“Long.Live.A$AP” is the first debut album to hit No. 1 since fellow rapper 2 Chainz’s “Based On a T.R.U. Story” opened atop the Sept. 1, 2012, list. (However, 2 Chainz had released two earlier charting sets as part of the hip-hop duo Playaz Circle.)
A$AP Rocky’s set is currently enjoying a top five hit single on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with “F**kin’ Problems” (featuring Drake, 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar). So far, the song has sold 854,000 downloads.
A$AP Rocky got his first taste of a Billboard chart barely more than a year ago, when he was the featured guest on a remix of Rihanna’s song “Cockiness (Love It).” The tune spent four weeks on the R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Songs sales chart, beginning Dec. 10, 2011. The remix has shifted 54,000 downloads — 19% of the song’s overall sales.
“Long.Live.A$AP” is one of only two debuts in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 this week. In the runner-up slot is the arriving “Kidz Bop 23” album, launching with 81,000 — the best sales week for an album in the Kidz Bop series since 2006.