Legend rules Billboard’s Year-End Reggae Albums Top 15 chart
...5th year running
For the fifth year, Legend by Bob Marley and the Wailers is the top-selling reggae album in the United States.
Legend tops the respected music publication’s year-end reggae album chart, a feat that it achieved at the end of 2020, 2021, 2022, and again in 2023.
Released on Friday via its website, Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artiste, title, label, and music contributor on the weekly charts during the period October 28, 2023, through October 19, 2024.
Rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology detail, and the October-October time period, account for some of the differences between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate (formerly MRC Data and Soundscan).
Legend, which was recently certified 18x platinum for sales and streaming equivalent to 18 million units sold in the United States, was first released in 1984 via Island Records. The greatest hits compilation is the best-selling reggae album of all time.
On Billboard’s weekly Reggae Albums chart, Legend is spending its 256th non-consecutive week in the #1 position.
It closes the year registering positions on other Billboard year-end charts. It ranks at #4 on Top R&B Albums, #16 on Top Catalog Albums, #18 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, and #33 on Top Album Sales charts.
Back on the Billboard year-end Reggae Album tally, Best of Shaggy: The Boombastic Collection by Shaggy is #2. The set released in September 2008 via Geffen Records, features several charting hits by the international recording deejay.
Sean Paul’s Dutty Classics Collection, which has been certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry, closes the year at #3. This hit-laden set was released in June 2017 via Rhino Entertainment.
American reggae band Stick Figure, led by Scott Woodruff, occupies three positions on the year-end tally. At #4 is World on Fire, a set released in August 2019, while Set in Stone, released in November 2015 is at #5. Wisdom, a September 2022 release, is at #6. Interestingly, all three albums previously occupied the #1 spot on the weekly ranking.
British reggae act UB40 is at #7 with Greatest Hits, a set released in September 2008 by Virgin Records, while Sean Paul appears at #8 with
Dutty Rock, a Grammy Award-winning title, which has to date sold more than 6 million units globally (3x platinum in the United States).
Another Grammy-winning set, Damian “Jr Gong” Marley’s gold-certified Welcome to Jamrock, occupies the #9 spot. Released in September 2005 via Tuff Gong/Universal Music, Welcome to Jamrock is a former chart-topper.
Byron Messia’s No Love is #10. The set released via Ztekk Records/Simple Stupid/Geffen in January 2023 peaked at #8 on the weekly Billboard Reggae Albums chart.
UB40’s UB45, Exodus and Rastaman Vibration by Bob Marley and the Wailers are #s 11, 12 and 13.
Masicka’s critically acclaimed Generation of Kings, which failed to nab a Best Reggae Album Grammy nomination, finishes the year at #14. The album, which debuted at #2 on the weekly reggae table, was released on December 1, 2023, via Def Jam Recordings.
Here Comes the Hotstepper, a 1995 release by reggae artiste Ini Kamoze, closes the year at #15. There was renewed interest in the Columbia Records set and its lead title track (which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1994) thanks to the song’s use in a 2024 Starbucks commercial for Refreshers.
