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.

About three years since his last release The Big Bang, Busta Rhymes is “back in the most immaculate way” as he would say. Back On My B.S. is Busta’s eighth official album release to date since The Coming back in 1996 and as the album title would suggest, this is Busta getting back to his old ways on the microphone that we’ve grown to love. Originally scheduled for release back in 2007 under the title Before Hell Freezes Over, lets see if it was worth the wait and anticipation.

1. Wheel Of Fortune (Intro)
Produced by DJ Scratch
After a humorous introduction to the album in opera fashion Busta wastes no time getting right into it. The mid-tempo, stutter step beat is produced by the legendary DJ Scratch who provides a backdrop for Busta to let listeners know who they should be putting their money on when it comes to the rhymes. Busta interpolates Slick Rick’s “Mona Lisa” and Grand Puba’s “I Like It” into the chorus for nice results. This introduction track or “sound check” as Busta puts it is a nice start that leaves room for more intense tracks to follow.

2. Give Em What They Askin’ For
Produced by Ron Browz
Picking up the pace of the album after the introduction track Busta enlists auto-tune producer/rapper Ron Browz for a beat to get things moving. Browz provides Busta with a beat that is banging but sounds average at best and too similar to other Browz beats. I’m not exactly sure if this is the song everybody was asking for as Busta implies in the chorus it won’t be getting much play from me listening to this album. This is an average track that could have been much better given what we have previously heard from the Busta/Browz pairing.

3. Respect My Conglomerate
Featuring Lil’ Wayne, Jadakiss, & Debbie Coda; Produced by Focus…
After a minor step back Busta gets back on track with this one, which is the album’s third single. Busta recruits Weezy and Jada as guests on this track over a pounding, menacing beat provided by Focus. All three emcees do their thing on the track and give you enough reasons as to why you should respect them and their organizations. I must say that I liked this version of the song with Wayne better than the bonus track version with Jeezy on Jada’s The Last Kiss. The Chris Robinson directed video for this song is a nice complement to the song, check that out too.

4. Shoot For The Moon
Produced by Danja
On this track produced by Danja, Busta gives us rhymes about shooting for the moon and stars. This track is a nice follow up to the previous single as it keeps things moving along. It’s not one of Busta’s best tracks, but it’s pretty good for what it is and might be motivation to some in its meaning.

5. Hustler’s Anthem ‘09
Featuring T-Pain; Produced by Ty Fyffe
Busta turns it up with this Ty Fyffe produced track featuring every artist’s go-to-guy for chorus and singles, T-Pain. This track, which was the album’s second single, is about hustling just as the title suggests and stands to be this year’s anthem for hustlers alike. Busta comes correct with his rhymes pertaining to the song’s topic and T-Pain delivers a trademark chorus as only he can. I’m not too sure if it’s good enough to be labeled an anthem for hustlers, but it’s a pretty damn good track I just don’t know if it will be as known with hustlers as songs like “Can’t Knock The Hustle” or Ross’ “Hustlin’”.

6. Kill Dem
Featuring Pharrell & Tosh; Produced by The Neptunes
This is an interesting track to hear from Busta as it definitely goes left from what we’re used to hearing from him. The Neptunes produced track hears Busta spittin’ with reggae accent (What have you started Em???) about what he does with the tools when in his grip. Tosh sounding like an exercise instructor and Pharrell assist Busta on the chorus that doesn’t sound all that great. In my opinion I could say that about the entire song in that it doesn’t sound that good and sounds like Busta is reaching. A Busta/Neptunes collaboration should have been much better than this. This sounds like a sound more suited for Pharrell with Busta guest featuring than a Busta Rhymes song.

7. Arab Money
Featuring Ron Browz; Produced by Ron Browz
This is a song that everybody should be well familiar with by now as it was released last November. This track served as the first single for the album and when it came out was the joint to play. From the term “arab money” to the song’s dance it saw the return of Busta Rhymes to the music scene and came at a time when Ron Browz was starting to take off after “Pop Champagne”. Now half a year later this song just sounds dated in listening to it and doesn’t have the same effect or flare that it once did. It’s a bangin’ joint, it’s just well past its time listening to it at this point. At this stage they could have replaced it or included one of the song’s remixes that was released. I’m surprised they had the original version on the album given all of the controversy that occurred from the song.

