It’s Thursday and it’s time for another edition of The Numbers Game (What an intro huh?). This week we see debuts on the charts from Tech N9ne and Mike Jones…Who? Mike Jones! (Sorry. I couldn’t resist…damn I’m lame). We also see the return of Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em to the Top 50. Intro over.

Mike Jones‘ sophomore album, The Voice, debuts a #12 and sells over 20,000 units in it’s first week. I know it’s a slow week but it’s still higher than I expected. I guess Jones won’t be seeing a Platinum plaque this go around.

Tech N9ne is a rapper I respect. He’s indie but he’s got a real good fanbase. We didn’t get to review his latest callabo set, Sickology 101, but that’s not a knock at the album (Hey, I reviewed his double album Killa; all 32 tracks of it). In it’s first week, Sickology 101 sells, well, the exact sale figures are still up in the air. I put down 18,680 but now reports are coming in that he sold over 21,000. I’ll update the figure if I hear anything concrete.

We also saw Rick Ross‘ latest, Deeper Than Rap, fall to the #4 spot but go over the 200,000 mark. It might go Gold. Hey, anything is possible right? I read earlier this week that he only sold around 35,000 this week. Wrong!

Will T.I.’s Paper Trail go 2X Platinum before he goes to jail? No. But it will eventually.

And in a big surprise this week (Well maybe not), Soulja Boy’s 2nd album, iSouljaBoyTellem, returns to the Top 50. Think about it, the last time we saw this album in the Top 50 was on January 1st. Even though I personally don’t bump iSouljaBoyTellem, I can’t front on how many times I’ve heard the radio/somebody playing “Kiss Me Thru The Phone”, “Gucci Bandana”, and of course “Turn My Swag On”.

#4 Rick Ross/Deeper Than Rap (Last Week: #1) – 51,125; Total: 209,152 [2 Weeks]
#12 Mike Jones/The Voice (Last Week: NA) – 24,825; Total: NA [Debut]
#14 Asher Roth/Asleep In The Bread Aisle (Last Week: #5) – 23,142; Total: 88,623 [2 Weeks]
#16 Keri Hilson/In A Perfect World… (Last Week: #14) – 22,919; Total: 236,615 [6 Weeks]
#17 Jamie Foxx/Intuition (Last Week: #27) – 23,541; Total: 885,309 (Gold) [20 Weeks]
#19 Beyonce/I Am Sasha Fierce (Last Week: #20) – 20,600; Total: 2,133,000 (2x Platinum) [25 Weeks]
#20 Jadakiss/The Last Kiss (Last Week: #10) – 20,100; Total: 230,200 [4 Weeks]
#21 Day26/Forever In A Day (Last Week: #8) – 20,000.; Total: 170,300 [3 Weeks]
#23 Tech N9ne/Sickology 101 (Last Week: NA) – 18,680; Total: NA [Debut]
#27 Prince/Lotus Flow3r (Last Week: #19) – 17,500; Total: 295,200 [5 Weeks]
#30 The-Dream/Love Vs. Money (Last Week: #24) – 15,000; Total: 346,500 [8 Weeks]
#33 Flo Rida/R.O.O.T.S. (Last Week: #25) – 14,300; Total: 137,000 [5 Weeks]
#35 T.I./Paper Trail (Last Week: #30) – 11,000; Total: 1,913,300 (Platinum) [31 Weeks]
#50 Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em/iSouljaBoyTellem (Last Week: #58) – 9,871; Total: 226,000 [20 Weeks]

Damn, it’s 2009 already? After almost doing this column 40 times now, it still feels like I just started this yesterday. What does ‘09 hold for Hip-Hop on the charts? We’ll see a new Eminem album, maybe Detox, hopefully Blueprint 3 as well as a host of other releases (January looks slack as hell by the way). But before we get to that, here’s the first edition of the Numbers Game for the new year.

I was thinking yesterday if Kanye’s 808’s & Heartbreak was really a failure. I mean, yeah he didn’t sell 800,000 albums in the first week like he previously did with Graduation, but who is? Five weeks since the release of Kanye’s 4th album and he’s already has sold a million copies. In today’s market when going Gold in the “new” Platinum, is this really a failure? Now compare that to Common’s new album. Where the hell is Universal Mind Control?

