This week would have been devastating for the urban music wing of the music industry (Jay-Z is barely hanging onto a top ten spot), but unsurprisingly the King of Pop is lighting up the charts from beyond the grave with the release of his posthumous "This Is It" album. And by lighting it up I mean "absolutely crushing everyone in his path," beating out the runner-up Creed by more than 200,000 albums sold. In other news, the Rick Ross affiliated crew didn't even chart, causing 50 Cent to cry in laughter during a recent interview. Apparently the man's still not ready to squash the Rick Ross beef.
Top 10 Albums with units sold
1.
Michael Jackson - This Is It 373,100
2. Creed - Full Circle 109,749
3. Taylor Swift - Fearless 109,459
4. Rod Stewart - Soulbook 83,511
5. Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Night Castle 83,374
6. Sting - If On a Winter's Night 79,603
7. Michael Buble - Crazy Love 71,394
8. New Moon (Twilight) Soundtrack 68,760
9. Tim McGraw - Southern Voice 59,184
10.
Jay-Z - Blueprint 3 40,749
The Refined Take:
1) As if we needed more proof that
Michael Jackson is the biggest artists in the history of recorded music, MJ absolutely killed anyone else who dared release an album this week. Despite years of, let's be honest, rampant craziness, America has obviously decided that they still love Michael, and love spending money buying the man's work. Michael's body may have passed on, but the King of Pop's legacy is still alive and well.
2) It's easy to look at these charts and declare hip-hop sales dead, but I think these sales are more indicative of hip-hop's audience than the quality of music. Hip-hop fans don't buy albums, and if they do, they do so online. You know who apparently does still buy CDs? Old white people. Hence a top-ten Rod Stewart album. Maybe T-Pain should be reaching out to Rod for a feature on his next album.
3) Speaking of the top-ten,
Jay is barely hanging on with "Blueprint 3". It's not his fault, lord knows he's done everything hip-hop could have dreamed of. We really need someone else to step up and chart a top-ten album, but the future's frankly not looking bright.
4) A huge, huge shout-out to
Tech N9ne ans his new album "K.O.D." which charted at number 14. 14! If any rappers out there are looking for a role model, I don't know if you could do better than Tech, who's doing amazingly well while remaining independent and making some really creative music.
5) R.I.P. to
Triple Cs, who didn't even chart with their debut album. We barely knew ye.