8. Imma Go & Get My…
Featuring Mike Epps; Produced by DJ Scratch
Wow, this track could have really been left on the cutting room floor instead of being included on the album. Mike Epps wasn’t the best feature on this track with the numbers being called out and that stupid part he does at the end of the chorus. It gets annoying that they left that part going throughout the song and the beat provided by DJ Scratch isn’t one of his best by far. Busta does his thing as usual with the rhymes and goes hard despite the weak production provided. This song could have been done a lot better but since it wasn’t it will be a track that will be skipped most of the time.

9. We Want In
Featuring Ron Browz, Spliff Starr, & Show Money; Produced by King Karnov
This track stands to be the posse cut of the album featuring the members of Busta’s Flipmode family. I understand what they were going for with this track as it talks about how it’s Flipmode’s turn to shine in the industry, but the results come out poorly. King Karnov provides a good beat for Busta to spit some good rhymes, but Spliff Starr and Show Money get outdone ultimately. This dude Show Money really needs to stop with the Wayne/Jeezy impressions he does on this track with his ad-libs, it’s really not a good look for him at all. This song could have also done without the auto-tune chorus provided by Ron Browz, didn’t even really fit good with the track. I know he’s trying to sound different with his auto-tune, but it’s the same damn thing and it just needs to die quickly.

10. We Miss You
Featuring DeMarco & Jelly Roll; Produced by Needlz
After an average track Busta doesn’t really provide anything much better on this next track. Needlz provides some average production as Busta spits about how he stays reppin’ the streets and the hood no matter where he is. Some more auto-tune chorus is featured on this track (enough already!!!) as it sounds like someone doing a Sean Kingston impression with failing results. Like I said this track is really average at best as the topic is cliché and has been done many times before and better than this.

11. Sugar
Featuring Jelly Roll; Produced by Jelly Roll
Busta decides to slow things down on this track with one that aimed towards the ladies attention. Jelly Roll does a nice job in multitasking as he provides suitable production and a chorus to match the topic and feel of the track. Busta delivers some rhymes that fit comfortably on this track and have good results overall. This is a nice track that the album hopefully continues with for the rest.

12. Don’t Believe ‘Em
Featuring Akon & T.I.; Produced by Cool & Dre
Continuing with the current trend started by Just Blaze and T.I., this is one of those motivational songs in the likes of “Live Your Life” and “All The Above” (the beat even has similar elements/chord progressions to those songs). This is song is good especially with the feature of T.I. and Akon providing the chorus, but unfortunately this type of song has been before most recently and better in my opinion by T.I. and Maino respectively. It’s still a good song overall and recommended to take a listen to.

13. Decision
Featuring Jamie Foxx, Mary J. Blige, John Legend, & Common; Produced by Mr. Porter
I remember reading the album review for this album in last month’s issue of XXL where it says this was perhaps one of his best songs yet. After listening to this track I can agree that it is one of Busta’s best retrospective type tracks and he does it in a great way with this song. Mr. Porter provides some very mournful, somber production on the track as Busta talks about the past decisions that he’s made in his life whether they were for the better or not. The inclusion of Jamie Foxx, Mary J. Blige, and John Legend on the chorus elevates this track even more. It sounds like they interpolated Musiq Soulchild’s “Just Friends (Sunny)” in the way that the chorus is sung. Plus Common dropping a memorable guest verse, it’s good to hear the classic Common that we all love on this track and not the more recent UMC Common. This stands as one of the best track on the album and is one that everybody can relate to not matter what he or she has been through in life.

14. World Go Round
Featuring Estelle; Produced by Jelly Roll
Speaking of Universal Mind Control, this track has the very same feel of a song that could have been featured on that album. From the up-tempo beat produced by Jelly Roll (not the West Coast flavor we’re used to from him) to the robot-sounding chorus provided by Estelle, Busta takes a page out of Common’s book for this song. In that essence this song doesn’t fit Busta at all and once again sound like he’s reaching. I don’t think this song should have ended the album, as “Decision” would have done that perfectly. This song really didn’t need to be included at all as it doesn’t sound like something we would expect to hear from Busta. I guess it might get play in some clubs by a DJ mixed with some Dance/Techno, but it won’t get much play from me. Nice interpolation of Eric B. & Rakim’s “I Know You Got Soul” on the track opening.

