The release of Jay-Z’s song, “D.O.A (Death Of Auto-Tune)”, sparked the debate on the use (And over use) of Auto-Tune in Hip-Hop. Is it corny? Is it dead? Can it die? Even the biggest supporters of the tool can admit that its use has been excessive as of late. Personally, I think that maybe we as a culture need to move on (Or at least let T-Pain have it). Does that mean that all Auto-Tune’d songs suck? Naw, there are actually some good ones out there. Here I list some of the good ones and some of the bad ones. And no, this is not a definitive list. There are a lot more bad songs using Auto-Tune (Webstar. I’m looking at you). There are also some good ones. I didn’t even go too far back; if I had Roger Troutman and Teddy Riley may have dominated this list. Tell us what you think and what songs should be on this list.

The Good:

Download: DJ Khaled feat. Kanye West & T-Pain – “Go Hard”
Producer: The Runners
I’ve been on record saying that this was one of my favorite songs of 2008. Yeezy & T-Pain re-connect and go hard (pause) with the Auto-Tune.

Download: Jamie Foxx feat. T-Pain – “Blame It”
Producer: Christopher “Deep” Henderson
Yea radio is playing the hell out of this song but you still can’t deny that Jamie (With an assist from T-Pain) crafted a catchy track. I even like the Obama parody: “Blame it on the E-e-e-e-economy!”

Download: Drake – “Sooner Or Later”
Producer: D10
Drake is everywhere these days. A large thanks for that goes to So Far Gone. I could picked a few tracks off the mixtape but I think this one shows some of the best use of Auto-Tune…lightly.

Download: T-Pain feat. Lil’ Wayne – “Can’t Believe It”
Producer: T-Pain
Teddy Penderass shows up again but this time with his own track. Jay-Z said T-Pain does Auto-Tune well; this song backs that.

The Bad:

Download: Capone-N-Noreaga feat. Ron Brownz & Busta Rhymes – “Rotate”
Producer: Ron Brownz
Remember when T-Pain said that Ron Brownz didn’t know how to use Auto-Tune? This hook sounds just like “Pop Champagne”…and “Arab Money”…and “Jumping Out The Window”. Lazy. “Eitherboy!”

Download: Gorilla Zoe – “Echo”
Producer: Drumma Boy
When I first heard this song I honestly thought it was One Republic. Until I heard Zoe’s gravel sounding Auto-Tune. Why is singing a song about lost love? What happened to being a “Hood Nigga”?

Download: Shawty Lo feat. DJ Khaled, Birdman, Rick Ross, & Jim Jones – “Foolish (remix)”
Producer: DJ Montay
This track gets a foul not because of the entire song, but for just one verse. Birdman’s verse. I guess since his “son” Weezy loves the vocoder, why not Stunna? There was no point to this.

Download: T-Pain feat. Lil’ Wayne – “Can’t Believe It”
Producer: T-Pain
You see what I did there? This song both shows the good and bad ways on the use of Auto-Tune. T-Pain’s verses = good. Lil’ Wayne’s drunken verse = terrible.

For some reason, this week has been hard on your boy B-Easy. Not to say I’m not working on projects for nappyafro. I’m ALWAYS working on projects for nappyafro (Shit, I gave you people magic earlier this week). No complaints though; I love what we do here. And if you know me, you know that when I ramble on about nothing in The Numbers Game, it must be a pretty boring week in term of album sales. Hip-Hop wise, the noticeably thing that did happen was that Joe Budden’s new album Padded Room fell over 130 spots to #176. Still not bad for an indie. Check back next week to see how new albums from The-Dream & J. Holiday do on the charts.

