Kanye West's 'Ye' hits No. 1 on Billboard chart following pro-Trump rants

close

Video

Kanye West’s ‘Ye’ hits No. 1 on Billboard chart

Kanye West’s album ‘Ye’ hits No. 1 on the Billboard chart following pro-Trump rants.

Kanye West’s new album "Ye" topped the Billboard 200 chart this week in the wake of the artist’s much-buzzed-about tweets praising President Trump.

West’s latest chart-topper marks his eighth No. 1 album. He now ties with Eminem for the second-most No. 1 albums among hip-hop artists. West is only behind Jay-Z, who's had 14 No. 1 albums, while The Beatles has 19 No. 1 albums overall, according to Billboard.

West was criticized by some for his support of Trump and conservative commentator Candace Owens. He praised Trump in tweets saying that they shared “dragon energy.” 

He also sparked controversy in May when he told TMZ that he believed slavery was “a choice.”

“When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years?! That sounds like a choice. Like, you were there for 400 years and it’s all of you all? Like, we’re mentally in prison. Like, slavery goes too direct to the idea of blacks,” he said. “So prison is something that unites us as one race, blacks and whites being one race. We’re the human race.”

The comments prompted artists and fans to say they were going to boycott the album.

However, this time, the numbers don’t lie. The silent majority appears to have been interested in what ‘Ye’ was all about.

The “Yikes” rapper had the seventh-largest streaming debut week with 120,000 streams, according to Billboard.