Bottom Line:
After 14 tracks, which is plenty nowadays in terms of album lengths, Busta has returned to the music scene in a strong way. There are a good 5 really strong tracks on this album, but at the same time there were more weaker/throwaway tracks included that could have been done much better. It’s those weaker tracks that ultimately hold the album back from being a much better return album rather than a just slight above average album. Busta took some steps forward in his music with tracks like “Decisions” but more steps back with tracks like “Imma Go & Get My…” that make this album not better than his previous efforts. In my opinion I don’t think this album is better than his last album The Big Bang as that album had so many consecutive strong tracks like “New York Shit”, “Touch It”, “You Can’t Hold The Torch” and “Don’t Get Carried Away”. There were only about one or two tracks that kept that album from being labeled a classic as opposed to Back On My B.S. which has too many tracks that you have to skip over to get to the good ones. Overall this is a slightly above average album from Busta Rhymes with some good songs to enjoyed along with some bad songs to be skipped. But I think this album ultimately shows that Busta really doesn’t have much more to prove in the industry in showing why he’s one of the greatest of all-time behind the mic and why people should recognize that by now. Busta Rhymes is most likely one of your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper and his 10+ year career definitely displays why. Pick up this album and support Busta as he’s one of the few high caliber rappers left in the industry opposed to this new generation coming in.

nappyPicks: “Decision”, “Sugar”, “Arab Money”, “Hustler’s Anthem ‘09”, & “Respect My Conglomerate”

Download: Busta Rhymes feat. Big Tigger – “If You Don’t Know Now You Know”

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]

Okay, I got like 20 minutes to get this The Numbers Game up (I’ve never been late on one before). No debuts this week so there’s not a lot of difference from last week. I guess the only thing I can say about this week is that in a month or so, Ludacris, Keyshia Cole, Jamie Foxx, John Legend, & T-Pain will go Gold. It looks like January will be a slow month…

#2 Beyonce/I Am…Sasha Fierce (Last Week: #5) – 89,607; Total: 1,535,791 (Platinum) [8 Weeks]
#3 Kanye West/808’s & Heartbreak (Last Week: #5) – 70,932; Total: 1,094,859 (Platinum) [5 Weeks]
#7 Keyshia Cole/A Different Me (Last Week: #7) – 53,627; Total: 502,218 [3 Weeks]
#8 Jamie Foxx/Intuition (Last Week: #9) – 44,638; Total: 414,506 [3 Weeks]
#13 T.I./Paper Trail (Last Week: #15) – 32,200; Total: 1,554,300 (Platinum) [14 Weeks]
#11 Akon/Freedom (Last Week: #16) – 77,632; Total: 350,254 [5 Weeks]
#14 Ludacris/Theater Of The Mind (Last Week: #31) – 31,300; Total: 470,400 [6 Weeks]
#19 Lil’ Wayne/Tha Carter III (Last Week: #31) – 25,992; Total: 2,900,412 (2x Platinum) [30 Weeks]
#20 Plies/Da REAList (Last Week: #36) – 24,747; Total: 192,128 [3 Weeks]
#21 Rihanna/Good Girl Gone Bad (Last Week: #29) – 24,700; Total: 2,258,200 (2x Platinum) [83 Weeks]
#31 Ne-Yo/Year Of The Gentleman (Last Week: #40) – 21,100; Total: 796,600 (Gold) [16 Weeks]
#38 Anthony Hamilton/The Point Of It All (Last Week: #39) – 18,800; Total: 197,600 [3 Weeks]
#40 Common/Universal Mind Control (Last Week: #51) – 17,315; Total: 166,432 [4 Weeks]
#41 T-Pain/Thr33 Ringz (Last Week: #43) – 17,300; Total: 430,100 [8 Weeks]
#45 John Legend/Evolver (Last Week: #44) – 15,700; Total: 466,400 [10 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]