On the Charts: A Tribe Called Quest Score First Number One in 20 Years

Twenty years and three months after A Tribe Called Quest last topped the Billboard 200 with Beats, Rhymes and Life, the hip-hop group returned to the Number One spot with their “final” album We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service.

We Got It From Here…, a sendoff to the group’s late Phife Dawg, sold 135,000 total copies in its debut week, giving A Tribe Called Quest its second Number One album. Besides Beats, Rhymes and Life and We Got It From Here…, the group’s only other Top Five album, 1998’s The Love Movement – ATCQ’s last LP before their long hiatus – peaked at Number Three.

As Billboard notes, the 20 years between Number Ones is the biggest gap in chart history for a hip-hop act, eclipsing Jeezy’s recently set record of eight years between Billboard 200 chart toppers.

The late Leonard Cohen‘s You Want It Darker jumped from Number 48 in the week before his death to Number Seven following news of his passing. You Want It Darker, which debuted at Number 10 upon release, sold 30,000 total copies. The Essential Leonard Cohen also landed at Number 13 this week.

Besides A Tribe Called Quest, only one other new release cracked the Billboard 200’s Top 10 as Sting‘s 57th and 9th ended the week at Number Nine and 28,000 total copies.

With the holiday season approaching, Pentatonix’s A Pentatonix Christmas jumped from Number Four to Number Two, where it was followed by the Trolls soundtrack (Number Three), Rae Sremmurd’s Mannequin Challenge-assisted Sremmlife 2 (Number Four), Drake’s Views (Number Five) and the Hamilton cast recording (Number Six). The Chainsmokers’ Collage EP at Number Eight and the Suicide Squad soundtrack at Number 10 rounded out the Top 10.

Next week, Metallica will aim to retake Number One for the sixth consecutive studio album with Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, but they’ll face heavy competition from Bruno Mars‘ 24K Magic and Miranda Lambert’s The Weight of These Wings.