Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 12/28/08

With no new major urban releases in the last week, it was one of the first breathing points for the charts this past week. There was plenty of movement. For another week, Taylor Swift's Fearless reigned supreme yet again. The Country star was one of the few staple positions in R&B took the top of the charts. Beyonce bumped Keyshia Cole back for her #2 spot with I Am...Sasha Fierce [click to read].

Kanye West's 808's & Heartbreak [click to read] returned with a vengeance, from not Top 10 to Top 5. The album, received to varying reviews, made the million mark this week. Keyshia Cole's A Different Me [click to read] fell close behind, remaining strong in her second week out. Jamie Foxx [click to read] followed two positions after, with his Intuition [click to read] album fell a simple six spots from its debut week. T.I. [click to read] returned too, with his award-winning Paper Trail [click to read] coming back into the Top 15.

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

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Est. Total
2	Beyonce	I Am...Sasha Fierce	210,918	1,458,853
5	Kanye West	808's & Heartbreak	148,157	1,023,927
7	Keyshia Cole	A Different Me	126,506	448,591
9	Jamie Foxx	Intuition	104,506	369,868
15	T.I.	Paper Trail	78,319	1,522,103

Lil Wayne [click to read] climbed nearly 20 chart places in preparation for holiday shopping. Tha Carter III [click to read] trudges towards three million sold in the States. Plies [click to read] fell 22 spaces with his third major label full length in two years. Da REAList [click to read] was followed by fellow southern rap recent sensation Soulja Boy [click to read], who came just 11 positions lower with his iSouljaBoy [click to read].

Meanwhile, Scarface [click to read] is holding rank with Emeritus [click to read], his reported last album from the onetime platinum rapper. Lil Wayne entered the charts twice this week, as DJ Drama and Aphilliates Music Group released a retail version of Dedication 3 [click to listen], that sold just under 10,000 units last week, gaining ground from extensively from its appearance a week earlier.

Other Notables

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Est. Total
32	Lil Wayne	Tha Carter III	57,813	2,874,420
36	Plies	Da REAList	52,707	167,381
47	Soulja Boy Tell Em	iSouljaBoy	34,370	79,935
149	Scarface	Emeritus	10,611	79,471
163	DJ Drama & Lil Wayne	Dedication 3	9,496	17,780