Album Sales:The Week Ending 1/25/09

Having held the number 1 spot for seven weeks prior to today's chart statistics, Taylor Swift has officially broken the record 50 Cent set in 2005. With his sophomore effort, 50's The Massacre [click to read], was the previous record holder, after maintaining the top spot for six consecutive weeks. Swift was followed by Beyonce, whose I Am...Sasha Fierce [click to read] continues to see solid sales numbers. Jamie Foxx [click to read], Keyshia Cole [click to read] and Kanye West [click to read] continue the weekly trend of trading spots within the top three. Meanwhile, the Notorious Soundtrack [click to read] slips out of the overall top five rotation, but maintains in terms of Hip Hop/Rap and R&B albums.

R&B reigned supreme again, as Jamie Foxx and John Legend officially surpassed the 500,000 sales mark to earn gold plaques. Foxx was no doubt helped by the fact that no less than three versions of his "Blame it On" [click to listen] surfaced. And Kanye's former protg, John Legend, can thank a halftime performance spot at the upcoming NBA All-Star competition for raising his already high profile.

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

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Est. Total
2	Beyonce	I Am...Sasha Fierce	50,927	1,685,304
4	Kanye West	808's & Heartbreak	39,234	1,224,108
6	Keyshia Cole	A Different Me	31,275	601,669
8	Jamie Foxx	Intuition	30,270	509,881
9	Various Artists	Notorious Soundtrack	28,989	72,024

In terms of mentors and proteges, Akon pulled off the trifecta. His own album, Freedom [click to read], ranks at number 17, while his Konvict Music artists Lady Gaga and T-Pain trail him at the number 20 and 55 spots respectively. Two of Hip Hop's respected veterans, Scarface [click to read] and Q-Tip [click to read] eclipsed the 100,000 mark this week. Both artists debuted to strong critical reviews, but have gotten little if any airplay on mainstream radio.

The Southern trio of Lil Wayne, T.I. and Ludacris continue to lead the way with Hip Hop's highest-selling albums. Wayne's Tha Carter III [click to read] is slowly approaching 3 million units sold, while Tip's Paper Trail [click to read] has just a shade over 1.6 million units sold. Luda follows, with his gold effort, Theater of the Mind [click to read].

Other Notables

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Est. Total
29	NE-YO	Year of the Gentleman	14,966	842,105
42	Plies	Da Realist	12,104	229,512
76	Common	Universal Mind Control	6,966	190,149
180	E-40	Ball Street Journal	2,796	77,716
188	Q-Tip	Renaissance	2,678	107,772

Can RZA [click to read] or Exile [click to read] garner enough sales to push an underground album into the Top 200? Stay tuned to HipHopDX for next week....