Kali Uchis Earns First Top 10 on R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart With ‘Red Moon in Venus’

Kali Uchis scores her first top 10 success on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart as Red Moon in Venus debuts at No. 2 on the list dated March 18. The set, released March 3 via Interscope Records, starts with just over 55,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending March 9, according to Luminate.

Album sales comprise just over half the 55,000-unit starting sum, with 28,000 units from traditional album sales. Within that group, 14,000 of those album sales were sold on the vinyl format. The five-figure sum there prompts a No. 1 debut for Venus on the Vinyl Albums chart.

27,000 of Venus’ first-week total comes from streaming-equivalent album units, which represents 35.5 million official U.S. on-demand streams of the album’s songs. Track-equivalent album units, meanwhile, account for the negligible units left. (One unit equals the following levels of consumption: one album sale, 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams for a song on the album.)

As mentioned, Venus is singer-songwriter Kali Uchis’ first top 10 result on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. She previously charted with 2018’s Isolation, which peaked at No. 17 in 2018.

Elsewhere, Venus likewise begins at No. 2 on the Top R&B Albums chart and at No. 4 on the all-genre Billboard 200. Venus is her second visit to the top 10 on the former list, after Isolation debuted and peaked at No. 4. On the latter, Venus secures her first top 10 and easily resets her highest career peak. Isolation, her prior best showing, topped out at No. 32. Kali Uchis also claims another album on her Billboard 200 history, the Spanish-language Sin Miedo (Del Amor y Otros Matrimonios). The set, released in November 2020, reached No. 52 on the Billboard 200 and No. 3 on the Top Latin Albums chart.

Red Moon in Venus contains the previously released track “I Wish You Roses,” which achieved a No. 28 peak on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart last month and re-enters the Hot R&B Songs chart at a new peak of No. 16 this week. Two more Venus cuts show on the latter list thanks to the album debut: “Moonlight” (No. 14) and “Fantasy,” featuring Don Toliver (No. 23).