The numbers are in from last week’s big R&B release week. As expected America’s new young sweetheart Ariana Grande landed the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 with her debut album ‘Yours Truly.’
The Republic Records release shifted 138,000 copies according to industry resource HitsDailyDouble, fueled by a strong marketing campaign and her singles “The Way” and “Baby I.” Not far behind though, was Tamar Braxton with her anticipated sophomore album ‘Love and War.’ The singer/reality TV star put up very strong #’s coming in around 114,000.
In addition to the ladies, we had three big male R&B releases as well, from John Legend with ‘Love In The Future,’ Jaheim’s ‘Appreciation Day‘ and Raheem DeVaughn’s ‘A Place Called Love Land.’
Legend led the three coming in at No. 5 on the chart with 68,000, while Jaheim was not too far behind, landing at No. 7 with 58,000. Out of all of them Raheem DeVaughn was the only independent release and he shifted 19,000.
While, there has been and will continue to be a bevy of R&B album releases this year, these #’s are not going to support the genre, and it’s not a sign of lack of good material, each of these releases is very solid, and many are great bodies of work. We are going to really need a renaissance of fans supporting albums again to keep the labels seeing a future in R&B artists.
I am so happy for Tamar Braxton! Those are the biggest numbers I’ve seen for an R&B act for quite some time. As for the other guys, man…. ESPECIALLY John Legend, those are UNDERWHELMING numbers… but he will make the most of his money on tour for sure.