Christmas week 2015 saw music superstars Chris Brown & Monica go head-to-head in the name of R&B amidst a fray of the year’s top sellers (see: Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Adele). Hoping to capitalize from the holiday rush, the RCA labelmates respectively lent their 8th official projects (‘Royalty’ and ‘Code Red‘) to much critical fanfare.
On the commercial front, however, the responses saw a wider margin of variance. Both launched without a top-performing single on the Hot 100, the R&B sets also took a more demure route to promo. While Mo hit the streets for a 22 date Stateside tour (and sparse media stops), Brown relied on a few print features and a slew of music videos to spread awareness about his project.
Were their approaches just right or did they miss the mark? Find out below:
Monica
‘Code Red’ – 35,656 (33,718 pure sales) – #27 debut (Billboard 200)
‘Code Red’ marks Monica’s lowest premiere week placement in 20 years and second overall. The lowest comes courtesy of her debut album, ‘Miss Thang.’
Chris Brown
‘Royalty’ – 184,000 (162,000 pure sales) – #3 (Billboard 200)
Chris Brown’s new Royalty album clocks the top debut of the week, bowing at No. 3 with 184,000 units (162,000 in pure album sales).
In terms of straight sales, Royalty nets Brown his largest sales week since his 2011, when his F.A.M.E. album started at No. 1 with 270,000 sold.
Royalty is Brown’s eighth consecutive top 10 album (and all of his releases have made the top 10). It follows his collaborative album Fan of a Fan: The Album (with Tyga) earlier in 2015, which debuted and peaked at No. 7 (with 51,000 sold in its first week).
![Chart Check [Billboard 200]: 'Tortured Poets' Makes Historic Return to #1 as Taylor Swift Wrapped Her Record-Breaking 'Eras Tour' with $2B in Ticket Sales](https://thatgrapejuice.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Taylor-Swift-thatgrapejuice-2024-ttpd-tortured-poets-billboard-200-no-1-eras-tour-2-billion-464x260.jpg "Chart Check [Billboard 200]: 'Tortured Poets' Makes Historic Return to #1 as Taylor Swift Wrapped Her Record-Breaking 'Eras Tour' with $2B in Ticket Sales.")
Well deserved Chris! He always brings authentic r&b music to the table! Monica ?? wasn’t sold on those singles! But kudos to her for even PUTTING out a record! She wasn’t going to let Adele and the rest of the pop artist scare her from releasing what I’m assuming is a good body of work!
For a generic album, Chris did his thing with them numbers.
Generic is a compliment #whatamess trying to use that poor lil girl to try and boost sales ???? #foh with them #trashyasssongs
#hesdone
Monica has a A+ voice. Her 1st 3 cd’s were great. great vocals (inside, like this and like that, before you walk out my life). Heartfelt real Shyt.
Now the last 3 cd’s she has lost her way. Bad singles, bad music, she won’t put her vocals front and center HAS ADELE not shown these girls anything. Monica needs to stop playing with the vocals and sing her heart out, kill the mid-tempo boring ballads and sing her heart out.
Her cd’s are a waste of time.
I read a comment the loss of 106 has had some affect on sales and i can definitely see that because sales in Rnb seem to be lower then in the past. I think it plays a big part but overall pirating in the community is at an all time high and our folks simply do not want to pay for anything especially not music unfortunately for RnB artists. They simply not have a solid platform for support of projects
Team BeatMe could even get CB passed Justin?! lol
B**** speak proper English before trying to carry somebody.smh
Irony.
You want the definition? B****: your stupid ass for trying to carry (criticize) someone who’s far more well off than yourself…
The plane couldn’t get passed the ocean
Chris is so damn ungrateful and too self entitled! He’s pissed because his album did 180k? Hell, I’d be pissed if I did Code Red’s numbers!
The album will drop and won’t pass 300K. Again, Chris can’t go plat nor gold.
