Shelby (album) explained

Shelby
Type:	studio
Artist:	Lil Skies
Cover:	Lil Skies - Shelby.png
Recorded:	2017–2019
Length:	42:56
Producer:	Based1 CashMoneyAP Cris Dinero Cubeatz Cvre Danny Wolf Dilip Dru Armada Ill Wayno LNK Mario Petersen Menoh Beats MVA Beats Otxhello Palazzo Beats VinnyxProd Yugi Boi
Prev Title:	Life of a Dark Rose
Prev Year:	2018
Next Title:	Unbothered
Next Year:	2021

Shelby is the debut studio album by American rapper Lil Skies. It was released on February 28, 2019, by All We Got Entertainment and Atlantic Records. The album features guest appearances from Gucci Mane, Landon Cube, and Gunna. It peaked at number five on the US Billboard 200. The album is named after his mother. It serves as the follow-up to his breakthrough mixtape, Life of a Dark Rose (2018).^[1]

Background

Lil Skies dedicated the album to his mother, who appears in the album title and cover. It describes the hard times he has gone through with the help of his fans.

Release and promotion

On February 27, 2019, a day before the album was released, Lil Skies revealed the title and cover art of the album through Twitter.

Singles

On January 31, 2019, Skies released the lead single from the project, "Name in the Sand". On March 1, 2019, "I" was released as the second and final single along with the album, debuting at number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the highest-charting single of Skies' career.

Commercial performance

Shelby debuted at number five on the US Billboard 200 chart, earning 54,000 album-equivalent units (including 6,000 copies as pure album sales) in its first week.^[2] This became Lil Skies' second US top-ten album on the chart, surpassing his debut mixtape and first project, Life of a Dark Rose (2018), which went at number 10 on the chart.^[2] The album also accumulated a total of 68.6 million on-demand audio streams that week.^[3] On January 21, 2021, the day before Skies released the follow-up to the album, his second studio album, Unbothered, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over 500,000 units in the United States.^[4]

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (2019)	Peak position
Latvian Albums (LAIPA)^[5]	3
Lithuanian Albums (AGATA)^[6]	5
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)^[7]	21

Year-end charts

Chart (2019)	Position
US Billboard 200^[8]	194
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)^[9]	81

Notes and References

1. Web site: Hip Hop Album Sales: 2 Chainz's "Rap Or Go To The League" Makes Solid Top 5 Debut. Eustice. Kyle. March 11, 2019. HipHopDX. March 12, 2019.
2. Web site: Hozier Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart With 'Wasteland, Baby!'. Billboard. Keith Caulfield. March 10, 2019. March 1, 2020.
3. Web site: Hip Hop Album Sales: 2 Chainz's "Rap Or Go To The League" Makes Solid Top 5 Debut. Kyle Eustice. March 11, 2019.
4. News: Gold & Platinum – RIAA. RIAA. 2019-05-12. en-US.
5. Web site: Mūzikas Patēriņa Tops/ 10. nedēļa. Latvian. LAIPA. November 28, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191010115017/https://www.parmuziku.lv/muzikas-zinas/latvija/muzikas-paterina-tops-10-nedela-7826. October 10, 2019.
6. Web site: Savaitės klausomiausi (TOP 100). Lithuanian. AGATA. March 8, 2019. December 4, 2019.
7. Web site: NZ Top 40 Albums Chart. Recorded Music NZ. March 11, 2019. March 13, 2019.
8. Web site: Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 2019. Billboard. December 23, 2019.
9. Web site: Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums – Year-End 2019. Billboard. December 23, 2019.