Lil Baby did it big for the opening week of his fourth album, WHAM (Who Harder As Me).
Nearly two weeks after dropping the 15-track album on Jan. 3, followed by an additional four tracks on the deluxe edition, WHAM debuted at No. 1 on this week's Billboard 200. Earning 140,000 equivalent album units, the album charted higher than Bad Bunny's sixth studio album Debí Tirar Más Fotos.
WHAM is Lil Baby's fourth overall No. 1 on the Billboard 200, following 2022's It’s Only Me, 2021's The Voice of the Heroes and 2020's My Turn. The Atlanta rapper's first album, 2018's Harder Than Ever, made No. 3 on the chart. While WHAM marks the first rap album to land on the number-one Billboard 200 spot this year, succeeding SZA's LANA, the last rap album to reach the top spot was Kendrick Lamar's GNX.
Upon news of high WHAM sales, on Sunday (Jan. 12), Lil Baby teased his upcoming fifth album, Dominique, set to release next month.
"See yall Again in a couple weeks ‘Dominique’ The Album 2-?-25," he wrote on Instagram.
During his appearance on Lil Yachty's A Safe Place podcast last month, Lil Baby described his next album as being "more personal."
“I still put some of the songs that I was gonna use for Dominique on WHAM ‘ cause I know my fanbase really want to hear them certain songs,” he explained around the 1:30-minute mark of the video below. "But I feel like WHAM is more me on some young n***a shit–fast cars, girls, jewelry, money. You know, the turnt lifestyle.
"And Dominique is more the serious me, more personal. ... That’s a part of the new journey I’m on," he continued. "I hate the word vulnerable, but I’m gonna be more open to my fans and my audience."