The most anticipated album of the year has finally
been released. The question is…”How much would Jay-Z sell.” And the
answer is 680k first week! Kingdom Come crushed the competition this week and
became this year’s highest selling Hip Hop album in its first week, beating out
T.I.‘s King by almost double.
The high sales figures would not come without
detractors. Although the album demolished everything in its path, it did not do
the expected 800-850k that some predicted after flying off the shelves in the
first couple of days of release. Some have said that it is because the album
itself hasn’t lived up to expectations and has been panned by many critics in
the industry which could have resulted in the album losing steam going into the
weekend. But it could be because of Thanksgiving leaving stores across the country closed so no sales could be recorded. Regardless, the album has the third highest opening week overall
(behind Justin Timberlake’s Future sex/Love Sounds’ 711k and Rascal Flatts’ Me
and My Gang’s 714k). So is the album a success or a failure? We’ll let you
argue over that one…
You can’t forget about Snoop Dogg who also did very
high numbers in his first week. Blue Carpet Treatment clocked in at an
extremely high figure of 254k in its first week but was only good enough for #5
on the charts. Any other week Snoop would have easily coasted to #1, but because
of Jay-Z, Daughtry (303k), Now 23 (289k in week 3) and The Beatles Love (271k)
Big Snoop Dogg will just have to be happy with #5.
Tupac’s latest shows that the late rapper still has
staying power on the charts. Pac’s Life moved just under 160k to open up at #9
on the charts this week.
So how did Game do in his second week? We all
remember Game saying that his second week could possibly do more than Jay-Z’s
first, but in actuality both weeks combined couldn’t beat out Jay’s huge debut on the charts. Doctor’s Advocate is still moving impressive numbers with another 134k
sold this week (#13 on the charts) putting his total at 493k. Although it falls
short of Jay’s 680k, it still proves that Game doesn’t need 50 Cent to rake in
big numbers.
Elsewhere on the charts, Akon’s Konvicted actually
ended up outselling Game in his second week. Moving 163k this week (448k
overall) is good enough to land Akon at #8 this week and should hit gold status
by next week. Beyonce is building momentum again in her 12th week on
the charts. B’Day moved an astounding 173k (just under 1.4 million overall)
which was good enough for #6 on the charts. Jim Jones’ Hustler’s P.O.M.E.
continues to do well independently. This week the album sold 32k in its 3rd
week (#49 overall) putting the overall total at 182k.
Next week we’ll find out how well The Clipse
managed to do amongst all the setbacks and label problems.
