Tyler, The Creator’s album Chromakopia has debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, achieving impressive first-week sales.
His eighth album opened at the top of the chart with 299,500 equivalent units, as reported by Billboard. This total includes 157,000 units from on-demand streams (amounting to 212.55 million) and 142,000 from album sales, with the remaining 500 coming from TEA (track equivalent album) units.
This makes Chromakopia the second highest-selling rap album of the year, surpassed only by Travis Scott’s 2014 mixtape Days Before Rodeo, which sold 361,000 units.
The sales also mark the strongest opening week in Tyler’s career, outpacing his previous chart-toppers IGOR (165,000 units) and Call Me If You Get Lost (169,000).
Notably, Chromakopia achieved these figures despite a shorter tracking week due to its release on a Monday rather than the usual Friday.
In other Billboard 200 news, Eminem’s The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) made a significant leap from number 44 to number six following its vinyl release, months after its initial drop. Rod Wave’s Last Lap remains in the top five, while GloRilla’s debut album Glorious fell from number seven to number ten.
After the release of Chromakopia, Tyler shared his favorite moments from each of the album’s 14 tracks, detailing specific sounds and insights from the critically acclaimed work. He noted, “At 1:54 of ST CHROMA, that siren and low end together feels like a blast wave after an explosion.” He also mentioned, “The ’20 thousand on me…’ part of RAH TAH TAH, the delivery is from a dumb joke of mine but I couldn’t get it outta my head, why not record it?”
Tyler expressed his enthusiasm for the music, stating, “That JUDGE JUDY bridge…..what! the synth lead out of it? donald’s descending harmonies on the last verse? the ending keeps transposing up, this my favorite song, it’s very tyler coded with every sound I’ve always used.”
He highlighted the impact of the brass in STICKY, saying, “I really love how the brass only comes in on the last hook, that climax pays off. and it feels so much bigger cause Wayne whispers right before it charges in.”
After sharing insights on the remaining tracks, Tyler concluded with gratitude to his fans: “Thank you all for listening.”
