Travis Scott’s ‘UTOPIA’ is the biggest hip-hop release of 2023 so far

Travis Scott has broken records with his fourth studio album ‘UTOPIA’, which is now deemed the biggest hip-hop release of the year so far.

On July 28, the Houston-born rapper dropped his highly-anticipated album, featuring Beyoncé, Teezo Touchdown, Drake and more on the star-studded 19-track album. It was the follow-up to the ‘Antidote’ rapper’s Grammy Award-nominated third album ‘Astroworld’.

‘UTOPIA’ has broken many records since it dropped. In its first week, the album sold 496,000 album units and amassed over 650 million streams globally, topping the charts in 17 countries. This succeeds the success of Lil Uzi Vert‘s ‘The Pink Tape’, which was the highest-grossing hip-hop album before ‘UTOPIA’, selling 167,000 units in its first week.

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The album’s physical sales reached 252,000 units, making it the second-biggest first-week physical sales for an album this year. Taylor Swift‘s ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’ has the biggest first-week sales of 2023 so far with 716,000 album-equivalent units, including 507,000 album sales.

Also, Apple Music and Spotify claim that the album earned the highest first-day streams for an album in 2023 on the platform. The latter confirmed that the record was streamed 128 million times on its first day and 79 million on its second day, which is bigger than the first day of any other rap album in 2023. According to Hot New Hip Hop, the Drake-assisted ‘MELTDOWN’ currently accounts for 10% of all ‘UTOPIA’‘s streams.

In a three-star review of the record, NME said, “Whereas ‘Astroworld’ was the perfect theme for Scott’s music… in trying to navigate a lofty concept like finding utopia, his ambitions have led him back to someone who was far more formidable at it.”

Accompanying the album, the 32-year-old announced a special one-off gig at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt but was eventually cancelled due to production issues. Instead, Scott performed at the iconic Circus Maximus in Rome, Italy earlier this week (August 7). All 60,000 tickets for the concert were sold in two days. On stage, he brought out his once mentor Kanye West to perform ‘Praise God’ and ‘Can’t Tell Me Nothing’.

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CIRCUS MAXIMUS also was released in support of ‘UTOPIA’. Written and co-directed by Travis Scott, the film premiered on July 31 in sold-out movie theatres across the US.

Last month, despite the concert being cancelled, fans held a party in Egypt at the pyramids in honour of ‘UTOPIA’s release.

This week, after endless messages and comments from fans, rising singer KayCyy shared his frustrations about not being credited as a featured artist on ‘Thank God’.

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