Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 2/3/08

Alicia Keys took back the #1 spot this week, in her off-again, on-again reign, weathering each week's new additions. Ms. Keys was joined by Rock outfits The Mars Volta and Bullet For My Valentine, who held #3 and #4 respectively, after The Juno Soundtrack. Keyshia Cole gained over 17% in sales since last week, bumping Chris Brown and getting a strong surge of Interscope energy. Lupe Fiasco fell from the Top 5 overall urban artists for the first week since his release. G.O.O.D. Music crooner John Legend joins the charts with his live album, closing out the caption with a #27 spot.

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

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Total
1	Alicia Keys	As I Am	61,259	2,907,459
6	Mary J Blige	Growing Pains	47,219	1,132,462
8	Keyshia Cole	Just Like You	36,412	1,095,743
11	Chris Brown	Exclusive	33,311	1,059,331
27	John Legend	Live From Philadelphia	20,117	70,158

As predicted, a new single pushed Soulja Boy back into the mix, as the prodigy pushes for a platinum plaque by spring. The 17-year-old bumped ahead of Lupe in doing so. Birdman also climbed ahead of mainstays Jay-Z and Kanye West despite lacking the initial sales of his super-star peers.

Other Notables

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Total
31	Soulja Boy	Souljaboytellem.com	18,899	745,968
44	Lupe Fiasco	The Cool	15,841	302,052
57	Birdman	5*Stunna	12,807	246,196
61	Jay-Z	American Gangster	12,092	965,368
63	Kanye West	Graduation	12,011	1,970,212

Next month, legend Pete Rock drops his highly anticipated New York's Finest, along with new albums by Erykah Badu, Rick Ross, Akrobatik, and many more. It's getting warmer this February, but will the charts reflect it?