Once again the charts belong to hip-hop! July 13th brings another week and Eminem is the lead with over 200,000 units. Drake remains content and debut albums follow. New to the charts this week is a highly anticipated album from Big Boi, Enrique Iglesias, and Kelis. Numbers continue to drop, but artist find a position on the countdown. Let’s see where they have landed.
Racking in 229,526 more copies of “Recovery,” Eminem spends his third week at #1, now totaling 1,308,494 units for the album. Even though he didn’t hit over 100,000, Drake follows at #2 with 73,178 sold for “Thank Me Later.” Not quite platinum, but 797,447 racks in the total sales for the debut.
The first debut is no other ATL, Georgia’s Big Boi with his solo effort, “Sir Lucious Left Foot the Son of Chico Dusty,” selling 59,043 into #3. “Sir Lucious Left Foot” has been a long awaited album from the Outkast member. The wait traces back to March 2008 when promo single “Royal Flush,” featuring Andre 3000 and Raekwon appeared on hip-hop blogs and websites. The official first single is the funky-electro comeback cut “Shutterbug” featuring Cutty. Artist such as Sleepy Brown, Janelle Monae, Jamie Foxx, Gucci Mane, and more take in the debut project. Andre 3000 even handles the production for track “You Ain’t No DJ” featuring Yelawof.
Justin Bieber lands at #5 for “My World 2.0,” which sold 42,705 more copies. Clocking in the #8 position is Enrique Iglesias with his ninth studio album, “Euphoria.” This project consists of both Engligh and Spanish songs, being the first bilingual project Iglesias has put out. A lot of well-known acts are featured on the album such as Akon, Pitbull, Usher, Nicole Scherzinger and Reggaeton duo, Wisin & Yandel. Following Iglesias is Lady Gaga in the #9 for “The Fame,” still holding strong with 29,355 more albums sold.
Dropping from #4, The-Dream now takes #15 for “Love King,” selling 22,040. I wonder if his recent relationship controversy will affect his sales even more. Moving on, Usher’s “Raymond v Raymond” takes the #18 spot with 18,850 sold. Gaga’s EP “The Fame Monster” moves up from #30 to #21 this week, racking in 15,686 more copies. The Black Eyed Peas remain content with 14,398 at #34 for “The E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies)” and B.o.B. follows at #25 for “Adventures of Bobby Ray,” selling 13,056 this week.
Alongside Gaga, charts veteran Bieber also continues to move with “My World,” selling 13,025 out of #35 into #26. Ke$ha remains content with “Animal” in the #28 position, selling 12,882. Though it’s obvious that this is the result of bad promotion, The Roots fall out of their #17 position into #31 for “How I Got Over,” selling 12,603 for the album. Christina Aguilera’s “Bionic” sits at #33 with 11,568 sold. Alicia Keys falls from #27 to # 36 this week for “The Element of Freedom,” selling 10,434.
It may not the ideal position, but at least our last debut found a position on the charts. Coming in at #46, Kelis’ fifth studio album “Flesh Tone” debuts on the charts with 7,833 albums sold. Along with her new lifestyle – previously divorcing hip-hop artist Nas – Kelis went left field with the material on “Flesh Tone.” Compared to previous projects, “Flesh Tone” aims for a sleek electronica/house feel, totally abandoning the breakthrough sound she has with The Neptunes. Although it may be hard getting used to for early 2000 fans, Kelis snagged the best writers and producers in the dance game such as Jean Baptiste, will.i.am, Alle & Benny Benassi and David Guetta, who produced single “Acapella.” Previously in Kelis’ #46 slot, Ludacris closes the charts at #48 for “Battle of the Sexes,” which sold 7,032.
This week we had another nice batch of releases. Check back next week to see if M.I.A., Capone-N-Noreaga, Paul Wall, and former Young Money artist Curren$y earn a position on the charts.
Written by Shabazz
