Taylor Swift’s latest has dragged her headfirst, fearless, back to the top of the charts. Swift debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 yet again with Fearless (Taylor’s Version), over 12 years after her original version of the album debuted at No. 1, in November 2008. The new album is the first that Swift has rerecorded in her quest to own the masters to her first six albums, which have changed hands a few times since Scooter Braun acquired her former label, Big Machine. Fearless (Taylor’s Version), bolstered with six unreleased songs from the Fearless era, alongside bonus tracks from the album, is Swift’s ninth No. 1 altogether, not to mention her third in less than a year after folklore and evermore both also debuted at No. 1. Swift now holds the record as the woman to earn three No. 1s in the shortest amount of time, per Billboard, logging a total of eight months and two weeks between folklore’s No. 1 debut and this week. She beats Donna Summer, who earned three No. 1s in about 14 months; the last artist to log three No. 1s faster than Swift was Future with DS2, What a Time to Be Alive, and Evol, in a six-month-and-three-week span from August 2015 to February 2016. With 291,000 units, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) has the biggest week of 2021 so far, and the biggest week since evermore’s debut in December 2020 — which was the biggest week since folklore’s debut in August 2020, which was the biggest week since Lover’s debut in August 2019. On top of it all, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is the first album of rerecorded material to ever hit No. 1.
Elsewhere on the charts, the DMX compilation The Best of DMX rose to No. 2, following a streaming bump after the rapper’s April 9 death. It’s the first time DMX charted on the top-ten since Year of the Dog … Again hit No. 2 in 2006. DMX previously set a record as a rapper with five straight No. 1 debuts, beginning with his debut album It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot in 1998. And on the Hot 100, Polo G’s “Rapstar†debuts at No. 1, becoming the Chicago rapper’s first chart-topper. With 53.6 million American streams, the song logged the biggest streaming week since the first and second weeks at No. 1 for Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License†(which is currently at No. 9 this week). Further down the Hot 100, Doja Cat and SZA’s “Kiss Me More†debuted at No. 7 — the highest-ever debut for Doja, and tied for the highest for SZA, who also entered at No. 7 with her Black Panther song “All the Stars.â€