Playboi Carti’s latest album Whole Lotta Red is Billboard 200's first No. 1 album of 2021—and also the rapper’s first-ever No. 1.
Billboard reports Whole Lotta Red moved 100,000 equivalent album units in its first week, with 10,000 from album sales and 90,000 from streaming, which comes out to 126.43 million on-demand streams. The album performed below HitsDailyDouble projections, which were 125,000-135,000 on Dec. 26. Carti expressed his appreciation for his fans after it became official that Red snagged the top spot.
Whole Lotta Red was the follow-up to Carti’s 2018 debut studio album Die Lit with the new offering boasting features from Kanye West, Kid Cudi, and Future, and production from Pi'erre Bourne.
Carti was able to dethrone Taylor Swift, who held down the No. 1 spot in back-to-back weeks with Evermore. While Swift was able to finish second, she was nearly bumped to third, thanks to a surge up the Billboard 200 chart by Lil Durk's The Voice, soaring from No. 46 to No. 3. The leap was due to the Dec. 24 release date of The Voice, which amassed 23,000 units in the only day of activity that Billboard could count towards the week.
Lil Durk earned his third top 10 finish, but his latest project fell just short of matching his best Billboard 200 outcome. That honor still belongs to Just Cause Y’all Waited 2, which peaked at No. 2.
