All eyes were on the world of music as it was the 55th
Annual Grammy Awards, which many artists used as a platform to push new
material and make announcements of upcoming projects. As far as the world of hip hop and R&B
went, there were no real notable new releases.
The biggest new project to drop was Joe Budden’s, who, following the
success of his A Loose Quarter mixtape, was looking to capitalize with a studio
project. Unfortunately for Joey, his
fans seem to be enthusiastic about downloading his free projects, but not crazy
about his retail work, as the album underperformed on the charts.
Most other sales of note was the reappearance of some of 2012’s most heralded
albums, showing that fans are still going out and purchasing when the product
is top notch. This week was not too
heavy on the R&B artists, but the top tier names in the genre do continue
to sell at a steady rate, unlike most hip hop albums which are extremely
heavily weighted on the first few weeks of sales.
1) Joe Budden – No Love Lost: Budden has been on a prolific run the past ten months with his Slaughterhouse projects, a stellar mixtape, and now this solo studio album. Unfortunately, fans are not flocking to the latest from the “Love & Hip Hop” star, as he has severely underperformed failing to reach 30,000 units sold. No Love Lost premieres at No. 15 on the Billboard Top 200, but the N.J. native will need something big to come up for the album to stick around.
2) Rihanna – Unapologetic: Perhaps you can chalk it up to the Grammys, as Rih Rih holds steady at No. 18 on the charts, and adds another 22,995 to her sales. With only a few singles officially released so far, expect Unapologetic to hang around.
3) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – Heist: Early in the year, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ collabo project surprised us with their hit reaching Platinum. Now “Thrift Shop” has just moved North of Triple Platinum and as a result their album continues to sell. Heist dropped only a couple spots from No. 17 to 19 this week.
4) A$AP Rocky – Long.Live.A$AP: Staying true to the album’s title, Flacko drops 21% from last week, and adds over 18k more in sales. With an extremely early leak unable to derail this project, expect Rocky to continue to push units.
5) Kendrick Lamar – good kid, m.A.A.d city: K.Dot joins the crew of “one percent-ers” as that’s how much the sales slipped this week from the week previous. Wait until Kendrick drops the “Poetic Justice” video to see sales bolstered once more.
6) Alicia Keys – Girl On Fire: After her first week sales were solid, but well short of past numbers, Mrs. Beatz has continued to make timely appearances at key events and this has helped sales continue. Adding another 16,928 Alicia Keys holds on around the middle of the Top 50.
One of the more notable appearances, but not strictly Hip Hop/R&B was Bruno Mars’ Unorthodox Jukebox which sold virtually the same as last week notching another 39,247 in sales. The last two honorable mentions are two of the better selling albums of the past year. Tip’s first Trouble Man installment maintains a solid pace dropping from No. 34 last week to No. 37 this week, as it seems this album has serious staying power. Speaking of which, 2 Chainz’ Based On A T.R.U. Story does its best “Walking Dead” impression and rises again. Chalk up nearly another 12k for the LP that has mirrored the artist’s career and been indomitable on the sales charts.