As Billboard reported on Monday (July 10), Lil Uzi Vert’s Pink Tape enters the Billboard 200 at No. 1 in the issue dated July 15. That’s the latest in the calendar year we’ve had to wait to see a rap album at No. 1 since 1993, when Cypress Hill’s Black Sunday rang the bell on Aug. 7.
In every other year since 1989, the first album to reach No. 1 did so in the first half of the year.
Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill was the first rap album to top the Billboard 200, reaching No. 1 on March 7, 1987. No rap albums reached No. 1 in 1988, the last year that that has been the case.
2Pac had the year’s first rap album to reach No. 1 four times, more than any other rapper. He had the first rap album to reach No. 1 in 1995 and 1996, while he was still living, and in 2001 and 2005, after his death. The rapper was killed in a drive-by shooting in September 1996 at the age of 25.
DMX had the first rap album to reach No. 1 three times – in 1998, 1999 and 2000. He’s the only rapper to have the year’s first rap album to reach No. 1 in three consecutive years. The rapper died in April 2021 at age 50.
Rick Ross and Nicki Minaj each had the first rap album to reach No. 1 twice. Ross scored in 2008 and 2009; Minaj in 2011 and 2012. Minaj is the only female artist to have the first No. 1 rap album of a year.
One soundtrack was the first rap album to hit No. 1 in a calendar year. That was Gridlock’d (1997), which featured such stars as 2Pac and Snoop Doggy Dogg (as he was then billed).
One supergroup collective has had the first No. 1 rap album of the year. That happened in 2020 when Jackboys achieved the feat. The group comprised Travis Scott, Sheck Wes, Don Toliver and Chase B.
Five times, a rap album was the first album to top the Billboard 200 in a calendar year. Once, this was true in back-to-back years. The first album to reach No. 1 in 2018 was Eminem’s Revival. The first to achieve the feat in 2019 was 21 Savage’s I Am > I Was.
Here’s a complete list of the first rap albums to reach No. 1 in each calendar year:
1987: Beastie Boys, Licensed to Ill (March 7)
1988: none
1989: Tone Lōc, Lōc-ed After Dark (April 15)
1990: MC Hammer, Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ’Em (June 9)
1991: Vanilla Ice, To the Extreme (Jan. 5)
1992: Kris Kross, Totally Krossed Out (May 23)
1993: Cypress Hill, Black Sunday (Aug. 7)
1994: Snoop Doggy Dogg: Doggystyle (Jan. 15)
1995: 2Pac, Me Against the World (April 1)
1996: 2Pac, All Eyez on Me (March 2)
1997: Soundtrack, Gridlock’d (Feb. 15)
1998: DMX, It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot (June 6)
1999: DMX, Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood (Jan. 9)
2000: DMX, …And Then There Was X (Jan. 8)
2001: 2Pac, Until the End of Time (April 14)
2002: Big Tymers, Hood Rich (May 18)
2003: 50 Cent, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (Feb. 22)
2004: OutKast, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (Jan. 10)
2005: 2Pac, Loyal to the Game (Jan. 1)
2006: Juvenile, Reality Check (March 25)
2007: Nas, Hip Hop Is Dead (Jan. 6)
2008: Rick Ross, Trilla (March 29)
2009: Rick Ross, Deeper Than Rap (May 9)
2010: Ludacris, Battle of the Sexes (March 27)
2011: Nicki Minaj, Pink Friday (Feb. 19)
2012: Nicki Minaj, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (April 21)
2013: ASAP Rocky, Long.Live.ASAP (Feb. 2)
2014: Schoolboy Q, Oxymoron (March 15)
2015: Drake, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late (Feb. 28)
2016: Future, Evol (Feb. 27)
2017: Migos, Culture (Feb. 18)
2018: Eminem, Revival (Jan. 3)
2019: 21 Savage, I Am > I Was (Jan. 5)
2020: Jackboys, Jackboys (Jan. 11)
2021: Playboi Carti, Whole Lotta Red (Jan. 9)
2022: Gunna, DS4Ever (Jan. 22)
2023: Lil Uzi Vert, Pink Tape (July 15)
