Without the help of any 9/11 release date battle or publicity beef, Grammy award winning songstress Alicia Keys debuted her third release, As I Am, at the #1 spot on the charts this week selling a staggering 743k in its first week.
Capitol Records‘ Now 26 compilation CD, which features tracks from today’s hottest artists including Kanye West, J. Holiday and Fabolous, debuted at #4 with just over 208k sold.
Although debuting at #1 last week, Jay-Z‘s American Gangster concept album suffered a 69.3% loss in sales. Hova sold 131k and landed the #8 spot this week. With similar misfortune, Cassidy‘s B.A.R.S (which held the #10 spot for its first week) had a 72.4% sales decline bumping him down to #62 with 17k sold.
After winning an American Music Award for best rap group, Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony debuted T.H.U.G.S with disappointing numbers selling 15k, placing them at #73 in their first week.
Top 200 Album Sales (Top 5 Hip Hop/R&B)
Rank Artist Album #’s Sold This Week #’s Sold Total
1 ALICIA KEYS AS I AM 742,426 743,612
4 VARIOUS NOW 26 208,043 208,154
8 JAY-Z AMERICAN GANGSTER 130,577 556,438
10 CHRIS BROWN EXCLUSIVE 109,601 404,635
26 KEYSHIA COLE JUST LIKE YOU 44,881 622,875
Other Notables…
Rank Artist Album #’s Sold This Week #’s Sold Total
27 BOYS II MEN MOTOWN: A JOURNEY 41,723 41,784
34 KANYE WEST GRADUATION 30,436 1,674,637
66 50 CENT CURTIS 16,649 1,103,559
73 BONE THUGS-N-HARMONY T.H.U.G.S 15,233 15,265
