This is branded content created in partnership with Sound Mind.

Community is what drives Troy Donald Jamerson, better known as Pharaoahe Monch. The Queens-born MC known for his decades-long career built on complex, interlocking lyrics and rhymes credits his intimate knowledge of Black America’s struggle for stability as a formative force in his life. Troy’s mother and father both worked punishing early shifts, and Troy saw how that hard work provided stable ground in the face of adversity.

But that safe harbor could only insulate Troy so long, and with so much external struggle around him it was difficult to think that internal strife was important. “When you want to discuss emotional instability it’s difficult to feel worthy,” he says in the latest installment of the Sound Mind Unmasked video series. “It’s something you don’t talk about.”

Each video in the Sound Mind Unmasked series features an artist sharing their mental health journey, opening up about the toll touring and recording can take. Unmasked is focused on as shining a light on free mental health resources available to everyone, as well as fostering an open dialogue about mental health for artists and audiences alike.

Uncompromising dialogue has always been part of Troy’s artistic impulse, and that candor has helped him come to terms with his own emotional and psychic battles. He points to the power of his music and personal community to help him through the dark times in his life. “Fortunately I have the best family and the best friends and I felt like these guys have supported me,” he says. “What’s fly about the culture of hip hop is that it respects real truth and honesty.” His 2014 album, PTSD: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, explored those frank topics with deft lyricism, putting words to the struggle that he and so many others endure.

Still, Troy knows that many in his orbit and community are facing their demons alone and he hopes to change that through partnering with Sound Mind on the Unmasked series. “Too often we feel societal pressures to function in our everyday lives with the weight of overwhelming circumstances,” he says. “My hope is that by sharing my story we can accentuate the strides we’ve made by pinpointing the root cause of some mental health issues. If we continue to evolve in our communication and encourage people to better articulate their feelings, we can one day eliminate tragic outcomes.”

John Mayer’s Sob Rock rules Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart, as the singer-songwriter’s latest studio set debuts atop the list (dated July 31). The set sold 61,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending July 22, according to MRC Data — the biggest debut sales week for an album in nearly two months, since Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour started with 72,000 copies at No. 1 (June 5-dated chart).

Mayer leads a busy top 10 on Top Album Sales, which is infused with titles released for Record Store Day 2021’s second drop (on July 17).

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now MRC Data. Pure album sales were the measurement solely utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Sob Rock is Mayer’s fifth No. 1 on Top Album Sales and 11th top 10 overall. He’s also led the tally with The Search for Everything: Wave One (2017), Born and Raised (2012), Battle Studies (2009) and Heavier Things (2003).  

Of Sob Rock’s debut sales of 61,000, physical album sales comprise 39,000 of that figure (23,000 vinyl LPs, 15,000 CDs and a little over 1,000 cassettes), while digital album sales comprise 22,000. (The album’s cassette was exclusively sold via Mayer’s official webstore.)

Dee Gees, aka Foo Fighters, debut at No. 2 with Hail Satin, selling 15,000 copies. Of that sum, 12,000 came from its vinyl LP release for Record Store Day’s second drop (July 17), while another 3,000 were sold via digital download (released on July 19). The first five tracks on the 10-song album are covers of Bee Gees-penned songs, including four Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits: Bee Gees’ “You Should Be Dancing,” “Night Fever” and “Tragedy,” and Andy Gibb’s “Shadow Dancing.” The second five songs on the Hail Satin project are live versions of tracks from Foo Fighters’ most recent studio album, Medicine at Midnight.

Sob Rock and Hail Satin also debut at Nos. 1 and 2 on the Vinyl Albums chart, which ranks the top-selling vinyl LPs of the week.

Clairo’s latest album Sling starts at No. 3 on Top Album Sales with nearly 15,000 copies sold, the act’s highest-charting effort and first top 10. Tedeschi Trucks Band’s Layla Revisited (Live at Lockn’), featuring Trey Anastasio, bows at No. 4 with 13,000 sold.

