Anderson .Paak and Cordae Score First Top Rap Albums No. 1 With ‘Heavy Is the Crown’

The title now comes with a chart position to match. Anderson .Paak and Cordae’s Heavy Is the Crown has reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Rap Albums chart, giving both artists their first leader on the ranking, according to Billboard.

It’s a shared milestone with a neat parallel: each artist secures that first No. 1 on his third appearance on the list. Neither is making a first introduction to the chart, but this release takes both to a position they had not previously held.

A new chapter beyond release day

The arrival of Heavy Is the Crown was already news. Its move to the top of this ranking is a separate development—and one that adds a concrete career marker for both names attached to the project.

For .Paak, the result means a first turn atop Top Rap Albums. For Cordae, it delivers the same breakthrough. Rather than one artist adding another leader while the other gets his first, this is new territory for both.

That distinction is the heart of Billboard’s report. The headline isn’t simply that the album has charted: it has claimed the highest position on the rap-albums list, with both artists reaching that mark after two earlier visits apiece.

What the chart news establishes

The milestone is specific to Top Rap Albums. It should not be confused with a No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200, nor does it establish that this is either artist’s first chart-topping achievement across every Billboard ranking.

The supplied Billboard summary does not include an album-unit total, a chart date or a breakdown of the activity behind the placement. It also does not specify whether Heavy Is the Crown entered at No. 1 or climbed there. Those details matter when measuring the scale and trajectory of a chart run, so there’s no basis here to label it a No. 1 debut.

What is established is worth its own spotlight: Heavy Is the Crown has put Anderson .Paak and Cordae at the summit of Top Rap Albums for the first time. A release already on the radar now has a shared chart breakthrough attached to its name.