Hip-Hop First-Week Sales 2025: Top Albums
- Following a robust 2024, hip-hop continues to demonstrate its commercial strength in 2025.
- Lil Baby kicked off the year with WHAM,his first album in nearly three years,released in January.
- The highly publicized and often contentious rivalry between Drake and Kendrick Lamar has captivated audiences and translated into significant album sales.
Hip-Hop’s Chart Domination Continues in 2025: Sales figures and Key Players
Table of Contents
Published August 17, 2025
A Strong Start to the Year
Following a robust 2024, hip-hop continues to demonstrate its commercial strength in 2025. Several top artists have led the charge,delivering impressive first-week sales numbers and solidifying their positions at the forefront of the genre.
Lil Baby kicked off the year with WHAM,his first album in nearly three years,released in January. The 15-track project moved 140,000 equivalent album units in its debut week, marking his fourth consecutive album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. Notably, the track “Dum, Dumb and Dumber” features a first publicly released verse from Young Thug as his release from jail, alongside Future here.
The Drake and Kendrick Saga Drives Numbers
The highly publicized and often contentious rivalry between Drake and Kendrick Lamar has captivated audiences and translated into significant album sales. Both artists have maintained top positions in the charts throughout 2025, even extending their conflict to the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show.
Drake, collaborating with PartyNextDoor on $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, achieved an impressive 246,000 units sold in its first week in February. Kendrick Lamar’s GNX proved equally accomplished, returning to the no. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart twice this year and outselling Drake’s collaborative album by a mere 500 units in March.
Playboi Carti’s Highly anticipated Release
After a 1,067-day wait, Playboi Carti finally released Music on March 14th. The album resonated deeply with his dedicated fanbase, achieving the highest streaming debut of any album in 2025 with 298,000 units moved in its first seven days here.
Other Notable Sales Performances
Beyond these headline-grabbing releases, several other artists have contributed to hip-hop’s strong sales performance in 2025. Impressive numbers were also reported for projects from Travis Scott and Jackboys, Clip, Lil Wayne, the estate of Mac Miller, Opium artist Ken Carson, Lil Durk (despite his current incarceration), and The Weeknd.
| Artist | Album | first Week Sales (Units) |
|---|---|---|
| playboi Carti | Music | 298,000 |
| Kendrick Lamar | GNX | ~246,500 |
| Drake & partynextdoor | $ome $exy $ongs 4 U | 246,000 |
| Lil Baby | WHAM | 140,000 |