T.I. jumps up 19 places on the charts and sells almost 80,ooo copies of Paper Trail in it’s 13th week. It might take a while, but I seriously think T.I.P.’s 6th album will go double.

Like a young Jerry Rice in a 49ers jersey, Lil’ Wayne just can’t be stop. After almost a month on the charts, Weezy moves up some spots and sells over 50,000 copies of Tha Carter III. Sitting at 2,874,420 album sold, he may go over that 3 “Milli” mark next week. And who the hell is still buying the retail version of Dedication 3? It sold over 9,000 albums this week.

The goon Plies drops form #14 to #36 this week with his 3rd album Da REAList. Maybe he won’t be getting that 3rd consecutive Gold plaque after all.

This week could be looked as a sorta good thing for Soulja Boy. Yes, his new album iSouljaBoyTellem still sits a the bottom of the Top 50 at #47, but he only dropped 4 spots from last week. Most of the time if a rapper debuts at #43, he’s not in the Top 50 the next week. But it’s really hard for me to pull for the kid when he makes statements like; “Nas killed Hip-Hop”.

I’m not really going into the R&B numbers this week (You can still check out the numbers below). Don’t be mad if I might not put ALL the numbers up for ALL the Hip-Hop/R&B artists in the Top 50 (Do you really care about Akon’s numbers?). See you next week. Peace.

#2 Beyonce/I Am…Sasha Fierce (Last Week: #5) – 210,918; Total: 1,458,853 (Platinum) [7 Weeks]
#5 Kanye West/808’s & Heartbreak (Last Week: #11) – 148,157; Total: 1,023,927 (Platinum) [4 Weeks]
#7 Keyshia Cole/A Different Me (Last Week: #2) – 126,506; Total: 448,591 [2 Weeks]
#9 Jamie Foxx/Intuition (Last Week: #3) – 104,506; Total: 369,868 [2 Weeks]
#15 T.I./Paper Trail (Last Week: #34) – 78,319; Total: 1,522,103 (Platinum) [13 Weeks]
#16 Akon/Freedom (Last Week: #31) [4 Weeks]
#29 Rihanna/Good Girl Gone Bad (Last Week: #37)  (2x Platinum) [82 Weeks]
#31 Ludacris/Theater Of The Mind (Last Week: #39) [5 Weeks]
#32 Lil’ Wayne/Tha Carter III (Last Week: #49) – 57,813; Total: 2,874,420 (2x Platinum) [29 Weeks]
#36 Plies/Da REAList (Last Week: #14) – 52,707; Total: 167,381 [2 Weeks]
#39 Anthony Hamilton/The Point Of It All (Last Week: #12) [2 Weeks]
#40 Ne-Yo/Year Of The Gentleman (Gold) (Last Week: #61) [15 Weeks]
#43 T-Pain/Thr33 Ringz (Last Week: #55) [7 Weeks]
#44 John Legend/Evolver (Last Week: #59) [9 Weeks]
#47 Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em/iSouljaBoyTellem (Last Week: #43) – 34,370; Total: 79,935 [2 Weeks]
#163 DJ Drama & Lil’ Wayne/Dedication 3 (Last Week: #185) – 9,496; Total: 17,780 [2 Weeks]

What? You thought I was gonna miss out on telling you how much Plies and Soulja Boy sold last week. Consider this a early X-Mas present; The Numbers Game is here a day early (Now in paragraph format!). A lot of artists benefited from the holiday shopping boost (while some didn’t). Well since H20’s iSouljaboytellem review last week had the comments jumping, we’ll start there: After all the debate on Soulja Boy, the kid’s sophomore album performance on the charts was underwhelming with only 45,000 copies sold and a #43 debut on the charts. Hey, I think SB’s hustle was good, but this might be the beginning of the end.

One person who won’t stop (releasing albums that is) is Plies. Even though homie gets a lot of hate, somebody out there loves him. His third album in 2 years, Da REAList, pushes over a 100,000 copies. I guess that means we can expect more albums from Plies (And more goon references).

