That was fast

Thursday at midnight the seismic force of the Bey Hive impacted, and nothing was the same. Her no-promotion, no-campaign, not announced fifth album fell out of her purse and onto iTunes and sh*t went crazy. The only thing crazier than the actual occurrence may be her first week sales, which is to say, to call them first-week sales may be misleading. Traditionally, the Billboard report of music sales for the week (Tuesday to Monday) is released on the Wednesday of every week. However, Mrs. Carter’s week began on Friday, meaning her “first week” sales will really only consist of this weekend, plus Monday.

And she’ll still debut at number one. And its not even close.

It was reported that Beyonce‘s fifth album sold over 80,000 copies before dawn on Friday even hit, then reports began trickling out that she had nearly gone gold by the time Friday night came around; that Beyonce had sold over 450,000 units in 24 hours. Today, Billboard reports that Bey’s LP has surpassed 550,000 copies sold, meaning it has already gone gold, despite only being available for purchase for a total of less than 72 hours as of press time. Beyonce will shatter the former Destiny’s Child member’s previous high mark for first week sales, which was achieved with B’Day, her 2006 sophomore effort, which moved 541,000 copies in its first 7 days on the shelves, a mark that Beyonce appears to have already surpassed.

-Khari Nixon (@KingVanbGogh)