Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 9/21/08

The Top 5 moved around in the last seven days. In their 25th year, Metallica assumed the top spot, with their Death Magnetic, selling over 335,000 units in its second work on the charts.The new release from Ne-Yo [click to read], Year of the Gentleman [click to read] held the door for the 40-something rockers, as Def Jam‘s R&B sensation sold a sliver over 250,000 units in its first week. Completing the Top 3, Nelly [click to read] restored a top position on the charts, as his long-delayed Brass Knuckles [click to read] was significantly behind Ne-Yo, but at #3 nonetheless, with over 83,000 units sold.

With the top-heavy movement, Young Jeezy [click to read] and his Recession [click to read] took the #6 spot, scanning just under 60,000 units after having a stronghold in the Top 5. Jeezy may return there next week. Koch Records gets their first Hip Hop act back into the Top 10 in some time with Miami deejay and calling-card to the stars DJ Khaled [click to read]. The Terror Squad member’s third album may climb higher, after an impressive start, just under 50,000 sold in We Global‘s first week.

What would a Top 10 in 2008 be without Lil Wayne [click to read]? Tha Carter III [click to read] sold just above 43,000 units, keeping it in the Top 10, as a hard-to-move reminder of rap’s best-selling release of 2008. Not included after just one week there, LL Cool J fell to #32, selling less than 15,000 copies of his Def Jam parting shot.

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

As projected, Plies [click to read] achieved gold status with his sophomore album Definition of Real [click to read] this week, selling over double the amount of what he did last week. R&B veteran Rapheal Saadiq‘s critically-acclaimed album The Way I See It [click to read] debuted at #19, selling a bit under 25,000 units, despite limited radio play. Nas slides to the #82 position with approximately 6,500 copies of his Untitled [click to read] album sold this week, leaving many to question whether his critically-acclaimed album can possibly fare, like Plies, for a plaque. Just below Nas, David Banner [click to read] participated in another proud week for the Universal Records umbrella, selling over 5,000 units of his Greatest Story Ever Told [click to read]. On an independent, B.G. [click to read] and his Chopper City Boyz also entered on the Top 200, with their Life In The Concrete Jungle not far behind Banner at roughly 5,200 units sold.

Other Notables

With a slower week of major releases, will Khaled start his historic push towards the Top 5? Can Nelly sustain a Top 3 position? HipHopDX will be there to find out.