This thread was inspired by @Thread 's post in this thread

Essentially, we were discussing collab album first week sales, and @Thread made a logical point - when two artists drop a collab album, it should theoretically do first week, approximately the sum of their last solo first weeks.

However, historically, we see that collab albums usually do less than the bigger artists solo first week, but more than the smaller artists solo first week.

I had a slow work day today so decided to compile some numbers. I took every relevant collab project I can think of, and compared it against the solo artists previous solo projects. It's important to note that I tried my best to compare the same type of project. For example, if the collab project was a collab mixtape, I would compare it to both artists most recent prior solo mixtape - even if there was an album between.

There were some exceptions which I couldn't avoid, which I noted below.

My findings are below -

Artist A is the first artist listed, Artist B is the second artist listed.

The Numbers

• Drake - For All The Dogs (2023) - 402000 /// PARTYNEXTDOOR - P4 (2024) - 37000 /// $$$4U (2025) - 246000
• Drake - If You're Reading This, It's Too Late (2015) - 535000 /// Future - DS2 (2015) - 151000 /// WATTBA (2015) - 375000
• Drake - Honestly, Nevermind (2022) - 204000 /// 21 Savage - Savage Mode 2 (2020) - 171000 /// Her Loss (2022) - 404000
• Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) - 496000 /// JAY Z - The BluePrint 3 (2009) - 476000 /// Watch The Throne (2011) - 436000
• Kanye West - Ye (2018) - 208000 /// Kid Cudi - Pain, Passion & Demon Slayin' (2009) - 49000 /// Kids See Ghotsts (2018) - 142000
• Kanye West - Donda (2021) - 309000 /// Ty Dolla $ign - Featuring Ty Dolla $ign (2020) - 44000 /// Vultures 1 - 148000
• Kanye West - Donda (2021) - 309000 /// Ty Dolla $ign - Featuring Ty Dolla $ign (2020) - 44000 /// Vultures 2 - 108000
• R. Kelly - TP-2.com (2000) - 543000 /// JAY Z - The BluePrint (2001) - 427000 /// The Best Of Both Worlds (2002) - 223000
• JAY Z - The Black Album (2003) - 463000 /// R. Kelly - Happy People/U Saved Me (2004) - 403000 /// Unfinished Business (2004) - 215000
• Beyonce - Lemonade (2016) - 485000 /// JAY Z - 4:44 (2017) - 262000 /// Everything Is Love - 123000
• Eminem - Recovery (2010) - 741000 /// Royce Da 5'9" - Street Hop (2009) - 24000 /// Hell: The Sequel - 171000
• Future - Hndrxx (2017) - 121000 /// Young Thug - Beautiful Thugger Girls (2017) - 37000 /// Super Slimey (2017) - 75000
• Future - Beast Mode 2 (2018) - 57000 /// Juice Wrld - Goodbye & Good Riddance (2018) - 39000 /// Wrld On D**** (2018) - 98000
• Lil Uzi Vert - Eternal Atake (2020) - 288000 /// Future - High Off Life (2020) - 153000 /// Pluto x Baby Pluto (2020) - 105000
• Lil Wayne - Tha Carter II (2005) - 240000 /// Birdman - Fast Money (2005) - 65000 /// Like Father, Like Son (2006) - 176000
• Lil Baby - Harder Than Ever (2018) - 71000 /// Gunna - Drip Season 3 (2018) - 12000 /// Drip Harder - 130000
• Lil Baby - My Turn (2020) - 197000 /// Lil Durk - The Voice (2020) - 23000 /// Voice of the Heroes - 150000
• Quavo (of Migos) - Culture (2017) - 131000 /// Travis Scott - Birds In The Trap Sing Brian McKnight (2016) - 88000 /// Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho (2017) - 90000
• Offset (of Migos) - Culture (2017) - 131000 /// 21 Savage - Issa Album (2017) - 77000 /// Without Warning (2017) - 53000
• Wiz Khalifa - Rolling Papers (2011) - 197000 /// Snoop Dogg - Doggumentary (2011) - 50000 /// Mac & Devin Go To HighSchool (2011) - 38000
• NBA YoungBoy - Until I Return (2020) - 31000 /// Rich The Kid - Boss Man (2020) - 19500 /// Nobody Safe (2020) - 19000
• NBA YoungBoy - Colors (2022) - 80000 /// DaBaby - Back On My Baby Jesus S*** Again (2021) - 16072 /// Better Than You (2022) - 28500
• Lil Wayne - Funeral (2020) - 139000 /// 2 Chainz - Dope Don't Sell Itself (2022) - 19000 /// Welcome 2 Collegrove (2023) - 34000
• Nas - Untitled (2008) - 187078 /// Damian Marley - Welcome To Jamrok (2005) - 86000 /// Distant Relatives (2010) - 57000
• Fabolous - The Young OG Project (2014) - 71000 /// Jadakiss - Top 5 Dead or Alive (2015) - 60000 /// Friday On Elm Street (2017) - 35000
• Chris Brown - X (2014) - 146000 /// Tyga - Hotel California (2013) - 54000 /// Fan of a Fan: The Album (2015) - 66000
• Bow Wow - The Price of Fame (2006) - 262000 /// Omarion - 21 (2006) - 119000 /// Face Off (2007) - 107000

