There hasn’t been a compilation album atop the Billboard 200 albums chart since Kanye West and G.O.O.D. Music achieved the feat with 2012’s Cruel Summer. The Hamilton Mixtape became the first compilation to land the top spot with 187,000 sold last week (of that sum, 169,000 were in traditional album sales), according to Billboard. The mixtape, which was inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s headline-grabbing musical, beat out The Weeknd’s Starboy and Childish Gambino’s Awaken, My Love! for the top spot.
Miranda reacted to the news via Twitter with a trio of emoji’s, and on a more serious note, thanked his co-contributors for their “amazing work.” Nas, The Roots, Wiz Khalifa, and Alicia Keys and other notable artists all lent their talent to the project.
Hamilton has been an unquestionable commercial and critical hit. The stage show has won 11 Tony awards, and the Broadway iteration is sold out until July of 2017. Apparently the success of Hamilton has impacted other musical components of the show as well.
“The original Broadway cast recording of Hamilton peaked at No. 3 on the July 2-dated chart, and has spent 63 weeks (and counting) on the tally,” noted Keith Caulfield of Billboard. “On the latest chart, it moves 10-11 with 45,000 units (though it is up 33 percent).”
A minor stir was caused when crowd members booed as the cast of Hamiltondirectly addressed vice president-elect Mike Pence during his attendance at showing in November. President-elect Donald Trump scolded the cast via Twitter, and Pence later said he was not offended. Trump supporters later called for a Hamilton boycott, but the numbers indicate such a proposed boycott has had little if any impact.
