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Hip Hop Album Sales Report: Week Ending 3/2/08.
Body: Despite a long hiatus, Janet Jackson has championed the charts with Discipline selling 181k it its debut week. Neo-soul sensation Erykah Badu follows right after at #2 with 124k. This time around, Badu enlisted the help of underground Hip Hop staple producer Madlib for a few tracks off of the well-received album. Webbie is the first rapper in quite some time to put Hip Hop back in the top 5 on the charts. The debut of Savage Life-Vol 2 sold about 73k copies and earned him the #4 spot this week. With so many high-selling debuts, Alicia Keys has slipped to #5 with 57k units sold. Amy Winehouse continues to stand in the top 10 with 37k units this week. Looks like with the exception of Webbie, women have been ruling the charts in terms of Hip Hop and R&B. How fitting for Women's History Month?


Shawty Lo's hit "Dey Know" wasn't enough for him to crack the top 10 this week. Units In The City debuted with 31k, putting the rapper at #13. Lupe Fiasco's The Cool is still chipping away at that golden plaque with 17k sold this week (376k total) while with rumors swirling about a Dipset break-up, Jim Jones' Harlem's American Gangster has nose dived from #19 to #63 with just under 25k sold. Pete Rock's highly anticipated NY's Finest just barely makes it onto the Billboard top 200 with the #193 spot. The legendary producer sold almost 4k in his 1st week while Joe Budden's new effort Mood Muzik 3: The Album sold 1,100 units in its debut.

Webbie cracked the top 5 this week, but can new releases from from Snoop Dogg, Rick Ross and Fat Joe follow suit? Stay tuned till next week...

Article by Vic Shine. REAL HIP HOP. 24/7.

ICE CUBE'S EIGHTH SOLO ALBUM "RAW FOOTAGE" DEBUTS #1 ON THE US RAP & R&B ALBUM SALES CHART, #5 ON THE TOP 200 ALBUM SALES CHART

Godfather of Gangsta Rap Dominates the Hip Hop Charts Once Again, Impressing Fans and Critics with Second Successful Independent Release Through His Own Lench Mob Records Cube Readies for Collaboration with Director Benny Boom for Official Second Single Video "Why Me?" Featuring Musiq Soulchild ( Los Angeles , CA , August 27, 2008) Award Winning, Hip Hop Superstar Ice Cube does it once again with his latest music masterpiece, "Raw Footage," landing itself at #1 on the Hip Hop/R & B charts, selling 69,234 units in its first week and #5 on overall Top 200 Album sales chart.

RAP IS BACK IN EFFECT!!!! THIS WEEKS RAP SALES.....
Body: PROBABLY MORE RAP THAN REAL HIP HOP....BUT HERE IT IS!!!

Young Jeezy bumped a single slot in a week with his junior effort Recession [click to read] selling 89,941 in its second week. One of the new faces of Def Jam (along with Rick Ross) outsold one of the label's reasons for existence - LL Cool J, in his opening week with Exit 13 [click to read]. The rapper of over 23 years cracked the charts just above the 10 spot, selling 43,645 units in its first week, of an album given less than stellar critical reviews. One of LL's champion advocates, The Game [click to read] takes #7 with LAX [click to read] selling 49,241, nearly half of last week's numbers, but remaining the top-performing Interscope/Geffen/A&M rap artist - with Eminem and Dr. Dre returns forever in the mix.


After reigning the charts for weeks, Lil Wayne [click to read] stands between The Game and LL Cool J, at #8 with his Tha Carter III [click to read], selling 47,345 units. Lastly, rounding out the top rap-related showings, the Gym Class Heroes [click to read] reminded fans that they can still bully the charts on the playground, with their most recent major label showing, Quilt, doing 32,195 , placing them at #14.

Rank Artist Album This Week Est.
Total
2
Young Jeezy
Recession 89,941
350,510
7
The Game
LAX
49,241 377,100
8
Lil Wayne
Tha Carter III
47,345 2,409,995
9
LL Cool J
Exit 13

43,645
43,762
14
Gym Class Heroes
Quilt
32,195
32,266

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

Another Interscope artist, Kardinal [click to read] makes his long-awaited return, after success over five years ago. His Akon-touted Not 4 Sale [click to read], backed by hit "Dangerous," entered the Top 40 at its bookend, selling 11,869 copies. Ice Cube [click to read] comes in next, at #41 with 11,770 copies sold of Raw Footage [click to read]. Nas jumps at bit to the #64 position with 7,758 copies of his Untitled [click to read] album sold this week, while Slim Thug's supergroup Boss Hogg Outlawz debut their sophomore album, Back By Blockular Demand remains Koch's premier rap album of the moment,at #178 with 3,232 copies sold. In related news, it appears as though Plies [click to read] will reach gold status with his sophomore album Definition of Real [click to read] this week, as the work sits less than 3,500 units away from the coveted 500,000 mark.


