The mainstay of Chicago rap, Lil Durk returns to No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, with his latest LP, “7220,” surpassing new releases from Jack White and Fivio Foreign after debuting a month ago.
But the bigger achievement this week is arguably the staying power of Morgan Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album,” which is number 2 in its 66th week out.
Released in January 2021, “Dangerous” was #1 for its first 10 weeks and stayed in the Top 10 every week except one last December when it was pushed out by holiday albums. Incredibly, 49 out of 66 weeks were in the Top 5; quite a few were spent while Wallen was in some sort of purgatory — removed from many radio playlists, ignored by the Grammy Awards — after he was caught on video making a racist statement. He’s apologized (more than once), though Wallen’s fans never gave up on him, and he’s largely returned to the mainstream with a major tour.
For the last week, “Dangerous” had the equivalent of 46,500 sales in the United States, according to Luminate, the tracking service behind the Billboard charts. That means Wallen came in about 500 copies of recapture #1: Lil Durk’s “7220” was credited with 47,000. (Luminate’s publicly reported numbers have been rounded up.) Wallen may have even helped put him in second place, appearing in “Broadway Girls,” the most popular version of “7220.”
However, in a slow sales week, neither is totally impressive. The equivalent sales figure of 47,000 for “7220” – with 69 million streams and approximately 1,000 copies sold as a complete package – is the lowest for a number 1 album in more than three years since rapper A Boogie Wit’s “Hoodie SZN”. Da Hoodie reached the top for the third time in February 2019 with comparable figures.
Also this week, White’s “Fear of the Dawn” opens at number 4 with 42,000 equivalents, including 24,000 copies sold on vinyl.
The soundtrack of “Encanto” is number 3 and “Sour” by Olivia Rodrigo is number 5. Two hip-hop albums open in the bottom half of the Top 10: 42 Dugg and EST Gee’s “Last Ones Left” is number 7, and Fivio Foreign’s debut studio album, “BIBLE,” starts at number 9.