A pair of Record Store Day-exclusive releases are up next on Top Album Sales, as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s Deja Vu: Alternates and Beastie Boys’ Aglio e Olio debut at Nos. 5 and 6, respectively, with 9,500 and 9,000 sold. Both were issued on vinyl LP, exclusively, for Record Store Day 2021’s second drop.

Deja Vu: Alternates features nine alternative versions of songs from the group’s first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, 1970’s Deja Vu. The tracks on the Alternates album were originally released in May on CD and digital download as part of the 50th-anniversary deluxe reissue of the album, but were not previously available to purchase as a stand-alone album. Deja Vu: Alternates is the highest-charting effort for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (or Crosby, Stills & Nash) on the 30-year-old Top Album Sales tally.

Beastie Boys’ Aglio e Olio was first released in 1995 as a brief eight-song, 12-minute-long album, but never charted on any Billboard chart. For Record Store Day 2021’s second drop, it was reissued on clear vinyl with two previously released bonus tracks, bringing its runtime to 15 minutes. With its No. 6 debut, Aglio e Olio marks Beastie Boys’ sixth top 10 and 15th total chart entry on Top Album Sales.

Rodrigo’s former No. 1 Sour falls 1-7 in its ninth week on the list, with a little over 8,500 sold (down 16%).

A trio of Record Store Day releases round out the new top 10 on Top Album Sales. Amy Winehouse’s Remixes debuts at No. 8 with 8,000; The Rolling Stones’ Hot Rocks 1964-1971 re-enters at No. 9 with nearly 8,000 (up 1,482%) and Miles Davis’ Champions: Rare Miles From the Complete Jack Johnson Sessions debuts at No. 10 (7,500).

Winehouse’s Remixes is a two-LP (one blue, one yellow) pressing of 15 remixes of tracks from Winehouse’s Frank and Back to Black albums. The remixes were first released in 2020 as a unit as part of the five-CD boxed set The Collection. Remixes also launches at No. 2 on the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart, her first entry there.

For Record Store Day 2021’s second drop, the Stones’ Hot Rocks 1964-1971 was issued as a double-LP on yellow vinyl with expanded original artwork.

Davis’ Champions is a six-track sampling of tunes originally released in 2003 on the box set The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions. Champions was pressed on yellow vinyl for Record Store Day 2021.

Champions also garners Davis his latest No. 1 on Billboard’s overall Jazz Albums and Traditional Jazz Albums charts.

Did you hear the one about the comedian who landed a Grammy nomination for best new artist?

The ongoing success of Bo Burnham’s Inside (The Songs) raises the distinct possibility that the comedian could receive a Grammy nomination for best new artist later this year. Burnham would be the first comic in 42 years to be nominated in that category. The last was Robin Williams, a 1979 best new artist nominee.

Inside (The Songs) is currently in its fifth week inside the top 10 on the Billboard 200. It has climbed as high as No. 7 (on the chart dated June 26). Inside (The Songs) was released on June 10, less than two weeks after the release of Burnham’s May 30 Netflix special, Inside.

Burnham, 30, has also found success as an actor. The Massachusetts native appeared in the 2020 film Promising Young Woman, which received five Oscar nods, including best picture.

Five comedians have been Grammy-nominated for best new artist over the years. Except for Williams, all were nominated in the early ’60s, when comedy albums were among the hottest entries on the Billboard 200 (along with movie soundtracks and Broadway cast albums).

Here’s a closer look at all the comedians who have received best new artist nominations. As you will see, three of them were also nominated for album of the year.

Bob Newhart (1960): The comedy legend is the only comedian to win as best new artist. He was also the first comedian to win for album of the year, for his The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart. That classic topped the Billboard 200 for 14 weeks from July to December 1960, longer than any other comedy album in the chart’s history. Newhart won a third Grammy that year — best comedy performance spoken-word — but, oddly, it was for his follow-up album, The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back! (which topped the Billboard 200 in January 1961), rather than for its predecessor.

Newhart, of course, went on to greater fame in television. His 1961-62 series The Bob Newhart Show won an Emmy for outstanding program achievement in the field of humor (which went to the show’s producer). He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1993. Twenty years later, he finally won his first competitive Emmy Award for guest actor in a comedy series for The Big Bang Theory. Newhart is 91.