Other Notables
Rank Artist Album This Week Est.
Total
40
Kardinal Offishall
Not 4 Sale
11,869 11,911
41
Ice Cube
Raw Footage
11,770 130,359
64
Nas
Untitled
7,758
380,419
67
Plies
Definition of Real
7,303
496,568
178
Slim Thug Presents Boss Hogg Outlawz Music
Back By Blockular Demand
3,232
13,060

Will DJ Khaled continue to join Jim Jones at Koch's top rap money-maker? Will the Ill Bill goons help the rock-rap album lead Fat Beats to the charts? Will Nelly's return go celebrated? Stay tuned till next week.

7L & Esoteric Esoteric Vs. Japan 1,268 5/6/08
9th Wonder & Buckshot Chemistry 27,252 7/12/05
9th Wonder & Buckshot The Formula 23,829 4/15/08
Aesop Rock Fast Cars..EP 43,815 2/22/05
Akrobatik Absolute Value 3,776 2/19/08
Alchemist 1st Infantry 178,157 6/29/04
Almighty Original S.I.N 1,991 7/22/08
AOTP Torture Papers 27,359 9/20/05
Atmosphere You Can't Imagine... 135,459 10/4/05
Atmosphere When life gives u lemons 136,394 4/22/08
AZ Undeniable 22,327 10/09/07
Black Market Militia Black Market Militia 5,727 3/22/05
Black Milk Popular Demand 9,825 2/13/07
Blue Sky Black Death Holocaust 4,185 9/5/05
Bronze Nazareth Great Migration 8,558 4/18/06
Brooklyn Academy Bored Of Education 519 9/02/08
Brother Ali Undisputed Truth 55,580 4/10/07
Bumpy Knuckles AKA Freddie Foxx Crazy Like a Foxxx 718 7/29/08
Camp Lo Black Hollywood 5,027 7/24/07
Canibus For Whom the Beat Tolls 5,410 5/8/07
Chief Kamachi Concrete Gospel 2,591 7/25/06
Chief Kamachi & Killa Priest Beautiful Minds 871 9/23/08
Clipse Re Up Gang 21,246 8/05/08
Dangerdoom Mouse and Mask 170,081 10/11/05
Deltron Deltron 3030 3,984 7/1/08
Dilla Ruff Draft 39,145 3/6/07
DJ Babu Duck Season Vol.3 789 10/28/08
DJ Jazzy Jeff Return of the Magnificent 22,256 4/17/07
DJ Muggs + Planet Asia Pain Language 3,008 9/16/08
Doap Nixon Sour Diesel 2,808 7/22/08
El-P Ill Sleep When Youre Dead 44,023 3/20/07
Elzhi The Preface 4,096 7/29/08
EMC The Show 5,741 2/26/08
Evidence Weatherman 16,441 3/20/07
Ghostface Fishscale 329,155 3/28/06
Guilty Simpson Ode To The Ghetto 8,105 3/25/08
Guru Jazzamatazz 19,335 7/17/07
Gza Protools 23,572 08/19/08
Havoc Kush 15,676 9/19/07
Hell Razah Ren. Child 4,506 2/20/07
Hell Razah Ultra Sounds Of A Renaissance Child 319 9/23/08
Hell Razah & Shabazz Welcome To Red Hook Houses 1,240 7/08/08
Heltah Skeltah D.I.R.T 10,594 9/30/08
Hi-Tek Hi-Teknology 2 65,875 10/17/06
Ice cube Raw Footage 164,191 8/19/08
Ill Bill The Hour of Reprisal 6,046 9/16/08
Immortal Technique & Green lantern The 3rd world 36,985 6/24/08
J-Live Then What Happened 4,642 5/27/08
Jake One White Van Music 5,179 10/07/08
Jean Grae Jeanius 8,349 7/08/08
Jedi Mind Tricks Legacy of Blood 57,542 8/24/04
Joell Ortiz The Brick: Bodega Chronicles 24,738 4/24/07
Kidz In The Hall The In Crowd 19,036 5/13/08
Killah Priest Behind Stained Glass 3,215 5/20/08
Killah Priest The Offering 6,437 8/21/07
KRS & Marley Marl Hip Hop Lives 27,788 5/22/07
Krs-one Maximum Strength 2008 5,089 06/10/08
Little Brother And Justus For All 10,700 6/03/08
Method Man 4:21 The Day After 224,597 7/18/07
Mr. Hyde The Chronicles Of The Beast Man 1,646 7/22/08
Muggz/GZA Grandmasters 50,244 10/25/05
Murs Murs For President 23,394 9/30/08
Nicolay Here 4,056 9/5/06
Outerspace God's Fury 1,859 9/30/08
Pete Rock NY's Finest 19,801 2/26/08
Prodigy H.N.I.C 2 37,218 4/22/08
Prodigy Return of the Mack 71,944 3/27/07
Redman Red Gone Wild 132,897 3/27/07
Reks Grey Hairs 972 7/22/08
Riviera Regime Real Soldierz Ride 269 8/19/08
RJD2 Third Hand 26,868 3/6/07
RZA Afro Samurai Soundtrack 26,963 2/4/07
Rza Digi Snacks 24,828 6/24/08
Sa-Ra The Hollywood Recordings 15,137 4/24/07
Sabac Ritual 724 9/30/08
Sage Francis Human Death Dance 34,773 5/8/07
Sean Price Jesus Price Superstar 20,824 11/21/06
Skillz The million Dollar Back Pack 9,345 7/22/08
Snow Goons Black snow 1,699 6/24/08
Statik Selektah Stick 2 The Script 633 10/21/08
Termanology Politics as usual 2,679 9/30/08
The Roots Rising Down 149,118 4/29/08
Think Differently Wu-Tang Meets Indie 59,133 10/18/05
Vast Aire Dueces Wild 2,577 6/24/08
Vordul Mega Megagraphitti 780 8/18/08
Wisemen Wisemen Approaching 3,234 2/27/07
Wu Tang Clan 8 Diagrams 187,508 12/11/08

