Lil Baby Overtakes 21 Savage For The Highest-Charting Rap Album On Apple Music

BY Zachary Horvath 411 Views
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Dec 8, 2023; Miami, Florida, USA; American rapper Lil Baby walks court-side during the second half between the Miami Heat and the Cleveland Cavaliers at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports via Imagn Images
Lil Baby and 21 Savage both ended 2025 on a high note with their new albums, but the former as a little bit of a leg up to start 2026.

Lil Baby and 21 Savage have been steady presences in the Atlanta scene for nearly a decade. Both have stellar trap records under their belts such as My Turn and i am > than i was. Moreover, they have the hits on hits that have essentially defined mainstream rap in the 2010s.

With that said, it's not earth-shattering that they are still competing for top spots on streaming charts even to this day. To close out 2025 Lil Baby and 21 Savage were neck and neck over on the top rap album list on Apple Music.

Baby has been fighting for number one with The Leak$, which landed on December 3. As for 21, he surprised his fans and the rap community at large with What Happened To The Streets. His 14-song effort released just about a week later on December 12.

But while these two are good friends, only one person can hold the gold medal, so to speak. For the last few weeks, the "MR RECOUP" MC has been sitting atop the chart in the US. But that all changed early today thanks to an update from Hip Hop All Day.

They reported this morning (Jan. 2) that WHAM has taken back that honor.

Lil Baby The Leak$ First-Week Sales

Fans have argued that The Leak$ is a stronger body of work than his previous 2025 release, WHAM. Based on this latest achievement, they may have a point. Sales were down compared to its predecessor, though. The Leak$ moved around 34,000 units, cracking the top 17 on the Hot 200.

Compared to WHAM, that's nowhere near as impactful. That went number one and sold well over 100,000 copies. But to The Leak$ credit, that was a mixtape and it was Baby's second release in 12 months.

While fresher, it's clearly been performing better on streaming, with fans finding more consistency throughout the relatively concise tracklist.

All in all, it's an impressive feat from the "Let's Do It" MC as 21 is still selling over 20,000 copies of WHTTS? per HITS DAILY DOUBLE. To be exact it sold over 25K, good enough to be at 32 on the Hot 200 for the week of Dec. 26.

About The Author
Zachary Horvath is one of the Music Freelance News Writers at HotNewHipHop and has held that title since August 2023. Prior to this position, he held another freelance gig covering local high school football, girls and boys varsity basketball, in addition to recapping Cleveland Cavaliers games remotely. He's taken the previous experience and used it to become a jack of all trades at HotNewHipHop. Zach has thoroughly enjoyed tackling some of the trending topics in sports, with a larger focus on hip-hop and pop culture. Some of those include Bronny James's draft stock, a multitude of angles swirling around the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef, as well as Diddy's arrest and lawsuits. Separate from the headlines that everyone wants to hear about, he was fortunate enough to help spread Zaytoven's current thoughts at the time around mid-December in 2023. Even though being able to give his expertise on these stories is fulfilling, being able to share his passion for releases trumps that ever so slightly. Having the chance to express his excitement indirectly about what he thinks our readers should be checking out/revisiting grows his passion for writing that much more.

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