The kings of rap must be sitting pretty high on their thrones right now. Kanye West and Jay-Z’s collaboration album, Watch The Throne, has posted some very impressive first week sales numbers.
The album raked in 290,000 downloads off iTunes in its first week, making it the best first week digital seller of all time. The previous record was held by Coldplay for Viva La Vida, which sold 288,000 downloads.
In terms of retail stores, the disc is expected to move at least 400,000 to 500,000 copies, which would have it debuting at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 200.
Attributing to the album’s success is two things, Kanye’s G.O.O.D. Friday campaign last year as well as the fact that the album didn’t leak. Together, these two things ensured that Watch The Throne would sell big.
Billboard got the scoop on how the kings prevented the leak. An unnamed source told them that:
“Fingerprint-protected hard drives were used to keep “Watch the Throne” music. The hard drives were kept in locked suitcases, and email was never used for the project. They must come in person for the recording sessions which were held in pop-up studios in hotel rooms around the world. Wi-fi on their computers was required to be turned off when they were on work.”
It’s not like Kanye West or Jay-Z really need anymore money or fame but you still have to hand it to them, these guys are the kings of the rap game and have undoubtedly immortalized themselves in music history. Their collaboration album is excellent and truly shows us why they deserve so much respect.
If you haven’t already, make sure you check out our Watch The Throne review.