Roddy Ricch Edges Out Camila Cabello, the Who on Rolling Stone Albums Chart
By Chris Willman
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – West coast rapper Roddy Ricch barely made a blip on the charts when his debut mixtape came out last year, but he didn’t have to worry about being overlooked with his proper solo bow, “Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial.” It debuted at No. 1 on the Rolling Stone albums chart with 101,500 album units, besting the first week tallies for a couple of albums by much more established artists.
In a fairly close — and eclectic — grouping at the top of the chart, Ricch barely beat out Camila Cabello, who at No. 2 just edged out the Who, returning with the group’s first album in 13 years for a No. 3 bow.
Ricch barely sold any proper albums during the week, but his massive streaming numbers put him on top. Cabello and the Who racked up impressive sales numbers that outstripped their streaming, although in both cases some of those album sales were part of bundles that went on sale with tickets for their 2020 tours.
“Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial” had a mere 2,200 in album sales and 7,000 song sales but a phenomenal 125.7 million song streams to drive it to No. 1.
Cabello’s “Romance” had 98,800 album units for its second-place debut, representing 64,500 in album sales, 23,200 song sales and 38.9 million song streams.
The Who’s “Who” found an audience after the band’s long time away from recording with 96,200 album units, with an overwhelming 91,800 of that coming in actual album sales — far and away the week’s biggest album seller. Song sales for the rockers amounted to just 1,400 and song streams were on the low side at 770,000.
The late had two albums reentering the top 10 in the week following his death, with “Goodbye & Good Riddance” back up to No. 5 with 66,600 album units “Death Race for Love” at No. 8 with 51,200.
Rounding out the top 10 were holdover albums from Post Malone at No. 4, the “Frozen 2” soundtrack at No. 6, XXXTentacion at No. 7, and Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift at Nos. 9-10.
No Christmas albums quite made the top 10, but Mariah Carey’s “Merry Christmas,” now out in an anniversary expanded edition, just missed it at No. 11, followed by “The Best of Pentatonix Christmas” at No. 12 and Michael Bubles “Christmas” at No. 14.
On the top 100 songs chart, however, holiday music dominated. Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” was on top, followed by two far older perennials, Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock,” at Nos. 2-3. Burl Ives’ “Holly Jolly Christmas” was No. 6, marking the first and possibly last time Burl Ives will ever be sandwiched on a chart directly between Juice Wrld and DaBaby.
