The Chicago rap mainstay Lil Durk returns to No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, with his latest LP, “7220,” beating out new releases by Jack White and Fivio Foreign after its debut a month ago.
But the greater accomplishment this week may be the continued staying power of Morgan Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album,” which is No. 2 in its 66th week out.
Released in January 2021, “Dangerous” held the No. 1 spot for its first 10 weeks, and has remained in the Top 10 every week but one, last December, when it was pushed out by holiday albums. Incredibly, 49 of its 66 weeks have been in the Top 5; quite a few of those were spent while Wallen was in a form of industry purgatory — removed from many radio playlists, ignored by the Grammy Awards — after he was caught on video using a racial slur. He apologized (more than once), though Wallen’s fans never gave up on him, and he has largely returned to the mainstream with a major tour.
For its latest 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 within about 500 copies of retaking No. 1: Lil Durk’s “7220” was credited with 47,000. (Luminate’s publicly reported numbers are rounded.) Wallen may even have contributed to holding himself at second place: he is featured on “Broadway Girls,” the most popular cut on “7220.”
In a slow sales week, however, neither total is impressive. The 47,000 equivalent sales figure for “7220” — which incorporates its 69 million streams and about 1,000 copies sold as a complete package — is the lowest for a No. 1 album in more than three years, since “Hoodie SZN” by the rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie notched its third time at the top in February 2019 with similar numbers.
Also this week, White’s “Fear of the Dawn” opens at No. 4 with 42,000 equivalents, including 24,000 copies sold on vinyl.
The “Encanto” soundtrack is No. 3 and Olivia Rodrigo’s “Sour” is No. 5. Two hip-hop albums open in the lower half of the Top 10: 42 Dugg and EST Gee’s “Last Ones Left” is No. 7, and Fivio Foreign’s debut studio album, “B.I.B.L.E.,” starts at No. 9.
