Indie R&B star Brent Faiyaz gets the edge for #1 on this week’s HITS Top 50. After one day of sales and streams, his debut full-length album, WASTELAND—released independently via Ty Baisden's Lost Kids, Troy Carter's Venice and Stem—is projecting 105-115k in total activity.
Wasteland will compete with Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti (Rimas), which we projected last week at just under 112k. It has yet to fall below 100k in the nine weeks since it release.
Should the PULSE-published Faiyaz maintain his lead and finish ahead, it may be the first time since XXXTENTACION’s Skins (Bad Vibes Forever/EMPIRE) hit #1 in December 2018 that the top album has not come from one of the three major distributors or their indie arms.