Hip Hop Album Sales: Week Ending 04/20/2014

This week, the Billboard Hot 200 albums chart featured several debuts. August Alsina entered the chart at #2 with his Testimony album selling 67,171 units in its first week of availability. Another R&B singer, Jason Derulo, joins Alsina in the Top 5 this week with Talk Dirty, a project that earned the #4 spot with 44,374 albums sold. Dizzy Wright’s State Of Mind also made noise in its first week selling 6,807 units. Pharoahe Monch’s P.T.S.D. – Post Traumatic Stress Disorderalso hit the chart in its first week, selling 3,881 units, enough to land the effort at #102.

But there were also several other albums making significant moves on the chart. Pharrell’s G I R L may have dropped some slots, but it also earned a sales boost. Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2 jumped in its chart position. Meanwhile, Nas’ Illmatic celebrated its 20 years with the biggest sales boost of the week. Here are more of the week’s top stories from the chart.

Pharrell’s G I R L Falls To #7

Pharrell’s G I R L landed in the #7 spot in this week’s chart, dropping 5 slots from last week’s #2 placement. Despite falling in regards to its chart position, the project’s sales increased 12 percent from last week’s figure. This week, the album sold 32,858 units and last week, the disc sold 29,385 copies. Overall, Pharrell has sold 304,376 copies of G I R L. In March, P spoke with HipHopDX about his work as a musician and as a collaborator. “I would say I’ve had a lot of really, really, really good help,” he said at the time. “And I’m just thankful that people have seen something in me, and I was smart enough to allow them to guide me in the right direction. That’s the closest to that term I could ever come to. I’m smart enough to listen to other people, but nowhere near genius.”

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Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2 Jumps To #16

Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2 sold 16,498 albums this week, a 46 percent increase from the previous week’s 11,303 units sold. Overall, Eminem’s most recent project, which jumped from #20 to #16, has sold 2,069,605 copies. Last week, this album was also deemed “the most lyrical” effort from the week’s charting Rap albums based on a HipHopDX reader poll. Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2 earned the highest votes in the week’s poll with 575 thumbs up and 116 thumbs down.

Nas’ Illmatic Experiences 844% Increase In Sales, Lands At #18

Nas’ Illmatic saw a boost in sales as its 20-year anniversary date approached and passed. The Queensbridge, New York emcee’s debut album, which was released April 19, 1994, sold 14,987 copies this week, a jump from 1,588 units sold last week. Overall, the project has sold 1,686,232 copies in its 20 years of availability. Last week, HipHopDX had its Illmatic Week, a 7-day series celebrating the critically acclaimed release’s two decades on the scene. As part of the week, HipHopDX reviewed Nas’ album sales from Illmatic to Life Is Good, discussed the collection’s importance after 20 years of life in retailers, shared lesser-known facts about the 1994 effort, interviewed AZ about his contribution to the project, spoke with Large Professor about his work on the set, and shed light on the album’s influence by interviewing a slew of rappers, including Nino Bless, Fashawn, Dana Dane, Rapsody, Wrekonize and Fred The Godson.

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