So while Wayne had released some more marginal works since The Carter IV‘s 2011 drop, titling his most recent album Tha Carter V essentially let listeners know that he meant business this time. Even Tha Carter IV, which received mixed reviews and a lesser fan reception than III, still sold nearly a million copies (964k) first week, and long stood as easily Wayne’s most successful project of the last decade. The first one launched him into the mainstream as a solo star, the second one solidified his cult and remains a Weezy fan favorite to this day, and the third one served as his commercial peak by selling over a million copies first week and winning a best rap album Grammy.
#LIL WAYNE CARTER 5 FIRST WEEK SALES SERIES#
While Wayne has more noteworthy running album series than nearly any other figure in rap history - including Dedication, Sorry 4 the Wait, I Am Not a Human Being and several other brand-name LPs and mixtapes with one or multiple sequels to their credit - there’s still something hallowed about his Tha Carter series. Lil Wayne Charts 22 Songs From 'Tha Carter V' on Billboard Hot 100ģ. This may have just served to further drive listeners to Tha Carter V, however - at a time when supporting Kanye feels more fraught than ever for many fans, listening to new material from his only real challenger for late-’00s hip-hop supremacy was by contrast a refreshingly nostalgic and generally satisfying experience. Meanwhile, Kanye spent that Saturday night performing on SNL, controversially wearing a MAGA hat and making unaired (but later heavily circulated) comments about being “bullied” backstage for his pro-Trump wardrobe. Of course in 2018, one of those much-anticipated albums ended up not dropping at all: Yandhi was first delayed until Saturday night, and then pushed back all the way to late November. 29, 1998 - often deemed the greatest release day in hip-hop history, due to simultaneous releases from OutKast, JAY-Z, A Tribe Called Quest and many others. Having both Wayne and Kanye in the mix allowed fans in their 20s to wax nostalgic about ’00s release days spent lining up at stores on release day to buy physical CDs, while even older fans could flashback almost exactly 20 years to Sept. 28-30) that also had two other major hip-hop releases on the schedule, Logic’s Young Sinatra IV and Kanye West’s Yandhi, created a wave of excitement for rap fans that helped raise the public profile of (and excitement for) all three sets. Good timing. Released over a weekend (Sept. After a half-decade of waiting for an album, it’s tough to still make it seem like a pleasant surprise, but with Tha Carter V, Wayne somehow pulled it off.Įminem's Projected 'Kamikaze' Debut Shows What a Surprise Release Can Still Do For a Veteran ArtistĢ. Eminem learned this lesson recently, when last year’s over-hyped and somewhat undercooked Revival received an underwhelming response after a months-long rollout, and then this year’s vengeful Kamikaze posted much stronger numbers as a sneak release no one saw coming. No songs were released ahead of time, and even the tracklist and cover remained largely a mystery in the hours leading up to its midnight drop.Īnd as we’ve seen time and again in recent years, the less press an album has in the months leading up to its release - particularly in the hip-hop world - the more furor it tends to generate when it unexpectedly arrives.
Its firm release date wasn’t announced until the Wednesday before, when Weezy released a charming teaser video that divulged the album would be coming out on his birthday (Sept. It was just four months ago that news broke that Wayne had settled his lawsuit with Cash Money, and not even a month ago that Wayne revealed (via his Billboard cover story) that Tha Carter V was now officially on its way.
1 album in the country had going for it.ġ. So why was Tha Carter V such a resounding win? Here’s five things the No.
It was part of a commercial (and arguably artistic) decline that had encompassed most of Weezy’s 2010s, including his most recent official wide release, 2013’s I Am Not a Human Being II, which sold respectably (217k first week) but underperformed compared to the MC’s prior releases, and drew reviews that were middling at best.
#LIL WAYNE CARTER 5 FIRST WEEK SALES FREE#
In the meantime, the rapper released several mixtapes and the 2015 Tidal exclusive Free Weezy Album, but received only faint attention for the projects. 1 on Billboard 200 With Second-Largest Streaming Week Ever…
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