Dave has broken chart records with his new album The Boy Who Played The Harp (Neighbourhood).
The UK rapper, songwriter and producer opened at the summit with 73,799 units (51,809 physical copies, 368 downloads, 21,602 sales equivalent streams), according to the Official Charts Company. That was almost in line with the first week consumption of 2021’s We’re All Alone In This Together, which opened with a few hundred more units.
With a chart-topping result for The Boy Who Played The Harp, Dave becomes the first British rap act to debut three albums at No.1. Stormzy also has three chart-toppers but only two debuted at No.1.
Dave’s third album is also the fastest selling rap LP on vinyl this century, moving 15,561 copies on the format over the past seven days. In fact, it’s the best weekly result for a rap album on vinyl since Official Chart records began in 1994.
With just short of 74,000 copies, The Boy Who Played The Harp has the second biggest opening week for a British album release this year, behind Sam Fender’s Mercury Prize-winning People Watching. It’s also the fourth biggest opening week overall of 2025 so far, behind Taylor Swift’s The Life Of A Showgirl, Sam Fender and Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend.
In addition, Dave becomes the first British rapper in chart history to land three albums in the Top 40 simultaneously. That’s as a result of the new album reviving interest in previous records: 2019 debut Psychodrama jumped 141-17 with weekly consumption up 230.7%, while We’re All Alone In This Together moved 133-26 with consumption up 155.5%.
Dave also scored two Top 10 singles led by Tems collaboration Raindance at No.5 (34,935 units) and followed by History (with James Black) at No.9 (25,119 units). Kano collaboration Chapter 16 just missed the Top 10 (No.11, 22,415 units).
PHOTO: Gabriel Moses
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