G-Dragon tops Billboard charts but Gaon rejects his USB album

Billboard's new rankings for the week of June 24 showed the album getting the No. 1 spot on the World Albums and Heatseekers Album charts.

G-Dragon tops Billboard charts but Gaon rejects his USB album
G-Dragon Instagram

Big Bang leader G-Dragon topped Billboard charts and entered the Billboard 200 with his new album "Kwon Ji Yong."

Billboard's new rankings for the week of June 24 showed the album getting the No. 1 spot on the World Albums and Heatseekers Album charts.

"Kwon Ji Yong" also debuted at No. 192 on the Billboard 200 with over 4,000 copies sold in the first week.

"Remarkably, 'Kwon Ji Yong' lands on the chart with just one day of activity after the album was released on the June 8, the final day of Nielsen's tracking week for the chart," according to Billboard.com.

It added that "with 4,000 copies sold, 'Kwon Ji Yong' marks the singer-rapper's best sales week for a project in America yet. Overall, this is G-Dragon's third entry on the Billboard 200 followed by 2012's 'One of a Kind' (which peaked at No. 161 for his best ranking to date) and 2013's 'Coup D'etat, Pt. 1' (which bowed at No. 182)."

Calling the album "inspiring," Billboard said the album's five songs "spotlight different facets of the singer's personality to give insight into G-Dragon's human side."

"While the first two showcase a star who's more than comfortable with his place in the international pop scene with the self-explanatory 'Middle Fingers-Up' and 'Bullsh*t,' while the final three tracks strip away layers to reveal the star's deeper complexities," it added.

In Korea, the album achieved a "Perfect All-Kill" status for topping the real-time, daily and weekly charts at the same time.

However, there is controversy over the album being issued in a USB drive.

Citing a report by Hankook Ilbo, AllKPop said Gaon music chart has decided not to recognize the album, thus it will not tally its sales.

According to Gaon, the USB drive does not contain songs but links to download the songs that have key codes.

This may affect the album's rankings on TV music shows "Inkigayo" and "Music Core," which is partly based on Gaon chart.

"Kwon Ji Yong" has topped 41 countries on iTunes, reaffirming G-Dragon as one of the most popular K-pop artists around the world.