Hits Daily Double is projecting that JAY Z and Beyonce's surprise album Everything Is Love is going to eke out a win in its first week on the charts.
But the 115-125k sales plus streaming with 72-77k in traditional album sales the joint project is expected to move is well below the typical opening weeks Hov and Bey have enjoyed over their legendary careers.
Their loss isn't necessarily Nas's gain; Nasir, his 11th studio album and first since 2012, is expected to do 70-80K SPS with 40-50K traditional sales in its first seven days.
That's quite a bit below the 140K the Kanye West and Kid Cudi project Kids See Ghost posted last week and the 208K Kanye's solo album Ye did the week before that. Kanye West executive produced Nas's album and promoted it with the other projects.
As for The Carters ...the album was a Tidal exclusive for about a day, and that may have somewhat suppressed its sales. Spotify also kept Everything Is Love off of the most trafficked part of their page, although you would think a JAY Z and/or Beyonce fan would still be able to find it. (Jay and Bey's On The Run II tour has also been plagued with rumors of poor sales.)
Additionally, Hits Daily Double reports that XXXTentacion's two albums, 17 and ?, could make late death-fueled challenges for number one. However, HDD doesn't have enough data to make any projections on that. As it stands, here's how the week is supposed to shape up in terms of new releases.
The Carters (Roc Nation/UMG-Parkwood/Columbia) 115-125k, 72-77k album
5 Seconds of Summer (Capitol) 113-118k, 92-97k
Nas (Mass Appeal/Def Jam) 70-80k, 40-50k
Christina Aguilera (RCA) 68-73k, 62-67k
Jay Rock (TDE/Interscope) 24-27k, 6-7k
In addition, Post Malone's platinum album Beerbongs and Bentleys is slated for a 83-88k, 9-11k week as it enters into its third month of release.