SZA’s SOS sails into uncharted waters on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart by turning into the longest-running No. 1 title within the chart’s 60-year historical past. The juggernaut earns the achievement with a thirty eighth nonconsecutive week at No. 1, on the chart dated June 7, breaking its tie with Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which set the earlier document of 37 weeks in 1983-84.
The brand new title-holder attains its historic week with 47,000 equal album models earned in the US within the monitoring week of Could 23-29, in accordance with Luminate, a 2% enhance from the prior week. In whole, SOS has spent 129 weeks on High R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and has by no means fallen exterior the highest 10.
SOS, SZA’s sophomore studio album, was launched in December 2022 because the long-awaited observe as much as the singer-songwriter’s acclaimed debut LP, 2017’s Ctrl. The set opened at No. 1 on High R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and sparked hit singles reminiscent of “Kill Invoice,” which spent a then-record 21 weeks at No. 1 on the Sizzling R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and “Snooze,” which spent 13 weeks at No. 2 on the chart. The album obtained a second wind in December 2024 with its deluxe LANA version’s launch that added greater than a dozen songs to the monitor record, together with hits “Saturn” and “30 for 30.”
As SOS rewrites the document books, right here’s an up to date take a look at the albums with probably the most weeks at No. 1 on High R&B/Hip-Hop Albums because the chart launched in 1965.
Most Weeks at No. 1 on High R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart
38, SOS, SZA, 2022-25
37, Thriller, Michael Jackson, 1983-84
29, Please Hammer Don’t Harm ‘Em, M.C. Hammer, 1990
26, Simply Just like the First Time, Freddie Jackson, 1986-87
23, Can’t Sluggish Down, Lionel Richie, 1983-84
20, Songs within the Key of Life, Stevie Marvel, 1976-77
20, Avenue Songs, Rick James, 1981
20, Shoot for the Stars Intention for the Moon, Pop Smoke, 2020-21
19, Purple Rain, Prince and The Revolution, 1984
18, The Temptations Sing Smokey, The Temptations, 1965
18, Unhealthy, Michael Jackson, 1987-88
Since a technique change to High R&B/Hip-Hop Albums in February 2017 added streaming and particular person monitor gross sales into the chart’s calculations, albums are likely to spend for much longer on the record because of constant streaming exercise. Previous to the change, the chart’s ranks had been based mostly solely on conventional album gross sales. A rising shift towards longer monitor lists, too, has helped many in style albums retain robust chart positions as a number of in style songs from an album have supplied a basis for regular streaming numbers.
Because of the shifts, a number of longevity milestones have been rewritten in recent times. Along with holding the No. 1 document for many years, Thriller additionally had probably the most weeks within the prime 10 of High R&B/Hop-Hop Albums, at 76 frames in 1983-84. Whereas no album matched that whole for over 30 years, six albums have now handed Thriller’s prime 10-week depend, all of which had been launched in 2012 or later.
Elsewhere on Billboard’s charts, SOS captures a 112th week at No. 1 on Top R&B Albums, far and away the longest chief on the 12-year-old record. On the all-genre Billboard 200, SOS ranks at No. 2, after having dominated the chart for 12 nonconsecutive weeks since its No. 1 arrival in 2022.