Key Significant Benchmarks in the African American Black Music industry Pt 9

     

Anomaly number-one album

Rap artist extraordinaire Lecrae

Thus, Anomaly is the first title to be crowned number-one on both the Billboard Gospel Albums Chart and the Billboard 200 Albums Chart by an African American Hip Hop gospel artist.  In terms of the latter achievement, it follows Chris Tomlin's “Burning Lights” ( 2013), TobyMac's “Eye On It” (2012), LeAnn Rimes' “You Light Up My Life”- Inspirational Songs” (1997) and finally Bob Carlisle's “Butterfly Kisses (Shades of Grace” (1997). While Lecrae, 34, might not quite be a household name — he's yet to chart a single on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 — he has sold 1.4 million albums and 2.9 million track downloads.

Earlier this year, Lecrae co-headlined the highest selling tour in the country, "Winter Jam." According to Pollstar, "Winter Jam" sold over 557,000 tickets making it the number-one tour in North America beating major tours by Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Disney on Ice and Elton John. Touring in front of a half million fans gives Lecrae a powerful voice for his generation and allows him the opportunity to minister to a vast group of people across the country.

Lecrae also became the first African American Hip Hop gospel artist to debut at number-one on the UK Official Christian and Gospel Album Chart with the album “Anomaly” week-ending 20^th September 2014 (1 week). Another artist from his label by the name of Trip Lee had his album “Rise” debuted at number-five on the same chart week-ending 8^th November 2014 (1 week). The “Rise” also debuted at number-sixteen on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart with first-week sales of approximately 23,000 units, making it the fifth-highest charting Christian Hip Hop Album of all-time, as well as Trip Lee's highest charting album of his career so far.

                                          Researched and compiled by               

                                          Mr K Tomlin Music Historian                   
                                          ©Signaturesoundsonline2013-2014 

Key Significant Benchmarks in the African American Black Music industry Pt 8

Rap artist extraordinaire Lecrae

Rap artist extraordinaire Lecrae is the most successful artist in gospel Hip Hop music. He is the president, co-owner and co-founder of the independent record label Reach Record, and the co-founder and president of the non-profit organization ReachLife Ministries.

Lecrae is quickly developing into one of the biggest music stories of the year and his Cinderella rise has been noted everywhere from Rolling Stone Magazine, XXL Magazine, Vibe Magazine, The New York Times, The Atlantic and the cover of The Huffington Post Magazine to industry trades such as Billboard Magazine, Variety and Vulture. His performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, perfectly timed with his album’s release, had fans buzzing as he performed multiple hit records from his recently album “Anomaly”. He went on to  collects his first number-one album on the Billboard 200 Album Charts as his new “Anomaly” actually  opened at top the chart listing week-ending 14^th September 2014 (1 week)  It sold over 88,000 copies  according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's also the first chart-topper for Lecrae's label, Reach Records on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart and the first album to top both the 200 and the Gospel chart simultaneously.

The album “Anomaly” is Lecrae’s best sales performance since the release of “Gravity” album in 2012, which debuted and peaked at number- three on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart with over 72,000 units sold that week. “Anomaly” is the Grammy winner's sixth number-one on the Billboard Gospel Albums Chart and his fifth leader on Christian Albums. (Most Christian hip-hop releases are eligible to appear on both sales charts.)

                                          

                                          Researched and compiled by               

                                          Mr K Tomlin Music Historian                   
                                          ©Signaturesoundsonline2013-2014