Wie auf den meisten Songs fällt es Dougie auch hier schwer seine Aussagen in stilvolle Worte zu kleiden, auffällig inflationär tauchen die Worte "Niggaz" und "Bitches" auf. Wer damit Schwierigkeiten hat, der wird wahrscheinlich überhaupt keinen Zugang zu diesem Longplayer finden.

Ich find das gerade bei Freddie Foxxx schade. Das wird andere Rapper bestimmt nicht gerade dazu anregen auch alte Alben die bisher zurückgehalten wurden zu releasen.

Whattup peoples? Welcome to another weekly installment of industry news, albums sales & more

Let’s take a quick look at where a couple of albums debuted this week:

Album Sales, March 17th, 2009:
Gorilla Zoe - Don’t Feed The Animals - 31,325
CNN - Channel 10 - 4,085

Let’s take a look at where some of the releases that we’ve been tracking are…

Grand Totals to date:
K’Naan - 28,356
B-Real - 8,814
Joe Budden - 20,683

Also, in unrelated industry news (what’s more “industry” than the industry of people talking about the industry), there are rumors of a shaky future over at GlobalGrind.com. With CEO Navarro Wright stepping out of the way of editor-in-chief Russell Simmons, the $4.5 million in venture capital that they received is now resting solely on the hip-hop mogul… Will the website go the way of 360hiphop.com (Simmons’ previous hip-hop dot-com which was funded to the tune of multiple $10’s of millions, acquired by BET and is now nowhere to be found)? If so, that would probably be a good outcome at this point. GlobalGrind seems to be struggling, and with no liquidity event in sight, it looks like GG may go the way of BlockSavvy.com (Damon Dash’s failed attempt at hip-hop blogging/social networking). The web is really like the wild-west right now… there’s real estate for the taking, if your guns are big enough. Seems like YN (Rap Radar) and Russel Simmons have big guns (lots of celebrity access, $, celebrity guest bloggers etc.), but the real question in the coming months/years, is: can they establish a safe and attractive “town” that people will actually want to frequent.

And beyond the establishment of a brand, which signals some sort of lasting power, is there a succesful monetization model in place? This is the question for Twitter right now, which, on the “wild-west” scheme of the web, is damn-near Billy The Kid. With $55 million in venture capital, they’ve taken over the web-game. There’s more buzz about Twitter than anything since Facebook popped (and now, Facebook’s new theme is a straight swagger-jacking of Twitter’s “status feed”). Everyone and their mother is telling the world about their lunch, or communicating with their fans, or just “tweeting” @ each other. But will they be profitable? They don’t even know. This kind of crapshoot is kind of like… projecting album sales in a climate where retail stores are closing…

Stay tuned for next week’s installment, which will feature what I’m calling the 2nd official release date in hip-hop ‘09:

Jim Jones - Pray IV Reign
MF Doom - Born Like This
Slim Thug - Boss of All bosses
Hell Rell - Get in Line or Get Lined Up
Camp Lo - Stone & Rob Caught on Tape

As usual, let me know if you have any questions, and if anyone wants to predict what Jim Jones sells next week, leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Peace

The month of August — like, basically, every month for the past 10 years — has not been kind to the music industry.

Between August 8th and 14th, only 4.95 million albums were sold, the lowest weekly level since Neilsen Soundscan starting tracking sales in 1991. This past week, sales were up, but just barely: just over 5 million albums were sold, an increase of only 2 percent from the record low.

As you can see from the chart above, album sales have been on a steady decline since their peak in 2000. Digital album sales are growing, but not fast enough to make up the decline in sales of CDs.

So far this year, album sales are down 12 percent compared to the total sales at this time last year, according to Billboard.


Music industry execs blame the dropping sales numbers on illegal downloads. Exactly what percent of music downloads are illegal is difficult to calculate, but estimates range as high as 20 illegal downloads for every legal download. As for the total cost of illegal downloads, it depends on who you ask.

Despite the dwindling album numbers, there is one bright spot for the industry: digital sales of single tracks. From 2004 to 2009, digital track sales have grown over by nearly a factor of 10, from 140 million units sold in 2004 to 1.2 billion in 2009.

Of course, if you figure that roughly 10 tracks equal an album, 1.2 billion track sales are worth 120 million album sales. So even if you add in all those individual track sales, total sales are still way down from where they were a few years ago.

The requirements for reporting sales to Nielsen SoundScan are that the store has Internet access and a point of sale (POS) inventory system.