Same thing with plane passenger
Lol you say that like your worthless ass won’t die one day. Hopefully sooner rather than later but whatever. Toodles!
Chris Brown Is Everywhere, And On Everything, I’m SURPRISED It didn’t go platinum
Code Red was too boring for me to buy. I thought she was really going to bring it with the track Code Red. ZI don’t know what that Timbaland crap was, but no.
The Timbaland were horrible, so was the Song with missy.
Overall simply Not a good Album
Yeah those spoilt it because lots of good other songs on their. Tried some other things also so I respect it. But this not better than Still Standing, After The Storm and The Boy Is Mine
I disagree, I absolutely LOVE the Tim and Missy tracks.
Go to the Bahamas and youll see whats left of the plane
Monica really put the work in, Well done to her for getting those numbers with NO AIRPLAY on mainstream radio! Respect to chris for getting in the top 3 with one of the most dry albums his ever released, the album is souless, but I respect his grind cos he made sure he was not ignored
I agree.
Monica used to have edge and sass. (When Aaliyah stepped her game up and had the others trying to dance. lol)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCNuYbNBEdA
Can she dance now though? That’s the question…
I disagree. Her producers did. I think Monica stepped up her game finally by co-writing the songs on this album. The only problem is that now the grit and struggles of her past are behind her so she is not singing about that. I think her sales are great considering she had hardly any promo.
Didnt Fist just sell 200k almost with royalty… thats very impressive considering how terrible the album is and lack of promo. Rihgoat terroristic album is most likely way better than Royalty and only expected to sell 150k. Rih stans have no room to talk about Fist album campain. Worry about STRAINANNAS first wk sales predictions… major kiii!
Any other week and 35K would be Top 10 numbers. Are that many records really sold in the week leading up to Xmas?
Fkerie$
Yes im p1§§ed & pressed and scalped like my gurls forehead but well done to Breezy.
At least the body of work was better than New Life.
Anchor is now playing to hold me up from fainting (Dramatic right!!)
#byeRCA
#Stillacoderedsituation on my playlist.
^ Nothing, but respect for you! I hate when people abandon ship when they’re not satisfied with numbers.
Have too. Check for Mo from debut onwards. So just have to keep on RoyalKev ☺ .. Never will abandon just for that hun.
Good numbers for Chris, especially since he didn’t have a hit record to steer-head the album.
Both albums suck but Monica’s is better. Chris won’t see a cert. It will stall at 250-300k and Monica probably won’t see 50k yikes!!!
I said it b4 & ill say it again BDAY & GGGB was the DESTRUCTION of BASIC R&B. Not even Alicia keys could recover. Both album pushed the boundaries of pop&R&B & forced urban consumers to challenge music & lean more hiphop leaving R& B to collect DUST on shelves. Poor Monica/Tamar/Rkelly they tried but FAILED. & thus Aliyah stan is a absolute Joke Ali was NEVER even on CERRORS PRIME. KII
A Keys’s As I Am came out in 2008, sold 5 million Ww, 3.7 million in the US. It is still the biggest opening R&B album by a female to date with over 700K the first week. Element Of Freedom sold 1.6 million in the Us and 4 million WW. Girl On Fire sold 750K in the US, still great for an r&B album and didn’t have crappy songs like 7/11 or singing about sem3n on a dress.
Mary J ! The Breakthrough in 2005 sold 730K, and Beyoncé in 2013 opened up with 800K
Dumbass the reason why i included AKEYS in my rant was becuz of what AS I AM sold… the LAST BASIC R&B album to generate impressive #s was 2007. Self titled out debuted As I am btw with 1 million (entitled) sales 1st week. & 800+k in actual sales. Element of flophood FLOPPED & i like how u didnt mention the girl on fire album so conveintly lol. U can blame Bey & yur fav Rihanna for why Akeys is stuck with Kelly rowdog on EMPIRE lol
Btw Self titled didnt hit STORES until tuesday… if it was in stores for that full 7 DAY WK it would have sold up to 1.1 million 1st week… isnt that what APOLEGETIC sold in total??? KII
BEYONCE sold 600K the first music week, Deal with it, no one told her to drop the album the last 3 days of the music week. lol
That’s still a good feat she sold 600K in 3 days the other 4 she would’ve went Platinum Beyoncé self titled is the first album by a black woman to go double platinum since I Am Sasha Fierce
As I Am did 742,400. Sit.
