First! Robin Thicke is, officially, the hottest bitch in this place. By being “crass, corny, comic, and yours for the night if you’ll have him,” as our reviewer Keith Harris wrote, the 36-year-old pop star turned in Blurred Lines, the album Justin Timberlake was too damned famous to make. Following the record-breaking dominance of the LP’s titular lead single over on the Hot 100 songs chart (“Blurred Lines” has been No. 1 over there for nine consecutive weeks now), Thicke’s full-length offering has plunked itself down atop the mound. Still, his 177,000 copies sold doesn’t quite measure up to Timberlake’s week-one sales for The 20/20 Experience, which fell just shy of a million. Still, it’s Thicke’s first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 since he entered just over a decade ago.
2 to 10: Um, Five Finger Death Punch, who you’re not required to know exist, hit No. 2 with an album title that’s too long to bother with (112K). Jay Z’s new Samsung set Magna Carta Holy Grail slides a slot south to No. 3 (62K) and, rather thrillingly, noise-rap OG Tech N9ne nabs his best week ever with Something Else debuting at No. 4 (58K). And as it turns out, he’s on that 5FDP record, too, covering LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out.” Also, Backstreet Boys have gone indie and they’re reaping the rewards, launching their In a World Like This from No. 5 (48K). From there: Disney’s treacly Teen Beach Movie soundtrack (No. 6, 47K); these reggae-rap white bros called Emblem3 with Nothing to Lose (No. 7, 46K); Selena Gomez’s Stars Dance takes a deep dive (No. 8, 31K); Kidz Bop 24 is still with us (No. 9, 28K); and Florida Georgia Line hang on by a thread with Here’s to the Good Times (No. 10, 28K).
Taking MDNA: Rihanna has the second largest haul of Dance/Club No. 1 songs ever, with her David Guetta-produced single “Right Now” bringing her chart-topping tally to 20 tracks total. She’s officially left Janet Jackson (and, like, everyone else) in the dust, but she’s a long ways away from defeating the reigning queen. In 31 years, Madonna has notched 43 top players in that department. But RiRi’s racked up her 20 in only eight years.
Calvin’s Kingdom: Across the pond, Rihanna’s “We Found Love” collaborator Calvin Harris has set a record by scoring nine top 10 British singles from a single album, his 2012 set 18 Months, the NME reports. The previous record-holder? Why, that’d be Calvin Harris of Dumfries, Scotland, with the features-packed 2012 album 18 Months. Yeah, dude’s kinda running the show over there.
