Hip Hop Album Sales: Week Ending 3/23/08

Despite lots of shuffling around this week, Hip Hop and R&B still holds its own on the charts with Bad Boy's Danity Kane claiming the top spot. The ladies' sophomore album, Welcome to the Dollhouse, sold 236k in its debut. Hit music compilation Now That's What I Call Music Vol 27 holds the #2 spot for the second week in a row while Rick Ross' Trilla is bumped down to #3 with just over 90k sold this week. Flo Rida's highly anticipated album Mail on Sunday, driven by his smash hit "Low" debuted this week at #4 with just under 86k sold, while Snoop Dogg's Ego Trippin slips down from #3 to #7 with 86k units.

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

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Total
1	Danity Kane	Welcome to the Dollhouse	236,192	236,410
3	Rick Ross	Trilla	90,344	289,300
4	Flo Rida	Mail on Sunday	85,891	86,182
7	Snoop Dogg	Ego Trippin'	57,251	194,194
13	Alicia Keys	As I Am	40,621	3,317,788

Unable to make her way back onto the top 10, Alicia Keys' As I Am holds the #13 spot with a still respectable 40k in her 19th week on the charts, as Janet Jackson's Discipline continues its decline at #17 in its 4th week (33.5k sold). Gnarls Barkley rush-released their sophomore effort The Odd Couple three weeks early after the album prematurely leaked. Though many projected high sales due to their popularity on the iTunes album charts, The Odd Couple only achieved the #18 spot selling just over 31k copies. Def Jam's Rocko follows close on Barkley's heels with Self Made selling almost 28k this week and landing him at the #21 spot. Sheek Louch also debuted a new album this week to a mild response. Silverback Gorilla came in at #41 with just under 17.5k sold, while Fat Joe's Elephant in the Room failed to keep its buzz afloat and nose-dived from #6 last week to #56 this week with an even 15k sold.

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Total
18	Gnarls Barkley	Odd Couple	31,009	31,009
21	Rocko	Self Made	27,711	27,786
41	Sheek Louch	Silver Back Gorilla	17,479	17,818
56	Fat Joe	Elephant in the Room	15,000	61,260
64	Webbie	Savage Life Vol 2	13,904	133,811

Next week can Fat Joe redeem himself from his 50 spot fall out? Will Rick Ross stay on top of the rap charts or be overthrown by a very close-following Flo Rida? With new releases on deck from Detroit mainstay Guilty Simpson, femcee Trina, as well as Prodigy, the next few weeks are bound to get interesting...stay tuned as DX brings you the weekly play-by-play.