Did anybody else know that DJ Drama & Lil’ Wayne was releasing a retail version of Dedication 3? Well they released it last week  and over 8,000 people knew about it and purchased it. Other than the actual mixtape not really being that good; Why would anyone buy a mixtape by an artist who is officially giving it away for free online? The Weezy fans are dedicated…

On the R&B front, all the debuts in the Top 50 all sold at least 100,000 albums. Keyshia Cole’s A Different Me gave her the #2 spot with over 300,000 copies sold (Country powerhouse Taylor Swift only beat her by 6,000 copies for #1 spot). Hey, I guess this shows that Keyshia has some real fans out there. Jamie Foxx’s second album, Intuiton (It’s officially his third), also did pretty good coming right behind Keyshia Cole at #3. It’s funny because Thic Saule actually recommended Foxx’s new album to me in the forums and I brushed him off (Saule: 1, B-Easy: 0). Just to prove that this was a good week for R&B, Anthony Hamilton’s new album, The Point Of It All, debuted at #12 and sold 130,000 copies. I like Anthony Hamilton, but I had no idea that he had an album coming out. None.

That’s all I really got for today; Here’s the half assed numbers. Shit, it’s the holidays. Peace.

#2 Keyshia Cole/A Different Me (Last Week: NA) – 322,085; Total: NA [Debut]
#3 Jamie Foxx/Intuition (Last Week: NA) – 265,362; Total: NA [Debut]
#5 Beyonce/I Am…Sasha Fierce (Last Week: #6) – 195,392; Total: 1,247,935 (Platinum) [6 Weeks]
#11 Kanye West/808’s & Heartbreak (Last Week: #4) – 138,910; Total: 858,810 (Gold) [3 Weeks]
#12 Anthony Hamilton/The Point Of It All (Last Week: NA) – 133,556; Total: NA [Debut]
#14 Plies/Da REAList (Last Week: NA) – 114,674; Total: NA [Debut]
#43 Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em/iSouljaBoyTellem (Last Week: NA) – 45,565; Total: NA [Debut]
#49 Lil’ Wayne/Tha Carter 3 (Last Week: #47) – 37,822; Total: 2,816,607 (2x Platinum) [28 Weeks]
#185 DJ Drama & Lil’ Wayne/Dedication 3 (Last Week: NA) – 8,284; Total: NA [Debut]

Soulja Boy Tell Em’ seems to get a lot of hate in the game: when he first showed up on the scene with a record-breaking single that was catchy enough to get him a Grammy nomination AND sold 3x Platinum; people immediately had their opinions of him. All the teenagers were doing the dance and bopping their heads to the beat, while all the older folks were complaining. Who did this kid think he was? Even Ice-T, a legend, went out of his way to tell Soulja Boy to “eat a dick”. Well, now that Soulja is in the game, the next goal is to STAY there. Let’s see if he can avoid the sophomore jinx.

I’m Bout Tha Stacks (Intro)
Produced by Drumma Boy
This is a straight up-banger to start the album off. Not bad, I wouldn’t expect anything else from Soulja Boy. First thing you’ll notice is Soulja has finally hit puberty; his voice is A LOT deeper. His lyrics still aren’t anything you’ve heard before, but he seems to have smartened up; “I got the stacks, coming straight out the Vault/Checking out my life, man it ain’t what you thought”. That one line is better than anything on his last album. Good song.

Bird Walk
Produced by Soulja Boy Tell Em’
The first single off the album. To be honest, I didn’t even know this was out until I saw the music video for it on King Jerm’s Friday Night Fro’. It’s a blatant attempt to repeat the success he had on “Crank That”, but looking at the way it’s doing, it won’t. Plus, the song just isn’t as good: “Watch me do my…BIRD WALK!!” Whatever. OK song, the beat bangs like crazy.

Turn My Swag On
Produced by Natural Disaster for U.N.I. Productions
I liked this song when it first came on; the beat is hot! But Soulja Boy is trying to sing on this?!? It wasn’t bad when I thought he was just doing it on the hook, but the first verse is just awful; we can’t all be T.I.! The hook is hot though, so I’m kind of up in the air on this song; leaning on a skip.

Gucci Bandana
Produced by Soulja Boy Tell Em’
Featuring Gucci Mane & Shawty Lo
See the features on this one? CLASSIC! These three must have set out to make the absolute worst rap song they could, and they pretty much succeeded. The beat is a low key on a piano over and over, and Soulja Boy’s hook is “Gucci Bandana, Gucci, Gucci Bandana” repeated 20 times. Still, Soulja Boy has the best verse, even if he rhymes like Shawty LO. Don’t get me wrong though, this song is terrible, probably the worst I’ve heard all year. SKIP SKIP SKIP!!!

