In yet another slow week for Hip Hop and R&B, Alicia Keys is again dethroned from the top spot, this time by the debut albums of Jack Johnson and Sheryl Crow who claimed the coveted #1 and #2 positions, respectively. Keys is stil slated to reach triple platinum by next week. Mary J Blige holds strong in the top ten, still slipping down one spot to #7 while the Step Up 2 Soundtrack [which includes Flo Rida's commerical smash hit "Low'] debuted at #13 selling 32k.

Keyshia Cole and Chris Brown, though both experiencing a %3 decrease in sales, hold the #11 and #12 spots. J. Holiday's Back of my Lac finally hits gold in its 19th week on the charts (505k), while The Dream, who wrote both J. Holiday's "Bed" and "Suffocate", has made it to just past the 200k mark in his 9th week.

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

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Total
3	Alicia Keys	As I Am	80,172	2,987,631
7	Mary J Blige	Growing Pains	44,592	1,177,054
11	Keyshia Cole	Just Like You	35,366	1,131,109
12	Chris Brown	Exclusive	32,267	1,248,205
13	Various	Step Up 2 Soundtrack	31,445	31,521

Hip Hop continues its agonizing dry spell with the highest ranking rap artist (Soulja Boy) coming in at #36. Lupe Fiasco [despite winning his first Grammy Award this weekend] still slowly inches towards his golden plaque. Currently, Fiasco has sold 317k. Raheem Devaughn, despite some glowing reviews for album Love Behind The Melody, has still been unable to crack 100k.

Other Notables

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Total
36	Soulja Boy	Souljaboytellem.com	18,603	764,571
54	Lupe Fiasco	The Cool	14,767	316,819
57	Raheem DeVaughn	Love Behind The Melody	14,350	90,309
63	Jay-Z	American Gangster	12,994	978,362
64	Kanye West	Graduation	12,976	1,983,188

Next month, legend Pete Rock drops his highly anticipated New York's Finest, along with new albums by Erykah Badu, Rick Ross, Akrobatik, and many more. It's getting warmer this February, but will the charts reflect it?

-- Edited by Casino at 14:18, 2008-02-14

-- Edited by Casino at 14:20, 2008-02-14