21 Savage Returns to No. 1 With ‘American Dream’

21 Savage, the London-born mainstay of Atlanta rap, has the first new No. 1 album of 2024 with “American Dream,” following holdovers by Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen.

“American Dream” is 21 Savage’s fourth chart-topper overall, and the first time he has led the Billboard 200 as a solo artist since “I Am > I Was” five years ago; since then, he has gone to No. 1 twice via collaborative projects with Drake (“Her Loss,” 2022) and the producer Metro Boomin (“Savage Mode II,” 2020).

The album is 21 Savage’s latest since the apparent resolution of his long-running problems with his immigration status. The week before the Grammy Awards in 2019, where he had been set to perform, the 31-year-old rapper, whose real name is Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for being in the United States illegally. After delays in his case, 21 Savage said in October that he had become a permanent U.S. resident.

In its debut week, “American Dream,” which was announced just a few days before its release on Jan. 12 — and features guest appearances by Doja Cat, Travis Scott, Lil Durk, Young Thug and others, as well as spoken segments by the rapper’s mother, Heather Carmillia Joseph — had the equivalent of 133,000 sales in the United States. Most of that was from streaming, with nearly 170 million clicks, according to the tracking service Luminate. The 15-track LP had 4,000 sales as a complete package.

Also this week, “Orquídeas,” the fourth studio album by the singer Kali Uchis, which is performed primarily in Spanish, opens in second place, Uchis’s highest chart position ever. The album, whose title translates as “Orchids,” and features guest spots by Latin stars like Peso Pluma, Karol G and Rauw Alejandro, had the equivalent of 69,000 sales, including 51 million streams and 31,000 copies sold as a complete package.

Wallen’s nearly year-old “One Thing at a Time,” which logged a 17th time at No. 1 last week, falls to third place this week, while Drake’s “For All the Dogs” is No. 4 and Swift’s “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” is No. 5.