(May 25, 2020).  Atlanta rapper Future gets his seventh No. 1 album this week as his latest, High Off Life, debuts at the top of the Billboard 200 with 153,000 album-equivalent units consumed during the tracking week ending May 22.

Future’s ‘High Off Life’ is his seventh No. 1 album on the Billboard 200

Upon its release, the trap-beat heavy album had many questioning whether Future had lost his creativity and whether he was falling off. But that skepticism accompanies every one of Future’s releases these days.

The 36-year-old rapper proved this past week that he’s just as relevant as ever as his latest numbers are his best yet for any of his solo efforts (the 2015 Drake collabo What A Time To Be Alive more than doubled any of his solo albums’ numbers).

More notably, High Off Life held off another hip-hop album by a rapper 15 years Future’s junior: Polo G’s The GOAT, which entered in the runner-up spot with a very respectable 99,000 units.

By topping the chart, Future pulls ahead of Nas, the 46-year-old Brooklyn-born rapper with whom he was tied after his last album, Future HNDRXX Presents: The WIZRD, hit No. 1 in January 2019.  He now trails only the big four of Jay-Z (14 No. 1s), Eminem (10), plus Drake and Kanye West (each with 9).  (Btw, Drake’s and Future’s numbers include their 2015 collaboration, What A Time To Be Alive.)

Hip-Hop History: Here’s a list of all the hip-hop albums to top the Billboard 200 charts.

High Off Life is also the ninth No. 1 hip-hop album of 2020 (not including Roddy Ricch’s album, which is a holdover from 2019). At the current pace, this year is on track to break 2018’s record of 18 No. 1s by hip-hop artists.  With seven months remaining, 2020 is on pace to have 21 or 22 No. 1 hip-hop albums by year’s end.

By having nine of this year’s 14 No. 1 albums, hip-hop is clearly dominating all other genres combined.  The other five new chart-toppers in 2020 have been the latest albums by Harry Styles, Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber (all three pop), plus albums by The Weeknd (pop/R&B) and country star Kenny Chesney.

The nine rap acts that have moved new albums to No. 1 this year so far are: JackBoys ft. Travis Scott, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Lil Baby, Lil Uzi Vert, DaBaby, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, NAV, and now Future.

Best tracks on High Off Life:  “All Bad (featuring Lil Uzi Vert),” “Up the River,” “100 Shooters (featuring Meek Mill & Doe Boy),“ “Outer Space Bih,” “Last Name (feat. Lil Durk),” and “One Of My,” plus the remix of “Life Is Good” featuring the two Babies.

Back cover to Future’s ‘High off Life’

DJRob 

DJRob is an African-American freelance blogger from Chicago who covers R&B, hip-hop, pop and rock genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff!  You can follow him on Twitter @djrobblog.

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By DJ Rob

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