Notes

• Future did not have a solo commercial mixtape released prior to WATTBA, so I used DS2 (solo album) numbers for comparison.

• I used Savage Mode 2 for 21 Savage, technically a collaboration album, as it is a collaboration with a producer rather than another rapper/artist. Otherwise, I would have had to use his 2018 solo album, which is 4 years removed from Her Loss.

• The numbers for Street Hop may be incorrect - they're from an obscure site. The album debuted at 110 on Billboard Top 200. Additionally, Hell: The Sequel was a collaboration EP, however, neither artists had solo EP's released near the collab EP which sales I could have used, so I opted to use their last solo albums.

• Future did not have a solo commercial mixtape released prior to Super Slimey, so I used Hndrxx (solo album) numbers for comparison.

• I used Beast Mode 2 for Future, technically a collaboration mixtape, as it is a collaboration with a producer rather than another rapper/artist. I used Good Bye & Good Riddance for Juice WRLD despite it being an album (and Wrld On D**** being a mixtape) as he had no previous commercial mixtapes.

• Drip Season 3 numbers are from a tweet with no source and may be incorrect. It debuted at 55 on Billboard Top 200.

• Migos members did not have solo albums at this time so I used group album numbers for comparison.

• Migos members did not have solo albums at this time so I used group album numbers for comparison.

• Rich The Kid did not have a solo commercial mixtape released prior to Nobody Safe, so I used Boss Man (solo album) numbers for comparison

• DaBaby did not have a solo commercial mixtape released prior to Better Than You, so I used Back On My Baby Jesus S*** Again (solo EP) numbers for comparison

MOREOVER, I FOUND THAT COLLAB PROJECTS SAW

• a 36% decrease in sales first week from the bigger artists previous solo project of the same type
• a 142% increase in sales first week from the smaller artists previous solo project of the same type
• a 10% decrease in sales of the average first weeks between both artists previous solo projects of the same type

WHY IS THIS?
There seem to be multiple factors to this.

For the JAY Z and R Kelly collab albums for example, they did much less than both artists previous solo albums. I think this is because there is little overlap in their fanbases (relatively), and casual listeners of both artists tuned out.

For projects like Drip Harder, which did significantly better than Lil Baby and Gunna's previous solo mixtapes - I think this can be atributed to the rises they saw in the short time between their respective collab mixtapes and their solo mixtapes.

For projects like Fan of a Fan: The Album or $$$4U, casual fans of the bigger artist (Drake/Chris Brown) don't care about the smaller artist (PND/Tyga), but the core fanbase is enough to bolster the sales atleast over the smaller artists solo projects.

For projects like Watch the Throne, the numbers are relatively similar to their solo first weeks. I think this is due to much crossover in their fanbases - where even causal fans are fans of both artists.

In. Thank you, OP, for having made such a detailed thread on subject matter.

good thread op, on mobile the images are barely readable tho

S*** - will fix when im home

fixed with a pretty chart via ChatGPT

informative

take notes! @fader luv!

I didnt so all this math and make graphs to get 4 replies

what am I supposed to do with this information

Nice how Watch the Throne is still #1 after all this time

Be informed

Are you informed?

I put so much work into this thread for it to not even hit 2 pages smh

Stopped at the theoretically should do both their solo first weeks combined. What if the fan base overlaps. Let’s say their fan base overlaps completely, then they would prob only do the first week numbers of one solo album, theoretically….

too wordy imo

Keep reading lmao thats my entire point

great thread unfortunately no one on this site cares about actual discussion anymore

this is a good read but I have to point out that it is not logical that a collab album first week sales should be "the sum of the two artists solo first weeks". like no disrespect but thats toddler logic

literally my first thought

craziest part is i never knew there was a yb x dababy project

Dumb idea for a thread theres context behind every number

Youre right its not logical, maybe i should have used a diff word

I meant more as a point that I see thrown around alot