Jay-Z’s Magna Carta…Holy Grail sold a better-than-expected 528K copies in its first week. Only one album has gotten off to a faster start this year—Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience, which sold 968K in its first week in March (boosted immeasurably by “Suit & Tie,” a stylish collabo with Jay-Z).

The first-week tally for Magna Carta is substantially more than Yeezus, by Jay-Z’s pal and sometime collaborator Kanye West, has sold in its first four weeks combined (459K). It’s Jay-Z’s biggest opening tally since Kingdom Come sold 680K in its first week in November 2006. It’s the best sales week for a rap album since Drake’s Take Care sold 631K copies in its first week in November 2011.

Magna Carta becomes Jay-Z’s 13th #1 album on The Billboard 200, which puts Jay-Z second only to the Beatles as the act with the most #1 albums in chart history. The Fab Four has had 19 #1 albums. But the competition is closer than that stat makes it look. Jay-Z is just one #1 album behind the number of chart-topping albums the Beatles had while they were a current recording act (through 1970). (The Beatles’ last five #1 albums were compilations released long after their breakup.)

By remarkable coincidence, Jay-Z was born Dec. 4, 1969, when the Beatles’ 13th #1 album, Abbey Road, was sitting at #1.

Jay-Z has had more #1 albums than any other American artist in chart history; more than any other African-American artist; and more than any other hip-hop artist. Elvis Presley and Bruce Springsteen are in second place among American artists, with 10 #1 albums each.

Magna Carta is Jay-Z’s fourth album to start with sales of 500K or more. It’s his 10th album (and his fifth studio album in a row) to start with sales north of 400K. You read a lot about declining album sales and how it’s not possible to expect albums to sell like they used to, but Jay-Z defies the trends.

Jay-Z’s total is especially impressive because it doesn’t count the 1 million digital copies that Samsung made available for free to its phone and tablet users who had downloaded a Jay-Z centric app. “Nothing was actually for sale,” Bill Werde, Billboard’s editorial director, wrote in an open letter to the industry explaining the decision.

If there had been no Samsung deal, Jay-Z’s album would probably sold even more copies this week. (Of course, it works both ways: The publicity about the Samsung deal and its chart repercussions helped focus attention on the album, which made it even more of an event album.)

Magna Carta also debuts at #1 on Top Digital Albums. It sold 348K digital copies, which is the second biggest one-week tally for a rap album. Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter IV sold 362K digital copies in its first week in September 2011. Watch The Throne, Jay-Z’s 2011 collabo with West, slips to third place among rap albums. It sold 321K digital copies in its first week in August 2011.

Nine songs from the album enter Hot Digital Songs chart this week. “Holy Grail,” Jay-Z’s collabo with Justin Timberlake, bows at #3 (196K). It enters the Hot 100 at #8. That’s the second highest debut so far this year (after Baauer’s “Harlem Shake”).

Magna Carta is the fourth rap or hip-hop album to hold the #1 spot in as many weeks. It follows Yeezus, Wale’s The Gifted and J. Cole’s Born Sinner. This is the first time that four rap albums have held the top spot in succession since December 2004. Jay-Z had an album in that run, too—Collision Course, his collabo with Linkin Park. That album was followed in the top spot by Ludacris’ The Red Light District, 2Pac’s Loyal To The Game and Eminem’s Encore.