Juice WRLD has the biggest album of 2020 with ‘Legends Never Die’
The posthumous effort debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and had the fourth-largest streaming week ever.
Juice WRLD’s posthumous album Legends Never Die has just earned the biggest sales week and streaming week for any album this year. According to Nielsen Music/MRC Data, the project debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with a whopping 497,000 equivalent album units and 422.63 million on-demand streams. Besides enjoying the largest sales and streaming week of 2020, Billboard reports that Legends Never Die also saw the fourth-largest streaming week ever.
With the new feat, Juice’s effort pulls ahead of The Weeknd’s After Hours, which previously held the title of 2020’s fast-selling album. According to Billboard, Legends Never Die also had the biggest week for a hip hop album by a male artist in almost two years, following Travis Scott’s massive Astroworld debut.
Juice’s album overtook Pop Smoke’s Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon — another posthumous effort — pushing the project down to No. 2. Billboard reports that this is the first time that both the No. 1 and No. 2 albums on the Billboard 200 have been posthumous releases.
As reported by REVOLT, Juice passed away in December after suffering a seizure at Chicago’s Midway Airport. The Cook County Medical Examiner revealed that the 21-year-old died by accidental overdose of oxycodone and codeine. At the time, witnesses said Juice had swallowed an unknown number of pills at the airport in an attempt to hide them from federal authorities, who were searching his luggage for guns and drugs.
Juice referred to his struggles with drug addiction and depression in his music. Back in April, his mom launched the Live Free 999 fund to support programs aimed at offering help to other young people suffering from mental illness or addiction.
“Young people around the world were truly touched by Jarad’s music because he spoke to issues and situations in his music that resonated with them so deeply,” his mother Carmela Wallace said at the time. “… I know he truly wanted to be free from the demons that tormented him. I made the decision upon his death that I was going to share his struggles with the world with the objective of helping others.”
Stream Juice’s No. 1-debuting album Legends Never Die on TIDAL here.