21 Savage‘s American Dream appears to be headed for a second week as the No. 1 album in the country.
According to a report from Hits Daily Double on Tuesday (January 23), the rapper’s new album is projected to top the Billboard 200 with 69k album-equivalent units in its second week – which follows the 133k in its opening week.
American Dream marks 21’s fourth No. 1 album and narrowly surpasses the first-week sales of his last solo LP, 2018’s i am > i was, which opened with 131,000 units. It went on to be nominated for Best Rap Album at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.
21’s largest sales weeks still come from his high-profile collaborations, though, with Her Loss alongside Drake earning an impressive 404,000 first-week units and his Savage Mode 2 album with Metro Boomin achieving 171,000 units.
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Released on January 12, American Dream was announced just days prior to its release and boasts features from Young Thug, Travis Scott, Lil Durk, Summer Walker, Brent Faiyaz and more.
An accompanying biopic starring Donald Glover, Caleb McLaughlin and 21 Savage himself is set to arrive on July 4. The film, also called American Dream, chronicles his journey from his birthplace of London to the U.S., where he moved with his mother at the age of seven.
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In a 3.5 out of 5 review, HipHopDX‘s Will Schube praised (the album) American Dream‘s “deeply intimate” lyricism, writing: “The album is at its best when 21 taps into this pathos. The dead-eyed nihilism of Savage Mode is almost entirely gone, and even the victory lap theatrics of i am > i was don’t really appear.
“There’s no need for gimmicks like on Issa Album or Savage Mode II. Instead, American Dream is 21 Savage at his most deeply intimate, treating the recording booth like a diary, examining his life and career from a 30,000 foot view.”
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In other news, 21 is tied with SZA for nominations in the upcoming iHeartRadio Awards, nabbing a total of eight nods each.
On Thursday (January 18), iHeart Media announced the nominations, which include a total of seven brand new categories. Taylor Swift also picked up eight nominations.
The Collaboration Of The Year category finds three of 21 Savage’s 2023 hits — “Rich Flex” with Drake, Metro Boomin‘s “Creepin,” and “Good Good” alongside Usher & Summer Walker — competing against tracks by Lil Durk, Nicki Minaj and GloRilla, to name a few.
The Slaughtergang boss is also nominated for Song of the Year, Hip-Hop Artist of the Year, and twice for R&B Song of the Year.
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SZA beat out Beyoncé as the most nominated R&B artist, picking up nominations for Artist of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Music Video, among others. The TDE songbird also picked up nominations for Pop Song of the Year and Pop Artist of the Year, which are both new categories in 2024.