First off, as a lot of y'all pointed out, I apologize for the Sales Report's extended hiatus. I wish I could say that we're back with good news, but I'm sure many of you will be punching your computers when you learn that....wait for it....
Waka Flocka's historically terrible album "
Flockaveli" did pretty damn well in its first week, debuting as the number six album in the country overall, and the second rap album (behind only Eminem's "Recovery"). The good news? It's a pretty weak number 6, selling only 37,000 copies, which means we can expect it to fall out of the top ten pretty quickly. Looks like the lowest common denominator's as large as I feared.
Let's take a look at the top 10 urban selections on the "Digital Song Sales" for this week.
Top Digital Urban Song Sales (w/ units sold)
1 (3rd overall). Bruno Mars - Just the Way You Are (179,863)
2. (4th overall) Kanye West ft. Pusha T - Runaway (173,931)
3 (5th overall). Nelly - Just a Dream (165,939)
4 (6th overall). Rihanna - Only Girl in the World (145,260)
5 (7th overall). Flo-Rida ft. David Guetta - Club Can't Handle Me (122,967)
6 (8th overall). Usher ft. Pitbull - Club Got Us Fallin' in Love (114,967)
7 (10th overall). Taio Cruz - Dynamite (104,391)
8 (11th overall). Trey Songz f. Nicki Minaj - Bottom's Up (87,108)
9 (12th overall). Ceel-Lo Green - Fuck You (84,887)
10 (13th overall). Eminem ft. Rihanna - Love the Way You Lie (77,121)
The Refined Take:
1) You know what doesn't sell well? Albums that are essentially "Rebirth" leftovers promoted by an artist whose in jail. Yep, Wayne's "I Am Not a Human Being" is currently sitting at the number 92 spot, selling only 50,000 copies in the two weeks it's been out. That's barely enough money to bribe a guard.
2) It looks like Kanye finally has the major hit he's been looking for in "
Runaway", no doubt fueled largely by his groundbreaking performances on SNL and all the buzz surrounding the record's video/movie. Of course that also means that Pusha now has himself a top five hit, a feat I would have said was impossible back in his "Hell Hath No Fury" days.
3) Let's pause for a moment to applaud Cee-Lo for making a song titled "
Fuck You" so popular. I still wish he'd get back to rapping, but Lo's the man. That song's not only great in its own right, but a giant fuck you to a music industry that would recoil at the thought of naming a record, well, "Fuck You".
4) On the flipside, if Kanye's looking at the charts today he can't be happy to discover that this week Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" outlsold "Power". Seriously. I don't know what this world's coming too.
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..Rick Ross' "
Aston Martin Music", which was only just released as an official single. Ouch. Looks like the Bawse isn't completely teflon.
