This Week in Hip-Hop Sales: Beyonce Outlasts Them All

The chart battle between Beyonce and Kelly Rowland's new albums actually serves as a great lesson about durability. Almost every week we see an album that debuted highly plummet down the charts, which means that while they may be "hot" at the moment, they just don't have the foundation to spur lasting sales. All of their fans rush out to buy the album the first week and after that, there's no one left. So while Rowland's "I Am Here" actually vaulted Queen B's "4" last week, this week it's fallen number 13, leaving the slow but steady Beyonce sitting on top. By the same logic, that's why Eminem's "Hell: The Sequel" is still hovering around the top ten a full eight weeks after it first dropped, while The Fat Guy Who Yells' new album "We The Best Forever" sunk like a stone to number 31 just three weeks after it dropped, and Big Sean's previous number three album is now at 41 (which makes sense, he's too new to have a huge fan base).

The lesson? A lot of artists can get hot and have a top ten album for a week or two, but only the superstars can stay there week after week And now let's turn our attention to the Top 10 Urban Songs with units sold

1. LMFAO ft. Lauren Bennett - Party Rock Anthem (184,000)
2. Bad Meets Evil - Lighters (163,000)
3 (4 overall). Nicki Minaj - Super Bass (140,000)
4 (7 overall). Lil Wanye - How to Love (125,000)
5 (10 overall). Pitbull ft. Ne-Yo - Give Me Everything (104,000)
6 (14 overall). Jay-Z & Kanye West - Otis (81,000)
7 (22 overall). Beyonce - Best I Never Had - (59,000)
8 (24 overall). Drake - Marvin's Room (56,000)
9 (25 overall). The Fat Guy Who Yells ft. Drake & Rick Ross - I'm On One (54,000)
10 (30 overall). Kelly Rowland ft. Lil Wayne - Motivation

The Refined Take:

1) I know, I know. "Watch the Throne" has now become "Watch the Charts", but patience people. It's going to be another week until we get back the first week numbers, and even then the numbers will be off because Jay and Kanye only pushed to Best Buy and iTunes the first week. Still, I've got them down for at least 100K first week - any other predictions.

2) For the record, I know it looks like it but no, I didn't just copy and paste last week's singles chart. There's been essentially no movement over the last week, which is both a sign of how little new music gets released in August when half the music industry is on vacation, and how fucking predictable radio programmers are; radio still drives single sales. It's a good thing there are music blogs out there to keep things fresh and break the radio monotony (pats self on back).

3) You know what's actually kind of depressing? Wu Tang's new album "Legendary Weapons" debuted at 143 with a nearly comatose 3,700 copies last week. I blame the Wu. They've put out so many side projects and affiliate projects that people don't actually know what a "Wu Tang" album means anymore, and I include myself in that group. It's sad really - one of the strongest movements hip-hop has ever seen has become more watered down than ballpark beer.

4) Glancing over the charts you know what I just realized? T-Pain's really fallen off. Maybe for the best, but there was a time not too long ago when you couldn't look at the top ten without seeing his name multiple times, and now his new single "Booty Wurk" can't even crack the top 50. It's far too early to say he's dead, but at the very least it's time to start checking his blood pressure.

5) This week's Mr. Irrelevant Award, given to the song that sits at the absolute bottom of the charts (the number 200 spot), goes to...Miguels "Quickie", which I think is actually a really good song. We need more music about promiscuous boot knockin.