Tyler, the Creator is back on top of the Billboard 200 album chart for the first time since premiering at No. 1 back in July of 2021, due to “Call Me If You Get Lost” very belatedly making its bow on vinyl 10 months after the digital release.
The tally for “Call Me” in the LP format was 49,500 copies, which Luminate says is the most pieces of vinyl sold in a week for any hip-hop record since rolls began being kept in 1991. (Luminate, which tallied the data, is a descendant of Soundscan, which began collecting sales numbers 31 years ago.) It’s also the biggest one-week vinyl number for a male solo artist.
The biggest total for any artist for a single week of vinyl remains Taylor Swift’s “Red (Taylor’s Version),” which sold 114,000 LPs upon its debut last November.
You may be thinking this was good news for record stores — and you’d be wrong. Tyler, the Creator chose to bypass retail altogether with the vinyl edition and only sell it as a direct-to-consumer product via his webstore. In fact, retailers have never had any version of the album to sell in stores, as Tyler’s website has also maintained the exclusive on CD and cassette editions, according to Billboard. So it remains highly unlikely that the rapper will follow in the footsteps of Swift and be named Record Store Ambassador for 2023.
The overall album-equivalent number for “Call Me If You Get Lost” this week was 59,000 units. Of that total, 51,000 were in traditional album sales, with all but 1500 of that sales number being vinyl. It’s not as if fans gave up streaming the album and unilaterally rushed to their turntables, though: The album picked up 11.5 million on-demand streams during the week as well.
Otherwise, there wasn’t much turnover of note in the upper ranks of the Billboard 200. Morgan Wallen‘s “Dangerous: The Double Album” is at No. 2 with 50,500 album-equivalent units, followed by Lil Durk, the “Encanto” soundtrack, Olivia Rodrigo, Drake, Doja Cat, the Weeknd, Gunna and Lil Baby.
On the Billboard Hot 100, Harry Styles‘ “As It Was” returned to the top spot, after being bumped last week by Jack Harlow’s “First Class.” Having a second week at No. 1 gives Styles his first multi-week No. 1, surprisingly. Harlow slips just one spot to No. 2.
Morgan Wallen’s “Don’t Think Jesus” had the highest chart debut of the week, at No. 7. It’s his third top 10 song in the Hot 100. Released April 15, the new track was the top-selling song of the week, bowing at No. 1 on the Digital Song Sales chart with 21,500 copies sold. Per Billboard, it was the third-biggest streaming song of the week, with 18.1 million.
The popularity of Wallen’s new song among country fans — it debuts at No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart as well — is no surprise, given that his last single off the “Dangerous” just topped the country airplay chart. “Don’t Think Jesus,” his first new song since his racial-slur scandal early last year, racked up 557,000 radio impressions in its first week.
Glass Animals’ “Heat Wave” stood its ground at No. 3, followed by Latto, Imagine Dragons/JID and the Kid Laroi/Justin Bieber at Nos. 4-6, and Doja Cat, Kodak Black and Bieber at Nos. 8-10.
