Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 6/20/2010

Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 6/20/2010

June 23, 2010 08:00:00 AM CDT

by Allen Jacobs

As many experts predicted, Drake is the latest Rap artist to achieve a #1 debut. The Young Money/Cash Money rapper's "official" first album, Thank Me Later edged out Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' latest by a margin of over 320,000 units. The Toronto born rapper's album was just over 50,000 short of a gold debut, as predicted by HitsDailyDouble.com. Thank Me Later features appearances by Jay-Z, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, T.I. and Young Jeezy. The bulk of the album's production is handled by Drake's longtime producer Boi-1da, who may get back-to-back #1's, with next week's Eminem Recovery album.


Usher's Raymond v. Raymond fell one spot to #13. The veteran Pop entertainer's "divorce album" is marching its way to a platinum plaque for Mr. Raymond and his longtime backer, LaFace Records.



Spots #17 through #19 were taken by B.o.B., Plies and The Black Eyed Peas respectively. The Adventures of Bobby Ray will be officially over halfway to a gold plaque next week, while the year-old E.N.D. aims at possibly reaching triple platinum. Goon Affiliated pushes its way towards 100,000 sold for the Florida sensation.


* Please note: figures below approximated to nearest thousandth.



Top 200 Album Sales (Top 5 Hip Hop/R&B)



Rank Artist Album This Week Est. Total

1

Drake

Thank Me Later

447,000

447,000



13

Usher Raymond v. Raymond

29,000

850,000



17

B.o.B. Presents The Adventures of Bobby Ray 20,000

249,000



18

Plies

Goon Affiliated

20,000

76,000



19

Black Eyed Peas The E.N.D. 19,000

2,609,000



Damian Marley & Nas' Distant Relatives slid to #37. The Universal Republic/Def Jam Records collaborative release has garnered huge critical acclaim in the Rap community for its rich commentary on the parallel relationship between Hip Hop and Reggae. Lil Wayne, K'Naan, Dennis Brown and Joss Stone appear on the work produced by Damian and brother Stephen. Meanwhile, Ludacris gained two notches with Battle of the Sexes.


One of the bigger surprises for the week was Gorillaz' Plastic Beach. Having been out nearly four months, the Virgin Records release climbed 59 spots on the chart. The surge is perhaps due to the third single "Rhinstone Eyes" reaching Rock radio rotation. The album includes appearances by Mos Def, De La Soul and Snoop Dogg. Drake also gained 18 spots with his retail mixtape, So Far Gone. The 2009 free mixtape-turned-album sits 15,000 away from gold certification, making Drake likely to receive two plaques in the same month.
Lil Jon fell another 50-plus spots with his Crunk Rock. After a poor debut week, the So So Def deejay-turned-Crunk star's album delays may have impacted his popularity, as well as a label change to Universal Republic.




Rank Artist Album This Week Est. Total

37

Nas & Damian Marley

Distant Relatives

11,000

125,000



39

Ludacris

Battle of the Sexes

11,000

462,000



51

Gorillaz Plastic Beach

7,800

282,000



76

Drake

So Far Gone

6,100

485,000



112

Lil Jon

Crunk Rock

4,700

14,000



From HipHopDX.com

http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.11539/title.hip-hop-album-sales-the-week-ending-6-20-2010