Eminem’s Recovery will not budge from #1. While Drake’sThank Me Laterbumped one spot to #3,Em fell just short of 1.5 million units cleared. Drake’s So Far Gone finally crossed the 500,000 mark, giving the Rap sensation a gold plaque on both of his retail releases – and another from his role on We Are Young Money.
M.I.A. snagged a Top 10 debut with her latest, /\/\/\Y/\. Albeit titled poorly for Internet search engines, the Rap-friendly Electro-Pop princess went even more political with her latest Interscope release.
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Outkast’s Big Boi fell 11 spots to #14. The Atlanta Hip Hop pioneer is 10,000+ units shy of the six-figure mark with his critically-acclaimed Def Jam debut, Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty. The release features artists such as T.I., Gucci Mane and Too Short, with production from Organized Noize, Scott Storch and Lil Jon. Big Boi’s new label-mate, The-Dream, fell eight units to #12 with Love-King.
Usher‘s Raymond v. Raymondmaintained Top 20. The veteran Pop entertainer’s “divorce album” is marching its way to a platinum plaque for Mr. Raymond and his longtime backer, LaFace Records.
* Please note: figures below approximated to nearest thousandth.
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Top 200 Album Sales (Top 5 Hip Hop/R&B)
| Rank | Artist | Album | This Week | Est. Total |
| 1 | Eminem | Recovery | 195,000 | 1,482,000 |
| 3 | Drake | Thank Me Later | 50,000 | 833,000 |
| 9 | M.I.A. | /\/\/\Y/\ | 28,000 | 29,000 |
| 14 | Big Boi | Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty | 26,000 | 89,000 |
| 20 | Usher | Raymond v. Raymond | 18,000 | 935,000 |
Former Young Money and No Limit Records artist Curren$y found a Top 40 debut with his Def Jam-distributed Pilot Talk. Produced by Reasonable Doubt architect Ski Beatz, and featuring Mos Def and Jay Electronica, the New Orleans emcee cleared over 10,000 first week units.
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Two new chart appearances came courtesy of Paul Wall‘s latest, Heart of A Champion. The Swishahouse/Warner Brothers/Asylum release featured surprise collaborations courtesy of Jay Electronica, Raekwon and Kid Sister. The release fell just shy of a Top 50 debut. Meanwhile, despite critical acclaim, Capone-N-Noreaga‘s War Report 2 fought to stay in the Top 100. Executive produced by Raekwon, the EMI-distributed project features Nas, Busta Rhymes and several personnel carry-overs from CNN’s acclaimed 1997 first War Report.
Florida rapper Plies found the 100,000 mark with his Atlantic Records’ Goon Affiliated album. This is the fourth album from Plies to cross that benchmark.
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| Rank | Artist | Album | This Week | Est. Total |
| 38 | Curren$y | Pilot Talk | 11,000 | 11,000 |
| 56 | Paul Wall | Heart of A Champion | 7,600 | 7,600 |
| 98 | Capone-N-Noreaga | The War Report 2 | 4,600 | 4,700 |
| 111 | Plies | Goon Affiliated | 4,000 | 103,000 |
| 146 | Drake | So Far Gone | 3,300 | 500,000 |
Will Rick Ross go gold in a week? Can Rakaa rep Dilated Peoples back to the charts? Stay tuned to HipHopDX to find out.
