Will Lil Child or Dangerous Bunny Have the No. 1 Album Subsequent Week?

The Contenders is a midweek column that appears at artists aiming for the highest of the Billboard charts, and the methods at the back of their efforts. This week, for the impending Billboard 200 albums chart dated Jan. 18, 2025, we take a look at whether or not new releases from Lil Child or Dangerous Bunny can unseat a reigning blockbuster that dates again to 2022.  

Lil Child, WHAM (High quality Keep watch over/Motown): One of the most greatest names in track on the flip of the 2020s, Atlanta rapper Lil Child has been much less dominant at the charts the previous couple years however nonetheless attracts a great deal of consideration each day trip. On Friday (Jan. 2), he launched his new set WHAM – no longer named after the ‘80s U.K. duo who simply hit a brand new height of No. 3 at the Billboard Sizzling 100 with the vacation staple “Closing Christmas,” however an acronym status for Who Onerous as Me – with 15 logo new cuts, together with options from fellow ATL superstars Long term, Younger Thug and 21 Savage and different large names like Travis Scott, GloRilla and Rod Wave.  

The set is off to a robust get started on streaming – in particular on Apple Track, the place it continues to muddle the highest 100 of its real-time chart 5 days after launch, whilst additionally claiming the No. 1 spot with the Long term and Thug teamup “Dum, Dumb and Dumber.” It must even be helped by means of gross sales of the set’s deluxe virtual version on Child’s webstore to be had for $4.99, which boasts 4 new songs no longer recently to be had on DSPs, together with every other Long term collab in “99.” (He additionally has a regular CD in the stores at his webstore, together with a pair “Fan Packs” that come with further merch, providing a bargain at the CD if you purchase the merch together with it.)  

It must all upload as much as WHAM having a gorgeous excellent likelihood to make it large at the Billboard 200 subsequent week. If it may possibly declare the highest spot, it could be Lil Child’s fourth consecutive talk over with there this decade, after prior to now hitting No. 1 with 2020’s My Flip, 2021’s Lil Durk teamup The Voice of the Heroes and 2022’s It’s Simplest Me.  

Dangerous Bunny, Debí Tirar Más Fotos (Rimas): Some other one of the vital greatest stars of the early 2020s, Dangerous Bunny dropped his new album Debí Tirar Más Fotos (I Must Have Taken Extra Footage) on Sunday (Jan. 5). The 17-track LP – which incorporates only a handful of collaborations, and none with household-name artists – has been hailed by means of critics as a “homecoming” for the artist born Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, who spends a lot of the set dabbling in genres local to his house nation of Puerto Rico like salsa and plena.  

Fotos has noticed tough early returns on streaming, although it has but to supply a transparent breakout hit, and neither of its advance tracks (“El Clúb” or “Pitorro de Coco”) made a lot of an impact at the Sizzling 100 upon their launch. The album may be recently to be had for bodily launch, with just a virtual model to be had on his webstore and iTunes for $4.99. Its debut numbers may also indubitably be dampened by means of the set’s Sunday launch, because of this it is going to be lacking two days’ value of intake from its first week of monitoring.  

Nonetheless, Dangerous Bunny will all the time be an element within the Billboard 200 albums race when he releases a brand new LP. Like Lil Child, he has despatched his final 3 albums this decade to No. 1 at the chart: 2020’s El Último Excursion del Mundo, 2022’s Un Verano Sin Ti and 2023’s Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana.  

SZA, SOS (Most sensible Dawg/RCA): SZA’s R&B sophomore blockbuster SOS had already been a 10-week No. 1 at the Billboard 200 from overdue 2022 to early 2023, and one of the crucial acclaimed and liked albums of the primary part of the 2020s. However at first of this 12 months, SOS returned to the highest of the chart, due to a spice up equipped by means of the discharge of its deluxe version, titled LANA. The re-release featured 14 utterly new cuts (in addition to the prior to now launched Sizzling 100 height 10 hit “Saturn”), together with “30 for 30,” a collaboration along with her upcoming stadium excursion co-headliner Kendrick Lamar.  

The set has now reigned at the Billboard 200 for the primary two chart weeks of the calendar 12 months, with six-figure gadgets posted in every body. The ones numbers will most probably slip slightly within the 3rd week of launch for LANA, however bearing in mind SOS remained one of the vital top-streamed albums for years after its launch even earlier than she dropped the deluxe version – it used to be nonetheless No. 15 at the Billboard 200 within the ultimate chart week of 2024 – it must nonetheless be an overly robust performer at the chart subsequent week, and infrequently a low bar to transparent for both Child or Bunny.