While Care dips 40-43 on the chart dated March 16, it secures an unprecedented 186th week on the list. The set, released in Novembr 2011, surpasses the previous champ, Kenny G’s Breathless, which clocked 185 weeks on the tally from 1992-1997.
Upon its initial release, Care became Drake’s first No. 1 debut on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and his second of nine No. 1 sets. The set also boasts Drake’s longest stay at No. 1 among those nine leaders, with 12 weeks at the summit. It was No. 1 on the year-end Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums recap for 2012. The next year, Care secured the superstar’s first Grammy Award, for best rap album.
Care also housed seven tracks that landed on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart: “Marvin’s Room (No. 7), “Headlines” (No. 2), “Make Me Proud,” featuring Nicki Minaj (No. 1, three weeks), “The Motto,” with Lil Wayne (No. 1, two weeks), the Rihanna-assisted title cut (No. 26), “Crew Love” (No. 9) and “HYFR (Hell Ya F*****g Right; No. 20).
As Care steps to the top of the class, here’s a rundown of albums with the most weeks on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums:
Weeks on Chart, Title, Artist
186, Take Care, Drake
185, Breathless, Kenny G
174, 2014 Forest Hills Drive, J. Cole
168, Curtain Call: The Hits, Eminem
148, Views, Drake
146, good kid, m.A.A.d city, Kendrick Lamar
146, Greatest Hits, 2Pac
145, Beauty Behind The Madness, The Weeknd
140, The Eminem Show, Eminem
140, Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), Wu-Tang Clan
Notably, several of those albums, including Care, benefited from a 2017 switch in the chart’s tabulation. Prior to the chart dated Feb. 11, 2017, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums was strictly a sales-based ranking. Since then, the chart has ranked albums based on multi-metric consumption through album sales, track-equivalent album units and streaming-equivalent album units and has allowed older catalog titles to remain on the ranking. Consistent streams for Care helped the album return to the chart in 2017 after a nearly four-year absence.
Breathless, however, also profited in another way: During its run, a 183-week consecutive stretch between December 1992 and June 1996, with three additional weeks later in 1996 and 1997, the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart encompassed 100 positions. It was then reduced to 75 slots in 2010 and to its current length of 50 positions in 2013.
