If the holidays bring the masses to the record stores, it certainly showed in Lupe Fiasco's debut week of his sophomore disc Lupe Fiasco Presents: The Cool. Although the Chicago emcee's second effort charted at #15, it did sell an impressive 143,407 in the wake of mid-five-figure sales from Beanie Sigel, Freeway and Ghostface Killah.

It was the "Queen of Hip Hop Soul" Mary J Blige that bumped possible heiress to her throne Alicia Keys to #3. Blige's first week of new disc Growing Pains scanned an impressive 629,366 units last week. This moved Keys' As I Am to #3, selling 473,768 (2,350,013 total). The duo was topped by holiday favorite Josh Groban's Noel at 756,590 (3,524,566 total).

Other rap debut Chingy opened up at #84, selling 31,517 of his Hate It Or Love It Def Jam premier.

Top 200 Album Sales (Top 5 Hip Hop/R&B)

Other Notables…

The overall question remains, will Hip Hop album sales see a boost or further decline in 2008? With slow first quarter releases, many eyes look to March where Flo Rida, Prodigy and Rick Ross will attempt to stir the pot once again.