It’s a particularly noteworthy New Music Friday this week as Lil Wayne released Tha Carter VI, his first album in five years, while TikTok influencer turned rising pop star Addison Rae released her much-anticipated debut album Addison, and Turnstile, the world’s hottest hardcore band, dropped their latest album Never Enough as well.
Meanwhile, on the singles end, Sabrina Carpenter may have just released the song of the summer with “Manchild,” and Mariah Carey dropped “Type Dangerous,” her first new single in years. All that music’s made for one of the most-stacked release days of 2025 and brings with it lots of chart intrigue as all the stars are vying for the top spots.
In the album race, Morgan Wallen is the current champion as I’m The Problem is one of the biggest records of the year. It debuted atop Billboard’s albums chart with 493,000 units two weeks ago, per Luminate, the biggest debut of 2025 so far. Numbers stayed strong this past week as it remained atop the charts with 286,000 units. Wallen is a difficult act to beat out as country’s biggest superstar, but Lil Wayne is a strong contender as one of the greatest-selling hip-hop artists of all time.
His last album, Funeral, opened with 139,000 units back in 2020, and Tha Carter VI could perform better given how close Tha Carter series is to Wayne’s musical legacy. 2018’s Tha Carter V, the next most recent in that series, debuted with 480,000 units, per Billboard.
It’s hard to expect Rae and Turnstile to match figures that high, though both have garnered a significant amount of buzz heading into their releases this week, and it will be interesting to see how that translates into streams and sales.
Regarding the Hot 100, rising Atlantic act Alex Warren’s ordinary finally topped the Hot 100 this week after spending several weeks with the crown just out of reach, and Wallen, who held six of the top 10 spots two weeks ago, currently has spots two through four. Spotify’s current U.S. 50 chart, which doesn’t yet include the newest releases, has Wallen’s “What I Want” with Tate McRae (The Hot 100 Number One two weeks ago) atop the list, while Ordinary is at two. (Wallen’s “I Got Better” and “Just In Case” are both in the Top 10 as well.)
As of Friday, the “Manchild” music video is the top-trending music video on YouTube in the U.S., and as of this story’s publication, it has over 1.8 million views. Carpenter had the arguable song of the summer last year with “Espresso,” which went on to win the Grammy for best pop solo performance and currently has 2.2 billion Spotify streams. Carey, meanwhile, is currently second only to the Beatles for most No. 1’s in Hot 100 history with 19, and a number one with “Type Dangerous” would tie her with the Fab Four.
The chart picture will become clearer throughout next week.
