It’s that time of the week again and the numbers are looking a little better for some people. R. Kelly debuted selling over 100K his first week, Rihanna and 50 Cent are right around a quarter millie, Birdman breaks 50K and Juvenile(I didn’t even know he had a new album) sits right under 25K. No real surprises here. I actually a little surprised to see Birdman moving a few units but he does have Money To Blow and 4 My Town(Play Ball) on his album. Here is the top.
Rank Artist Album This Week Est. Total
4 R. Kelly Untitled 114,000 114,000
8 Michael Jackson’s This Is It 75,000 965,000
14 Rihanna Rated R 59,000 240,000
20 The Black Eyed Peas E.N.D. 50,000 1,490,000
35 50 Cent Before I Self Destruct 30,000 257,000
And for the bottom. Jay is in the bottom!!!!!!!! Kind of.
Rank Artist Album This Week Est. Total
38 Jay-Z Blueprint 3 36,000 1,365,000
43 Juvenile Cocky & Confident 23,000 23,000
54 Birdman Pricele$$ 17,000 54,000
85 BlakRoc BlakRoc 11,000 18,000
112 Eminem Relapse 8,400 1,542,000
I hope Blakroc can move around 10K a week and hit that 50K mark. That would be beautiful. Stay tuned for next week’s numbers because two of the most hyped released dropped yesterday, The Clipse and Gucci Mane. Any guesses how many Gucci will sell?? I’m gonna guess just under 500K. The Clipse will probably do around 60K.
Not that anyone takes the Grammy Awards seriously any more after Ludacris and Lil Wayne won Grammys but I wanted to share the list of Grammy Nominations that include some of your favorite rappers and singers. It has been a big year for several artists including Drake, Cudi and apparently Mos Def, Q-Tip and Common as well. Here are the categories and nominations. Check
Best Rap Album
Common – Universal Mind Control
Eminem – Relapse
Flo Rida – R.O.O.T.S.
Mos Def – The Ecstatic
Q-Tip – The Renaissance
Best Rap Solo Performance
Drake – “Best I Ever Had”
Eminem – “Beautiful”
Jay-Z – “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)”
Kid Cudi – “Day ‘N’ Nite”
Mos Def – “Casa Bey”
Best Rap Song
Drake – “Best I Ever Had”
Kid Cudi – “Day ‘N’ Nite”
T.I. & Justin Timberlake – “Dead And Gone”
Jay-Z – “D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)”
Jay-Z, Rihanna & Kanye West – “Run This Town”
Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group
Beastie Boys & Nas – “Too Many Rappers”
Eminem, Dr. Dre & 50 Cent – “Crack A Bottle”
Fabolous & Jay-Z – “Money Goes, Honey Stay”
Kid Cudi, Kanye West & Common – “Make Her Say”
Kanye West & Young Jeezy – “Amazing”
Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
Beyoncé & Kanye West – “Ego”
Keri Hilson, Kanye West & Ne-Yo – “Knock You Down”
Jay-Z, Rihanna & Kanye West – “Run This Town”
The Lonely Island & T-Pain – “I’m On A Boat”
T.I. & Justin Timberlake – “Dead And Gone”
First let’s take a look at Best Rap Album. Is Flo Rida REALLY nominated? I mean I know he puts out club hits but Best Rap Album????? Hmmmmmmm. And why is Common nominated for his worst album to date????? Oh yea, 2008/2009 were BAD years. Shout out to Eminem, Mos Def and Q-Tips for putting out stellar projects. I wonder if Raekwon missed the deadline? Best Rap Solo Performance features Cudi, Drake, Jay-Z, Eminem AND Mos Def for Casa Bey. I would be surprised if Mos Def was even allowed on the Red Carpet for the Grammys let alone Nominated TWICE. BIG shout outs to Mos Def for a dope album and a stellar year. Mos definitely deserves it. The Best Rap Song category category features no surprises although Forever probably should have been in there judging by the current nominations. Perhaps the biggest surprise comes in the Best Rap Performance by Duo or Group with the Beasite Boys and Nas. Am I the only one who has never even heard of this song????? Also, how the FUCK did Fabolous and Jay-Z’s song get nominated? I saw the video like 3 times and never heard it again. And my vote for Best Rap/Sung Collab goes to Keri Hilson, Neyo and Kanye for Knock You Down only because Keri’s ass in the video. Make sure you tune in January 31st to see who takes how golden record players. I included a bonus of Beastie Boys and Nas’ joint Too Many Rappers.
