Neither Anderson .Paak nor Cordae had ever topped Billboard’s Top Rap Albums chart on their own. Together they just did. Heavy Is the Crown debuts at No. 1 on the list, the first leader for each, per Billboard.
The joint album, out Oct. 23, earned 30,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the tracking week of Oct. 23–29, according to Luminate. Album sales made up 19,000 of them and streaming activity added 11,000, with a negligible amount of track-equivalent sales. It also opens at No. 2 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and No. 11 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
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“Airbender” was the biggest song of the week. It debuts at No. 21 on Hot Rap Songs with 2.4 million official U.S. on-demand streams, the most on the album, giving .Paak his first Hot Rap Songs entry and Cordae his fourth.
The chart history tells you how long both have been close. .Paak’s Yes Lawd! with Knxwledge as NxWorries reached No. 3 on Top Rap Albums in November 2016, and Oxnard peaked at No. 5 in December 2018. His Silk Sonic album with Bruno Mars went No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Cordae’s The Lost Boy peaked at No. 6 in August 2019 and From a Birds Eye View at No. 4 in January 2022.
The album is 11 tracks, led by “A Good Day” and a video that pays tribute to Friday. Complex reports that J. Cole, Conductor Williams and Swizz Beatz are among the producers, and the cover art, revealed in August, has the pair doing their best Step Brothers impression. Pitchfork’s Dylan Green, who names 9th Wonder on “You’re Mine” and Virginia’s Hollywood Cole on three songs, calls the record “otherwise fleet and playful,” but says Cordae spends a chunk of it “lagging behind his sparring partner.”
As a shit-talker and lovable Svengali type, .Paak wipes the floor with Cordae without ever leaving first gear, the Buddy Love to his partner’s Sherman Klump.
Dylan Green, in Pitchfork’s review (Oct. 29), Pitchfork
Green does find the pair evenly matched on the story-driven songs, “Helpless” and “Days Go By,” and says Cordae sounds more at ease on them. His bottom line: “there are worse ways to spend 30 minutes.”
- First week
- 30,000 units (19,000 album sales, 11,000 streaming) for the tracking week of Oct. 23–29, per Luminate
- Charts
- No. 1 Top Rap Albums, No. 2 Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, No. 11 Billboard 200
- Top song
- “Airbender,” No. 21 on Hot Rap Songs (2.4 million streams)
- Producers named
- J. Cole, Conductor Williams, Swizz Beatz, 9th Wonder, Hollywood Cole
