Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 1/11/08

There was very little movement on the charts in the week after the holidays. Few new releases, and a 50% decrease in most sales allowed the biggest winners of 2008 to ease into their 2009 run. 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. Kanye West's 808's & Heartbreak [click to read] took the top urban spot back, at #3. The album, may grow in sales, as the Chicago luminary is set to grace the covers of upcoming issues of Complex and VIBE.

Beyonce followed behind with I Am...Sasha Fierce [click to read] at #4.

Keyshia Cole's A Different Me [click to read] held the #7 spot. Jamie Foxx [click to read] was right behind with his Intuition [click to read]. The effort stands a chance at going gold this week. Lastly, Akon [click to read] returned to the Top 10 for the first time in close to a month with Freedom [click to read] coming in at #10 from the one-time platinum superstar.

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

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Est. Total
3	Kanye West	808's & Heartbreak	50,486	1,145,345
4	Beyonce	I Am...Sasha Fierce	49,365	1,585,156
7	Keyshia Cole	A Different Me	36,875	539,093
8	Jamie Foxx	Intuition	33,666	448,172
10	Akon	Freedom	26,881	377,175

Lil Wayne [click to read] has climbed in the dormant release schedule. Tha Carter III [click to read] heads towards three million. The New Orleans veteran had three albums on the charts this week. Plies [click to read] took the #32 spot with his third major label full length in two years. Da REAList [click to read] was followed, 22 spots later, by Common's [click to read] Universal Mind Control [click to read], despite many mixed reviews.

Meanwhile, Scarface [click to read] may be a week away from six figures with his Emeritus [click to read], his reported last album from the onetime platinum rapper. Despite strong sales, the effort has been ignored by commercial radio. With a T-Wayne bootleg mixtape, The T-Wayne Show also making the Top 200 at #152 with 3,400 copies sold, Lil Wayne saw three total placements on the charts. His DJ Drama and Aphilliates Music Group released a retail version of Dedication 3 [click to listen], that sold just under 4,000 units last week, putting the retail mixtape on the charts for the fourth straight week.

Other Notables

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Est. Total
22	Lil Wayne	Tha Carter III	17,766	2,918,178
32	Plies	Da REAList	14,149	206,277
54	Common	Universal Mind Control	9,516	175,948
111	Scarface	Emeritus	4,534	89,944
141	DJ Drama & Lil Wayne	Dedication 3	3,594	26,674