Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 4/21/2013

This was seemingly the busiest week for Hip Hop fans on the charts in 2013. Six new releases cracked the Top 200, including a #2.

Kid Cudi’sIndicud sold an impressive 136,000 units for the Cleveland, Ohio native. This marks his first album since recently departing G.O.O.D. Music. Also putting numbers on the boards is Syracuse, New York emcee Andy Mineo. The Reach Records artist very nearly cracked the Top 10 with his studio debut, Heroes For Sale. Not far behind was Ghostface Killah’s tenth album, Twelve Reasons To Die, produced entirely and co-billed with Adrian Younge. The effort marks a return to a RZA/Ghostface label combo, as this is Tony’s first release with Soul Temple Records, a call-back to his year’s with RZA’s then-imprint Razor Sharp.

Wiz Khalifa & Curren$y sold 13,000 digital units of their first retail collaboration,Live In Concert. The EP was released on Saturday (4/20), and achieved that commercial success in less than 48 hours before the week’s units tallied.

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Lastly, two ’90s New York veterans hit the Top 200. N.O.R.E. (now recording as P.A.P.I.) released Student Of The Game, his first LP with eOne Entertainment. The Queens O.G.’s album sold over 4,000 copies, hitting the charts. This is N.O.’s first charting solo LP on an indie label since his Penalty Records days, in the late 1990s. Following was Styles P, who partnered with veteran producer Scram Jones to release Float. The collaboration LP was Styles’ first with Brooklyn, New York-based Nature Sounds Records. That effort sold just under 4,000 copies in its first week at retail.

Kid Cudi Holds His Own With Indicud

Kid Cudi’s third solo album, Indicud, served as a benchmark for the five-year star. The album featured no involvement from early mentor Kanye West, and derailed from the Man On The Moon series, though it did tap into certain songs and themes from the emcee/singers first and second solo LPs. Selling 136,000 units, Indicud was just under 20,000 units behind Fall Out Boy’s Save Rock & Roll for the #1 spot. While it was behind Man On The Moon II: The Legend Of Mr. Rager sales, this effort first week sales surpassed those of Cudi’s 2009 debut, as well as his WZRD album with Dot Da Genius.

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Indicud boasts Cudi’s full production, as well as the Ohio native serving as his own executive producers. Guests range from veterans such as Too Short and RZA, to digital age contemporaries A$AP Rocky and Kendrick Lamar.

Ghostface Killah & Adrian Younge Give You Twelve Reasons To Buy

After a lengthy tenure at Def Jam Records, Staten Island, New York super-emcee Ghostface Killah linked back up with RZA, via The Abbott’s Soul Temple Records. There, G.F.K. partnered with Los Angeles, California-based Black Dynamite soundtrack producer Adrian Younge to make an album birthed in ’70s cinematic sounds and themes. Twelve Reasons To Die resulted, with RZA watching over, and paying homage to drive-in’s and grind-houses and spaghetti westerns, with Tony Starks’ tenth LP.

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The album, backed by Sony Red, sold 13,000 units in its first week. At #27, this is a considerably higher chart debut than Ghost’s Def Jam finale, Apollo Kids, which surfaced at #120. The guests on the LP were strictly Wu affiliates, ranging from Masta Killa, U-God and Inspectah Deck, to Killarmy’s Killa Sin and longtime Ghost assister, Cappadonna.

Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 4/21/2013

#2. Kid Cudi – Indicud – 136,000 (136,000)

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#8. Lil Wayne – I Am Not A Human Being II– 31,000 (358,000)

#9. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – The Heist– 30,000 (610,000)

#11. Andy Mineo – Heroes For Sale – 28,000 (28,000)

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#18. Tyga – Hotel California – 19,000 (73,000)

#27. Ghostface Killah & Adrian Younge – Twelve Reasons To Die – 15,000 (15,000)

#30. Wiz Khalifa & Curren$y – Live In Concert – 13,000 (13,000)

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#44. Kendrick Lamar – good kid, m.A.A.d city – 10,000 (858,000)

#116. N.O.R.E. (a/k/a P.A.P.I.) – Student Of The Game – 4,000 (4,100)

#124. Styles P & Scram Jones – Float – 3,800 (3,900)

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^{* data comes from Nielsen Soundscan, rounded to nearest thousandth for units above 10,000, nearest hundredth for units below 10,000. Each week, HipHopDX presents top albums in Hip Hop/related, and five notables.}

Will Snoop’s Reincarnated come in like a Lion or like a lamb? Check back on HipHopDX.

Last Week’s Album Sales.

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