Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 12/7/08

Britney Spears is back. Whether for artistry or non-musical entertainment, the Jive Records Pop princess assumed the #1 spot with her Circus. With Taylor Swift's Fearless taking #2, Beyonce climbed back above with her I Am...Sasha Fierce [click to read], after a close race last week. Kanye West followed closely with 808's & Heartbreak [click to read].

Akon, in his debut week, entered the charts at #7 with Freedom [click to read]. This was a surprising position for the platinum singer to enter given his tremendous momentum on radio singles the last two years.

Ludacris [click to read] fell 10 spots with his Theater of The Mind [click to read]. The fall comes as a shock to many, as Ludacris has remained one of Hip Hop's most commercially viable stars. Lastly, veteran Scarface [click to read] entered the charts at #25 with his reported parting-shot from rap Emeritus [click to read].

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

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Est. Total
3	Beyonce	I Am...Sasha Fierce	152,816	893,370
4	Kanye West	808's & Heartbreak	141,678	593,073
7	Akon	Freedom	110,560	110,861
15	Ludacris	Theater of the Mind	65,295	279,421
25	Scarface	Emeritus	42,023	42,214

T.I. [click to read] lost 11 spaces and went to #27 with his Paper Trail [click to read].Lil Wayne [click to read] slid six spaces as well. Tha Carter III [click to read] trudges towards three million sold in the States. E-40 [click to read] and his Ball Street Journal [click to read] continued to circulate, though falling over 50 spots in the last week. The Game [click to read] was close behind with his LAX [click to read]

Q-Tip [click to read] and The Renaissance [click to read] fell considerably, but remained on the charts with a tour in progress, and slews of critical accolades.

Other Notables

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Est. Total
27	T.I.	Paper Trail	38,932	1,342,766
47	Lil Wayne	Tha Carter III	23,358	2,749,947
95	E-40	The Ball Street Journal	11,364	42,041
112	The Game	L.A.X.	8,266	599,630
147	Q-Tip	The Renaissance	6,456	73,633

Can Common compete with the heavyweights, despite mixed reviews? How will Jamie Foxx and Anthony Hamilton do in a big year for R&B? Any love left for EPMD? Stay tuned to HipHopDX next week...