Rampaging Nicki Minaj has made the album chart more controversial than it usually is.
Hits Daily Double is projecting this week will be won by Ariane Grande's new album Sweetener, which should do 210-220K SPS, with 110-120 in traditional sales.
As for Nicki ... Queen should do 82-87K SPS in its second week. That's pretty good, considering it's off a 185K first week, and suggests Nicki's fans tried to step up for her in her time of need. (If only they would also buy tickets for her tour.)
Unfortunately for Nicki, she will lose to merch-king Travis Scott again; Third-week Astroworld is set for 95K to 100K.
The big new rap release this week was Young Thug's Slime Langauge, which is a YSL comp album. It's slated to do 44-49k SPS with 4-5K in traditional sales. That's a little better than any of the six commercial mixtapes Thugger has released.
Here's the projected top ten for this week: