NEW YORK (AP) Lil Wayne now has official numbers to back up his bragging the rapper's new CD has sold a spectacular 1 million copies its first week.

"Tha Carter III" is easily the best selling first week of the year, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures. Even Kanye West's "The Graduation" didn't eclipse that mark in its first week last year (though it was only about 50,000 copies short).

A prolific rapper who's been ubiquitous on the mixtape scene and on other acts' records, Lil Wayne is generally regarded as one of rap's most gifted performers but he's never had a multiplatinum album. "Tha Carter III" was anticipated as the CD that would send the New Orleans rapper into superstardom.

In a slumping industry where selling 200,000 albums in one week is becoming a rare feat, Lil Wayne's achievement is not only a triumph but a much-needed boost the last CD to sell 1 million or more in its first week was 50 Cent's "The Massacre" in 2005.