Popcaan’s ‘Fixtape’ Outsold Alkaline’s ‘Top Prize’ In 2021

Dancehall artist Popcaan is ending 2021 on a high, with his 2020 FIXTAPE album racking up more sales and streams in the United States this year than any other current or recently released Dancehall album.  Second this year, among current Dancehall albums, was Alkaline’s Top Priz e project.

According to data provided to DancehallMag from Billboard’s sales tracker MRC Data, the Levels deejay acquired 34,000 units in total consumption from sales and streaming in the US for FIXTAPE during 2021, while Alkaline saw 17,000 total units with Top Prize during the same year.

For digital song sales, FIXTAPE managed to rake in 3,000, while On-Demand Audio and Video Streams were 43,004,000 and 4,476,000, respectively.  On the other hand, Top Prize received 2,000 in digital song sales and 17,747,000 and 3,264,000 in On-Demand Audio and Video Streams respectively.

Interestingly, Alkaline outdid Popcaan in the album sales. Top Prize got a total of 2,000 in pure sales, while FIXTAPE got none in 2021, according to MRC. 

It is important to note that these figures—provided by MRC Data—are rounded to the nearest thousand. Therefore, there is a possibility that Popcaan, whose given name is Andrae Sutherland, got about 500 pure sales or less for FIXTAPE during 2021. 

Additionally, it is also important to note that Popcaan’s project debuted in August 2020 under Drake’s OVO Sound, while Alkaline (real name: Earlan Bartley) independently released his 14-track set in May, this year—giving FIXTAPE an almost five-month headstart where sales and streaming are concerned for 2021.

The 19-track FIXTAPE had featured Drake twice—a feat in and of itself, French Montana, PartyNextDoor, and Preme, as well as Dancehall acts Jada Kingdom, Stylo G, Tommy Lee Sparta, Masicka, Dane Ray, and Frahcess One.

Top Prize had no features on its 14 tracks.

Both albums debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart. Top Prize peaked with just under 3,000 units during its first week in the US, while FIXTAPE picked up about 8,000 units during its first week.

On a higher level, superstars Shaggy and Sean Paul have the best-selling Dancehall albums in the US for the year. 

They are ranked at No. 2 and No. 4, respectively on the Billboard Year-End Reggae Albums Charts with their compilation albums:   Best of Shaggy: The Boombastic Collection, which was released in 2008, and Dutty Classics Collection, which  was released in 2017.

Sean Paul’s Grammy Awarding-winning Dutty Rock (2002) album was ranked at No. 8, while his The Trinity (2005) album was ranked at No. 15.

Popcaan’s FIXTAPE was ranked at No. 14, while Alkaline’s Top Prize was ranked at No. 24 on the Year-End chart, which was dominated by Reggae projects.

Popcaan’s latest song is El Gringo , which was released yesterday, ahead of his fifth studio album due out sometime next year.

Alkaline’s latest single is Sense , which was released on December 10 and currently stands at under 800,000 views on YouTube.

Correction: This article previously stated that the numbers were rounded to the nearest hundred.  They are rounded to the nearest thousand.