Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR gave fans what they wanted on $OME $EXY $ONGS 4 U. The duo dropped a lengthy, R&B-focused album with plenty of radio hits and late night slow jams. Fans were fascinated to see how the album would perform, though. PND has a lower profile than other Drizzy collaborators like Future or 21 Savage. Plus, the 6 God is coming off a loss in the biggest rap battle, arguably of all time. They were projected to move 250K units in their first week. And they're going to arrive just short.
Hits Daily Double reports that $OME $EXY $ONGS 4 U will sell 246K units during its first week. Good enough to debut at number one on the Billboard 200. This will be a career first for PARTYNEXTDOOR, and old hat for Aubrey Graham. Drake has a staggering 13 number one albums on Billboard 200, the second most of any rapper in history (behind Jay-Z). The 6 God's impressive stats work against him here, though. 246K is an excellent haul by most any metric. Rappers would kill to have an album sell 246K first week. But it's slightly under a projection that was already low by Drake standards.
Did Drake Outperform Kendrick Lamar's New Album?
We ran through some of these stats in a previous post, but Drake has some serious expectations to live up to. $OME $EXY $ONGS 4 U will have the third lowest first week sales of any Drake album to date. The issue is the other two were surprise releases. Dark Lane Demo Tapes (2020) and Honestly, Nevermind (2022) were announced mere days before they dropped, so the comparatively lower sales made sense. $OME $EXY $ONGS 4 U was announced in 2024, and has been teased by both artist for months. There was anticipation and promotion at play here.
Then there's the Kendrick Lamar of it all. Drake vs Kendrick is going to be a talking point for the rest of our lifetimes, whether we like it or not. It was inevitable that the first week sales of the rappers would be compared. Especially since they were fresh off the battle. Drake's 246K units first week did pale, sadly, in comparison to Kendrick Lamar's first week sales for GNX. The acclaimed album managed to pull a strong 353K units during the first seven days. This was the second-highest first week sales of Kendrick Lamar's career, behind DAMN.
