The Numbers Game: Kanye Gets Top Spot
December 4, 2008 by B-Easy
Once again there’s no surprise that Kanye’s 808’s & Heartbreak captured the #1 spot this week, but there is a question: Yes, it sold over 400,000 copies but what does that mean? With all the hype, speculation, and promoting, doesn’t that seem a little low? I mean, didn’t the sound of the album go for a Pop-like and universal feel? I just hope Mr. West didn’t loose his regular in an attempt to gain new ones (He sold more when he was rapping). Also debuting this week is Ludacris’ Theater Of The Mind at #5. While I don’t think anyone thought he would outsell Kanye head to head, 200,000 copies sold ain’t bad (But then again that album also got a lot of promotion…). The third Hip-Hop album to debut in the Top 100 in E-40’s The Ball Street Journal. I personally think that for this to be E-40’s 11th album, 30,000 album sales ain’t bad either. Beyonce moved down to #4 but still sold more copies of I Am…Sasha Fierce in her second week that Luda in his first. I guess no one told T.I. & Lil’ Wayne about the album sales’ recession because both are doing great. T.I., already Platinum, is at #16 and is already halfway to 2X Platinum while Weezy at #39 looks like he might go Trible this year (Especially after those 8 Grammy nominations). But it looks like T-Pain’s Thr33 Ringz might not even go Gold at #21 with only 278,300 in three weeks (But that’s still better than Ace Hood; Where the fuck did he go?). Check back next week when we see how Scarface and Akon fair.
#1 Kanye West/808’s & Heartbreak (Last Week: NA) – 451,395; Total: NA [Debut]
#4 Beyonce/I Am…Sasha Fierce (Last Week: #1) – 257,377; Total: 740,554 (Gold) [2 Weeks]
#5 Ludacris/Theater Of The Mind (Last Week: NA) – 214,126; Total: NA [Debut]
#16 T.I./Paper Trail (Last Week: #14) – 74,792; Total: 1,303,834 (Platinum) [9 Weeks]
#21 T-Pain/Thr33 Ringz (Last Week: #12) – 48,769; Total: 278,318 [3 Weeks]
#34 Rhianna/Good Girl Gone Bad (Last Week: #38) – 35,100; Total: 2,057,400 (2X Platinum) [78 Weeks]
#37 John Legend/Evolver (Last Week: #18) – 33,300; Total: 330,300 [5 Weeks]
#39 Lil’ Wayne/Tha Carter III (Last Week: #41) – 31,920; Total: 2,726,589 (2X Platinum) [25 Weeks]
#42 E-40/The Ball Street Journal (Last Week: NA) – 30,677; Total: NA [Debut]
#55 Ne-Yo/Year Of The Gentleman (Last Week: #44) – 28,400; Total: 650,500 (Gold) [11 Weeks]
Just 451k? I mean, I have to admit, I expected to go gold at least. Or maybe 450k was expected. I have to say I’m suriprsied or Ludas 215k. I expected much, MUCH less.
Luda didn’t sell that well, Kanye didn’t either. Still, this was a good year for Hip-Hop: 451,000 in a week is good. Luda shoulda done better, damn fools buy Kanye’s album.
Oh yeah, anyone cop “Universal Mind Control”? Hope you guys do a review on it. Personally, I do not like the album at all. Least some of the producktions are catchy, such as UMC, and What A World.
yaa i agree i thought the common album would be waaaay better….lil dissapointed
Hmmm… I thought Luda would sell a lil’ more than that. That album is dope!
Once again, Kanye wins a sales battle. Ninjas better start respecting Kanyeezy!
Why didn’t you state the fact that Stephen Colbert had the #2 album this week!
I want to know when Nas goes gold. Please let me know.
Taylor Swift & Gun N Roses are #2 & #3, you may be talking about iTunes
@ Jerm
Untitled/NIGGER has been certified gold by the RIAA….guess that 500K minimum is no more….hopefully, it’ll get a grammy boost…..still surprised that N.I.G.G.E.R. (The Slave and Master) got nominated….it’ll be interesting how they say that on the show
I thought Luda would’ve sold less, his album did get a lot of promotion, but this
is also his first album without a top 20 lead single. I expected Kanye to at least do gold in his first week, maybe he didn’t because of all that auto-tune stuff on his album.
@ Blue
Probably they’ll like spell it out or something.
Or maybe even N – I – double G- Errrr
I think Kanye’s career is going to take a tumble downwards after this.
Luda did better than i expected.