First Week Sales Projections for Childish Gambino's "Awaken, My Love!" are Impressive
Childish Gambino's newly-released "Awaken, My Love!" is an unforgettable experience from beginning to end, so it should come as no surprise that the album will produce the highest first-week sales total of the artist/producer's five-year music career.
According to HDD, "Awaken, My Love!" is on pace to move 110-115k SPS (sales plus streaming) units, with 68-73k coming from physical and digital sales. By comparison, Gambino's last album, 2013's Gold-certified Because the Internet, achieved 96k first week sales.
Despite the impressive sales figures, however, Gambino's third studio album, released by Glassnote, won't be his first No. 1 album. "Awaken, My Love!" is slated to debut at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 later this week, behind The Hamilton Mixtape (195-205k SPS) and The Rolling Stones' Blue & Lonesome (113-118k).
10 Rappers You Should Know Right Now
Tap into GANG51E JUNE, Marley Fox, YwmZay, Girll Codee, DaBoii and more.
5 New Songs You Need to Hear on Audiomack
Press play on new songs from Burna Boy, Muni Long, Projexx, Becky G, and Dende.
So, how do Gambino's first week sales for "Awaken, My Love!" stack up against some of the biggest hip-hop releases of 2016? Setting aside Drake's Views, which sold a whopping 1.04 million album-equivalent units in its first week, Awaken performed very well when compared side-by-side with Kendrick Lamar's collection of loosies, untitled unmastered., which racked up 178k, and Future's EVOL, which earned 134k. Gambino outsold Jeezy's mixtape series-inspired Trap or Die 3 (86k), Gucci Mane's post-prison comeback album Everybody Looking (68k), Mac Miller's love album The Divine Feminine (48k) and A$AP Ferg's Always Strive and Prosper (35k).
Despite Universal's participation as a physical distributor for the album, Gambino's LP is a truly independent release, which makes these first-week figures all the more impressive. Chance The Rapper and Tech N9ne are proud.
***
By DJ Z, who loves to argue with you on Twitter.
Photo Credit: Instagram