J. Cole’s ‘Born Sinner’ deluxe edition album cover

The dust has settled on the biggest rumble on the US charts of the year to date and the final results are quite surprising. Kanye West, J. Cole and Kelly Rowland all faced off on the Billboard 200 with their latest releases and although West emerged as the winner, his was almost beaten by Cole.

West’s Yeezus debuted at #1 the Billboard 200 with 327K copies sold. Despite ranking at the rapper’s sixth chart-topper, it sold far less than 496K moved by its My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy predecessor, which also landed at #1 on the lineup in November 2010 after selling 436K units.

Cole, however, arrived at #2 on the Billboard 200 with Born Sinner, which sold 297K copies in the last week. The record has topped the 218K sold by his Cole World: Sideline Story debut and prevented Roc Nation’s young star from falling victim to the sophomore slump.

Sadly, similar good news was not available for Rowland’s rans. The singer’s Talk a Good Game has entered the Billboard 200 at #4 with sales barely passing 68K copies and earned her the lowest opening figures of her career to date. I hope Rowland likes her sales down low like her kisses.

See the other leading releases in the top 10 of both Billboard 200 and the Hot 100 below:

Billboard 200

1. Kanye West – Yeezus – 327K (debut)

2. J. Cole – Born Sinner – 297K (debut)

3. Mac Miller – Watching Movies With The Sound Off – 102K (debut)

4. Kelly Rowland – Talk a Good Game – 68K (debut)

5. Black Sabbath – 13 – 46K (total: 201K)

6. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories – 40K (total: 583K)

7. Hunter Hayes – Hunter Hayes – 40K (total: 830K)

9. Justin Timberlake – The 20/20 Experience – 32K (total: 2.02 M)

10. Imagine Dragons – Night Visions – 26K (total: 1.03M)

Billboard Hot 100

1. Robin Thicke – “Blurred Lines (Ft. T.I. & Pharrell)”

2. Daft Punk – “Get Lucky (Ft. Pharrell Williams)”

3. Imagine Dragons – “Radioactive”

4. Florida Georgia Line – “Cruise”

5. Miley Cyrus – “We Can’t Stop”

6. Macklemore & Lewis – “Can’t Hold Us (Ft. Ray Dalton)”

7. Justin Timberlake – “Mirrors”

8. Bruno Mars – “Treasure”

9. Selena Gomez – “Come & Get It”

10. Pink – “Just Give Me a Reason (Ft. Nate Ruess)”

Watch the video for Rowland’s “Kisses Down Low” below:

Thoughts?