Good for Chris. Sad for Monica. Not a Monica fan per say, but she did deserve to do better numbers because she had a great roll out excluding the no support from radio. Chris did good since the album is garbage. He won’t go platinum, but maybe he’ll see a gold plaque?
Chris could of done better if his album made sense and wasn’t generic.
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As for Monica, I thought it was too soon for her to release the album.
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And by the looks of these sales, it could’ve been better if we still had a BET 106&PARK still or something to help push the materials but we now live in a reality TV world.
BET 106&park went off air cuz ppl stopped watching the host got worse & more annoying every year & urban music wasnt & still isnt selling. So how can it be cited as part of the reason for urban/ r&bs failures lol. Congrats chris
@diabetes, guh you look so unhealthy.
I’m pissed at Mo’s sales because everyone always talk about how much they love her but they didn’t purchase her s***. Who needs enemies when you have “fans” like that? I streamed Royalty and well the album isn’t good. The problem with Chris is that you can’t really differentiate one album from the next , and I find it super tacky that he used his daughter for brownie points when the album is based on p**** and money. The only good song on there is Make Love.
Fans in Monica’s instagram comments said that their local retailers didn’t have the album stocked or it was already sold out because they did not ship enough. I even heard that Canadian retailers didn’t get it at all. RCA made that mistake with still standing as well, I think they underestimated Mo’s fans again, just a little bit.
Monica album didn’t reach Jamaica either right now i am waiting on still standing no stores have it .Its a shame, her fans trying but the industry wont let us in .
Wow that´s impressive for Chris Brown and the genre of music he belongs to. Congrats.
His voice is like Justin Beiber´s though LOL
Congratulations Breeze. This by FAR was not his best work. Monica album isn’t good either. I wished she would of got back with the people she did for the “Still Standing” album like B.C**, and had only missy produce a couple tracks etc. That was true r&b at its finest. Timbaland had been irritating me and I didn’t like him on her album. It sounded like he was playing/goofing off or something. I wish her the best tho. I honestly don’t hear a potential next single from ANY of the songs off her album. I’m shocked.
Omg u are on my wavelength this album did miss B.C** big time. Love when they work together.
Maybe it’s a time in her carrer to maybe just released more R&B/Pop ballads like I know and Anchor. They suit her and have more potential for broader audience airplay.
The irony about chris is his last five years in the game generated some really good hits/singles (loyal newflame finechina dueces liquor dontthinktheyknow etc) imagine if he took breaks & only released 2 albums within that period. Instead of 5 albums & a dozen mixtapes. He would have sold more with just those 2 albums than all these albums combined. Still these 1st week #s are very impressive hopefully these sales remain consistant.
I really need Chris to step away from this generic pop things. He needs to focus on his voice and create some ass kicking R&B classics. At this stage his choreo is the only appeal he has for me. His music need soul.
Judging by his live performances, he has no vocals.
For a generic and recycled album, Chris did good. Didn’t he have it discounted though?
I saw Chris for $4.99 at one point.
Lowest I saw Monica was $8.99
Couple bargains.
Monica wrongs from my ears was title song and Timberland songs. Him being on that Love Aint Enough was ewww and All Men Lie was too short.
Akon song surprised me and was quite lovely though a filler.
Deep and Alone In Heart are two of my favs.
