NAV collects his third No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart as Demons Protected by Angels debuts in the top slot on the chart dated Sept. 24. The set starts with 67,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Sept. 15, according to Luminate.
Of the 67,000-unit starting sum, 45,000 units derive from streaming-equivalent album units, which equals 60.1 million official on-demand streams of the album’s songs. 20,000 units are through traditional album sales, with the remaining sum owed to track-equivalent album units. (One unit equals the following levels of consumption: one album sale, 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams for a song on the album.)
Demons gives the rapper his third champ on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. He previously ruled with Bad Habits (2019) and Good Intentions (2020). Overall, the new leader extends NAV’s streak of consecutive top 10 projects to six. The run began with Perfect Timing (No. 7) in 2017, and continued with Reckless (No. 5, 2018), Bad Habits, Good Intentions, Emergency Tsunami (No. 4, 2020) and now Demons.
Elsewhere, Demons debuts at No. 1 on Top Rap Albums, likewise securing NAV’s third chart-topper there, and opens at No. 2 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
Alongside the album’s entrance, the set’s single, “Never Sleep,” featuring Travis Scott and Lil Baby, rallies 40-22 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, nearing its peak of No. 19 from its debut frame. It captures the weekly Streaming Gainer prize following a 60% surge to 6.8 million official on-demand streams in the week ending Sept. 15, from 4.2 million in the prior week.
Three more Demons cuts generate enough activity to reach the 50-position Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs list: “One Time,” with Don Toliver featuring Future (No. 37), “Dead Shot,” with Lil Uzi Vert (No. 39) and “Playa,” with Gunna (No. 49). The new trio brings NAV to 17 career appearances on the chart since his first, “Some Way,” featuring The Weeknd, landed in 2017.
