Lil Wayne’s long-delayed album a streaming blockbuster

Tha Carter V zooms to No. 1 on Billboard

The wide-scale return of Lil Wayne — one of the most popular rappers of his generation, but one who has been stuck in record-business purgatory for years — has been received enthusiastically, to say the least.

Tha Carter V, his first major release since 2013 and the fifth instalment in a series that last arrived in 2011, debuted with the third-largest overall sales week of the year and the second-biggest streaming total ever on its way to No. 1 on the Billboard chart. The album tallied 480,000 album equivalent units, according to Nielsen Music, including 433 million streams and 141,000 in traditional sales.

Lil Wayne’s fourth No. 1 album, Tha Carter V landed behind only Scorpion, by Lil Wayne protégé Drake, and Astroworld, by Travis Scott, in the rankings of this year’s first-week blockbusters. It found most of its success on streaming services, where only Scorpion was listened to more across a seven-day period (746 million streams in July).

Of the Top 10 songs on streaming services last week, six were by Lil Wayne, including the top four, led by Mona Lisa featuring Kendrick Lamar (43 million) and Don’t Cry featuring Xxxtentacion (36 million), according to Nielsen.

Tha Carter V is the first Lil Wayne album in his twodecade-plus career not to be released by Cash Money Records, the label founded in New Orleans by his mentor and father figure Bryan Williams, better known as Birdman or Baby.

In June, Lil Wayne received a reported eightfigure settlement from Universal Music Group, which oversees Cash Money and Lil Wayne’s own Young Money Records, following a years-long legal battle in which the rapper claimed he had not been appropriately compensated.

Three other new albums followed Lil Wayne’s charttopper. YSIV, released by rapper Logic, reached No. 2 with 167,000 units; Cher’s Dancing Queen, an Abba covers album, landed at No. 3 with 153,000 units; and Luca Brasi 3, by Baton Rouge rapper Kevin Gates, was No. 4. Scorpion, in its 14 th week

OF THE TOP 10 SONGS ON STREAMING SERVICES LAST WEEK, SIX WERE BY LIL WAYNE, INCLUDING THE TOP FOUR.

PARAS GRIFFIN / GETTY IMAGES FOR BET Rapper Lil Wayne cradles his award onstage during the BET Hip Hop Awards on Saturday in Miami Beach.