This Week in Hip-Hop Sales: Kelly Rowland Motivates Some Serious Sales

As I wrote in my review over at the mothership, I think we can officially say that Kelly Rowland has official stepped out of Beyonce's shadow. She'll never be as big as her former Destiny's Child compatriot, but she's done enough - including having her new album "Here I Am" debut as the number three album in the country - to be considered her own woman, and artist. Of course this also, once again, proves the power of one hit song to drive album sales. Would Kelly be looking at a top ten album without "Motivation"? Probably not, but that's not a mark against her. I haven't fronted since day one, that song's the shit.

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

1. LMFAO ft. Lauren Bennett - Party Rock Anthem (209,000)
2. Bad Meets Evil - Lighters (156,000)
3 (4 overall). Nicki Minaj - Super Bass (144,000)
4 (6 overall). Lil Wanye - How to Love (131,000)
5 (8 overall). Pitbull ft. Ne-Yo - Give Me Everything (113,000)
6 (9 overall). Jay-Z & Kanye West - Otis (112,000)
7 (12 overall). Drake - Marvin's Room (89,000)
8 (19 overall). Beyonce - Best I Never Had - (67,000)
9 (20 overall). Amy Winehouse - Rehab (65,000)
10 (23 overall). The Fat Guy Who Yells ft. Drake & Rick Ross - I'm On One (60,000)

The Refined Take:

1) In other album sale news, Amy Winehouse is posthumously killing the charts. Despite originally being released five years ago, her breakthrough album "Back to Black" is the number four album in the country, and "Rehab" is back in the top ten. It's actually a little depressing - the same people who profited off her pain when she was alive are raking it in even more now that she's dead. Fuck. Anyway......in more purely hip-hop news, The Fat Guy Who Yells managed to convinced 20K people buy his new "We The Best Forever" album, and Young Chris' "Neon" did well enough to be the number 16 album in the country, even though literally no one I know had any idea he was dropping an album. Huh. Okay then.

2) When I posted "Can't Get Enough" and wrote that it proved J. Cole's choice of "Work Out" as a lead single was a mistake I caught no shortage of heat from the Cole fans out there. "Just wait," they yelled (or tweeted). "That song's going to be a hit! Hater!" Sorry folks, but there's nothing subjective about the following statement: baring some miraculous recovery, "The Work Out" was a flop. It's not even in the top 200. Ace Hood's "Hustle Hard" is in the top 200, "I Need a Doctor" is in the top 200, but "The Work Out" is nowhere to be found.

That's not hate. I'm a big Cole fan, and I truly believe "Can't Get Enough" could go top ten if they pushed it, but "Work Out" was a mistake. It just was. Moving on......

3) I might as well just continue to risk pissing off everyone who's disagreed with me lately. To paraphrase, when Eminem and Royce dropped "Lighters" I wrote that it was good, but I couldn't help but wish they hadn't made such an obvious attempt at radio play. To which RefinedHype Nation citizen Arthur Lee replied, "why you label it to be radio attempt? i dont think they really care about the radio with this ep so why spoil it with a mainstream attempt?"

To which I replied, "I'm sorry to play the jaded writer, but you don't pay big money to get a Bruno Mars beat and hook to just have another song on your album. Listen to the song and ignore the verses. Bruno obviously wrote this first and the guys picked it up. This is the song they're going to push to MTV, radio, close any concerts with. Just wait and see....."

With all due respect to the homey Arthur, go ahead and look at the single chart. Focus in on the number two song. I don't want to say I was right, but.....

4) So I don't come across like a completely arrogant d-bag, I'll also admit that I was at least partially wrong about "Otis". I still don't think it's a great song, but I've got to hand it to Jay and Kanye, they're just absolute powerhouses. To get a song like "Otis" into the top ten is a huge success and something we need far more of. I doff my cap to you gentlemen.

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...Chris Brown's "Run It". Ah, it was a simpler time for Breezy.