S. Samuel
Top Dawg Entertainment's Schoolboy Q and Kid Cudi have plenty of reasons to brag this week with their new solo albums both dominating the music sales chart with top five debuts.
According to reports, Q’s new Oxymoron managed to sell over 130,000 copies in week one.
As forecast, ScHoolboy Q’s major-label debut, “Oxymoron,” bows at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 139,000 copies in the week ending March 2, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Signed to Top Dawg Entertainment, the new album is ScHoolboy Q’s first in a joint-venture deal with Interscope Records. It’s also the first No. 1 for Top Dawg, which previously reached No. 2 with Kendrick Lamar‘s “good kid, m.A.A.D city” in 2012. (Billboard)
Former G.O.O.D. Music stud Kid Cudi’s new LP landed at No. 4 with nearly 90,000 sold copies.
Kid Cudi’s stealth release “Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon” debuts at No. 4 with 87,000. The digital-only set debuted exclusively on iTunes, Google Play and Amazon MP3 on Tuesday (Feb. 25) with little advance warning. And, in its first week, it was only available as a full album purchase — none of its tracks were available a la carte. (Billboard)
Recently, Cudi explained what motivated his album’s overnight release.
“I was like, “Man, I’m tired of promoting and marketing an album. I just wanna give it.” This project isn’t something I was planning on doing. I just kinda did it, like, “Let’s see what happens if I do it this way.” It’s my fifth album. I was in concert in September. I had a couple songs. I had “Satellite Flight” and “Balmain Jeans” done at the time. I was just confident, and in the middle of the show I said, “I’m doing an EP and I won’t give any notice before it drops.” That was the only info I put out. I knew I was gonna do it around February–actually January was the target.” (Complex)
Back in January, Schoolboy talked about the blood, sweat and tears he invested into the new LP.
“I don’t like Kendrick,” Q joked when he appeared on “RapFix Live” on Wednesday (January 22). “Nah, he’s an awesome artist, but it’s my turn, man.” Q says that he’s been working on Oxymoron for two years and “Break the Bank” is one of his earliest recordings from the album. “I haven’t dropped nothing since 2012, the top of 2012. A bunch of stuff. I still got songs on my album that I recorded in 2012, but the records are so great to me,” he said. “‘Break the Bank’ is a record that was recorded in 2012. That was old. That was right when Kendrick’s album dropped. It just so happened that he’s nominated for seven Grammys right now.” (MTV)