Eazy
Produced by Zaytoven
He came back on this one. Basically, Soulja Boy is boasting on how “eazy” the rap game is to him. I guess selling three million singles puts you in that mindset? This song is decent, nothing special. On a side note, I notice how most of Soulja Boy’s songs are only 3 minutes long. Thank God!

Kiss Me Thru The Phone
Featuring Sammie; Produced by Jim Jonsin
This is the second single, though it shoulda been the first. This song is just completely dominated by Sammie and he steals the show (Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing when you want to move units). Soulja Boy’s rapping is alright; it’s about how he wants to be with his girl though he can’t. It’s MUCH better than last year’s “Soulja Girl”. Decent song.

Booty Got Swag
Produced by Soulja Boy Tell Em’
This is supposed to be “Donk Part 2″. This song sucks! At least he didn’t have a song called “Booty Meat” like last time. SKIP!!

Rubberbands
Produced by Drumma Boy
This song is alright, Soulja Boy is boasting about some street shit, which we all know isn’t true. The beat is ok, but everything else falters. What’s more, this song is too damn long! SKIP!

Hey You There
Produced by Soulja Boy Tell Em’
When I saw the title, I thought he was gonna holla at some girls, but NO! Leave it to Soulja Boy to make a song about a Mall Cop yelling “Hey! You there!” at him. He makes his voice the weirdest I’ve ever heard on a rap song, and this is without a doubt one of the worst rap song of the year, no kidding. SKIP SKIP SKIP!!!

Yamaha Mama
Featuring Sean Kingston; Produced by Polow Da Don
Alright, here Soulja brings it back after three downers that messed up the whole album. Sean Kingston again steals the show, and this song was actually enjoyable to me. Well, okay, enjoyable without the SB parts.

Wit My Yums On
Produced by Soulja Boy Tell Em’
This is about Soulja Boy’s new sneaker line. SKIP!

Go Head
Featuring Juney Boondata; Produced by Soulja Boy Tell Em’
Yeah, I’m really not feeling this one either. Soulja Boy is slipping big time here; he had at least a 2 Star album before this song. SKIP!!

Shopping Spree
Featuring Gucci Mane & Yo Gotti; Produced by Mr. Hankey
This song is awful!! The beat, alright. Everything else, and Gucci Mane’s “Yahhhh!” especially is just awful. Yo Gotti’s verse is the best, but he can’t save this song at all. SKIP!

Soulja Boy Tellem
Produced by The Package Store & Mr. Collipark
Here, Soulja Boy is talking to his critics who are talking down to him and shit. This could have been Soulja Boy’s lyrical song of the album, but instead he just lazily cruises through it. I’m leaning on a skip here, but it’s a decent song…I guess.

Whoop Rico
Featuring Show Stoppas; Produced by Soulja Boy Tell Em’
This album is really getting on my nerves. This song is just filler, again! Soulja Boy is not saying anything on this track, and neither are the Show Stoppas. SKIP!

I Pray (Outro)
Produced by Drumma Boy
This song is just too long for its own good, but it comes from the heart, which I think is what counts. The topics he’s talking about are his problems with his mom, getting girls pregnant (Damn!), and finally getting signed only to become one of the most hated rappers out there. I feel for him, but maybe I’m just glad I’m done?

Bottom Line:
At first, I thought Soulja Boy was going to grow up on this one and make a decent album that I figured critics wouldn’t completely destroy. Well, it looks like we’re back on that same road again. Soulja Boy needs to grow up in the game: you 18 man, make some music that isn’t just for the teenyboppers! I will say that this album is better than his last album (not that that’s a hard thing to do: it got one star!), but at the same time, it’s just not the breakout album Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em needs to be respected in the game. Update: I was harsh on the Soulja Boy album; I decided that it really deserves a 2.5 after listening to it again.

nappyPicks: “Yamaha Mama” & “Eazy”

Download: Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em feat. Gucci Mane & Shawty LO – “Gucci Bandana”