Some of her cleanest vocals on it. Voice was def not the issue
Well Congrats to CB I guess. I actually bought the album and I won’t say I was disappointed because I expected it (at least from those videos released) though he should have given the album a different name.
As for Mo, am not really into her but hoped she would have done better.
Mo’s album is good, but I’m afraid with that chart debut RCA may drop her… 🙁
Be a blessing for her. Her roll outs were much better when at Arista and J Records.
Sales have been poor under the RCA umbrella.
Remember someone saying in another post that she even paid for her own video with no label backing.
Maybe too many on roster.
So if she was independent (practically is) could have had the full coinage.
Nah, I think her relationship with Clive Davis is too strong.
well Chris tweeted about the album 150k times ? he made an extra international EP, and discounted it so that explains it
Chris numbers are great
DIABETES UNBOTHERED says:
Vote
Btw Self titled didnt hit STORES until tuesday… if it was in stores for that full 7 DAY WK it would have sold up to 1.1 million 1st week… isnt that what APOLEGETIC sold in total??? KII
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How when it was an itunes two week exclusive? Making up stats hold no water fatty. 600K the first week. #SomeQueen
Your fav (Rihanna) hasn’t even done 300k first week so please shut the fu ck up!!!
My fav has got 6 platinum albums, how many of those does Ciara have?
And your fave’s past 4 albums haven’t sold passed 300k… Period.
I nearly bought Royalty until saw that rant ?.
I only got code red after hearing it all on YouTube because Just Right wasn’t enough for me to be amped.
I like 70%.
Call My Name is my guilty pleasure. Im drawn to it even though not my favourite.
Chris album is s***** as f***. I knew no one would buy Monica’s.
if 36k is “No one” what does that make 20k?? lol!
Lol @ Credit, ok. These Ciara stans are annoying and Pathetic as hell.
I still can’t believe Monica put out such a terrible album. You can’t save r&b if you can’t even put out a good r&b album. She would have been better off putting out a Greatest Hits album and reminding people of how good her music used to be.
@Mark Self titled sold 617k in three days not a week. The album was released a Friday omg are you stupid what am I even saying you are stupid
Music week at that time was from Tuesday through Monday. She released on a Friday and had 3 days in that music week. 600K in her first music week. I’m not going back and forth, I know it, YOU know it, Beyonce knows it and Billboard & Soundscan knows it. Go cry to your single mother.
Congratz to Chris he did better than I thought he would
So I have been trying to figure out how Bryson Tiller has been outselling Chris Brown and The Weekend on iTunes yet no one is talking about him. It turns out, Tiller has a promo deal with Apple, similar to a payola deal where Apple and RCA are inflating iTunes chart positions to increase his visibility. I think it’s going to work. RCA will prioritize Bryson Tiller in 2016 and push his non singing ass down our throats. Wait and see!
BAEson Tiller makes better music than Chris.
Liesssss just lies lol
Trap Soul > Fame, Fortune, X, Royalty.
Lol where did you find that out about the iTunes payola? And I haven’t listened to the dude, but your comment made me spotify him, he’s not much of a vocalist lol I just heard the struggle run in his song ‘exchange’
I saw that his album is #4 on iTunes Pop and #1 on iTunes r&b yet Billboard doesn’t even list his album in the Top 20. So I googled him and found some articles about how after signing to RCA, he got an exclusive deal with Apple to make him one of their priority artists on every media front. They are rotating his music heavily on Apple Music and giving him sales points based on plays in the iTunes store.
Lol. Yea, he not vocalist but his album is nice. Good lyrically content, not over saturated s3xx talk, and hard beats. I like his album.
RCA sabotage monica on purpose just like they did ‘Still Standing’ but don’t worry monica always sells.
It wasn’t sabotage. Nobody wanted it. She’s in the same boat as the rest of our R&B favs.
Isn’t RCA where careers go to die?
