Travis Scott Has The #1 Album And Single In America This Week
Travis Scott’s Astroworld came out exactly four months ago today. The album already spent two weeks atop the Billboard 200 albums chart, but it may have reached its zenith just now: Not only has the album climbed back to #1 for a third nonconsecutive week, its big hit single has risen to #1 on the Hot 100 at the same time.
“Sicko Mode,” Scott’s collaboration with Drake, has been a mainstay of the top 10 for months, but lately it’s been edging back up the chart, lingering at its #2 peak. Last week, with Ariana Grande’s three-week leader “thank u, next” in decline (this was before the release of its music video), Scott released Skrillex’s “Sicko Mode” remix, which proved to be enough to bump “Sicko Mode” to #1. It’s Scott’s first #1 song, Billboard reports.
Astroworld has also been situated in the top 10 ever since its release, largely thanks to Scott’s large streaming audience. The resurgence of “Sicko Mode” contributed to a resurgence of the album itself. So did a bunch of Cyber Monday merch deals that included a copy of the album — the kind of trickery that so enraged Nicki Minaj this summer. Thus, as Billboard reports, in a down week, it was able to climb back to #1 with 71,000 equivalent album units and 31,000 in pure sales (that 31,000 figure includes the albums distributed as part of merch bundles). That might not have been enough to defeat 6ix9ine’s #2-debuting Dummy Boy had it come out last Friday, but Dummy Boy was rush-released in the middle of last week to combat a leak.
Tekashi’s misfortune means Scott claims both the #1 album and #1 single in America simultaneously. Billboard notes that Scott is only the third artist this year to accomplish that feat, following Drake for five weeks and Camila Cabello for one. Ironically, Drake is not credited as a featured artist on “Sicko Mode” despite his prominent role in the song, so it does not add to his monster year on the charts. If I were Drake I’d have my lawyers on the phone getting that rectified right away.