Jhené Aiko has officially reached the top. Her fourth studio album, Westside Whimsy, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, giving the R&B singer her first chart-topping album nearly 13 years after she first appeared on the chart with 2013’s Sail Out. The album earned 74,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. for the week ending September 17, with streaming driving the vast majority of that total.
The Jhené Aiko Westside Whimsy milestone is significant for the genre as well. It marks the first R&B album by a woman to top the Billboard 200 in 2026, and the first R&B album by any artist to lead the chart since SZA’s SOS spent its final week at No. 1 in May 2025. Bruno Mars’ The Romantic was the only other R&B album to reach the summit earlier this year.
Of the 74,000 units, streaming-equivalent albums accounted for 70,000, powered by 71.33 million official on-demand streams. Pure album sales contributed 3,500 units, and track-equivalent units added 500. Westside Whimsy was released on September 11, just three days after it was announced, and features collaborations with Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, Larry June, Tyga, and OHMA. The album also debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Streaming Albums chart. Aiko’s previous album, 2020’s Chilombo, peaked at No. 2 and earned a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year.
