Rapper Post Malone sets new record, with most first-week streams ever

Post Malone performs at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, on April 14, 2018. PHOTO: REUTERS

NEW YORK (NYTimes) - Another week, another streaming record for rap music.

Post Malone, the 22-year-old rapper, has topped the Billboard album chart with his second LP, Beerbongs & Bentleys, earning both the largest sales week of the year so far and the most streams ever in a week.

His album moved 461,000 units by the industry's math, combining 153,000 in traditional sales and 431 million plays on streaming services, according to Nielsen.

That easily cleared the previous benchmark of 385 million streams, set by Drake's More Life last year.

The digital dominance was so thorough that out of the 10 most-streamed songs tallied by Nielsen for the week, eight came from Post Malone's album.

Rounding out his monster week, his debut album, Stoney, from December 2016, jumped back into the Top 10 with 40 million streams of its own, good enough for No. 9.

At No. 2 is a more old-school model. Graffiti U by country singer Keith Urban sold a total of 145,000 copies, including just eight million streams.

J. Cole's KOD fell to No. 3 while Cardi B's Invasion Of Privacy is at No. 4 in its fourth week out.

The soundtrack for The Greatest Showman, a persistent chart presence for nearly half a year, fell to No. 5.

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