Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 10/12/08

Credit: Hip Hop DX

Regardless of selling over 500,000 less units than the week before, T.I. [click to read] did not budge, holding the #1 spot for the second week, after his third straight top-spot debut. Paper Trail [click to read] held Metallica off by over 100,000 units as Atlanta's top-selling rapper is on likely pace to go platinum this week amidst an album campaign that's several singles from over. Time will tell how T.I. stands when Kanye West and 50 Cent enter the charts before year's end.

As Ne-Yo climbed yet again with Year of the Gentleman [click to read], out-selling Robin Thicke [click to read] and joining Jennifer Hudson, along with T.I. as the only three urban artists in the Top Ten. The blokes from Oasis, for what it's worth, held #5 with their new collection Dig Out Your Soul. The three mainstays of Lil Wayne [click to read], Young Jeezy [click to read] and The Game [click to read] finished in that order with Tha Carter III [click to read], Recession [click to read] and LAX [click to read] respectively. While The Game fell less than 4,000 units of cracking the gold benchmark, Young Jeezy surpassed it, as all of his solo albums have now earned the Atlanta star plaques.

Top 200 Album Sales (Top 5 Hip Hop/R&B)

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Est. Total
1	T.I.	Paper Trail	176,714	746,075
8	Ne-Yo	Year of the Gentleman	46,904	450,356
13	Lil Wayne	Tha Carter III	27,229	2,550,507
15	Young Jeezy	Recession	26,801	516,476
21	The Game	LAX	20,809	496,829

Having left Rap-A-Lot for Razor & Tie, Devin The Dude [click to view] gets a strong independent debut with his album Landing Gear [click to read]. Although released to mix reaction, the effort places the Dude considerably higher than Z-Ro, his former peer, who's sustained on the bottom of the charts for three consecutive weeks in Crack. Murs' [click to read] fell nearly 100 spots in the charts, despite a lively MTV presence. However, if Murs For President [click to read] can shop a single to radio, as witnessed a year ago with Lupe Fiasco's "Superstar," the Los Angeles independent veteran could have one of the more chart-long-lasting efforts of the quarter.

Nas and LL Cool J hold rank near the bottom of the charts. Untitled [click to read] cracks the 400,000 benchmark, and trucks towards a gold plaque by year's end. With Jay-Z, Jadakiss [click to read] and Kanye West, plus the present success of Ne-Yo and Young Jeezy at Def Jam, time will tell if the label continues to work its once flagship artist two short years ago.

Other Notables

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Est. Total
47	Devin The Dude	Landing Gear	10,835	10,856
136	Murs	Murs For President	4,300	16,890
157	LL Cool J	Exit 13	3,726	76,838
159	Nas	Untitled	3,649	400,972
163	Z-Ro	Crack	3,606	19,916