Hip Hop Album Sales: Nicki Minaj, J. Cole & Iggy Azalea

by JAY BALFOUR

Nicki Minaj falls to #3, Rae Sremmurd debut at #5, and J. Cole holds onto his Top 10 spot.

After holding onto the #2 spot for three weeks in a row, Nicki Minaj's Pinkprint fell to #3 this past week in its fourth week on the chart. A couple spots below and following a pair of buzz-building singles in 2014,Rae Sremmurd make their first chart appearance at #5 with their debut SremmLife. Meanwhile, J. Coleremained steady a few spots down the list at #7 for the second week in a row. Cole's latest numbers bring his total album sales for 2014 Forest Hills Drive up to 658,254.

Iggy Azalea clung to a Top 20 spot with strong streaming numbers for another week in a row after returning to the chart's top half with Reclassified recently. Lower down the list, Taylor Gang's Berner cracked the Top 100 at #95 with 6,185 sales of his new 20 Lights project.

Nicki Minaj Falls To #3

Dropping another 29% from her previous week's numbers, Nicki Minaj sold 33,723 copies of The Pinkprint last week and brought her total albums sold count up to 388,200. The album's consistently strong streaming count topped the whole chart this week with just over 12 million plays.

Rae Sremmurd Debut At #5

After the success of their breakout singles "No Type" and "No Flex Zone" in 2014, Swae Lee and Slim Jimmy proved they could transfer the buzz to their album SremmLife and climbed all the way up to #5 with their first ever chart appearance. Selling 34,403 copies, Rae Sremmurd's debut benefited from more than four million album streams in its rise to the Top 10.

J. Cole Stays At #7

Five weeks into his current run on the chart, J. Cole's 2014 Forest Hills Drive has yet to slip below the Top 10 and came in at #7 this week with a total activity count of 45,111. Cole's latest 33,906 album sales add on to his total sold count and brings that number up to 658,254. A separate 52,373 song sales and just under 9 million streams helped the rapper's third album stay put at #7 for a second week in a row.

Iggy Azalea's Reclassified Falls To #18

Despite dropping two spots on the general list, Iggy Azalea again has the third highest Hip Hop album on the Billboard Top 200 thanks to a relatively high stream count and single song sales that help her Reclassified album up to a total activity number of 18,144. Azalea sold 3,133 albums last week but her stream count topped out at more than 4.8 million.

Top 10 Billboard Top 200 Hip Hop & R&B Albums For The Week Ending 01/11/2015

Note: The figures below represent this week’s “total activity,” an intersection of album sales, single sales, and streams. A pure album sales figure is available in bold in parenthesis and information about each album's streaming count is available in brackets.

#3. Nicki Minaj - Pinkprint - 59,573 (33,723) [12,165,982]

#5. Rae Sremmurd - SremmLife - 49,037 (34,403) [4,243,493]

#7. J. Cole - 2014 Forest Hills Drive - 45,111 (33,906) [8,953,013]

#18. Iggy Azalea - Reclassified - 18,144 (3,133) [4,800,157]

#28. Pitbull - Globalization - 13,626 (3,811) [2,796,822]

#31. Beyonce - Beyonce - 13,170 (5,076) [4,161,421]

#33. Fabolous - The Young OG Project - 12,806 (10,069) [819,053]

#34. D'Angelo & The Vanguard - Black Messiah - 12,546 (11,135) [1,449,108]

#36. Empire Cast - Empire: Music From The Pilot - 11,964 (6,978) [88,065]

#40. Eminem - Curtain Call - 10,489 (4,159) [2,963,468]

Last Week's Sales