JAY-Z is the top musical act in the U.S. for a second consecutive week on the Billboard Artist 100, thanks largely to his latest album, 4:44, which posts its second week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 87,000 equivalent album units in the week ending July 20, according to Nielsen Music.
The Artist 100, which launched in July 2014, measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay, streaming and social media fan interaction to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity.
Album sales contribute the majority of JAY-Z's Artist 100 points (76 percent), followed by streaming (13 percent). JAY-Z became the fifth act to re-enter the tally at No. 1 on last week's Artist 100, following A Tribe Called Quest, Bon Jovi, Princeand The Lumineers.
Ed Sheeran remains at No. 2 on the Artist 100, Bruno Mars holds at No. 3, and Linkin Park re-enters at No. 4 following the death of frontman Chester Bennington on July 20. Linkin Park logs its second week in the top five, following its week at No. 1 on the chart dated June 10, when its album One More Light, debuted atop the Billboard 200. The set re-enters the Billboard 200 at No. 17 with 23,000 units (up 461 percent).
Rounding out the Artist 100's top five, Kendrick Lamar drops 4-5.
Among other Artist 100 moves, French Montana vaults 50-10, hitting a new peak, as his sophomore studio album Jungle Rules arrives at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 52,000 units. Plus, rapper Cardi B debuts at No. 97 as her breakthrough hit "Bodak Yellow" leaps 78-49 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Check out this week's full Artist 100 here.