Jay-Z set for his first Number 1 on Official Albums Chart

The hip-hop legend is on course for his first chart-topping album in the UK with Magna Carta Holy Grail.

Rap juggernaut Jay-Z is heading for the UK top spot for the first time ever, as Magna Carta Holy Grail, looks set to end Mumford & Sons’ brief spell as the comeback kids at the top of the Official Albums Chart.

Jay-Z’s 13-track album is comfortably outselling its nearest rival, Michael Bublé’s To Be Loved, at the week’s halfway mark, putting Magna Carta Holy Grail on course to become Jay-Z’s first Number 1 album in the UK, and eighth Top 40 album as a solo artist. Jay-Z’s previous highest charting album was 2011’s collaborative project with Kanye West – Watch The Throne, which peaked at Number 3. His solo album personal best was 2009’s Blueprint III, peaking at Number 4.

The Jay-Z effect is also making its presence felt in the Official Singles Chart. Seven of his tracks make an appearance in the Top 200 midweek.

Michael Bublé is set to spend his second straight week at Number 2 on the Official Albums Chart with To Be Loved, after being pipped at the post last week by Mumford & Sons, who now slide three places to Number 4 with Babel. Sandwiched between last week’s bitter rivals are those folky rockers from Hove, Passenger, climbing four spots to Number 3 with All The Little Lights.

BRIT Award winner Tom Odell’s former chart-topping debut Long Way Down falls two places and rounds off the Top 5.

New Entries and High Climbers

Apart from Jay-Z’s big new entry at the top of the chart with Magna Carta Holy Grail, Ciara’s self-titled album is new in at Number 35, if the US singer maintains her current performance through to the weekend, this will be her fourth Top 40 album.

Climbing high in the Official Albums Chart is Night Visions from American alt-rockers Imagine Dragons, up 15 places to Number 15. And in the same week that an explicit video for latest single Tunnel Vision sparked controversy, Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience gets a lift of eight places to Number 34.

The biggest climber this week is Jamie Cullum’s Momentum, which rockets 101 places to Number 36, thanks to album track Pure Imagination, a song from 1971 movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, playing over a montage of Andy Murray winning his first Wimbledon Men’s Singles title on Sunday.

The Official Albums Chart Update Top 40 is as follows:

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