Hip Hop Album Sales: Week Ending 6/8/08

This week Usher got dethroned from the top position but still managed to sell 144,500 copies, hit the Gold mark, and stay in the top 3. Here I Stand grabbed the #3 spot and was bested by new releases from Disturbed and the newest installment of Now That's What I Call Music, respectively. Ashanti's long-awaited Declaration, amidst rumors that the album is slated to flop, debuted at #6 with 86,200 copies sold. Chris Brown's Exclusive makes an unexpected jump on the charts from #56 to #10 with a surge in sales. The young R&B star sold 36,200 copies this week, a 261% increase from last week.

Mariah Carey takes a slight drop from #8 to #13 with E=MC2 selling 30,100 copies--just less than 3k shy of the coveted platinum plaque. Meanwhile Bun B rounds out the Top 5 for Hip Hop/ R&B with 23,900 copies of II Trill sold this week.

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

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Total
3	Usher	Here I Stand	144,551	588,510
6	Ashanti	Declaration	86,278	86,486
10	Chris Brown	Exclusive	36,227	1,581,701
13	Mariah Carey	E=MC2	30,176	997,717
19	Bun B	II Trill	23,981	162,547

Further down the charts Flobots stay within the Top 30 at #27 as Fight With Tools sells 17,100 copies. Rick Ross' Trilla falls from #25 to #38 with 13,400 sold. What is surprising is that the highly anticipated Tha Carter III album from Lil Wayne has managed to sell 4,000 copies and land a #167 spot on the Top 200 without even having been released yet.

Paying homage to his contributions to Hip Hop, Pimp C's Greatest Hits album debuted this week selling just over 2,700 copies, while TX native Lil Wil debuts Dallas, TX with 1,100 copies sold.

Other Notables

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Total
27	Flobots	Fight With Tools	17,184	90,379
38	Rick Ross	Trilla	13,496	563,671
167	Lil Wayne	Tha Carter III	7,517	104,928
--	Pimp C	Greatest Hits	2,729	2,748
--	Lil Wil	Dallas TX	1,146	1,146

Next week will we see Lil Wayne at the top spot? Will new releases from Little Brother, Flying Lotus, or N.E.R.D be able to make waves on the charts? Stay tuned as DX brings the play by play.