Although last week's Grammy Awards were the third least watched in its history (drawing a lackluster audience of only 17.5 million), the performing artists have seen a large surge in record sales. Jack Johnson remains in the top spot followed by none other than troubled songstress Amy Winehouse who performed via satellite from the UK. Winehouse's Back to Black sold 115k this week (a 368.4% increase from last week's sales of under 25k). Alicia Keys (also a Grammy) remains in the #3 spot this week, however, she did manage to sell over 100k units to officially enter triple platinum status in just 14 weeks on the charts.
After winning the coveted "Album of the Year" Grammy award, jazz musician Herbie Hancock (whose past songs have been remixed and sampled by the likes of popular Hip Hop producer Madlib) had an astounding leap from #159 to #5 on the charts. Herbie's award marked the first time since 1964 that a jazz artist has captured the Album of the Year. Meanwhile Grammy performer John Legend jumped from #62 to #12 selling 40k units (a 209% sales increase).
Top 200 Album Sales (Top 5 Hip Hop/R&B)
Rank Artist Album This Week Total
2
Amy Winehouse
Back To Black
115,309
1,649,181

3
Alicia Keys
As I Am
108,840
3,096,471

11
Mary J Blige
Growing Pains
48,563
1,125,617

12
John Legend
Live from Philadelphia
40,431
123,673

13
Chris Brown
Exclusive
39,691
1,287,896


Still no waves being made in Hip Hop as it continues to starve for a high-selling artist. With the recent announcement of his upcoming tour, Kanye West managed to create enough buzz to land him the top Rap spot on the charts (#40) and finally hit double platinum, while tour-mate Lupe Fiasco undersold Kanye by less than 100 units and grabbed the #42 spot. Lupe won his first Grammy last week for "Best Urban/Alternative Performance". With all of the shuffling around on the charts, Soulja Boy drops 20 spots from #36 to #56 selling under 25k units.
Other Notables Rank Artist Album This Week Total
40
Kanye West
Graduation 22,620
2,005,808

42
Lupe Fiasco
The Cool
22,565
339,384
56
Soulja Boy
Souljaboytellem.com 19,251
783,822

68
Jay-Z
American Gangster
15,259
993,621

74
Raheem DeVaughn
Love Behind The Melody
13,584
103,893

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?