Month: September 2021

Kanye West may be a divisive artist, but it would appear that at least some of his more vocal critics are still tuning in regardless. Such tends to be the case when an artist reaches a certain level of notoriety, and with nine consecutive number albums to his name, it’s safe to say that Kanye West has reached that particular zenith.

At the end of August, Yeezy delivered his tenth studio album DONDA on a Sunday morning. While thematically appropriate to be sure, the unconventional release date prevented Kanye from benefitting from a full first week of sales. Still, the spiritually-charged album was a commercial juggernaut regardless, officially moving 309,000 album-equivalent units on the U.S charts and securing himself the biggest album debut of the year. 

Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images 

Now, another week has passed, and Akademiks has provided an update on Kanye West’s DONDA momentum. This time, in lieu of an abridged period, we’re looking at the first full week of DONDA’s life cycle. Though its momentum has faded slightly, as expected, Kanye still turned in an impressive haul of 130k album-equivalent units. As Ak notes, that would bring his total twelve-day tally to 439k album-equivalent units.

It should be interesting to see if DONDA can retain its momentum; though the album has seen a fair amount of acclaim from both fans and critics alike, replay value takes time to reveal itself. It’s likely that the arrival of an official single — confirmed to be “Hurricane” with The Weeknd and Lil Baby — will help in that regard.

Be sure to keep an eye on the charts for further updates, especially if you’re invested in the ongoing rivalry between Kanye and Drake, both of whom appear to see the sales numbers are another means of oneupsmanship.

Are you still keeping DONDA on rotation? 

Music fans have been fixated on two high-profile releases over the last couple of weeks: Kanye West’s DONDA and Drake’s Certified Lover Boy. The two new albums have been in heavy rotation ever since they were released, and listeners have been wondering which artist will come out on top, as far as streaming is concerned. 

Many have theorized that because of Drake’s worldwide pull, he would have an easy time beating Kanye in the first-week sales department, and they were apparently correct because, according to Rolling Stone’s metrics, Certified Lover Boy surpassed DONDA‘s eight-day streaming totals in only three days.

Karwai Tang/Getty Images

Between Friday and Sunday, CLB saw 430 million on-demand audio streams in the United States, whereas DONDA had under 423 million streams in its first eight days. 

Despite Drake seemingly taking the upper hand in streaming, Kanye’s album appears to have been the more well-received project, with social media raving over DONDA. Kanye also broke multiple records with his performance on the album.

Two of the songs from DONDA, “Hurricane” and “Off The Grid,” debuted within the Billboard Hot 100’s Top 10 this week, and “Hurricane” has officially been chosen as the first single from the album, so it’s possible that radio play might push Kanye over the edge in the long-run.

Recently, there were text messages that surfaced between Kanye and his alleged engineer, which show that Ye fired him ruthlessly after oversleeping through his alarm and missing a session. Read about that here.

Which also is better for you? DONDA or CLB?

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Nicki Minaj has one of the most iconic voices in music. She’s one of the most popular artists in the world and, with a new album on the way soon, it looks like the New York-bred rapper is ready to start rolling out her upcoming new music. 

We’re used to hearing the 38-year-old living legend spit some of the craziest punchlines, but we’ve also heard Nicki explore a softer side of herself with her singing vocals over the years. While her new music snippet may not entirely be representative of the direction she’ll be going on her next album, Minaj has officially shared a new video of an upcoming song, and it looks like she may have some of her most hypnotizing vocals yet on it.

Fans are currently reacting to the latest addition to Nicki’s Instagram Stories, commenting on a video of the Queen belting out some heavenly vocals over a smooth instrumental. Going on an impressive run, the Barbs hyped up Nicki’s new preview, theorizing that she may have been taking vocal lessons and likening the snippet to an “R&B Titanic” song.

Nicki has been busy on social media in the last week. A couple of days ago, her family linked up with Rihanna, A$AP Rocky, and members of their family. They shared photos from the meeting on Instagram, and you can check them out here.

Arnold Jerocki/Getty Images

Listen to Nicki’s latest snippet and let us know if you like the direction she’s headed.

She always knows how to steal the show, however, it isn’t Mary J. Blige’s vocals that has the world paying attention. The Labor Day holiday in the U.S. is behind us as citizens have gone back to work following the three-day weekend. While people were at cookouts and kickbacks to celebrate the long weekend, Mary J. Blige was thirst-trapping on Instagram wearing next to nothing.

The 50-year-old Queen of Hip Hop-Soul is known for her show-stopping photoshoots where she poses on sandy beaches in barely-there bikinis, but this time around, Ms. Blige showed off some skin to promote her brand, Sun Goddess Wine.

According to Gum Bumper, Blige was styled by Misa Hylton, unsurprisingly, and was wearing nothing but Laurel DeWitt’s full-body chain as well as a Jewels By Benny “Mary” necklace. The beachside photoshoot nearly mirrored that of her 50th birthday pictures where the icon glowed as she posed in a gold bikini.

Meanwhile, in the caption to both photos, Mary J. quoted Jay-Z lyrics: “Whole world’s in awe I crash through glass ceilings, I break through closed doors” and “If it wasn’t for these pictures they wouldn’t see me at all.” The lines are pulled from Magna Carta Holy Grail‘s “Oceans” featuring Frank Ocean.

Check out her photos below.

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