Drake has made chart history as the first artist to have three albums top the Billboard 200 simultaneously.
The 39-year-old rapper released his highly anticipated album “Iceman” on May 15, and then surprised fans with two additional albums, “Habibti” and “Maid of Honour.” He revealed that the other albums were coming during a livestream on May 14, while he was promoting “Iceman.”
“Iceman,” predicted to top the charts, debuted at No. 1, ending its first week out with 463,000 album units. This is the Canadian artist’s 15th No. 1 album, sharing the record with Taylor Swift for the most ever as a solo artist. The only artists ahead of Swift and Drake are The Beatles, who hold the record for any artist, with 19 No. 1 albums.
With the new drop, Drake has also beaten Jay-Z as the solo male and R&B/hip-hop artist with the most No. 1 albums.
“Habibti” entered the second spot on the chart, at 114,000 units, and “Maid of Honour” slid into the third slot with 110,000 units.
According to Billboard, this is the first time an artist has held the top three album slots concurrently since the chart began tracking the Billboard 200 each week in 1956.
The chart tracker also noted that Drake is the first artist to achieve this feat after a chart rule change. After Michael Jackson died in June 2009, his three albums “Number Ones,” “The Essential Michael Jackson,” and “Thriller” were the top three selling albums of the week ending June 28, 2009. Jackson was not ranked on the Billboard 200 at the time because catalog albums were excluded from the chart, and instead was filed into the Top Comprehensive Albums chart, which no longer exists. Billboard began including catalog albums on the 200 chart in December 2014.
