In a pretty slow week on the charts, Jack Johnson remains in the top spot for the third week in a row while Alicia Keys sold lest than 50% of her 109k units last week and must settle for second with 53k sold. Troubled songstress Amy Winehouse continues to revive her spot on the charts at #3. Winehouse has been receiving relatively good publicity after her successful Grammy performance as well as making visible progress in rehab for multiple drug addictions.
Mary J. Blige holds down #9 for the second week in a row. Growing Pains sold about 35k this week. Keyshia Cole climbs back up six spots to #12 with just under 30k, while Chris Brown follows tight on Cole‘s heels selling only about 500 units less.
Top 200 Album Sales (Top 5 Hip Hop/R&B)
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| Rank | Artist | Album | This Week | Total |
| 2 | Alicia Keys | As I Am | 53,102 | 3,149,573 |
| 3 | Amy Winehouse | Back to Black | 51,538 | 1,700,719 |
| 9 | Mary J Blige | Growing Pains | 34,930 | 1,260,547 |
| 12 | Keyshia Cole | Just Like You | 29,915 | 1,198,766 |
| 13 | Chris Brown | Exclusive | 29,434 | 1,317,330 |
Jim Jones‘ Harlem’s American Gangster dropped last week, and is now the top selling rap artist in the country this week. The Koch Records artist enters the charts at #19 and sold 24.8k in his first week. Lupe Fiasco‘s The Cool follows in at #30 selling 19.5k (a total of 359k) and is slowing creeping towards that golden plaque. Rounding out the top three rap artists is Soulja Boy at #47 selling 15.5k making him just about 200k away platinum. Meanwhile, Jay-Z‘s American Gangster finally joins the platinum club with 1.05M sold total. Pastor Troy‘s new effort debuted with 6.3k units sold, while underground favorite Akrobatik (despite receiving rave reviews for Absolute Value) sold about 600 units.
Other Notables…
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| Rank | Artist | Album | This Week | Total |
| 19 | Jim Jones | Harlem’s American Gangster | 24861 | 25128 |
| 30 | Lupe Fiasco | The Cool | 19524 | 358,908 |
| 47 | Soulja Boy | Souljaboytellem.com | 15558 | 799,380 |
| 68 | Jay-Z | American Gangster | 11395 | 1,005,016 |
| — | Pastor Troy | Attitude Adjuster | 6366 | 6437 |
With new albums from Erykah Badu and Pete Rock dropping this week, as well as new albums next month from Snoop Dogg, David Banner, Rick Ross and Guilty Simpson, can these heavyweights melt the ice that has frozen over Hip Hop on the charts?
