There was very little movement on the charts in the week after the
holidays. Few new releases, and a 50% decrease in most sales allowed
the biggest winners of 2008 to ease into their 2009 run. For another
week, Taylor Swift‘s Fearless reigned supreme yet again. The Country star was one of the few staple positions in R&B took the top of the charts. Kanye West‘s 808’s & Heartbreak [click to read] took the top urban spot back, at #3. The album, may grow in sales, as the Chicago luminary is set to grace the covers of upcoming issues of Complex and VIBE.
Beyonce followed behind with I Am…Sasha Fierce [click to read] at #4.
Keyshia Cole‘s A Different Me [click to read] held the #7 spot. Jamie Foxx [click to read] was right behind with his Intuition [click to read]. The effort stands a chance at going gold this week. Lastly, Akon [click to read] returned to the Top 10 for the first time in close to a month with Freedom [click to read] coming in at #10 from the one-time platinum superstar.
Top 200 Album Sales (Top 5 Hip Hop/R&B)
| Rank | Artist | Album | This Week | Est. Total |
| 3 | Kanye West | 808’s & Heartbreak
|
50,486 | 1,145,345 |
| 4 | Beyonce | I Am…Sasha Fierce | 49,365 | 1,585,156 |
| 7 | Keyshia Cole | A Different Me | 36,875 | 539,093 |
| 8 | Jamie Foxx | Intuition | 33,666 | 448,172 |
| 10 | Akon | Freedom | 26,881 | 377,175 |
Lil Wayne [click to read] has climbed in the dormant release schedule. Tha Carter III [click to read] heads towards three million. The New Orleans veteran had three albums on the charts this week. Plies [click to read] took the #32 spot with his third major label full length in two years. Da REAList [click to read] was followed, 22 spots later, by Common‘s [click to read] Universal Mind Control [click to read], despite many mixed reviews.
Meanwhile, Scarface [click to read] may be a week away from six figures with his Emeritus [click to read], his reported last album from the onetime platinum rapper. Despite strong sales, the effort has been ignored by commercial radio. With a T-Wayne bootleg mixtape, The T-Wayne Show also making the Top 200 at #152 with 3,400 copies sold, Lil Wayne saw three total placements on the charts. His DJ Drama and Aphilliates Music Group released a retail version of Dedication 3 [click to listen], that sold just under 4,000 units last week, putting the retail mixtape on the charts for the fourth straight week.
Other Notables
| Rank | Artist | Album | This Week | Est. Total |
| 22 | Lil Wayne | Tha Carter III | 17,766 | 2,918,178 |
| 32 | Plies | Da REAList | 14,149 | 206,277 |
| 54 | Common | Universal Mind Control | 9,516 | 175,948 |
| 111 | Scarface | Emeritus | 4,534 | 89,944 |
| 141 | DJ Drama & Lil Wayne | Dedication 3 | 3,594 | 26,674 |
The more things change, the more they remain the same. Stay tuned to HipHopDX for next week….
