Kanye West‘s streak of 11 number one albums has ended, as his album Vultures 2 with Ty Dolla Sign debuted in the number two spot – as it was bested by Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department.

The latest release from Swift, 34, ended a long-running streak for West, 47, TMZ reported Sunday.

West, whose career has dipped amid a torrent of antisemitic remarks since the fall of 2022, sold an estimated 107,000 equivalent album units in its first week, Billboard reported Sunday.

The record was West’s 13th to occupy one of the top two spots on the chart in his career, Billboard reported.

Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department topped the chart this week with sales of 142,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. for the week ending August 8, Luminate reported.

 

Kanye West's streak of 11 number one albums has ended, as his album Vultures 2 with Ty Dolla Sign debuted in the number two spot - as it was bested by Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department. West, 47, pictured in LA in March

 

Swift, 34, pictured at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri on July 8, 2023 

 

Kanye West’s streak of 11 number one albums has ended, as his album Vultures 2 with Ty Dolla Sign debuted in the number two spot – as it was bested by Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department

For the week, The Tortured Poets Department led all album sales, while it trailed only Wallen’s One Thing at a Time on the Top Streaming Albums chart.

 

According to Billboard, Swift’s album sales were elevated by multiple promotional drivers including a series of five digital album variations that Swift sold for a brief time online.

The variations included the record’s 16 songs with single bonus tracks available for $4.99 apiece.

The tracks included a ‘first draft phone memo’ for Swift’s My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys, and four live tracks from The Eras Tour.

Swift’s online store also sold a trio of digital variants with exclusive tracks and an autographed CD edition, as well as running a sale.

This week marked Swift’s 83rd in her career topping the Billboard 200, the most-ever in history, with the late Elvis Presley in second among solo artists with 67 total weeks. Swift and Jay-Z are tied for most number one albums on the chart with 14 apiece.

 

West's album Vultures 2 was his 13th to occupy one of the top two spots on the chart in his career, Billboard reported. Pictured in Italy earlier this year
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West’s album Vultures 2 was his 13th to occupy one of the top two spots on the chart in his career, Billboard reported. Pictured in Italy earlier this year

Swift's album has had the top spot for 14 weeks since its release this past April. Pictured in May in France

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West made an apparent reference to Swift and her beau, NFL star Travis Kelce, on his new album on the track Lifestyle (Demo), with the lyrics, ‘I twist my Taylor spliffs tight at the end like Travis Kelce.’

Kelce’s father Ed Kelce posted a DailyMail.com article about the track on his Facebook page, writing, ‘Mental illness on full display.’

The professional achievement comes after nearly 15 years of enmity between the recording artists, as the seeds of the feud between were planted at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards on September 13, 2009 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

 

In the infamous exchange, West infamously interrupted Swift during her victory speech for the Best Female Video award for You Belong With Me, which had been nominated against Beyonce‘s Single Ladies.

West emerged on the stage and took the microphone from Swift, telling her, ‘Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish. But Beyonce had one of the best videos of all-time! One of the best videos of all-time.’

While the musical stars appeared to be on better terms in the years following – they were pictured at a number of events in the years after – things blew up after the release of West’s 2016 song Famous.

West claimed at the time that Swift had given him her blessing to refer to her as a ‘B****’ in the lyrics of the song, in a reference to the VMAs incident. Swift said she never made such an agreement, leading to a public feud with West after he and his former wife Kim Kardashian in July of 2016 released a call West and Swift had over the contents of the Famous song.

Kardashian alluded to Swift as a snake upon the release of the call, saying in a tweet, ‘Wait it’s legit National Snake Day?!?!?They have holidays for everybody, I mean everything these days!’

Seeds of the discord between West and Swift were planted at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards on September 13, 2009 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City
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Seeds of the discord between West and Swift were planted at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards on September 13, 2009 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City


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In the infamous exchange, West infamously interrupted Swift during her victory speech for the Best Female Video award for You Belong With Me, which had been nominated against Beyonce’s Single Ladies

Swift in 2019 spoke to Vogue about how she dealt with the high-profile scandal, saying she channeled her energies into her material.

‘A mass public shaming, with millions of people saying you are quote-unquote canceled, is a very isolating experience,’ she said of the difficult time. ‘When you say someone is canceled, it’s not a TV show. It’s a human being.

‘You’re sending mass amounts of messaging to this person to either shut up, disappear, or it could also be perceived as, “Kill yourself.”‘

She opened up about the creative process in the wake of the scandal, which purportedly inspired the tracks This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things and Look What You Made Me Do.

‘I knew immediately I needed to make music about it because I knew it was the only way I could survive it,’ Swift told the outlet. ‘It was the only way I could preserve my mental health and also tell the story of what it’s like to go through something so humiliating.’