Lil Baby’s ‘The Leaks’ Springs to No. 1 on Top Rap Albums Chart

Lil Baby links his fifth consecutive No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Rap Albums chart as The Leaks leaps from No. 25 to crown the list dated Dec. 20. As the project was released on Wednesday, Dec. 3, for the rapper’s 31st birthday, it debuted on last week’s chart from two days of contributing activity for the standard Friday – Thursday tracking week. Its vault to No. 1 comes after its first full tracking period, Dec. 5-11.

For its coronation week, The Leaks, released through 4PF/Wolfpack Global/Quality Control/Motown/Interscope Capitol, earned 32,000 equivalent album units in the United States, according to Luminate. Streaming activity powers virtually all the sum, with negligible amounts of traditional album sales and track-equivalent sales units. (One unit equals the following levels of consumption: one album sale, 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 1,250 paid/subscription tier or 3,750 ad-supported tier of official on-demand audio and video streams for a song on the album.)

Thanks to The Leaks, Lil Baby adds his fifth No. 1 on Top Rap Albums – all consecutive. The Atlanta rapper first ruled with 2020’s My Turn, a six week champ, and followed with his 2021 joint album with Lil Durk, The Voice of the Heroes (three), 2022’s It’s Only Me (three), and this January’s WHAM (one). All four of his previous leaders debuted in the top slot, while The Leaks becomes his first to ascend into the summit.

In addition to the five No. 1s, Lil Baby has landed four more projects on Top Rap Albums. His first appearance, the mixtape Too Hard, debuted and peaked at No. 24 in 2017, while three sets – Harder Than Ever, the Gunna-collaborative Drip Too Hard and Street Gossip – all achieved a No. 2 best in 2018.

Elsewhere, The Leaks surges 41-5 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and 150-17 on the all-genre Billboard 200.

After the first full Leaks week, six of the album’s cuts appear on the Hot Rap Songs chart, led by “Let’s Do It,” with Playboi Carti and Skooly, at No. 6. The track registered 6.5 million official U.S. streams for the week, the highest of the album’s songs. “Let’s Do It” becomes Lil Baby’s 51st top 10 on Hot Rap Songs, Playboi Carti’s 14th and Skooly’s first.

Here’s a review of The Leaks activity on this week’s Hot Rap Songs chart. Beyond the six cuts present, two November releases – “Try to Love” and “Real Shit,” peaked at Nos. 19 and 22, respectively:

No. 6, “Let’s Do It,” with Playboi Carti and Skooly
No. 15, “Superman,” with Young Thug
No. 17, “Mrs. Trendsetter”
No. 20, “What She Like”
No. 23, “Guaranteed”
No. 24, “All on Me,” with G Herbo (peaked at No. 17)