#6 Jamie Foxx/Intuition (Last Week: #9) – 32,450; Total: 713,897 (Gold) [12 Weeks]
#8 Beyoncé/I Am Sasha Fierce (Last Week: #6) – 30,892; Total: 1,948,966 (Platinum) [17 Weeks]
#10 T.I./Paper Trail (Last Week: #11) – 23,578; Total: 1,772,720 (Platinum) [23 Weeks]
#11 Kanye West/808’s & Heartbreak (Last Week: #10) – 22,500; Total: 1,408,491 (Platinum) [14 Weeks]
#14 Keyshia Cole/A Different Me (Last Week: #12) – 19,796; Total: 770,032 (Gold) [12 Weeks]
#24 Ne-Yo/Year Of The Gentleman (Last Week: #25) – 16,300; Total: 958,800 (Gold) [25 Weeks]
#25 India.Arie/Volume 2: Testimony: Love & Politics (Last Week: #15) – 15,900; Total: 146,100 [4 Weeks]
#27 Akon/Freedom (Last Week: #26) – 14,900; Total: 540,600 (Gold) [14 Weeks]
#31 Lil’ Wayne/Tha Carter III (Last Week: #36) – 13,859; Total: 3,058,469 (3x Platinum) [39 Weeks]
#42 Jennifer Hudson/Jennifer Hudson (Last Week: #48) – 11,000; Total: 656,900 (Gold) [24 Weeks]
#44 Rihanna/Good Girl Gone Bad (Last Week: #44) – 10,900; Total: 2,411,200 (2x Platinum) [92 Weeks]
#48 Bobby Valentino/The Rebirth (Last Week: #45) – 10,400; Total: 107,600 [4 Weeks]
#176 Joe Budden/Padded Room (Last Week: #42) – 3,060; Total: 16,920 [2 Weeks]

Raise your hand if you even knew Charlie Wilson’s album came out last week. Okay, I knew it wasn’t just me. The Gap Band’s lead singer did some business this week and took the #2 spot with his 4th album Uncle Charlie. I know he has that song “Supa Sexxy” featuring T-Pain & Jamie Foxx but I figured this album would chart lower.

If you read any of my previous posts, you know I’m really not feeling Akon as of late (“I’m So Paid”? We in a recession homie!). But I guess everybody else is feeling him, his album Freedom went Gold this week. T-Pain should be getting his plaque for Thr33 Ringz any day now (T-Pain, I’m starting to like).

Loose ends: Ne-Yo really is the best R&B dude doing it right now. With a lot of new material floating around the internet and now his album Year Of The Gentleman is looking to be Platinum, that’s just proves it more. I also see Jamie Foxx’s showing power. His album Intuition is doing really well (And have you seen the video to “Blame It”… shout out to Ron Howard). Also, DJ collaborative group N.A.S.A.’s debut album The Spirit Of Apollo lands at #179. I only bring this up because me and Saule Wright went back and forth about should we review it or not. We opted not to.

Check back next week to see how new albums from Joe Budden, Havoc, K’naan, & B-Real do on the charts.

#2 Charlie Wilson/Uncle Wilson (Last Week: NA) – 58,303; Total: NA [Debut]
#5 Beyonce/I Am…Sasha Fierce (Last Week: #12) – 40,540; Total: 1,882,683 (Platinum) [15 Weeks]
#6 Jamie Foxx/Intuition (Last Week: #14) – 32,550; Total: 650,651 (Gold) [10 Weeks]
#7 India.Arie/Volume 2: Testimony: Love & Politics (Last Week: #3) – 32,459; Total: 108,013 [2 Weeks]
#8 Kanye West/808’s & Heartbreak (Last Week: #16) – 32,458; Total: 1,360,456 (Platinum) [12 Weeks]
#12 T.I./Paper Trail (Last Week: #18) – 29,286; Total: 1,723,807 (Platinum) [21 Weeks]
#15 Keyshia Cole/A Different Me (Last Week: #19) – 27,600; Total: 725,800 (Gold) [11 Weeks]
#27 Bobby Valentino/The Rebirth (Last Week: #7) – 20,000; Total: 84,200 [2 Weeks]
#29 Ne-Yo/Year Of The Gentleman (Last Week: #24) – 19,400; Total: 924,900 (Gold) [23 Weeks]
#30 Akon/Freedom (Last Week: #36) – 18,900; Total: 508,700 (Gold) [12 Weeks]
#33 Lil’ Wayne/Tha Carter III (Last Week: #29) – 17,660; Total: 3,029,770 (3x Platinum) [37 Weeks]
#35 Rihanna/Good Girl Gone Bad (Last Week: #31) – 16,000; Total: 2,387,100 (2x Platinum) [90 Weeks]
#50 Jennifer Hudson/Jennifer Hudson (Last Week: #30) – 12,300; Total: 633,400 (Gold) [22 Weeks]
#179 N.A.S.A./The Spirit Of Apollo (Last Week: NA) – 3,447; Total: NA [Debut]

