Koffee’s ‘Gifted’ Debuts No. 2 On Billboard With 3.5k First Week, But Album Has Sold 188k In Total

While Koffee‘s Gifted has failed to dethrone Reggae King Bob Marley on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart, the Jamaican sensation has already sold over 188,000 units of her debut album in the United States.

Released on March 25 via Promised Land/RCA, Gifted debuted on the Reggae chart dated April 9 at No. 2, with 3,500 equivalent album units from sales and streaming in the United States, according to data provided to DancehallMag from Billboard’s sales tracker Luminate (formerly MRC Data).

Sales of Koffee’s 10-track Gifted album were assisted by the availability of an 18-track ‘instant deluxe’ edition that included Koffee’s UK Gold-selling hit Toast as well as Rapture and W with Gunna, which are certified Silver in the UK.

As such, Luminate told DancehallMag that Gifted has so far sold 188,100 units in the United States.   This includes 700 copies that were sold during the album’s first week of release, as well as 99,600 in digital song sales, 199,634,800 in on-demand audio streams, and 92,544,400 in on-demand video streams which have accumulated since 2019.

Of Gifted‘s 3,500 equivalent album units moved last week, there were 700 in pure album sales, 700 copies in digital song sales, 3,290,800 in on-demand audio streams and 469,500 in on-demand video streams.  These figures are all rounded to the nearest 100.

Only Gifted‘s first-week total of 3,500 units was considered for the weekly sales and streaming-driven Billboard Reggae chart.  The listing ranks the ten most popular Reggae albums in the US, based on consumption metrics that are measured in equivalent album units.  Each of those units represents one album sale or 10 individual tracks sold from an album or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscriptions streams from an album via audio or video streams.

Deluxe editions aren’t a new thing in music—for many years artists and labels have re-released albums with bonus content to extend the life of their projects and usually to mark one of the album’s milestones, such as the one-year anniversary of release.  However, in the digital age, “instant deluxe” albums—where songs are added to new albums on the day of, or very soon after the original release—are one of the ways record labels are padding bodies of work to increase album streaming numbers.  The album’s 188,000 total units sold so far will also count towards her future certifications in the United States by the RIAA.

The most streamed new songs on the album are Lockdown, West Indies, Pull Up, Shine, x10, Lonely and Gifted. It was a solo affair with Koffee opting for no features on the 10-track set, five of which she co-produced. Other producers included rapper Kendrick Lamar, JAE5, J.L.L., iotosh, and Dane Ray.

This is Koffee’s second entry on the Billbaord Reggae chart. Her Rapture EP, which won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in 2020, had debuted at No. 1 on March 30, 2019.

Gifted has also debuted at No. 11 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart, which ranks the sales by new and developing musical recording artists each week.

On Friday, the album made a strong debut in the United Kingdom, where it opened at No. 9 on the UK Albums chart, making Koffee the first female Jamaican artist in the Top 10 of that chart.  Overall, she’s also the first Jamaican woman on the chart in 27 years, following Diana King’s Tougher Than Love which had peaked at No. 50 in 1995. Shaggy and Sting’s 44/876 was the last Reggae album to enter the chart, when it peaked at No. 9 in 2018.

Meanwhile, back on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart this week, Bob Marley & The Wailers are No. 1 for the 117th consecutive week, with Legend— a greatest hits collection first released in May 1984 by Island Records.   The compilation moved 11,300 total units from sales and streaming in the US last week, including 2,900 copies in pure album sales, according to data provided to DancehallMag by Luminate.  Earlier this year, we reported that Legend, which was certified 15x Platinum back in 2014, had sold 609,000 units total during 2021.

Shaggy’s Best of Shaggy: The Boombastic Collection is at No. 3 on the Billboard chart after having moved 2,800 units last week.

Sean Paul’s Dutty Classics Collection (2,700 units) and Mad Love The Prequel (1,000 units) albums are at No. 4 and 9 respectively.

Shenseea‘s debut album Alpha has dropped one place to No. 5 this week after moving 1,800 units last week.  This brings the Blessed singer’s three-week sales total to 9,300 units, after she debuted at No. 2 on the chart.

UB40’s Greatest Hits (1,500 units) compilation is at No. 6 followed by Stick Figure’s World On Fire (1,500 units) and Set In Stone (1,500 units) albums at No. 7 and 8, respectively.

Jewish-American Reggae singer Matisyahu has debuted at No. 10 on the chart this week with his 7th studio album, self-titled Matisyahu.  It moved 800 units from sales and streaming, including 500 copies in pure album sales.