Hip Hop Album Sales: Week Ending 7/20/08

After endless weeks of controversy, Nas' Untitled [click to read] album reigns the charts with 186,600 copies sold in its first week. Grabbing the #2 spot is Lil Wayne's Tha Carter 3 [click to read] with just under 105,500 copies sold. If Wayne's sales continue at this pace, he'll be due for a double platinum plaque by next week! David Banner's latest effort The Greatest Story Ever Told [click to read] debuted this week at #8 selling 51,800 in its first week. Rihanna maintains her spot in the top 10 with the re-release of Good Girl Gone Bad selling 41,200 copies in its 59th week on the charts. Usher's Here I Stand [click to read] rounds out the top 5 leading Hip Hop/ R&B artists at #19 with 26,000 copies sold this week.

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

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Total
1	Nas	Untitled	186,640	187,078
2	Lil Wayne	Tha Carter 3	105,490	1,912,052
8	David Banner	Greatest Story Ever Told	51,805	51,902
10	Rihanna	Good Girl Gone Bad	41,269	1,482,574
19	Usher	Here I Stand	26,071	906,641

G-Unit takes a drop from #9 last week to #24 this week with Terminate On Sight [click to read] selling 21,200 copies this week--a 42% decline from last week's numbers. Plies' Definition of Real [click to read] comes in at #26 selling 20,500 copies. Three 6 Mafia grabs the #29 spot with Last 2 Walk [click to read] selling 18,431 units this week. After reports surfaced that the self-proclaimed drug pushin', gun toting "boss" Rick Ross is in actuality a former corrections officer, his sales have yet to suffer this week. Trilla [click to read] sold 9,700 copies this week, only a 4% decline from last week. However, next week's numbers (the first full sales week after this week's revelations about Ross' past) will be the true sign of any fan backlash.

Other Notables

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Total
24	G-Unit	Terminate On Sight	21,219	159,369
26	Plies	Definition of Real	20,522	400,789
29	Three 6 Mafia	Last 2 Walk	18,431	156,835
58	Rick Ross	Trilla	9,702	629,610
74	Tech N9ne	Killer	8,076	57,771

Will August heat up on the charts with new albums on the horizon from heavy-hitters like The Game, Ne-Yo and Nelly? Or will the youngins get schooled by new projects from Ice Cube and LL Cool J? Can femcee/ producer Missy Elliot come in for the sneak attack and shock the charts? Stay tuned as DX brings the play by play.