You see what they made me do? The releases are so slow right now that I had to go make a banner for The Numbers Game because I didn’t know who should be pictured (I mean, I could have threw Rihanna up there, but that would have been f*cked up.). I don’t know if the Grammy Awards “push” is in effect this week, but I really didn’t see much of a change (Damn, can I stop using “I” so much…). It’s good to see Jazmine Sullivan back in the Top 50 though. Not too much to talk about other that I just noticed that the Notorious soundtrack fell the completely out of the Top 100. Hey, you can always tell me how good the new banner looks.

#5 Beyonce/I Am…Sasha Fierce (Last Week: #3) – 51,371; Total: 1,788,206 (Platinum) [13 Weeks]
#9 Kanye West/808’s & Heartbreak (Last Week: #5) – 33,900; Total: 1,291,200 (Platinum) [10 Weeks]
#8 Jamie Foxx/Intuition (Last Week: #7) – 36,550; Total: 578,032 (Gold) [8 Weeks]
#10 Keyshia Cole/A Different Me (Last Week: #8) – 33,593; Total: 666,127 (Gold) [8 Weeks]
#19 T.I./Paper Trail (Last Week: #16) – 22,919; Total: 1,661,189 (Platinum) [19 Weeks]
#20 Akon/Freedom (Last Week: #15) – 22,800; Total: 466,500 [9 Weeks]
#22 Lil’ Wayne/Tha Carter III (Last Week: #25) – 20,158; Total: 2,985,147 (2x Platinum) [35 Weeks]
#23 Ne-Yo/Year Of The Gentleman (Last Week: #29) – 19,600; Total: 876,400 (Gold) [21 Weeks]
#25 Rihanna/Good Girl Gone Bad (Last Week: #23) – 18,400; Total: 2,346,500 (2x Platinum) [88 Weeks]
#34 Plies/Da REAList (Last Week: #42) – 13,900; Total: 255,300 [7 Weeks]
#40 John Legend/Evolver (Last Week: #46) – 13,100; Total: 526,900 (Gold) [15 Weeks]
#44 Anthony Hamilton/The Point Of It All (Last Week: #38) – 12,600; Total: 264,100 [8 Weeks]
#45 Jazmine Sullivan/Fearless (Last Week: #67) – 12,400; Total: 353,400 [20 Weeks]
#46 Mariah Carey/The Ballads (Last Week: #31) – 12,200; Total: 55,700 [3 Weeks]
#49 Ludacris/Theater Of The Mind (Last Week: #40) – 11,900; Total: 542,400 (Gold) [11 Weeks]

You know there must be a shortage of Hip-Hop releases when Beyonce gets the picture…twice. I’m not gonna really gonna go into about how there are no relevant Hip-Hop album coming out in the beginning of 2009; if you read any past Numbers Game columns this year you already know I said this a hundred times already. So yeah, check out the numbers and get back with me next week.

