21 SAVAGE, UCHIS LEAD A FRESH TOP 50

Slaughter Gang/Epic's 21 Savage scores his fourth consecutive #1 debut on the HITS Top 50 with american dream. Savage's third album opens with 130k following chart-topping collaboration projects with Metro Boomin (Savage Mode II) and Drake (Her Loss).

After a lackluster year for hip-hop in 2023, Savage puts rap on the board early in 2024, scoring its first #1 bow.

Geffen's Kali Uchis arrives at #2 with ORQUÍDEAS (ORCHIDS), which opens with 67k. The mostly Spanish-language project is Uchis' biggest debut yet.

Aside from SZA's SOS (TDE/RCA) at #9, House Lipman rounds out the rest of the Top 10 with seven albums. Big Loud/Mercury/Republic's Morgan Wallen is the bellwether of the Republic block at #3, leading sets by Drake, Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, Noah Kahan and ... wait for it ... more Swift. Republic also lands a top bow courtesy of Kid Cudi, who premieres at #13 with INSANO.

Streeting this week are new titles from Reprise's Green Day and BMG's Lil Dicky and a deluxe version of Dolly Parton's ROCKSTAR (which, from our POV, was pretty dang deluxe in the first place). See the full chart here.

We're now a mere seven days from Grammy week. If you take a photo with a HITS nerd at a party, you may be rewarded with seven years of bad puns. Oh, wait, that'll happen regardless. Nevermind.