ScHoolboy Q is heading for No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart next week.
The rapper’s major-label debut album, “Oxymoron,” could sell between 150,000 to 160,000 copies by the end of the tracking week on March 2, according to industry forecasters.
The new Billboard 200’s top 10 will be revealed on March 5.
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Signed to Top Dawg Entertainment, the new album is ScHoolboy Q’s first in a joint venture deal with Interscope Records. Top Dawg and Interscope previously locked a No. 2 album with Kendrick Lamar’s “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City” in 2012. That album has gone on to sell 1.2 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and garnered a Grammy Award nomination for album of the year.
As for ScHoolboy Q, he’s charted two earlier albums: “Setbacks” (peaking at No. 100 in 2011) and “Habits & Contradictions” (No. 111 in 2012). They have sold 17,000 and 48,000, respectively, according to SoundScan.
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Kid Cudi should be next week’s second-biggest debut, as his surprise release, “Satellite Flight,” may sell around 90,000. While Kid Cudi had previously announced the album would be released in February, an exact date wasn’t known until the set arrived in the iTunes Store on Tuesday.
Kid Cudi’s album is presently only available through iTunes — and only as a full album. He follows in the footsteps of Beyonce, who released her surprise self-titled album in December as an album-only set through iTunes. (After a week, the set’s tracks became available for individual purchase.)
Latin star Romeo Santos is hot on Kid Cudi’s tail, as Santos’ “Formula, Vol. 2” could sell more than 90,000 as well. If it moves more than 90,000, it would mark mark the biggest sales week for a Latin album since November 2006, when RBD’s “Celestial” debuted with 117,000. “Vol. 2” features guest appearances by the likes of Santana, Nicki Minaj, Marc Anthony, Tego Calderon and Drake.