Yes yess yall. Sorry for the day delay updating everyone with the weekly numbers, as if you couldn’t just go to HipHopDx anyway. I gotta figure out a new source for the numbers but for the time being this is what I got. Michael Jackson’s soundtrack, This Is It is still selling more units per week then most people will dream of, Jay-Z and the Black Eye Peas are holding it down and Wale’s debut Attention Deficit didn’t quite move 30K. Check out the top.
Rank
Artist
Album
This Week
Est. Total
4
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson’s This Is It
116,000
687,000
16
Jay-Z
Blueprint 3
33,000
1,271,000
20
Black Eyed Peas
The E.N.D.
28,000
1,356,000
21
Wale
Attention : Deficit
28,000
28,000
37
Beyonce
I Am…Sascha Fierce
16,000
2,492,00
And for the bottom.
Rank
Artist
Album
This Week
Est. Total
104
Tech N9ne
K.O.D.
6,200
47,000
105
Kid Cudi
Man On The Moon: The End Of Day
6,100
203,000
165
Triple C’s
Custom Cars & Cycles
3,400
21,000
166
Lil Boosie
Superbad: The Return Of Boosie Badazz
3,400
107,000
171
Wyclef Jean
Toussaint St. Jean: From The Hut, To The Projects, To The Mansion
3,300
3,300
I guess I wasn’t the only one not feeling Wyclef’s mixtape/album. 50 Cent dropped this week and they are predicting that he will move around 150K-160K his first week. Time will tell. I’m getting my copy today.
Another week and some more numbers. This week is pretty blah if you ask me. Michael Jackson reached gold status, Jay-Z is still moving more than most people’s first weeks and Tech N9ne is still holding it down for KC, MO. Check the top.
Rank
Artist
Album
This Week
Est. Total
2
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson’s This Is It
196,000
569,000
15
Jay-Z
Blueprint 3
38,000
1,238,000
20
Black Eyed Peas
The E.N.D.
28,000
1,328,000
41
Mariah Carey
Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel
13,000
304,000
43
Whitney Houston
I Look To You
13,000
778,000
And the bottom.
Rank
Artist
Album
This Week
Est. Total
58
Tech N9ne
K.O.D.
10,000
40,000
72
Eminem
Relapse
8,600
1,506,000
120
Triple C’s
Custom Cars & Cycles
5,200
17,000
142
Lil Boosie
Superbad: The Return Of Boosie Badazz
4,000
103,000
166
Raekwon
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2
2,800
132,000
What’s going on with Triple C’s? I thought Rick Ross was the BAWSSSSSSSSSSSSSSE!!!!!!!
Back in 2000, the world was introduced to one of the most beautiful and talented young women in music. Alicia Keys took the world by storm when she released her first single, Fallin’. Since then, Mrs. Jones, I mean Keys, has released 2 studio albums, an MTV Unplugged album and continued to develop into one of music’s leading ladies. She is preparing to drop her fourth studio album, The Element of Freedom in December. This morning I decided to listen to her debut album, Songs in A Minor for the first time in years. I got to say, Alicia Keys always hits me in the same place. Her voice is incredible and her music is just the shit. My favorite joint this morning was Rock wit U. The intro is my shit. I am looking forward to hearing her new album in December. She even has a remix to Empire State of Mind with Jay-Z that should be ill. I’ll keep everyone posted about all that as well. Shout out to Jay-Z and the Yankees A-Rod, CC Sabathia and Jay for sitting courtside for Lebron’s game versus the Knicks on Friday. Those guys have entirely too much fun with their money.
It is a sad, sad day people and by sad I mean VERY sad. The weekly album sales are in and Royce Da 5’9″, who is one of the biggest names on the blogs/websites/internet, etc moved about as many units Mack 10. Wait a minute, does that even make sense? I’m kinda confused because Lil Boosie dropped an album or mixtape and sold damn near DOUBLE the amount that Royce sold. Kid Cudi is STILL moving more units than Royce. I can’t say that I’m surprised but I am more so just disappointed and lost. Drake is still going strong, Jay sold another 45K and the Black Eyed Peas are still doing the same. Peep.
