I personally thought Kanye West‘s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy would sell a million copies in it’s first week. Besides yours truly going out and purchasing the actual album, the reviews he has been receiving have this album mostly listed as a classic. But to put things in a Hip-Hop perspective: Drake’s Thank Me Later sold roughly 447,000 earlier this year, Eminem’s Recovery sold 741,000 in late June, and Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3 sold around 476,000 late last year. Of course My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy will go on to Platinum status and the album is a “marathon seller” meaning that it’s be on these charts for a minute (I said the same about Rihanna’s Loud last week and look at her this week) [Check out Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy review here]
The other big album release this week belongs Nicki Minaj with her debut Pink Friday. Yea, she didn’t overtake Kanye West for the #1 spot but I think that was expected. Actually, she wasn’t really that far behind My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in terms of sales. All in all, this is win for Nicki, Young Money, (and hopefully) female MC’s everywhere. [Check out Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday review here]
Despite Ne-Yo‘s album leaked a while ago, Libra Scale still pushes over a 100k and lands in the Top 10.
Loyd Banks return to the charts with H.F.M. 2 (The Hunger For More 2). Banks’ new album does a respectable 44,000. That’s feels about right [Check out Loyd Banks’ H.F.M. 2 (The Hunger For More 2) review here]
Lil’ Wayne‘s I Am Not A Human Being cross the 500,000 mark this week and gets a Gold Plaque.
Jay-Z‘s greatest hits compilation, The Hits Collection, Volume One, does a quiet 27,000 in sales last week. This is not bad considering that it’s just a companion piece to his Decoded book (Which right now is sitting at #3 on the New York Times Bestseller list). He still could have thrown a new or unreleased track on there.
Yelawolf‘s debut album Trunk Muzik 0-60 kinda got lost in the shuffle among bigger releases last week. 5,000 copies isn’t bad for a newcomer but I’m sure many felt he deserved better. Now what? [Check out Yelawolf’s Trunk Muzik 0-60 review here]
Update: Forgot to add sales for albums by Curren$y and Big L. Both are now added below.
#1 Kanye West/My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Last Week: NA) – 497,100; Total: NA [Debut]
#2 Nicki Minaj/Pink Friday (Last Week: NA) – 376,000; Total: NA [Debut]
#6 Rihanna/Loud (Last Week: #3) – 140,800; Total: 347,600 [2 Weeks]
#9 Ne-Yo/Libra Scale (Last Week: NA) – 112,500; Total: NA [Debut]
#25 Eminem/Recovery (Last Week: #23) – 48,000; Total: 3,052,900 (2X Platinum) [23 Weeks]
#26 Lloyd Banks/H.F.M. 2 (The Hunger For More 2) (Last Week: NA) – 44,500; Total: NA [Debut]
#28 Mariah Carey/Merry Christmas II (Last Week: #22) – 41,600; Total: 165,400 [4 Weeks]
#31 Lil’ Wayne/I Am Not A Human Being (Last Week: #31) – 36,900; Total: 511,300 (Gold) [9 Weeks]
#36 Bruno Mars/Doo-Wops & Hooligans (Last Week: #50) – 33,400; Total: 197,500 [8 Weeks]
#39 Nelly/5.0 (Last Week: #10) – 30,800; Total: 94,400 [2 Weeks]
#41 KiD CuDi/Man On The Moon II: The Legend Of Mr. Rager (Last Week: #12) – 30,200; Total: 235,900 [3 Weeks]
#43 Jay-Z/The Hits Collection, Volume One (Last Week: NA) – 27,900; Total: NA [Debut]
#49 Trey Songz/Passion, Pain & Pleasure (Last Week: #49) – 23,800; Total: 532,100 (Gold) [11 Weeks]
#83 Curren$y/Pilot Talk II (Last Week: NA) – 14,000; Total: NA [Debut]
#164 Yelawolf/Trunk Muzik 0-60 (Last Week: NA) – 5,000; Total: NA [Debut]
#NA Big L/Return Of The Devil’s Son (Last Week: NA) – 1,200; Total: NA [Debut]