On the wings of a confusing and murky rollout, ‘Vultures 2‘ – the latest album from Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign – is set to make a modest landing on next week’s Billboard 200.
Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign’s ‘Vultures 2’
First-Week Sales (SPS): 68,000 units
Billboard 200 Debut: #2
Originally due in March (just weeks after its chart-topping predecessor), ‘Vultures 2’ – with little forewarning – quietly flew on to digital shelves over the first weekend of August.
Between no dominant single to act as a catalyst, slow addition to major streaming platforms like Apple Music, nearly 48 hours of inaugural streaming activity lost due to being released on August 3 instead of the traditional Friday drop, and modest fanfare overall, the project – the second of a three-part installment – is predicted to open to sales of 68,000 units by the end of its first tracking week.
If the prediction proves true the figures mark just enough to give West and $ign a #2 finish on the next print of the Billboard 200 as the former’s longtime nemesis, Taylor Swift, is on track to move nearly double that final figure with her blockbuster album ‘The Tortured Poets Department‘ (which has already spent a historic 13 weeks at #1).
Should Swift be printed atop the next installment of the all-genre chart she will effectively end West’s nearly 20-year streak of chart-toppers dating back to his 2005 sophomore album ‘Late Registration.’
Although his string of #1s was technically broken in 2018 with the #2 arrival of his Kid Cudi-assisted album ‘Kids See Ghosts,‘ the project was credited to the group Kids See Ghosts and not its individual contributors (thereby leaving West’s streak intact at the time).