J. Cole Debuts At No. 1 On Billboard 200
Just one week after 85-year-old Tony Bennett grabs his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with "Duets II," another artist nets his first No. 1 -- but he's a little younger.
Rapper J. Cole, 26, bows in the No. 1 slot with "Cole World: The Sideline Story," selling 218,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
It's the Roc Nation/Columbia artist's first album and marks the first time a solo artist's debut effort has entered at No. 1 since May 14, 2010. That week, B.o.B started at No. 1 with "The Adventures of Bobby Ray" with 84,000. Cole's launch is the highest sales week for any act's debut chart effort since Nicki Minaj's "Pink Friday" started with 375,000 at No. 2 on Dec. 11, 2010.
Rock trio Blink-182 returns to the Billboard 200 with its first studio album in nearly eight years as "Neighborhoods" bows at No. 2 with 151,000. The recent Billboard magazine cover stars were last on the chart with "Greatest Hits" in 2005, which debuted and peaked at No. 6 on Nov. 19 with 72,000. Before that, their last studio release, their self-titled 2003 album, bowed and peaked at No. 3 with 313,000 on Dec. 6.
The group's new album's lead single, "Up All Night," peaked at No. 3 on the Alternative Songs chart. This week, it slips a spot to No. 4, after having spent six weeks at No. 3.
Adele's "21" holds at No. 3 with 118,000 (up 1%) while last week's No. 1, Bennett's "Duets II," falls to No. 4 with 91,000 (down 49%). Lady Antebellum's former chart-topper, "Own the Night," slips 2-6 with 75,000 (down 40%).
Wilco's new "The Whole Love" takes a bow at No. 5 with 82,000, marking the fourth top 10 effort for the band. Its last release, "Wilco (The Album)," debuted and peaked at No. 4 off a 99,000 start in 2009. The act's short North American tour launched on Sept. 13 in Indianapolis and will jump over to Europe beginning on Oct. 24.
Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter IV" shifts 5-7 with 68,000 (down 20%) just ahead of Switchfoot, as its eighth studio album, "Vice Verses," bows at No. 8 with 45,000. It's the act's second top 10, following "Nothing Is Sound," which topped out at No. 3 in its opening week in 2005, shifting 131,000 copies. Its last release, 2009's "Hello Hurricane," debuted and peaked at No. 13 with 39,000.
Rock super group Chickenfoot -- Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani and Chad Smith -- debuts at No. 9 with "Chickenfoot III" (42,000). It's the act's second album, following its self-titled 2009 set, which debuted and peaked at No. 4 with 52,000.
Rock band Mastodon scores its first top 10 album as "The Hunter" bows at No. 10 with 39,000. Its previous high came with 2009's "Crack the Skye," which just missed the top 10 -- opening and peaking at No. 11 with a 41,000 launch. The act will support the new album on the road, with a tour launching Oct. 25 in Austin.
Just outside the top 10 this week, Pink Floyd's reissue of "The Dark Side of the Moon" re-enters at No. 12 with 26,000 sold (up 3,607%). The act rereleased 14 of its albums last week and a boxed set collecting all of the newly refurbished titles. "Dark Side" got the glossiest redux treatment, as it was available in expanded versions dubbed "Experience" and "Immersion." Each came equipped with bonus live tracks and assorted outtakes with the lavish "Immersion" edition carrying a list price of $130.
Another classic No. 1 album, but of a more recent vintage, also makes a big gain this week: Nirvana's "Nevermind" bounds 146-13 with 25,000 (up 647%). The jump is owed to the 1991 album's 20th-anniversary reissue packages that dropped last week. One of them, a "super deluxe" 70-track version, charts separately and debuts at No. 131 with 4,000.
Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Oct. 2) totaled 5.6 million units, up 5% compared with the sum last week (5.28 million) and up 5% compared with the comparable sales week of 2010 (5.31 million). Year-to-date album sales stand at 228.5 million, up 3% compared with the same total at this point last year (221.1 million). It is the 19th week in a row where year-to-date album volume is greater than the same time in the prior year.
Next week's Billboard 200 competes with the same week in 2010 when: Toby Keith's "Bullets in the Gun" shot in at No. 1 with 71,000 while Kenny Chesney's "Hemingway's Whiskey" fell to No. 2 in its second week with 65,000 (down 64%). Mars' "Doo-Wops & Hooligans" was the chart's second-highest bow, launching at No 3 with 55,000.
http://www.billboard.com/#/news/j-co...05384552.story
Congrats to him! 