@kingmark i will reply here since site refreshing. Does it matter? A week is a week. Atleast bey confident enuff to get up take a dump not brush her teeth and drop on last 3 days of tracking lol. Album typically triple or almost triple whatver they sell 1st day & selftitled sold 400k based of itunes 1st day sales alone… it would have easily sold 1 mill with the roll put adele had. Poor fatanna not only has to compete with adeles 8th through 40 week sales but also has to compete with selftitled commercially/critically/marketting & selftitled didnt even have marketting she just woke up forgot to brush her teeth or change blues s***** diaper & said heres the album.
Solid numbers from Fistopher. I’ve listened to both albums and I like songs within the album and not the whole album.
‘
Overall, their music just wasn’t good enough but they have some really good songs. Overall, congrats Fistopher and better luck next time Monica.
Monica sold as many as most other r&b artists this year, R. Kelly, August Alsina,Tamar, Jazmine Sullivan, Tamia, etc. R&Brown is just dead. But I will say, I liked her album. She and the label just made so many mistakes. The album was delayed twice, which made fans over it before it arrived. She put out a late ass video 5 months after Just Right for me was released instead of pushing a new single. The only think she did right was the tour. But what’s a tour without at least one relevant single on the charts? Sigh…another failed album by Monica. I guess she really is just focused on her family and music is a hobby at this point
Monica is a f***** legend. She don’t need sales to solidify that. She already sold millions and doesn’t have anything else to prove to you hateful bandwagon queens.
I didn’t think Chris would even do those numbers. Congrats. I’m so upset with Monica’s album. I rather not comment. She lost me this round.
This is excellent for a b******* music industry if your skin aint white m************ dont buy your music to support f*** Adele boring ass c***
Rashad gets your facts straight Chrid Brown did itimate concerts to support Royalty and One Hell Of A Night Tour plus he plans to have a world tour in 2016 this is only the beginning
People just dont wanna see Chris Brown win f*** yall
I’m happy for Chris. I wanted to like the album, but I’m not here for it! It’s a shame because I loved ‘Liquor’. Call me when CB goes back to crafting albums like Graffiti and F.A.M.E. Give me more ‘Take You Down’, ‘Say Goodbye’, ‘Sing Like Me’ and ‘Dueces’ and less Royalty! That said, I’m glad to see him in a chart dominated by the Justin Biebers and One Directions!
I like both albums I’m a Fan if Monica & Chris Brown have all there albums & forever a #FAN!
Damn Chris fan could not even get him to #1. What Chris did wrong was give Teambreezy a free mixtape.
Monicas album was garbage! And I dont care to listen to CB’s.
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Furthermore Monica sold more than Jackie’s first week but still debut @ #27 when Jackie debuted @ #17…… What is going on in this market and these damn charts….
I see what you did there, you’re not slick b****.
Everyone has sold more than Ciara, and the pathetic part of it all about your fav, is the fact that her promo was on fleek, with a semi sort of hit single, but yet did 19k. Now that’s some sad s***. Fyi, the only R&B album released in the last two years that was Garbage, was your fav.
Monica stans hiding behind Beyhive names to write essays…Ok.
Monicas album is still garbage babe… And The Platinum Selling “iBet” says How You Doin?
Did this weak b**** just say i’m hiding behind the Beyhive name. B**** I am BEYHIVE, i’m not a weak ass h** like some of these c**** on here, you included. This is the f****** Internet, If I have something to say, i’ll f****** say it, so you can keep that s*** to yourself. Secondly, you’re hype over a platinum single lol b**** please, how basic. Now go count your fav’s flop albums and singles, that should keep you up for a while.
You seem a bit mad doll? everything ok at home?
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Lol you Keyboard Warriors are a kii
Girl please, my life is amazing, and i’m far from mad. What I am, is annoyed, because you Ciara stans are f****** disgusting, inside and out, just like your fav.
C-error stans coming for Monica though????