#3 Beyonce/I Am…Sasha Fierce (Last Week: #2) – 51,531; Total: 1,736,835 (Platinum) [12 Weeks]
#5 Kanye West/808’s & Heartbreak (Last Week: #4) – 39,234; Total: 1,257,336 (Platinum) [9 Weeks]
#7 Jamie Foxx/Intuition (Last Week: #8) – 31,601; Total: 541,482 (Gold) [7 Weeks]
#8 Keyshia Cole/A Different Me (Last Week: #6) – 30,865; Total: 632,534 (Gold) [7 Weeks]
#15 Akon/Freedom (Last Week: #17) – 21,769; Total: 443,736 [8 Weeks]
#16 T.I./Paper Trail (Last Week: #18) – 20,600; Total: 1,638,300 (Platinum) [18 Weeks]
#24 various artists/Notorious [OST] (Last Week: #9) – 15,700; Total: 87,700 [3 Weeks]
#25 Lil’ Wayne/Tha Carter III (Last Week: #26) – 15,600; Total: 2,965,000 (2x Platinum) [34 Weeks]
#29 Ne-Yo/Year Of The Gentleman (Last Week: #29) – 14,800; Total: 856,900 (Gold) [20 Weeks]
#31 Mariah Carey/The Ballads (Last Week: #10) – 14,800; Total: 43,400 [2 Weeks]
#38 Anthony Hamilton/The Point Of It All (Last Week: #39) – 12,500; Total: 251,500 [7 Weeks]
#40 Ludacris/Theater Of The Mind (Last Week: #34) – 12,300; Total: 530,500 (Gold) [10 Weeks]
#42 Plies/Da REAList (Last Week: #42) – 11,929; Total: 241,441 [6 Weeks]
#46 John Legend/Evolver (Last Week: #41) – 11,200; Total: 513,800 (Gold) [14 Weeks]
#174 Katt Williams/It’s Pimpin’ Pimpin’ (Last Week: NA) – 14,800; Total: NA [Debut]

We still here? I thought a Numbers Game this week wouldn’t see the light of day, but here we are. But hey, we’ll talk about that drama another time. Even though this January has been rough for the nappyafro crew, I can’t wait for this releases to start coming in. Think about it: Mariah Carey is the only R&B/Hip-Hop debut this week in the Top 50…and that’s a compilation. The reason I chose to put Kanye pic up instead of Mrs. Cannon is because Kanye West Martin Louie the King Jr. made waves this week  with the Louis Vuitton sneakers and such. As much as people hate on 808’s & Heartbreak, it still pushed over 1,000,000 units. Just saying…

#2 Beyonce/I Am…Sasha Fierce (Last Week: #2) – 50,927; Total: 1,685,304 (Platinum) [11 Weeks]
#4 Kanye West/808’s & Heartbreak (Last Week: #5) – 39,234; Total: 1,224,108 (Platinum) [8 Weeks]
#6 Keyshia Cole/A Different Me (Last Week: #9) – 31,275; Total: 601,669 (Gold) [6 Weeks]
#8 Jamie Foxx/Intuition (Last Week: #8) – 30,270; Total: 509,881 (Gold) [6 Weeks]
#9 various artists/Notorious [OST] (Last Week: #4) – 28,989; Total: 72,024 [2 Weeks]
#10 Mariah Carey/The Ballads (Last Week: NA) – 28,700; Total: NA [Debut]
#17 Akon/Freedom (Last Week: #12) – 21,500; Total: 421,900 [8 Weeks]
#18 T.I./Paper Trail (Last Week: #17) – 20,900; Total: 1,617,700 (Platinum) [17 Weeks]
#26 Lil’ Wayne/Tha Carter III (Last Week: #23) – 15,900; Total: 2,949,400 (2x Platinum) [33 Weeks]
#29 Ne-Yo/Year Of The Gentleman (Last Week: #29) – 14,966; Total: 842,105 (Gold) [19 Weeks]
#34 Ludacris/Theater Of The Mind (Last Week: #25) – 14,100; Total: 518,200 (Gold) [9 Weeks]
#39 Anthony Hamilton/The Point Of It All (Last Week: #32) – 12,900; Total: 239,000 [6 Weeks]
#41 John Legend/Evolver (Last Week: #33) – 12,200; Total: 502,600 (Gold) [13 Weeks]
#42 Plies/Da REAList (Last Week: #41) – 12,104; Total: 229,512 [6 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]