Dick Gregory (1961): The only Black comedian to be nominated for best new artist, Gregory was nominated on the strength of his hit album In Living Black & White (No. 23 on the Billboard 200). Pianist Peter Nero won the award that year. Gregory went on to become equally known as a social activist. He died in 2017 at age 84. Gregory is the subject of a 2021 Showtime doc, The One and Only Dick Gregory, which features appearances by Kevin Hart, Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle.

Vaughn Meader (1962): Meader attained great, if short-lived, fame for his spot-on impression of President John F. Kennedy. The First Family topped the Billboard 200 for 12 weeks from December 1962 to March 1963 and became the second comedy album in three years to win the Grammy for album of the year. (Alas, it beat Ray Charles’ format-defying classic Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music.) The First Family also won as best comedy performance. Meader lost the best new artist prize to Broadway star Robert Goulet. According to lore, on the night of JFK’s assassination, Lenny Bruce opened a nightclub show by saying, “Boy, is Vaughn Meader f—ed.” The joke wasn’t far from the truth: After a First Family sequel peaked at No. 4 in June 1963, Meader never returned to the Billboard 200. He died in 2004 at age 68.

Allan Sherman (1962): This marked the only time in Grammy history that two comedians were nominated for best new artist in the same year, with Meader and Sherman both in the running. (See note below.) Sherman was nominated on the strength of his album My Son, The Folk Singer, which topped the Billboard 200 for two weeks in December 1962. That album was also nominated for album of the year and best comedy performance (losing both to The First Family). Sherman is the only comedian to top the Billboard 200 with three albums — My Son, The Folk Singer; My Son, the Nut; and My Son, the Celebrity, which held the top spot for a combined 11 weeks in 1962-63. Sherman died in 1973, just a decade removed from his peak of popularity, at age 48.

Robin Williams (1979): Williams was nominated on the strength of his album Reality…What a Concept, which reached No. 10 on the Billboard 200 in September 1979, as his sitcom Mork & Mindy began its second season. He lost the award to Rickie Lee Jones. Reality… won for best comedy recording, an award Williams won a total of four times. (He also won once for best recording for children.) Williams, who went on to win two Emmys and an Oscar, died in 2014 at age 63. Williams has been the subject of two docs in the past few years: Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind (2018) and Robin’s Wish (2020).

Note: The Blues Brothers, consisting of Saturday Night Live stars John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, were also Grammy-nominated for best new artist in 1979, but the album for which they were nominated, Briefcase Full of Blues (No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in February 1979), was only incidentally comedic. A track from the album, “Rubber Biscuit,” was nominated for best comedy recording, but the album itself was nominated for best rock vocal performance by a duo or group.

While comedians haven’t gotten any recognition in the Big Four categories since 1979, they have fronted the Grammy telecast 18 times since 1987. Billy Crystal was the first comedian to host the live Grammy telecast, in 1987. He repeated in that role in the next two years, and went on to host nine Oscar telecasts.

Garry Shandling hosted the Grammys four times, more than any other comedian. Ellen DeGeneres, Rosie O’Donnell, Jon Stewart and James Corden each hosted twice. Whoopi Goldberg, Paul Reiser and Trevor Noah (host of the March 14 show) each hosted once.

Here are three more comedy/Grammy notes: Bill Cosby won the Grammy for best comedy album seven times, more often than anyone else. George Carlin and Richard Pryor are runners-up, with five wins each in the category.

Pryor is the only comedian to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy. He received the honor posthumously in 2006, shortly after his death in December 2005 at age 65.

Six comedy albums have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame (which is open to albums that have been in release for 25 years or more). Those albums, with their year of release, are: The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart  (1960), Stan Freberg’s Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America (1961), Cosby’s I Started Out as a Child (1964), Carlin’s Class Clown (1972), Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks’ 2000 and Thirteen  (1973) and Pryor’s That N—er’s Crazy (1974).