j-cole-billboard

J. Cole earns his fourth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with 4 Your Eyez Only. And yes, he did it without any features.

The North Carolina rapper’s latest album sold 492,000 equivalent album units (363,000 traditional) in its first week. This marks the third-biggest weekly sales sum for an album this year, behind Drake’s Views (1.04 million units, 852,000 traditional) and Beyoncé’s LEMONADE (653,000 units, 485,000 traditional). This was a more modest figure than the projected 550,000 sum.

As far as streaming is concerned, Eyez has the second-biggest streaming debut ever for an album with 118,000 streaming equivalent album units. That amounts to 51.7 million streams of 4 Your Eyez Only tracks. Drake’s Views is the only album to top this with 163,000 SEA units in its opening week, equating to 245.1 million streams of songs from the album.

With Eyez, J. Cole has had all four of his LPs reach the No. 1 spot, something only DMX and Drake have done before him. The 6 God has done this six times, while X had his first five albums reach the pinnacle position on the Billboard 200.

But it’s not just his fourth No. 1. It’s also his biggest opening week to date. In fact, all of J. Cole’s albums have had bigger first week sales than the previous LP. 2011’s Cole World: The Sideline Story sold 217,000 copies; 2013’s Born Sinner sold 297,000; 2014’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive sold 354,000. 4 Your Eyez Only bests all of that with 363,000.

Elsewhere on the chart, The Weeknd’s Starboy falls 2-3 with 109,000 units, Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic jumps 6-4 with 74,000 units, and Post Malone’s Stoney debuts at No. 6 with 58,000.

Hamilton also had a big week. The Broadway play’s musical album returned to the top 10 (11-7) with 48,000 units. However, The Hamilton Mixtape falls 1-14 in its second week with 36,000 units.

BILLBOARD 200 TOP 10

1. J. Cole – 4 Your Eyez Only – 363,000
2. Pentatonix – A Pentatonix Christmas – 156,000
3. The Weeknd – Starboy – 109,000
4. Bruno Mars – 24K Magic – 74,000
5. Pentatonix – That’s Christmas to Me – 65,000
6. Post Malone – Stoney – 58,000
7. Broadway Cast – Hamilton – 48,000
8. Various Artists – Moana Soundtrack – 48,000
9. Michael Bublé – Christmas – 43,000
10. The Rolling Stones – Blue & Lonesome – 43,000