The release of Rihanna's ANTI has been strange, to say the least.
TIDAL "accidental" dropped it last Thursday. Then Samsung gave away a million free copies. This got Rih Rih a RIAA platinum certification. But charting services like Billboard only gave her credit for the 460 albums she actually sold in what amounted to a one day release week. (Albums are being officially counted from Friday now.)
So Rihanna's second week will really be her first week. Hits Daily Double is has just projectied ANTI will move between 120-130,000 copies, sales plus streaming, between January 29 and February 4.
That's down from the about 200K she's been averaging with her last few albums. But given all the confusion and the giveaways, it's not so bad.
Kevin Gates has nothing in his own discography to compare Islah to. HDD says Gates's debut will do between 80K and 85K in its first week. To use some outside comps, G-Eazy recently did 97K first week for When It’s Dark Out, and Rick Ross 57K for Black Market.
Have you listened to Gates's new album? If so, what did you think?
Update: HDD moves Gates's projections up to 95 - 105K (sales plus streaming) and Rihanna's to 145-155k.