Also, Rocky’s New Album Aims to Do Something Neither He nor RiRi Has Achieved in a Decade
(January 18, 2026) – Aside from co-parenting three children since they began dating around 2021, rapper ASAP Rocky and billionaire “wifey” Rihanna have something else in common. They’ve each logged two No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200: Rihanna’s Unapologetic and Anti, and Rocky’s Long.Live.A$AP and At.Long.Last.A$AP — a matched set of chart victories.
For a while, it seemed that those albums – all No. 1 in 2016 or earlier – would be the extent of their penthouse glory with RiRi not issuing another album since Anti, and Flacko seemingly losing momentum after his third studio album, 2018’s Testing, failed to match its predecessors in sales or chart numbers.
But we’d be dumb to count out either of the two superstars for the long haul. ASAP’s new studio effort and his first since Testing – entitled Don’t Be Dumb – was released Friday (Jan. 16) and has reportedly exceeded all sales expectations in its first two days of availability. Early industry reports suggest Don’t Be Dumb has already moved over 130,000 in pure sales, largely from multiple vinyl variants — before streaming is even fully added to its total. That number alone would place it well above the weekly unit counts of this month’s previous chart toppers by Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen, both 2025 releases that are maintaining position during the traditional lull between the holidays and when new superstar products are available.
When streaming and track-equivalent downloads are added to the sales mix, Dumb is almost certain to top the Billboard 200 for the chart dated Jan. 31 (country star Zach Bryan is poised to top the Jan. 24 list), making it ASAP’s first No. 1 album since 2015 and his third overall.
Other Couples and Co-Parents (that we know of) Who Are Simultaneously Charting This Week
With all the buzz around ASAP’s new album, his classic debut Long.Live.A$AP returned to the Billboard 200 this past week (dated Jan. 17) at No. 158. Meanwhile, Rihanna remained on the list with two of her oldies – Anti (at No. 79) and Good Girl Gone Bad (No. 111). With both Ri and ASAP simultaneously charting, they joined four other couples or former couples (and they created a tangled web of their own) on this past week’s list.
Fleetwood Mac has two albums on the chart (Rumours and Greatest Hits) and that band’s members’ past entanglements are notorious. The late Christine McVie was married to John McVie, while Stevie Nicks dated Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood (the latter very briefly). Unlike Ri and Roc, however, none of those relationships bore offspring.
Then there are the members of ABBA who are charting with their own Greatest Hits album. Both Bjorn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Faltskog along with Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad were married in the 1970s – both couples divorced in 1980 – with Ulvaeus and Faltskog being the only other co-parents on the chart. Their union bore two children in the ‘70s.
Rihanna Moving In Stevie Nicks Territory
And Rihanna isn’t just charting alongside Rocky this week — she’s also sharing the Billboard 200 with two other men from her dating history. Joining ASAP with a re-entry (also with his debut album) is Chris Brown (at No. 187). They joined her other ex, Drake, who has quite a few albums on the list (and is allegedly the target of several disses on ASAP’s new release). This Billboard distinction, which is rare but not unprecedented, means RiRi has three current or former boos listed simultaneously with her own albums. It’s not unprecedented because another artist on this week’s list is also charting simultaneously with four former boyfriends – all Rock and Roll Hall of Famers!
Nicks, of course, dated the two members of Fleetwood Mac – Buckingham and Fleetwood – as well as two members of the Eagles: Don Henley and Joe Walsh. The Eagles join Fleetwood Mac on this week’s chart with Their Greatest Hits – 1971-1975 at No. 183. There’s a caveat though. Walsh didn’t join the Eagles until 1975, after all the songs on that Greatest Hits set had already been recorded. His first album with the band was 1976’s Hotel California. Still, this blogger would bet that Walsh, who remains a member of the Eagles’ current lineup along with Henley, has performed many of the older songs live and is receiving royalties from Greatest Hits 1971-1975 and the group’s other releases.
And for those who are wondering whether a fifth former Nicks associate currently on the chart – Tom Petty at No. 115 with his Greatest Hits – is among her exes, wonder no more. She and Petty both maintained that theirs was strictly a platonic and professional friendship.
Which brings us back to RiRi and Rocky. The tangled web of chart relationships aside, if ASAP does indeed top the Jan. 31 rankings with Don’t Be Dumb, it would immediately turn up the pressure on his baby mama as he’d now have a 3-2 advantage over her in No. 1 albums. Rihanna last reigned in April 2016 with Anti and her fans are likely holding out hope that the success of Rocky’s new album will incentivize her to finally follow-up Anti in 2026.
As Rocky might put it, fans would be, umm, unwise to hold their collective breath though. Rihanna has never been one to succumb to pressure and certainly wouldn’t start now as the superstar multi-hyphenate billionaire has nothing left to prove.
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
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