In yet another slow week for Hip Hop and R&B, Alicia Keys is again dethroned from the top spot, this time by the debut albums of Jack Johnson and Sheryl Crow who claimed the coveted #1 and #2 positions, respectively. Keys is stil slated to reach triple platinum by next week. Mary J Blige holds strong in the top ten, still slipping down one spot to #7 while the Step Up 2 Soundtrack [which includes Flo Rida‘s commerical smash hit “Low’] debuted at #13 selling 32k.


Keyshia Cole and Chris Brown, though both experiencing a %3 decrease in sales, hold the #11 and #12 spots. J. Holiday‘s Back of my Lac finally hits gold in its 19th week on the charts (505k), while The Dream, who wrote both J. Holiday‘s “Bed” and “Suffocate”, has made it to just past the 200k mark in his 9th week.

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

Rank Artist Album This Week Total
3 Alicia Keys As I Am 80,172 2,987,631
7 Mary J Blige Growing Pains 44,592 1,177,054
11 Keyshia Cole Just Like You 35,366 1,131,109
12 Chris Brown Exclusive 32,267 1,248,205
13 Various Step Up 2 Soundtrack 31,445 31,521

Hip Hop continues its agonizing dry spell with the highest ranking rap artist (Soulja Boy) coming in at #36. Lupe Fiasco [despite winning his first Grammy Award this weekend] still slowly inches towards his golden plaque. Currently, Fiasco has sold 317k. Raheem Devaughn, despite some glowing reviews for album Love Behind The Melody, has still been unable to crack 100k.

Other Notables…

Rank Artist Album This Week Total
36 Soulja Boy Souljaboytellem.com 18,603 764,571
54 Lupe Fiasco The Cool 14,767 316,819
57 Raheem DeVaughn
 Love Behind The Melody
 14,350 90,309
63 Jay-Z American Gangster 12,994 978,362
64 Kanye West Graduation 12,976 1,983,188

Next month, legend Pete Rock drops his highly anticipated New York’s Finest, along with new albums by Erykah Badu, Rick Ross, Akrobatik, and many more. It’s getting warmer this February, but will the charts reflect it?