Steve Lacy‘s Gemini Rights launches on multiple Billboard album charts dated July 30, paced by its No. 1 debut on Top Rock & Alternative Albums.
In the week ending July 21, the set, released July 15, earned 34,000 equivalent album units in the U.S., according to Luminate, with nearly the entirety of its sum via streaming equivalent units.
The genre-bending collection also crowns Top Rock Albums and Top Alternative Albums and starts at No. 2 on Top R&B Albums and No. 3 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
On the all-format Billboard 200, the album bows at No. 7. Lacy’s only prior entry on the list, Apollo XXI, peaked at No. 160 upon its June 2019 debut (7,000 units).
Gemini Rights is Lacy’s first full-length since Apollo XXI. In between the two LPs, songs from Lacy’s catalog went viral on TikTok, spurring heightened anticipation for his follow-up, his first released on RCA. Most notably, “Dark Red,” the title track from his 2017 EP, hit No. 4 on the Rock Streaming Songs chart last September (and concurrently returns at No. 21 for the first time in a month-and-a-half with 4.3 million official U.S. streams).
Concurrently, the new album’s lead single, “Bad Habit,” leaps 50-14 on the Billboard Hot 100 with 17.3 million official U.S. streams, a 78% vault. It also places in the top 10 on Hot Rock Songs (No. 2), Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, Hot Alternative Songs, Hot R&B Songs (No. 3 on each chart) and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (No. 7).
Now being promoted to multiple radio formats, “Habit” is receiving its biggest support (37 plays July 19-25) on SiriusXM’s The Heat, which reports to Billboard‘s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart. Mainstream top 40 is also championing the song, led by Pop Airplay chart panelists KHTS San Diego and WAEB Allentown, Pa. (35 plays each), while Adult Alternative Airplay reporter WFUV New York (15 plays) is the leader at that format.
