Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 4/12/2009

 

Although Country sensation Rascal Flatts and Pop princess Hannah Montana took the #1 and #2 respectively, L.O.X./D-Block member Jadakiss [click to read] impressed many, with New York Hip Hop's best debut week in close to a year. With lukewarm reviews, The Last Kiss [click to read], Jada's Def Jam debut, beat fellow New York major label rapper MIMS' debut week by over 120,000 units.

Hip Hop favorite Prince stayed in the Top 10 for week two, with his Target-exclusive three-album set, LOtUSFLOW3R independent project. Keri Hilson's In A Perfect World... [click to read] remained in the Top 15 for a third week, maintaining her status as Interscope's present R&B flagship artist, distinguishing herself against Keyshia Cole. Flo Rida's R.O.O.T.S. [click tp read] gained some second week momentum for the Atlantic Records artist, placing him ahead of UGK, despite considerably lower units scanned last week.

UGK [click to read] did fall over 50,000 units from the previous week with UGK 4 Life [click to read]. Pimp C's posthumous group album with Bun B still continues to defy expectations, as the group's nearly 20 year tenure with Jive Records comes to its final release.

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

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Est. Total
3	Jadakiss	The Last Kiss	134,515	134,921
9	Prince	LOtUSFLOW3R	66,492	234,950
15	Keri Hilson	In A Perfect World...	32,713	164,340
17	Flo Rida	R.O.O.T.S.	31,744	87,100
20	UGK	UGK 4 Life	26,304	102,904

Capitol/EMI flagship rapper MIMS failed to debut in the Top 50 with his sophomore Guilt. The Washington Heights emcee has often refuted the importance of week-to-week sales, as his debut Music Is My Savior was a slow success, driven off of ringtone and single sales.

For the second week straight, Boss Of All Bosses [click to read], saw Slim Thug [click to read] outsell Sony Records flagship artist Jim Jones [click to read] and his Pray IV Reign [click to read]. Although Jones has more overall units scanned, the two artists surprise many with that close range competition. Slim Thug appears to fill Jones' former role, as E1 (formerly Koch Records') best-selling Hip Hop act.

Bad Boy Records's Gorilla Zoe [click to read] slid just below the Top 50 with his sophomore Don't Feed Da Animals [click to read]. The Boyz N The Hood front-man moved over 50,000 overall units.

Lil Wayne [click to read] sold just over 10,000 (#65) copies of Tha Carter III [click to read], his usual sum from recent weeks.

DOOM (formerly MF DOOM and Zevlove X of KMD) stayed on the charts for a third week with his BORN INTO THIS [click to read] release, selling just over 3,000 units. iTunes offers an exclusive Radiohead remix to one of the album's tunes, making it a release to watch.

Along with Jadakiss and MIMS, Tennessee Rap veteran Yo Gotti represented TVT on a debut on the charts, taking the final spot with CM2.

Other Notables  

 

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Est. Total
53	MIMS	Guilt	12,404	12,411
61	Slim Thug	Boss Of All Bosses	11,171	60,783
72	Jim Jones	Pray IV Reign	9,908	66,594
196	DOOM	BORN LIKE THIS	3,258	18,669
200	Yo Gotti	CM2	3,194	3,504