ChartWatch: The Charts Are Poppin’ With Rihanna, Nelly, Lil Wayne & More!

ChartWatch For November 24, 2010Happy Thanksgiving to all the readers out there.  Here’s the charts for Hip Hop this week.  As usual, I don’t normally include an R&B act unless they are in the top ten.  Rihanna enters the top of the charts this week with her fourth studio album Loud.  She holds the number three spot selling 206,018 copies.  She is followed by an artist that I didn’t even that would enter the charts this week.  At least I didn’t expect him to crack the top ten.  I promised last week that if Nelly entered the charts I would take back what I said about him, and, inexplicably, the St. Louis artist takes the number ten spot with his sixth studio album, 5.0.  Nelly moves 62,454 copies of his latest venture.  I didn’t think it was going to happen but apparently Nelly still has a few fans out there. Next up is Eminem whose seventh studio album, Recovery, drops eights spots landing at number 18. This brings the Detroit MC’s total sales to 3,005,820.  Eminem has hit the triple platinum mark in only about 5 months.  Kid Cudi plummets from the number three spot to number twenty five this week with his sophomore album Man on the Moon 2: The Legend of Mr. Rager.  This brings the G.O.O.D. Music artist’s total sales to 201,105. Lil Wayne follows Cudi with his latest EP, I Am Not A Human Being.  This week the Young Money CEO lands at the number twenty eight spot and sells 27,906.  So far, the New Orleans MC has sold 473,906.   And finally, Cee Lo Green takes a thirty one spot fall and lands at the forty second position with his third solo album, The Lady Killer.  The Goodie Mob MC has so far sold 61,979 copies. Dropping This Week  Well it’s been about a month but we finally have some albums coming out that are worthwhile for Hip Hop.  I know people are expecting me to start with Nicki Minaj or Kanye West but those albums have already been reviewed to death for the past 2 weeks.  (Let’s be honest, most of you have been listening to those albums for the last two weeks.)  Let’s start off with an artist that has been in the game since the No Limit days and has been consistently putting out good music. Curren$y drops his second major studio album, Pilot Talk II  this week.  The soulful sound of the album is mostly handled by producer Ski Beatz.  The album features minimal guest appearances, with Fiend and  Raekwon being the only features outside of the rapper’s Jets crew.   Next up is an album that has already received a perfect rating by the Rolling Stone.  My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West’s fifth studio album, drops this week and is already (prematurely) being given “classic” status.  (I mean, I like Kanye, but the album leaked three weeks ago and people are already claiming that it’s changing Hip Hop.  Let’s see how we feel about it in a few months.  Remember when the Source gave that Lil Kim album 5 mics?  You still listen to that Lil Kim album?  Was it a classic?  Really?  Name a song off it………..I’ll wait).  Kanye’s latest offering features Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Bon Iver, Pusha T, Swizz Beatz, Prynce Cy Hi, John Legend, Raekwon, and The RZA.  Production is handled by  RZA, No ID, Mike Dean, Plain Pat, Jeff Bhasker, Anthony Kilhoffer, and of course, Kanye himself.    Last,  Nicki Minaj drops her debut album, Pink Friday.  The album features guest appearances by Eminem, Rihanna, Drake, will.i.am, Kanye West, and Natasha Bedingfield.    I’m sure we’ll see these artist on the charts next week.  While your out this Friday trying to get a 50 inch TV or whatever else Walmart has on sale, pick up an album or two.   www.twitter.com/drdougla