This Week in Sales: Big Sean is Finally on Top of the Charts

For all those waiting to see if the numbers would confirm that Big Sean is indeed the next big thing, the answer is a resounding yes. His "Finally Famous" album debuted at the number three position, moving 87,000 copies in its first week. Not to shabby, especially considering the two artists who beat him out were Beyonce and Adele; pretty good company to be in. While those aren't Drake numbers, I think we can officially say that Sean's arrived as one of the game's new young stars. And more importantly, my 70,000 prediction wasn't far off! Hooray for me!

And now let's turn our attention to the Top 10 Urban Songs with units sold

1 (1 overall). LMFAO ft. Lauren Bennett - Party Rock Anthem 258,000
2 (3 overall). Pitbull ft. Ne-Yo - Give Me Everything 191,000
3 (4 overall). Nicki Minaj - Super Bass 189,000
4 (8 overall). Lil Wanye - How to Love 128,000
5 (15 overall). The Fat Guy Who Yells ft. Drake & Rick Ross - I'm On One 98,000
6 (16 overall). Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song 91,000
7 (17 overall). Katy Perry ft. Kanye West - E.T. - 90,000
8 (18 overall). Jason Derulo - Don't Wanna Go Home 88,000
9 (20 overall). Lupe Fiasco - Show Goes On 82,000
10 (26 overall). Beyonce - Best I Never Had 70,000

1) If it wasn't for Big Sean holding it down on the album sales side of the equation that'd be one of the worst weeks in urban music sales that I can remember. And that's with me being as generous as possible and counting LMFAO and a Katy Perry song with Kanye on it as "urban". As the end of 2010 8 out of the top ten songs were legit urban (Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, B.o.B. etc.) but it looks like the summer of '11 will be a cold one on the urban landscape.

2) In more rappity-rap news, Curren$y's actually pretty good "Weekend At Burnies" album debuted at #22 with 23K, Smif-N-Wessun & Pete Rock's suddenly "fuck the police" album "Monumental" hit at #102 with 5,6K and Kendrick Lamar's really fucking good "Section.80" debuts at #104 with 5,4K. What does that mean? Well, in Curren$y's case it means he's a legit force, and in Pete Rock and Kendrick's case that while they're fan base may be rabidly loyal, their fanbase also just isn't that big (right now/yet).

3) I'm considering starting a "Racks" countdown until the song disappears completely from the charts (and, let's be honest, YC does too). This week we're at #103; only 98 more spots to go! Come on America, you can do it! Stop spending racks on "Racks"!

4) On a random endorsement tip, and because it caught my eye, I highly recommend the Black Keys' "Brothers". It's at #96 right now, but well beyond sales talk, it's just some damn good music.

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...Game's new single with Chris Brown "Pot of Gold", which sold an astound(ingly) low 11,000 copies last week. I'm not saying the "R.E.D. Album" is in trouble, I'm saying it's in cardiac arrest.