Anderson .Paak & Cordae score their first No. 1 on Billboard's rap chart with “Heavy Is the Crown”
30,000 units in week one, a No. 11 Billboard 200 debut and a first Top Rap Albums No. 1 for both men.
The collab album paid off. Anderson .Paak and Cordae's Heavy Is the Crown, released October 23 through APESHIT, Mass Appeal and EMPIRE, debuts at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Rap Albums chart, according to Billboard's Tuesday chart report.
It earned 30,000 equivalent album units in the tracking week ending October 29: about 19,000 in sales and 11,000 from streaming. It's the first No. 1 on that chart for both artists. The album also opens at No. 2 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and No. 11 on the Billboard 200, while "Airbender" enters Hot Rap Songs at No. 21.
- Units (wk 1)
- 30,000
- Top Rap Albums
- No. 1
- R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
- No. 2
- Billboard 200
- No. 11
Notice the split. Most rap No. 1s right now are streaming monsters. This one leaned on people actually buying the record, which says a lot about the audience .Paak has built: grown, loyal, still paying for music.
A soul drummer and a lyricist from Maryland at the top of the rap chart. 2026 keeps getting more interesting.
