Juice WRLD's posthumous album dominates Billboard charts

Juice WRLD performs in concert during his "Death Race for Love Tour" at The Skyline Stage at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. Photo / AP

Rapper Juice WRLD's first posthumous album Legends Never Die is alive and well on the music charts.

The 21-track album set several records when it debuted at No 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart this week. With 497,000 equivalent albums sold, based on digital sales and streams, Legends Never Die marks the biggest posthumous debut in 23 years since Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. posthumously released albums in 1997.

Legends Never Die was released July 10. Juice WRLD, born Jarad Anthony Higgins, died of an accidental overdose of oxycodone and codeine in Chicago in December.

The album also logs the biggest one-week sales for any album released this year. The album has earned the largest streaming week of 2020, and the fourth-largest streaming frame ever for an album.

Five songs from Legends Never Die debuted in the Top 10 of the Hot 100 chart this week, including Come & Go (No 2); Wishing Well (No 5); Conversations (No 7); Life's a Mess (No 9); and Hate the Other Side (No 10). Juice WRLD becomes just the third artist to claim five of the Top 10 slots in a single week, following Drake and The Beatles.

This cover image released by Grade A/Interscope shows "Legends Never Die," a release by the late rapper Juice WRLD. Photo / AP

"The overwhelming love that millions of music fans clearly have for Jarad reminds us how much his poetic words, creativity, and bright light continues to shine throughout the world," Juice WRLD's mother, Carmela Wallace, and record label Grade A said in a statement. "This first collection of songs is a poignant reminder of his great artistic talent and emotional honesty. Music was his passion and recording gave him the outlet to share everything he was going through."

Legends Never Die, the late performer's third full-length studio album, features collaborations with Halsey, Marshmello, Trippie Redd and Polo G. He's released several platinum-selling hits, including the Sting-sampled Lucid Dreams, which reached No 2 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart in 2018.

The new album was released on Grade A and Interscope Records, giving the Universal label six of the Top 10 slots on the Hot 100 chart thanks to Juice WRLD's success and DaBaby's Rockstar, which is spending its sixth week on top.

- AP