Not only does Lil Wayne win the number 1 position on The Billboard 200 for the first time, he breaks Kanye West’s record for first week sales!
“Tha Carter III,” under the Cash Money/Universal labels, sold just over 1 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The last time an album passed the 1 million mark for one-week sales was 50 Cent’s “The Massacre” in March 2005.
Sales for “Tha Carter III” were helped along by several of the rapper’s new singles, including the Hot 100-topping “Lollipop” featuring Static Major. His previous biggest sales week was a 238,000-unit start for “Tha Carter II” in 2005, which entered The Billboard 200 at No. 2 and became his fourth No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
In 2006, no album sold more than 800,000 copies in a single week, and the largest sales week since “The Massacre” belonged to Kanye West’s “Graduation,” which netted an opener of 957,000 copies last year when it hit stores on Sept. 11.
