Nearly 10 months after Nipsey Hussle’s shooting death, his final album Victory Lap has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
US Certifications (@RIAA): Nipsey Hussle, Victory Lap Platinum (1,000,000).
— chart data (@chartdata) January 9, 2020
The Grammy Award-nominated project was initially released last February and debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200, selling roughly 53,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. Following his death, the album peaked at No. 2. with over 66,000 album-equivalent units sold in the first week of April 2019.
A month before Nip was gunned down by alleged killer Eric Holder, he celebrated the one-year anniversary of his major label debut via Instagram.
“2day makes 1 year since I dropped my debut album,” he wrote in the caption. “My 1st release under our Partnership w @atlanticrecords. My 1st @recordingacademy Nomination. My 1st time charting on tha @billboard Hot 200. How y’all feel Tha Album Aged in a year?”, late Nipsey Hussle wrote on his Instagram.
Prior to his passing, Nipsey averaged about two million audio streams. The day after he died, he earned 10 million audio streams and 57 million, while his video streams jumped from 900,000 to 9.7 million on the actual day of his death.