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]

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]

Well, I just got finished watching the 2008 BET Awards with King Jerm and Slik P. It was okay for BET; good to see Black people together at an award show without someone getting punched or stabbed (Just joking…kinda). I’m not going to recap the whole show, just the good parts and all the Hip-Hop/Rap parts.

On the pre-show, V.I.C. performed the remix of “Get Silly” and surprisingly almost all the cameos came out: Soulja Boy, JD, Bun B, Polow Da Don, & Unk, & (minus Big Kuntry, E-40 & Pitbull).  Because of all the guests, it was an alright performance since it was in the right time slot.

Young Jeezy performs “Put On” and brings out Kanye West for the feature. It looked like Kanye messed up a little bit and Jeezy kept it really simple. Kinda boring but I kind liked that song.

Mel B looked kinda sexy when she gave the “Athlete Of The Year”award to Kobe Bryant. That’s all I have to say about that.

Keyshia Cole brought out Lil’ Kim during her performance of “Let It Go”. When we saw her, it wasn’t a dry eye in the room. These were not tears of joy, they were because Kim looks like a monster now.

Lil’ Mama got robbed when they gave Missy Elliott “Female Hip-Hop Artist” award instead. Why was this even a category this year (Nominees: Eve, Kid Sister, Trina, Missy, & Lil’ Mama). I thought they were gonna throw Reece Steele in there from Miss Rap Supreme.

Was Cuba Gooding Jr. high?

Soulja Boy got also robbed when they awarded The-Dream “Best New Artist”. Maybe it was based on the songs he wrote though.

Alicia Keys performed “Teenage Love Affair” and proceeded to bring out every R&B girl group ever created except for Changing Faces (TLC, SWV, & En Vogue). Oh yea, Alicia Keys had some extra tight jeans on.

Kanye West wins “Best Hip-Hop Artist” award over Jay-Z, Snoop, Weezy, & Common. He brought Lil’ Wayne on stage.

T-Pain performs a medley of some of his bigger hits this year and brings out Flo Rida, Rick Ross, DJ Khaled, Big Boi, & Ludacris (“I’m So Hood”, “Low”, & “The Boss”). A lotta people thought this was Wayne’s award show. I think it’s T-Pain’s; he slo-mo walked to stage. Ha!

UGK wins “Video Of The Year” for “International Players Anthem”. Pimp C’s wife made an appearance.

T-Pain dominated the “Best Collaboration” category; he was nominated 4 out of 5 times.Kanye and T-Pain wins with “Good Life”.

Lil’ Wayne (of course) wins “Viewers’ Choice” for “Lollipop”.

Nelly performs “Stepped On My J’s” with Jermaine Dupri and Ciara and Slik P has a fit over all the different types of Jordans. He then brings out Fergie to performs “Party People”. King Jerm said Fergie kills him with her verse.

Lil’ Wanye closes the show (Isn’t that what was everybody was waiting on?). T-Pain plays hype man and they go into…”Got Money”? What? I waited for this? Okay, then Weezy goes into “Lollipop”; okay, I was expecting that. T-Pain reveals a “T-Wayne” shirt; I guess they weren’t playing about that collabo album. Wanye finally starts “A Milli” and hits us with two verses to close the show. It was an alright performance; at least he didn’t bring out the guitar.

Keyshia Cole vs. Ciara This is a debate that has gone on between the nappyafro.com staff since the launch of the site; Who is all around better: Keyshia Cole or Ciara? Let’s make this a clean debate people. On the other hand, fuck it, let’s get dirty on this one. Oh yea, after you read the debate, vote to tell us who really is the hottest.

King Jerm’s Pick: Keyshia Cole

Wow, this one shouldn’t even be close. Ciara is not in the same league as Keyshia. Okay maybe she can dance better, but that is where the buck stops. Keyshia’s face looks better, body is better, and can sing circles around Ciara. Look at the photos (except that Vibe cover of Ciara, photoshoped!) Ms. Cole is killing her. Ciara has the body of a 15 yr old…boy! While on the other hand, Keyshia has a nice body for a girl with a small frame. To top it off, Keyshia is from the Bay, and all of you know that those Oakland girls got it going on! Shout out to Pinky! I’m sorry I had to do this to him, but he asked for it. Did Keyshia ever have rumors about her being a transvestite, no; her womanhood has never been in question. The defense rests!

B-Easy’s Pick: Ciara

Damn, that’s fucked up. King Jerm is right about one thing, Ciara and Keyshia aren’t in the same league. In the race for top R&B chick, Keyshia Cole is not even in the running right now (Of course Beyonce is on top). Let’s look at awards: Ciara has over 14 awards including Grammy, MTV, & Soul Train. Keyshia I think has 1 Vibe award. Let’s not even go into who has the most album sales. I’ll be real with ya’ll, Keyshia Cole is cute. But she is probably the girl I would’ve snuck under the bleaches with in high school. Ciara is the girl I would of taken to the prom (Hey, she was cheerleader). Cole may have the bigger rack, but what Ciara lacks in booty or chest, she makes up for it by knowing how to use what she has. Didn’t Keyshia Cole say drug dealers used to pay for her to sing for them? You think that’s all the dealers bought? For some reason I think Miss Cole might have been ran through. Ciara is pretty, classier, and has that sweet girl charm that can be very sexy (Check out the “Promise” video)…well she is rumored to be messing with 50 Cent now. Fuck that, Ciara is still hotter.