It's a crowded week for album debuts in the hip-hop world, with new LP's from Lil Uzi Vert, XXXTentacion, A$AP Mob and more becoming available for the general listening public. How those records will fare with fans and critics alike is still very much undecided, but some early sales projections, courtesy of HDD, is bringing the big picture into focus a little bit more.
Let's start with what was unquestionably the most anticipated of the big three releases from last week, Lil Uzi Vert's Luv is Rage 2. The follow-up to the mixtape that made his star rise considerably in rap circles, the long-awaited sequel dropped with almost no notice to fans. Generally speaking, it's looking like a good move at this point. The Philly native, who is signed to both DJ Drama’s Generation Now imprint and Atlantic Records, is expected to move in the neighborhood of 110,000-120,000 copies in the first week. The figure should be enough to land him the top spot on Billboard's album chart when it's all said and done. 25,000-28,000 are the projected pure sales numbers for the album.
Moving into more controversial territory, young rapper XXXtentacion also dropped a big project last week, titled 17. The Lauderhill, Florida, native stirred up some strong reaction online to a pre-release stunt that saw him share a fake video of his own hanging on Instagram. Whether its goal was publicity or not, it certainly seemed to have done the trick, boasting decent numbers while running on independent distribution from the Empire label. It's expected to move anywhere between 65,000-70,000 copies in its first week, with 15,000-18,000 of those being pure sales. For those who aren't necessarily feeling X's album, those numbers are bound to surprise. However, big names like Kendrick Lamar have shown support for the young emcee via Twitter, which surely hasn't hurt the album's prospects. 17 is currently sitting in the No. 1 spot on the iTunes overall album chart.
Finally, we have A$AP Mob, who will be sitting in third place with a total that should disappoint some industry personnel. Cozy Tapes Vol. 2: Too Cozy is projected to move only 30,000-35,000 copies, bringing in a paltry 7,000-9,000 in pure sales.