There are no surprises this week with the weekly sales numbers in. Jay-z, Black Eye Peas, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey are still outselling everyone. Fat Joe can’t even move more than 15K, Snoop’s Lost Sessions can’t move 5K and Ghostface Killah’s album is still trying to crawl up to 50K. Here is the top of the charts.
3
Jay-Z
Blueprint 3
55,000
1,116,000
6
Black Eyed Peas
The E.N.D.
40,000
1,235,000
9
Mario
D.N.A.
32,000
32,000
10
Mariah Carey
Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel
31,000
254,000
15
Whitney Houston
I Look To You
24,000
731,000
And here is the bottom.
118
Ghostface Killah
Ghostdini: The Wizard Of Poetry In The Emerald City
Lebron James can’t even sell records with one of the “biggest” songs of the year. I’m telling ya’ll, artists and labels are going to start counting downloads to determine success. Watch.
As promised, here are the weekly album sales number jacked straight from Hip Hop Dx. Fat Joe tries to follow in Raekwon and Jay-Z’s footsteps but failes miserably, Mack 10 is still irrelevant, Jay-Z’s record still match his chain and Ghostface can’t break 30K. PEEP.
Ghostdini: The Wizard Of Poetry In The Emerald City
7,200
27,000
97
Fabolous
Loso’s Way
6,000
251,000
170
Saigon
Warning Shots 2
3,100
3,100
183
Mack 10
Soft White
2,900
6,800
Where is Saigon’s The Greatest Story Never Told. Looks like it’s STILL not getting told. C’mon Just we NEED that. It’s amazing that selling less than 5,000 copies gets you on the charts nowadays. I’m pretty sure cats are selling that out of their bookbags.
For the last couple of days, I have been listening to Skyzoo’s new project The Salvation. Due to my own music dropping and V Don’s instrumental album, I have had the chance to marinate on it for several days before sharing my thoughts. I am not going to post a review of the whole album, I’m just going to share a quick thought. I have never really listened to a lot of Skyzoo aside from tracks here and there so I consider this my first real introduction. He has been receiving a good buzz on the net for a couple of years so this seems to be his “break out” project. First off, the producers are the album are ILL however, I don’t think most of the beats are their best work. 9th Wonder and Nottz are two of my favorite producers but I think Sky’s choice of beats could have been a little better. However, some of the production is really ill. The Just Blaze track is CRAZY. It sounds like vintage Just. I wonder how much he charges nowadays? I also think the hooks on The Salvation could have been tighter. They get a little repetitive and boring. Having said all that, the more I listen to it, the more I like it. Skyzoo has a lot of depth to his lyrics. I find myself listening really hard to catch everything he is saying. I know that might be a turn off to casual fans but as an emcee, it is that depth that sets some one apart. Skyzoo is definitely a emcee but might throw some people off because he is monotone, however, I feel like you can hear the passion in his voice. It sounds like he means what he says. It wouldn’t be right if I bashed Blueprint 3 and Kid Cudi’s album and then called The Salvation a CLASSOC just because it’s “real” hip hop. Different strokes for different folks. I think if you are a hip hop head and you like to listen hard to lyrics, you will like Skyzoo. If you like how pop music sounds right now, fuck with Blueprint 3. If you like emo, weirdo rap/rock/weird shit, fuck with Kid Cudi. I’m just kidding. I look forward to seeing how many numbers Kid Cudi does. I read that there were some typos on his music from Itunes or something. How does a MAJOR label let that happen?? Someone needs to be fired. I’m telling you, these majors are fucking up EVERYTHING. Let’s take this shit back. Peep the Just Blaze produced Return of The Real by Skyzoo and go BUY the album when it drops.
Now for the last several weeks(as everyone knows) I have been throwing stones, rocks, low blows, uppercuts, right hooks, pretty much anything I had at the throne aka The God MC, Jay-Z. This time however, I want to send a shout out to Jay-Z for outdoing one of the most celebrated artists of all time, Elvis. With the Blueprint 3, Jay-Z is second on the list of most Number 1 albums. REGARDLESS how ANYONE feels about Jay-Z, his music and his business practices, that shit is incredible. To have a hip hop act above Elvis and second to The Beatles just proves the reach and the influence that hip hop music has. So for that, I tip my proverbial hat(not sure if that is how it is supposed to be used especially because I don’t wear hats) to Jay-Z AND Blueprint 3. Hov is king!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Peep the feature on Allhiphop.
