Rick Ross & Pharrell’s SoundScan Face-Off Heats Up, First-Week Sales Projections Revealed

Maybach Music Group leader Rick Ross and Pharrell Williams are going to be in a heavy SoundScan battle as first week estimates have their new solo albums projected to debut in the Top 3.

Based on one-day estimates, Ross’ Mastermind and Pharrell’s G I R L will duke it out for the number one spot.

YOUR NEW RELEASES: Rick Ross will take the top spot next week, while Pharrell Williams and the Frozen soundtrack will battle for runner-up. Here are this week’s key debuts. Rick Ross (Def Jam/IDJ) 145-160k Pharrell Williams (Columbia) 85-95k Lea Michele (Columbia) 50-55k Eli Young Band (Republic Nashville) 24-27k American Authors (Mercury/IDJ) 21-24k David Nail (MCA Nashville) 19-22k Ashanti (eOne) 18-21k (HITS Daily Double)

Instead of playing the numbers game, Skateboard P spoke on competing against Ross’ new album this week.

“I’m happy to be on the same day as him. I love what he does and although music is changing, it’s just awesome to see him continue to prevail and reinvent himself.” (Hot 97)

Ross raised eyebrows this week by moving his LP’s release date up a day to compete against Pharrell.

While Rick Ross was preparing for the release date of tomorrow, March 4th, he decided to move the release date up to make sure the fans had a chance to cop his new album, Mastermind, as well as Pharrell’s new album. The MMG head honcho’s new album, Mastermind, is in stores today, instead of tomorrow, just to combat the earlier release date that Pharrell had placed for his new project, G I R L. (Stupid Dope)

Last month, Pharrell delved into what inspired his LP’s unique title.

“It’s called G I R L, it’s all capital letters and two spaces between each letter on purpose. … The reason why I named it G I R L in capital letters is because when you look at it, it looks a little weird and the reason why it does is because society is a little unbalanced. And I just thought like, man, if I’m gonna make an album, I need to make an album that says everything that I’ve ever wanted to say, like dreamt of.” (Backstage At The BRITs)