Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 3/1/2009

After a one-week showing from '70s and '80s Gap Band veteran and Snoop uncle Charlie Wilson, Beyonce re-assumed the top urban spot last week with her I Am...Sasha Fierce [click to read]. Behind such stars as Taylor Swift, The Jonas Brothers, Nickelback and the Oscar-noted Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack, B was actually down a spot from a week before. Jamie Foxx remained on her high-heels though, with his Intuition [click to read].

Kanye West's 808's & Heartbreak [click to read] and T.I.'s [click to read] Paper Trail [click to read] came in at #10 and #11, holding strong, as both reach for the two million mark. With India.Arie out of the Top Five fold, Keyshia Cole also bounced back after the two rap heavyweights with her A Different Me [click to read].

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

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Est. Total
6	Beyonce	I Am...Sasha Fierce	35,391	1,918,074
9	Jamie Foxx	Intuition	30,796	681,447
10	Kanye West	808's & Heartbreak	25,535	1,385,991
11	T.I.	Paper Trail	25,335	1,749,142
12	Keyshia Cole	A Different Me	24,436	750,263

The week was filled with three new Hip Hop releases. K'naan's [click to read] led the way with the A&M Records release Troubador [click to read]. This is A&M's first Hip Hop release to chart since The Black Eyed Peas. The release was followed 10 spots later by Joe Budden's [click to read] second official retail album, Padded Room [click to read]. A first in five years for Budden, the release was a high placement for the label, Amalgam Digital, and rumored to be one of the final retail releases for the digital-minded imprint.

Next was Project Pat's [click to read] first Asylum Records release, Real Recognize Real [click to read]. Despite limited marketing and promotion, the Memphis veteran's second project in 18 months nearly cracked 10,000 first week sales. Followed by that, Cypress Hill frontman B-Real [click to read] brought out his solo debut after an 18 year career on Duck Down Records, titled Smoke N' Mirrors [click to read].

Lil Wayne [click to read] sold just under 15,000 copies of Tha Carter III [click to read], placing him at #36 this past week, with just over three million in gross sales.

Lastly, as artists like E-40, Scarface and DJ Drama's Lil Wayne mixtape have all bookended the Top 200, Nelly's [click to read] Brass Knuckles [click to read] re-appeared for the first time in over a month.

Other Notables

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Est. Total
32	K'naan	Troubador	15,288	15,386
42	Joe Budden	Padded Room	13,561	13,860
70	Project Pat	Real Recognize Real	8,664	8,803
148	B-Real	Smoke N' Mirrors	3,828	3,897
166	Nelly	Brass Knuckles	3,392	202,160