Nicki Minaj’s third album, Pinkprint ended the week with just 194,000 albums sold, a career low for first week album sales for the Young Money artist. Overall sales come to 244K for Minaj. While it was a low for Minaj, that was enough for Number 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, and it is still the second biggest debut for a Hip-Hop album, behind only J. Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive.
To put Pinkprint‘s debut sales in perspective, Minaj’s 2010 debut Pink Friday moved 375,000 units in its first week, and her 2012 sophomore album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded moved 253,000 copies.
Elsewhere on the chart, Taylor Swift came in at number one, returning to the top spot after conceding to J. Cole last week. She sold another 331.000 copies bringing her total to 3.36 million.
Cole sold 135,000 units this week bringing it down to Number 4.
The only other new entry in the top 10 was D’Angelo and The Vanguard’s Black Messiah. The unanticipated album from the R&B veteran and his first in fifteen years sold 117,000 units.
source: Billboard