Elite 100: YoungBoy Never Broke Again Still On Top, Gucci Mane Hits No. 14

Still riding high on the release of Al Youngboy 2 on Oct. 11, YoungBoy Never Broke Again led the chart in on-demand streams, with 153.7 million for the week. This made up the bulk of his 133,600 album units for the week. 

As previously discussed last week, YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s star has risen in the concert and recorded music sectors, but he might not be on the road for awhile as he is reportedly under house arrest after a series of legal troubles. 

Whenever he does return, his live numbers are also the real deal, as he reported three grosses of more than $100,000 in 2018.

The highest charting artist with a new album on the week is Gucci Mane, who came in at No. 14 with 42,800 album after the Oct. 18 release of Woptober II. The majority of Guwop’s figures came from his 48.4 million on-demand streams, though he also logged 11,700 song sales.

Gucci Mane’s early career was marred with legal and personal difficulties, but since his highly publicized marriage with Keyshia Ka’Oir in 2017, he has mostly stayed out of trouble and turned his attention to business interests including his own clothing label Delantic, an acting career, and now as a collaborator with the Gucci brand.

He took on his first full-fledged headline tour in 2017 and has become a major presence at festivals. He reported a gross of $244,068 at Fox Theatre in his home market of Atlanta in 2018 and also opened for The Weeknd in 2017.

Widely credited as one of the inventors of the “trap” hip-hop subgenre, Gucci Mane’s recorded music catalogue includes more than a dozen studio albums and more than 70 mixtapes and over the years he helped propel the careers of countless artists with features, collaborations, and signings onto his label, 1017 records. 

Further down the chart G-Eazy enters at No. 34 after the Oct. 18 release of Scary Nights. His strongest metric was on-demand streams, with 27.8 million for the week. 

G-Eazy’s co-manager Matt Bauerschmidt spoke to Pollstar last year about building a career on the road. 

“We’ve built his hard tickets, we’ve built his touring. Even the corporate soft tickets or corporate/private events,” Bauerschmidt told Pollstar. “They’re all different facets to build separately and individually. Some of them kind correspond to each other and some of them don’t. You could be a big festival act but not move any hard tickets. Or you could be a good hard-ticket act but nobody is trying to see you at a festival. You gotta build all the different aspects.”

G-Eazy was arrested for assault and cocaine possession in Sweden last year, but has since mostly avoided trouble. He headlined Rolling Loud Bay Area this year, a home-market performance for the rapper.

Wale entered the chart at No. 18 last week and this week came in at No. 44, largely thanks to 27.2 million on-demand streams. His latest album, Wow… That’s Crazy, features the hit single “On Chill” featuring Jeremih.

Often an unsung hero of hip-hop, Wale is also a huge professional wrestling fan. Ahead of this year’s Wrestlemania he put on Walemania at Sony Hall in New York, the fifth installment of his fan-oriented event. Organizers reported 766 tickets sold for that event, with a gross of $28,495.

Cody Jinks comes in at No. 58 with 20,800 album units for the week after the Oct. 18 release of The Wanting. He came in just under The Beatles in album sales, with 11,600 albums sold, compared to 11,900 from the Fab 4. This was the second album he released in two weeks after the Oct. 11 release of After the Fire. 

He is scheduled to tour throughout North America in November, with a two-night at Robinson Performance Hall in Little Rock, Ark., Nov. 14-15.

Alter Bridge led the chart in album sales for the week, with 15,000 on the week. The band members are guitarist Myles Kennedy and former Creed members Mark Tremonti (guitar), Brian Marshall (bass), and Scott Phillips (drummer). 

Next week’s chart will include data for new releases from Kanye West, Grace Potter, Van Morrison, Old Dominion, FKA Twigs, Allison Moorer, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Cigarettes After Sex, The Oak Ridge Boys, The Muffs, and Rex Orange County.

Also be on the lookout for new projects from Hootie And The Blowfish, Miranda Lambert, Jeff Lynne’s ELO, Gang Starr, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Kiwanuka,  DDG, Yelawolf, Cold War Kids, and Stalley.