Jay-Z’s ‘Magna Carta Holy Grail’ debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200

After a busy stretch of promotional activity including a video shoot in an art gallery, a performance at London’s Wireless Festival and a Q&A with fans on Twitter, Jay-Z debuted at No. 1 this week on the Billboard 200 with “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” his 12th solo studio album.

The New York rapper sold 527,000 copies of the album, according to Nielsen SoundScan, making its debut the year’s second-biggest opening after Justin Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience,” which moved almost 1 million copies in its first week in stores in March.

It also marks the fourth week in a row that a hip-hop album has topped the album chart, Billboard noted, following earlier No. 1’s by Kanye West, Wale and J. Cole.

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The sales total for “Magna Carta” does not include 1 million copies Jay-Z sold to Samsung, which made them available July 4 to smartphone users through an app that has been widely criticized for its perceived privacy infringements.

On Wednesday night Jay-Z and Timberlake are to launch their so-called Legends of the Summer tour in Toronto; it will stop at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on July 28.

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Twitter: @mikaelwood