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Eminem’s surprise album Kamikaze is off to a blazing start, as the set could launch at No. 1 on next week’s Billboard 200 chart with one of the largest weeks of the year for an album.
Industry forecasters suggest the effort — which was released without warning on Aug. 31 via Shady/Aftermath/Interscope Records — may bow with over 360,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Sept. 6. That sum would land Kamikaze the fifth-biggest week of 2018 for an album, trailing only the debut weeks of Drake’s Scorpion (732,000 units; according to Nielsen Music), Travis Scott’s Astroworld (537,000), Post Malone’s beerbongs & bentleys (461,000) and J. Cole’s KOD (397,000).
Kamikaze's opening week is also on track to blow past the debut frame of Eminem's last album, 2017's Revival, which started at No. 1 with 267,000 units.