Joe Continues Impressive Streak on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart

R&B singer Joe debuts at No. 2 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (dated Dec. 3) with his 12th studio album, #MYNAMEISJOETHOMAS, selling 17,000 copies in the week ending Nov. 17, according to Nielsen Music. It marks his 16th career entry and 11th top five-placing set on the 51-year-old list.

Joe arrived on the Billboard charts in 1993 when his first album, Everything, reached No. 16 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. It’s his only studio effort to miss the top five of the chart. He earned his first Billboard Hot 100 hit that year with “I’m In Love,” from the debut set, peaking at No. 64.

His subsequent 11 studio albums have all debuted in the top five on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, beginning with his sophomore set, All That I Am (No. 4 debut and peak on the Aug. 16, 1997-dated chart). Since that first week in the top five, he has earned the most top-five debuts of any R&B act in that span of time (R. Kelly follows with nine top-five debuts since Aug. 16, 1997).

Joe’s Top Five Debuts on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums:
Title, Debut Position, Peak Date
All That I Am, No. 4, Aug. 15, 1997
My Name Is Joe, No. 1 (one week), May 6, 2000
Better Days, No. 3, Dec. 29, 2001
And Then…, No. 4, Jan. 3, 2004
Ain’t Nothing Like Me, No. 1 (one week), May 12, 2007
Joe Thomas, New Man, No. 3, Oct. 11, 2008
Signature, No. 2, Aug. 1, 2009
The Good, The Bad, The Sexy, No. 2, Nov. 5, 2011
Doubleback: Evolution of R&B, No. 4, July 20, 2013
Bridges, No. 3, July 12, 2014
#MYNAMEISJOETHOMAS, No. 2, Dec. 3, 2016

All of the above albums peaked at their debut position.

The new album also launches at No. 1 on the R&B Albums chart. It’s his third straight No. 1 debut on the list, which launched in 2013 (many years after Joe’s chart career began back in 1993).

Elsewhere, the new set’s lead single “So I Can Have You Back” bows at No. 25 on the Hot R&B Songs chart, boosted in part by a 1 percent hike at radio (to 8.1 million audience impressions in the week ending Nov. 20).

Over on the Adult R&B Songs airplay chart, the track remains at its No. 3 peak for a second week. With 39 charted hits at the format, Joe trails only R. Kelly (54 entries) and Mary J. Blige (52) for more hits on the chart.

The album release triggers a No. 57 debut for Joe on the Billboard Artist 100, which ranks the week's most popular artists across all genres by blending album sales, track sales, radio airplay, streaming and social media data.

‘Long Live’ Emeli Sande: Following Joe’s entrance on Top R&B Hip/Hop Albums, Emeli Sande takes the next highest debut as she arrives at No. 4 with her second studio album, Long Live the Angels (9,000 copies sold). The entrance comes more than four years after the Scottish singer’s debut album, Our Version of Events, bowed at No. 4 with 12,000 copies on the June 23, 2012, chart.

Meanwhile, Sande’s latest single “Hurts” reaches a new peak on the Adult Pop Songs airplay chart, hopping 33-31 in its seventh week (up 9 percent in spins).

Childish Gambino’s ‘Mama’ Arrives: Musician-actor Childish Gambino (real name Donald Glover) earns the Hot Shot Debut on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, as “Me and Your Mama” starts at No. 28. It concurrently bows at No. 9 on the Hot R&B Songs chart. The entries are mainly due to 6.2 million weekly streams. YouTube accounts for 41 percent of total clicks, largely due to an upload of the audio on Childish Gambino’s official Vevo channel.

Over on the Hot 100, “Me and Your Mama” debuts at No. 69, where he notches his third entry on the chart following “Crawl” (No. 86 peak in 2013) and “V. 3005” (No. 64 peak in 2014).

The soulful new tune is the first song released from his upcoming studio set, Awaken My Love, due in December. On Nov. 17, another R&B track from the album, titled “Redbone,” was released and could impact the Dec. 10-dated charts.

While his previous full-length albums (Camp and Because the Internet) were rap-heavy, the first two previews from Awaken show a more R&B-inspired sound from the multi-faceted act.