AllHipHop Chartwatch: Hip-Hop Sales, Slow-N-Steady, Canibus Returns

ChartWatch for February 10, 2009It’s the week after The Grammy’s (a.k.a Taylor Swift’s prom) so expect a couple of sales jumps as the people that live in caves flip on their TV’s and say “Hey, I like the Black Eyed Peas.  I’m gonna buy their new album.”  (If you’re new here, know this one thing…I […]

ChartWatch for February 10, 2009It’s

the week after The Grammy’s (a.k.a Taylor Swift’s prom) so expect a couple of

sales jumps as the people that live in caves flip on their TV’s and say “Hey, I

like the Black Eyed Peas.  I’m gonna buy

their new album.”  (If you’re new here,

know this one thing…I don’t like the Black Eyed Peas.)  It’s also a few days after the New Orleans

Saints became Super Bowl champs (Who Dat?!) and few days before the All Star

game & Valentine’s day.  In other

words, people have a few things to celebrate. 

I’ve been feeling pretty good…and then it happened.  The numbers came in.After over a year longs

worth of delays, an early accidental release by Amazon, heavy bootlegging, and

an almost universal thumbs down from various critics, Lil Wayne’s Rebirth hit

stores last week and managed to sell…wait for it…no, that can’t be right…really?….that

much?….173,821 copies.  That’s right,

Lil Wayne’s “rock” album sold 173,821. 

The New Orleans MC managed to grab the number two spot this week which,

coupled with his jail term delay, is some pretty good news for CashMoney

records.  I, for one, never (ever, ever, ever) expected a Lil Wayne

rock album to come out let alone sell somewhat decently.  I’m cool with Wayne the rapper, but as

someone that actually listens to rock music, I never thought…well

nevermind.  So be honest with me…ya’ll

really like the album?  Really?  Now, even though I’m hating, this album has

managed to sell against all odds so I can congratulate Wayne and CashMoney on

their business sense.  But their music

sense…ummmmm……moving on.

 Like

I said earlier expect a few sales jumps. 

The Black Eyed Peas move up from the 10 spot to number five by selling

70,000 copies of their Hip-Pop album The

E.N.D.  At this point I am convinced

that everyone in America has this album.

Jay-Z

also takes a bump, moving up 10 places to the 27 spot and selling 20,306

copies of his latest album, The Blueprint

3

.  He is followed by CashMoney’s, We Are Young Money, which sells another

19,956 copies and takes the number twenty eight spot.

Eminem

holds the 30 first spot, selling 19,031 copies of Relapse.  Hey Em, I know it’s

a short turn-around but we’re waiting on that Relapse 2 so get that out. Last

up we have Gucci Mane whose latest album, The

State vs. Radric Davis

sells 13,848 copies and grabs the number 45

spotI’m late on this but if

you get a chance check out Wendy Day’s AllHipHop article about 360 deals.  It’s an interesting read for those of you

that like to look at the charts and album sales (along with those that plan on

entering this industry.  Word of advice.  Sadly, If you want to make it big as a rapper

in today’s music industry you need to get a guitar, an autotune machine, and a

Fergie).

 

Dropping This Week

 

The

first artist on “dropping” has spit one of (in my opinion) the greatest verses

in Hip Hop.  As a matter of fact when

this site put up a list of the “20 Dopest Verses Ever” I went combing through

the page to make sure it was there. 

Canibus’ closing bars on the Lost Boyz – Love, Peace, and Happiness made me break the rewind button on my

tape player.  As a matter of fact it’s

probably the only song I remember off of that album.  Now, since that time Canibus’ career has

been, for lack of a better word, unfulfilled. 

Since dropping his debut album the MC has dissed LL Cool J (he lost…I

still think he won but the world says he lost), thrown barbs at Eminem (ignored

for the most part but there’s more on that later), became part of the rap

supergroup, The HRSMN, (still waiting on that album) and enlisted in the

military to “get away from music.”  Since

1998 Canibus has managed to release eight solo discs and a couple of

compilation albums which have all mostly received mixed reviews.  Now the Jamacian MC returns two years after

his last album, For Whom The Bell Tolls,

to release Melatonin Magik.  The main news that’s coming out about this

latest disc is that Canibus has another diss song for Marshall Mathers.  So just like Eminem continues to diss Mariah

Carey and no one cares, Canibus continues to diss Eminem…and no one cares.  Hopefully this album, like his most recent

offerings, will fare better in the eyes of fans and critics.

Next

up is DJ Kay Slay with his latest compilation More Than Just A DJ.  Now we

all know that the DJ album is just a collection of the best people the DJ can

find.  The more connected the DJ the more

high profile the artists.  Here the Drama

King takes time out of slapping your favorite DJ to get a few Hip Hop notables

(and not so notables) together.  The

album features Busta Rhymes,

Tony YayoPapooseLloyd BanksJim JonesRell, Jacki-ORemy Ma,

Hedonis, Ayanna Irish, (pause to take breath) Yo Gotti,

Ray J,

 Cam’ron, Vado,

Bun BTwista,

Papoose, Dorrough, Young Chris and  Jay Rock.  People, those are just the featured artist on

the first six songs of a 20 song

album.  Kay Slay is not playing

around.  Google the album if you want to

see the rest because that’s a lot of artists. 

Kay Slay.  More Than Just A DJ.  Pick it

up.

 Last

up is Kansas City’s The Deep Thinkers with their fourth full length album Make It Quake.  The duo is composed of MC Aaron Sutton and DJ

Kyle D####.  This is a group that focuses

on a variety of social issues with a backdrop of 70’s soul samples.  If you want to know more about the group then

check out their innate sounds website, or go out there and pick up the new

album.  Plus it’s got one of those nice

looking album covers that I like.

That’s

it for “Dropping” so see you next week.