The new entries keep coming in on Charts Don't Lie. Recent weeks have seen quite a few releases that are within the hip-hop realm, as is often the case, because rappers like to release projects on the same day. This week, however, the new-comers to the charts don't come in as strong as you might think. Pop-friendly rapper Will.i.am moved under 30k for opening week with his solo album #willpower. This is suprising when you think the target market for Will.i.am is definitely the mainstream and thus the numbers should reflect that. However, perhaps Will doesn't have a strong grip on the mainstream anymore? The album saw a slight scandal when Will admitted to stealing a beat from a House producer-- could this have turned fans off? Or was it too much trend-hopping with the many EDM beats? Snoop Lion/Dogg was in a similar boat as Will.i.am, although, his album is definitely more in a niche of it's own, so his sales are more understandable.
1) Justin Timberlake—The 20/20 Experience: Justin Timberlake’s keeping that #3 spot all to himself, it seems. The artist was at #3 last week, and his album continues to sell extremely high numbers, keeping him locked there. This week JT comes in with 75,252 copies sold, which is less than last week, but impressive nonetheless.
3) Kid Cudi—INDICUD: Cudder was sitting atop of Justin Timberlake last week, but he couldn’t hold on to the #2 spot very long, falling to #7 this week. The rapper’s album still moved 31,951 units over the past week.
4) Will.i.am— #willpower: Will.i.am’s new solo album was not projected to sell very well, surprisingly enough, given he’s pop star-slash-rapper who receives a fair share of radio-play. Perhaps that whole stealing-someone-else's-beat worked against him. Will managed to just get into the top 10 this week, with #willpower debuting at #9 and selling 29,446 units—which is slightly better than the projected 20-25k.
5) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis—The Heist: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis continue to infiltrate houses everywhere, with their album The Heist. This week the duo are sitting right about Weezy F, at #11 this week. The Heist moved 27, 878 copies this week.
6) Lil Wayne—I Am Not A Human Being II: Lil Wayne’s IANAHB2 dropped this week from #8 to #12. It’ll be interesting to see how the sales of this LP hold up in the long run. For now, the rapper has moved another 25k over the past week.
7) Snoop Lion—Reincarnated: Snoop Lion has been talking about his 'Reincarnation' for some time now, and we finally got to hear the result on his reggae album Reincarnated. It’s something different and refreshing from the OG rapper, but, there's still only a small market for it. The rapper-turned-Rastafarian moved 20,385 units opening week, debuting at #17 on the charts. This is right in the realm of what was projected for Snoop.
8) Tyga—Hotel California: Tyga’s sophomore YMCMB effort, Hotel California, dropped almost ten spots over the week, arriving at the #30 spot on the charts. This week T-Raww only moved around 11k units of his album. Looks like the long-term might not be in Tyga’s favor.
This week Kendrick Lamar deserves to be mentioned once more, as good kid, m.A.A.d city, slowly seems to be creeping back up the charts. After being at #42 last week, the good kid is up a few more spots at #37 this week, with selling another 9k. On the other hand, Tyler, The Creator completely fell off the top 50 of the charts, with WOLF sitting at #71 after only four weeks on the charts. Wiz Khalifa and Curren$y’s joint effort Live In Concert debuted at #30 last week, but quickly fell to #110 this week. Other notable mentions include r’n’b singer Fantasia who recently re-vamped her sound and look on her new album, Side Effects Of You, and it seems to have worked. The singer debuted at the #2 spot this week, selling 87k opening week. Rih Rih, who we’ve seen week after week on Charts Don’t Lie since Unapologetic dropped, barely moved this week, selling 15k.