1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart & Biggest Week of 2018 With 'KOD' KOD would also log the biggest week for any album since Taylor Swift’s reputation bowed atop the list with 1.24 million units earned in the week ending Nov. 1 with 293,000 units earned in the week ending Feb. KOD is likely to start atop the Billboard 200 with, perhaps, according to prognosticators, between 375,000 to 385,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 26.Īs previously reported, KOD is on track to surpass Justin Timberlake’s Man of the Woods for the biggest week of 2018. (340.6 million on-demand audio streams of its tracks in the week ending April 20, 2017, according to Nielsen Music) and Drake’s More Life (384.8 million in the week ending March 30, 2017).
KOD would trail only the debut frames of Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. That would give it not just the biggest week of 2018, but also the third-biggest week ever. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 chart, is also set to secure 2018’s biggest streaming week for an album.Īccording to industry forecasters, the effort could see its songs generate perhaps 320 million on-demand audio streams in the week ending April 26. Cole’s new album, KOD, which is already on course for a No. The LP could land the third-biggest streaming week ever. Cole's 'KOD' Set for 2018's Biggest Streaming Week for an Album If KOD starts as expected, it would surpass Justin Timberlake’s Man of the Woods for the biggest week of 2018. 1) is scheduled to be revealed on Billboard’s websites on Sunday, April 29. The top 10 of the May 5-dated Billboard 200 chart (where J. The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). All four of his previous studio sets reached No. The surprise set, which was only announced on April 16, is J. Industry forecasters suggest the set, which was released April 20 via Dreamville/Roc Nation/Interscope Records, could launch with 2018’s biggest week for an album - as it may earn between 350,000 and 400,000 equivalent album units in the week ending April 26, powered by sizzling streaming activity. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with his latest studio effort, KOD. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart With 2018's Biggest Debut He’s evolved since then, and that’s great, but why does his path to enlightenment have to be the only one? It’s jarring for an album spawned by structural racism to fall back on lines like, “The only real change come from inside” (“Change”).J. This is the same guy who made distinctions between “sisters” and “hoes” (“No Role Modelz”) and began his sophomore album with a declaration of his right to say faggot (“Villuminati”). When Cole reduces violent conflict and upward mobility to matters of vague principles, he’s shrinking into himself rather than connecting to others. Scoffing at nice rides and referring to retaliatory violence as ignorance and poison may seem like well-earned wisdom, but it’s really a failure of empathy. And it can be that way because Cole’s got four albums and multiple world tours under his belt. 2,” which radiate love and are some of Cole’s most endearing odes to romantic love, partnership, and parenthood. These values shine on songs like “Foldin Clothes” and “She’s Mine Pt. Cole’s world is a land of humility, domestic work, family, and good, educated decisions. Lines like these don’t sink the ship, but they do mark the margins of Cole’s everyman trappings. “Neighbors” is ostensibly about Cole’s inability to escape racism no matter where he lives, but between the restless nights and unsolicited cop visits, Cole squeezes in an odd humblebrag: “In the driveway there’s no rapper cars/Just some shit to get from back and forth.” Elsewhere, on “Change,” a song that’s allegedly about evolving, he conservatively raps, “Bloodshed done turned to the city to a battlefield/I call it poison, you call it real.” Likewise, “Change” also features this chin-grabber: “I believe if God is real he'd never judge a man/Because he knows us all and therefore he would understand/The ignorance that make a nigga take his brother life.” Cole’s good intentions aside, this a way of talking about crime among blacks that's more interested in blaming than understanding. Despite leaving off “False Prophets” and “Everybody Dies,” buzz-building tracks that embody the “king-of-rap” ethos that Cole disavowed on “Fire Squad,” a pestering condescension lurks. The album only falters when Cole’s empathy reveals its limits.