It appears Lil Baby will lock down another No. 1 album.
According to projections shared by Hits Daily Double, the 27-year-old rapper is expected to top the Billboard 200 with It’s Only Me. The project, which arrived Friday, is expected to move 185,000 to 210,000 units its first week, which would mark the seventh- or eighth-biggest debut of 2022, so far.
It’s Only Me will also become his third project to top the chart, following 2020’s My Turn and last year’s The Voice of the Heroes with Lil Durk; the former earned 197,000 album-equivalent units in its first seven days, and the latter moved 185,000. For comparison, his debut album—2018’s Harder Than Ever—debuted at No. 3 with 71,000 units.
It’s Only Me spanned 23 tracks, including the singles “Heyy” and “In a Minute.” It included production by Murda Beatz, Wheezy, and Tay Keith, and boasted guest appearances by Young Thug (“Never Hating”), Future (“From Now On”), Pooh Shiesty (“Sheist Talk”), and more. Lil Baby spoke about the effort with the Associated Press, explaining his decision to deliver a project with nearly two dozen cuts, rather than split the tracks up with different releases.
“I could’ve put 15 songs out and just added seven more songs then put out another album,” he acknowledged. “I could put out two albums in no time. But I haven’t put nothing out in two years. It’s almost really going on three (years). … I’m not going to drop a deluxe.”
