Lil Wayne is kind of a big deal these days. Tha Carter III is hands down the most anticipated album of the year and the most hyped since Kanye West and 50 Cent went head to head on September 11th of last year. Could it be possible that Lil Wayne sells more than both of those artists and maybe even go platinum in its first week?

According to EW.com, an executive at Wayne’s label claims that the album is poised to sell somewhere between 850k and 950k when the Soundscan reports are out next week. This is up from the previous estimate of 700k that was whispered to HipHopDX from an industry insider prior to the album dropping. Whether it cracks a million or not, it is set to still be the highest selling album of the year.

"The accounts were bullish by 10 in the morning," Pat Monaco, exec VP of sales for the Universal Motown Republic Group told EW. "The sales the first few hours were exceeding the rate that the Kanye album sold a year ago…Wayne was one of these records that, because it was so highly anticipated, with the leaks and everything, it caused more people to go out at 8 in the morning to buy the CD."

Hard to believe that a leak could help an album sell but this is a point of contention from Monaco that it has helped Wayne’s exposure. We will see where Weezy stands by next week.

Until then, check out DX’s interview with Wayne from our vaults [click to read] and our review of Tha Carter III [click to read].

Do you think the album will sell more than Kanye or 50 Cent? Is it a front runner for album of the year? Discuss in our chatroom [click to go].

UPDATE: Representatives from Nielsen, the people behind Soundscan, stated via press release that Tha Carter III sold an estimated 423,000 copies yesterday (June 10) alone. This adds to the speculation that the album will reach platinum by Sunday's closing of first week sales.

Additional Reporting by Jake Paine.