Over the last few years album sales for hip-hop and R&B artists have tanked faster than Heidi Montag's singing career, leading to no shortage of apocalyptic "hip-hop is dead" pronouncements. However, in the last few months hip-hop has slowly been clawing its way back into the Soundscan charts. From now on, RefinedHype will be doing a weekly run-down of the Soundscan numbers.
The good news for this week? Jay-Z continues to hold it down for the entire industry. The bad news, some band named "Five Finger Death Punch" is beating Drake. Really America? Really?
Top 10 Albums with units sold
1. Pearl Jam - Backspacer 189,292
2. Jay-Z -
Blueprint 3 134,134
3. Three Days Grace - Life Starts Now 79,230
4. Whitney Houston - I Look to You 65,820
5. Miley Cyrus - Time of Our Lives 60,868
6. Brand New - Daisy 45,799
7. Five Finger Death Punch - War is the Answer 44,197
8. Harry Connick Jr. - Your Songs 36,665
9. Drake -
So Far Gone 36,106
10. Muse - Resistance 35,957
Some notes:
1) Can we just elect Jay-Z as hip-hop's president already? People love to criticize the man, but he's almost single-handedly holding the entire industry down.
2) I'd be more impressed by a Two Finger Death Punch.
3) Good to see Whitney doing so well, though some of her sales have to be because everyone's just so happy to see the crack smoking/sex with Bobby Brown era come to an end.
Top 10 Download Singles with units downloaded
1. Miley Cyrus - Party in the U.S.A. 182,273
2. Jason Derulo - Whatcha Say 158,116
3. Black Eyed Peas -
I Gotta Feeling 138,750
4. Lady Gaga - Paparazzi 137,143
5. Jay Sean -
Down 134,294
6. Jay-Z ft. Rihanna, Kanye West - Run This Town 130,660
7. Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys -
Empire State of Mind 129,979
8. Carrie Underwood - Cowboy Casanova 110,236
9. Drake ft. Kanye West, Lil' Wayne, Eminem -
Forever 95,501
10. Kings of Leon - Somebody 81,496
Some notes:
1) Damn you Miley Cyrus and your chart domination. Damn you!
2) Jay-Z is absolutely killing it right now. I feel like hip-hop fans don't truly appreciate how important this man is to the industry as a whole.
3) You can always count on the Black Eyed Peas to make dumb but popular songs. It's what they do.
4) Do we count Lady Gaga as being in the hip-hop/R&B realm? Her music is pop and she never does tracks with rappers, but she's touring with Kanye West and BET runs her videos. Can I get a ruling on this?
5) Hate to say it, but Jay Sean looks like the one-hit-wonder in this bunch. He needs to follow up with another strong single soon.
6) No word yet on an "Empire State of Mind" remix featuring Lil Mama.
