DJ Khaled ousts Drake for first No. 1 on Billboard 200 chart

By Piya Sinha-Roy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Music producer and social media star DJ Khaled scored his first chart-topping album on the weekly U.S. Billboard 200 album chart on Monday, ousting Canadian R&B artist Drake.

DJ Khaled’s “Major Key” album sold 59,000 albums, 80,000 songs and was streamed nearly 42 million times in the past week, totaling 95,000 album units, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.

The album features songs with artists including Drake, Jay Z and Nicki Minaj. DJ Khaled is popular on social media, dropping daily snippets of wisdom on Snapchat.

After 12 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1, Drake’s “Views” was pushed to No. 2 this week with 80,000 album units sold.

The Billboard 200 album chart tallies units from album sales, song sales (10 songs equal one album) and streaming activity (1,500 streams equal one album).

Other new entries in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart include country singer Jake Owen’s “American Love” at No. 4, R&B singer Fantasia’s “Definition Of…” at No. 6 and country singer Hillary Scott and The Scott Family’s “Love Remains” at No. 7.

On the Digital Songs chart, which measures online single download sales, pop track “Closer” by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey debuted at No. 1 with 103,000 copies sold.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)