Here Are First-Week Sales Projections for Meek Mill, Lil Wayne and Rich the Kid’s Albums

Meek Mill’s Expensive Pain album is on track for a respectable debut.

According to sales projections published by HitsDailyDouble, the rapper’s fifth studio album is expected to move 85,000 to 95,000 units in its first week; 1,000 to 3,000 of which will come from traditional sales. For comparison, Meek’s previous album, 2018’s Championships, debuted atop the Billboard 200 with 229,000 units.

As pointed out by HDD, Meek may have a hard time securing another No. 1 debut, as he faces still competition from Drake’s record-breaking Certified Lover Boy, YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s Sincerely, Kentrell, and Taylor Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version). The latter is expected to receive a huge boost from physical copies that were sent out this week.

Expensive Pain delivered 18 tracks and boasted guest appearances by Lil Uzi Vert, Young Thug, Lil Baby, ASAP Ferg, and more. Meek spoke about the effort during an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, describing it as “one of [his] favorite albums.”

“I actually said expensive pain on a song with Uzi when we was in a booth rapping. I said, ‘You ain’t rich, your stash can’t pay my drug bill,’” he explained. “Basically we smoke a lot of weed and stuff like that, and I was playing it for Brent Faiyaz one day in the studio, he heard me say that, he was like, ‘That bar hot.’ He was like, ‘That’s a fire word, expensive pain.’ He was like, ‘That should be an album title.’ And I start thinking about it and then I stuck with it.”