Black Friday fueled the domestic record sales market last week, with millions of Americans flocking to the electronic stores that carry CDs. An exciting week to begin with, Kanye West assumed his pole position with his departure from rapping 808’s & Heartbreak [click to read]. The release significantly under-sold last year’s Graduation [click to read] and sold less first week numbers than Beyonce saw last week with her I Am…Sasha Fierce [click to read], despite an extra day of sales (amidst a holiday week).
Jay-Z‘s wife came in at #4, having another extremely strong week, with platinum possibilities for next week. Ludacris [click to read] came shortly behind, with his artistic Theater of The Mind [click to read]. The ATL veteran entered in the Top 5, but demonstrated lower numbers than expected by many sales projections.
T.I. [click to read] remained strong in the charts, passing up T-Pain [click to read] from last week with his Paper Trail [click to read]. Teddy closed out the top urban acts at #21 with Th33 Ringz [click to read].
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Top 200 Album Sales (Top 5 Hip Hop/R&B)
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| Rank | Artist | Album | This Week | Est. Total |
| 1 | Kanye West | 808’s & Heartbreak | 450,145 | 451,395 |
| 4 | Beyonce | I Am…Sasha Fierce | 257,377 | 740,554 |
| 5 | Ludacris | Theater of The Mind | 213,493 | 214,126 |
| 16 | T.I. | Paper Trail | 74,792 | 1,303,834 |
| 21 | T-Pain | Thr33 Ringz | 48,769 | 278,318 |
Lil Wayne [click to read] gained some ground in the holiday shuffle. Tha Carter III [click to read], despite over six months out, toppled the debut week from veteran Warner Brothers emcee E-40 [click to read] and his Ball Street Journal [click to read].
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Young Jeezy [click to read] and The Game [click to read] remain close competitors on the charts, coming in #70 and #97 with The Recession [click to read] and LAX [click to read] respectively.
Q-Tip [click to read] and The Renaissance [click to read] got some fuel from the critical acclaim, being the lowest charting rap album on the Top 200, despite positioning 94 spaces from the bottom at #106.
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Other Notables
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| Rank | Artist | Album | This Week | Est. Total |
| 39 | Lil Wayne | Tha Carter III | 31,920 | 2,726,589 |
| 42 | E-40 | The Ball Street Journal | 30,369 | 30,677 |
| 70 | Young Jeezy | The Recession | 15,730 | 644,997 |
| 97 | The Game | L.A.X. | 10,459 | 591,364 |
| 106 | Q-Tip | The Renaissance | 9,101 | 67,177 |
How will Kanye West, Ludacris and E-40 prove to be in their second weeks? Does Scarface‘s parting shot have the kind of resonance that Bun B and UGK have proven on the charts? Or will Akon make it a third different number one artist in as many weeks? Stay tuned to HipHopDX…
