Exactly, thats when he became Jay Z

Plus kanye came back from a fatal accident, to beat making and rapping

Plus he had jay Z on his album

Didn’t read thread but I’m guessing someone mentioned he already had a number one billboard song before the album dropped. Radio used to matter back then.

Kanye came in with hits + appealed to more audiences.

He appealed to hip hop fans because they aware of his production and the features on CD.

He also appealed to suburban audiences cause he never portrayed himself as a hood nigga and was the first rapper to openly rap about their insecurities.

slow jamz was huge

Different eras tbf

Gen z alert

Nobody talks about how 9/11s impact on flex career

Slow jamz was the one all the early Kanye haters called "his only good song"

I love you fam

I would cop if it was Kanye

9/11 never forget. Cost the lives of millions of innocent muslims

This still kills me

omg

400k on 9/11 is insane

The ratio on this is one of the wildest I've ever seen

Crying

Something something lock yourself in a room doin' five beats a day for three summers that's a different world like three summers I deserve to do these numbers

Real

Cause Kanye more mainstream appeal. Same with Drake doing better fw numbers than WTT with his first album

While Jay regarded as the goat rapper inside the hiphop community his style has less mainstream appeal than Kanyes. Ye is arguably the bigger/more popular artist worldwide

Besides that, Jay never was the biggest out. Even in his prime

No, The real reason is 9/11, that's all.
And the number are insane when you know the context. Jay-Z fanbase is/was the biggest in NYC, and I don't think people wanted to buy absolutely an album when your city is falling apart at that time.

Okay so what about Jay-Zs other albums?

:clap: solid bait

all of jays album from vol 2 forward did solid/great first weeks then continued to chart well. y'all put too much power in first week numbers. yes it shows how well it was promoted to hype an artist up but the lasting power comes in how long it sticks around for.