Taylor Swift Ends Kanye West’s 19-Year Streak Of #1 Album Debuts

Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department has now spent 14 nonconsecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard 200. But this week carries a bit more significance than the previous 13: Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign’s new collaborative album Vultures 2 just debuted at #2, ending Ye’s 19-year streak of #1 album debuts.

For reference, the last time a Kanye West album — solo or otherwise — didn’t debut at #1 was his very first one, The College Dropoutm which entered the chart at #2 in 2004. Swift hadn’t even put out any music yet. But she’s been helping Poets maintain its reign for over three months now by releasing a number of album variants, and not even the power of Brat could conquer it. Only Eminem’s The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) has been able to interrupt Swift’s reign, and only for one week.

Meanwhile, Chappell Roan’s The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess continues to rise, reaching a new peak of #3 in the US. (Her non-album single “Good Luck, Babe!” recently earned her her first Top 10 hit, and she currently has the #1 LP in the UK.) It’s been almost a year since Roan’s album came out, mind you. That’s what we in the biz call “star power.”