They stay coming for people who s*** on their fav, for ex, Beyonce, Rihanna, Monica, Brandy, Aaliyah, Adele, Jasmine S, and so on. They have got to be the most pathetic fan base there is.
They disgust me and it’s sad because Ciara is so adorable and sweet. Her stans aren’t a great representation of her.
Bittch Monicas album debuted @ #27, how is that coming for Monica, Thats facts boo. U need to learn the difference… If I wanted to come for her, I dont have a problem doing so, I actually like Mo, The fact that you didnt come for a Walmart to purchase her album, or iTunes to purchase her singles says alot about how much u care.
You sound like a damn fool, I know you are not referencing whether or not Monicas album was purchased. I mind you, Monica’s album sold 36K copies, while your girl sold 19k, see the significant difference. Your fav will always be R&B’s lessor. Aaliyah, Brandy, Monica, Beyonce, Rihanna and others, and then theres Ciara. No your place b#/#*.
R&B artist are all doing the same numbers “with the exception of Ciara”. With that said, I absolutely love Monica’s album, and Chris’s wasn’t that bad.
U can keep taking diggs at Ciara, Bish she is still here and very relevant.
Only RnB platinum single by a female in 2015 belongs to who?
You cant take away her success. No matter how poorly the parent album did.
Girl hush, selling 19k doesn’t equate to relevance, it equates to irrelevance.
Monica released a great body of work & that’s all that matters. I’m not interested in Chris brown but congrats to him!!
1989 sold another 58,000 copies last week! Amazing it’s still selling so good:)
@Mark Here you go with your delusion ass from Billboard themselves. And Music was tracked from Monday- Sundy lmaoooooo
..
“Beyonce Breaks U.S. iTunes Sales Record, Sells 617,000 in Three Days”
JC is dragging! These Hoodnica stans are so bothered because Code Dead was DOA!!!
Damn, Ciara stans are forever getting brutally dragged lol.
That’s because they’re always talking s***, and not knowing there place.
Girl bye. Monigga flopped, deal.
Monigga? Ugh, you’re ignorance is showing b****. Fyi if Monica’s a flop for selling 37K, what do you call your talentless fav for selling 19k. Once again, know your place. You bitchs are too easy.
Your
JC already have you the business honey. Ciara is very relevant and her platinum plaque is sitting pretty on her mantle piece. Monica hasn’t been relevant since Clinton was in office, and I ain’t talking Lewinsky.
Lol..Girl you can miss me with that relevance crap. You stan for Ciara, that alone is a joke in itself..lol As for your fellow Zquad member, the only thing she handed over was more proof that you bitchs are easy game.
Poor Flopica!!
Lol Nice try b****, next time say it under your real account. Once again, know your place b**** lol.
There won’t be a second single either, She should’ve just shelved Code Blue!
LOL @ C-Trannys fans getting dragged kii LOL I live!
Anyway lol Congrats to both Chris and Monica, considering r&b’s current climate. Their albums are really good as well.
Dragged? Bish where?!
From here to the depths LOL.
http://dc220.4shared.com/img/iACNEKTr/s7/13ee2247058/dragged.gif
As long as Monica’s “Code Red” outsold Ciara’s “Jackie” then Mo is doing just fine!
I love Code Red! The song writing is blazing and her vocals just add to it
Real talk Monicas album is garbage! but when I tell you Jazmine Sullivan album is that bump!!!
Good for Chris brown and Monica
Monica’s a bigger flop than ciara
A bigger flop??? Sales doesn’t define an artist body of work. Y’all new age millennials are too caught up with sales.
Monica “Code Red 35,656
Ciara “Jackie” 25,000
R.Kelly “Buffet” 39,000
Usher “Hard Love” 38,000
Fantasia “The Definition of” 32,000
Tamar Braxton “Calling All Lovers” 43,000
Keke Wyatt “Rated Love” —-
SWV “Still” 10,000
Sang Mo! #Anchor https://youtu.be/IgLZe2MWUmI