Amid Controversy, XXXTentacion Scores His First No. 1 Album

With little promotion, minimal press, no mainstream hit single and serious felony abuse accusations hanging over his head, the 20-year-old Florida rapper XXXTentacion has landed his first Billboard No. 1 album.

“?,” the second official release by XXXTentacion, a breakout from the SoundCloud internet rap scene who has developed into something of a cult figure and lightning rod for controversy, finished with 131,000 album equivalent units in its debut week, including 20,000 albums sold and 159 million streams, according to Nielsen.

Those digital numbers — a marked increase over his debut, “17,” which landed at No. 2 in September — put XXXTentacion in a league, commercially, with acts such as Drake, Migos and Kendrick Lamar. His single, “SAD!,” was alone streamed more than 34 million times for the week — the second-highest total behind only “God’s Plan” by Drake, which has held the No. 1 spot on the overall Billboard singles chart for eight weeks running. (“?” was released by XXXTentacion’s independent Bad Vibes Forever label and distributed by Caroline, a division of Capitol Music Group.)

Such rabid online consumption stands in sharp contrast to XXXTentacion’s reputation as a pariah in some cultural circles. The rapper (born Jahseh Onfroy) was arrested in 2016 on various charges including aggravated battery of a pregnant woman and is on house arrest awaiting trial on additional charges of witness tampering in the case. Although his legal situation has prevented XXXTentacion from touring widely this year, he has tended closely to his vociferous fans on social media, where the rapper has also received support for his work from artists such as Lamar and the Weeknd.

The No. 2 album this week comes from a world away. Metallica’s “Hardwired … to Self-Destruct,” a No. 1 hit when it was released in November 2016, returned with 63,000 albums sold (but just 2 million streams) thanks to a ticket bundle that gave away a copy to anyone attending the next North American leg of the band’s tour. (The same tactic recently put a Bon Jovi album from 2016 back at No. 1, though it dropped to No. 169 the following week.)

The rest of the Top 5 is dominated by streaming hits: The “Black Panther” soundtrack is No. 3 (60 million streams); Logic’s “Bobby Tarantino II,” last week’s chart-topper, is No. 4 (62 million streams); and “Culture II” by Migos is No. 5 (57 million streams).