 Undergoes Makeover". Billboard. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
- ^ "Billboard R&B Charts Get Updated Names". Billboard. December 11, 1999. p. 8. Retrieved May 26, 2020 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Anderson, Trevor (September 8, 2018). "Post Malone's 'Stoney' Tops Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' for Most Weeks in Top 10 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart". Billboard. Retrieved September 8, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Anderson, Trevor (15 March 2019). "Drake's 'Take Care' Breaks Record for Most Weeks on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart". Billboard. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
- ^ "Top Rap Albums - Week of June 26, 2004". Billboard. 2013-01-02. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
- ^ Mayfield, Geoff (November 20, 2004). "Over the Counter". Billboard. Vol. 116, no. 47. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. p. 81.
- ^ a b Anderson, Trevor (2020-11-20). "Pop Smoke's 'Shoot for the Stars' Has Most Weeks at No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Since 2012". Billboard. Retrieved 2022-02-07.
- ^ a b "Pop Smoke's Debut Album Breaks Eminem's Record for Most Weeks at No. 1 on Top Rap Albums Billboard Chart". Complex. Retrieved 2022-02-07.
- ^ Pope, A. (2016). Musical artists capitalizing on hybrid identities: A case study of drake the “Authentic”“Black”“Canadian”“Rapper”. Stream: Culture/Politics/Technology, 9(1), 3.
- ^ "Pop Smoke beats Eminem for most weeks spent a #1 on the hip-hop chart". Tone Deaf. 2021-03-25. Retrieved 2022-02-07.
- ^ Bohnett, M. (2019). Centers and Peripheries in the Expression and Enactment of Religion, Sociopolitical Soundscapes, and the Reception of Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN.
- ^ "Drake Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
- ^ "The Game Claims Drake Is the Only Rapper With More No. 1 Albums Than Him". xxlmag. December 16, 2020. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Eminem Scores Historic 10th No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart With 'Music to Be Murdered By'". Billboard. 26 January 2020. Retrieved 2021-05-20.
- ^ "Eminem Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
- ^ "Jay-Z Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
- Whitburn, Joel (2000). Top R&B Albums: 1965-1998. Record Research. ISBN 978-0-89820-134-5