Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 10/25/2009

Jay-Z climbed slipped just one space with Blueprint 3 , as the emcee tours North America, including a stop tomorrow night in The Bronx to continue his promotion of the Yankee hat. Jay joins Eminem and The Black Eyed Peas as the lone three platinum 2009 Rap albums. The trio is within 300,000 units of each other, with Jay-Z and Black Eyed Peas gaining close on Marshall.

Speaking of, the Peas refuse to quit. The E.N.D. held rank from last week, after being out for over three months. The California veterans are striking new chords with their latest single "Meet Me Halfway."

Mariah Carey's latest, Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel went to #14, heading towards 300,000. The singer recently landed a LG phone campaign to bolster her market presence. This effort gained street support with help from Gucci Mane on "Obsessed (Remix)." Whitney Houston reamained in the Top 20 with I Look To You, one of the biggest comeback albums of 2009. The effort still stands a chance of reaching platinum by year's end.

Just units short of 200,000, Drake's EP, So Far Gone stayed in the Top 25. The sneak attack Cash Money Records EP has proven to be one of the most successful in its format of all times.




* please note: figures below approximated to nearest thousandeth.

Top 200 Album Sales (Top 5 Hip Hop/R&B)

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Est. Total
4	Jay-Z	Blueprint 3	43,000	1,159,000
6	Black Eyed Peas	The E.N.D.	35,000	1,270,000
14	Mariah Carey	Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel	21,000	275,000
20	Whitney Houston	I Look To You	19,000	750,000
23	Drake	So Far Gone	17,000	197,000

Like Drake, Kid Cudi is chasing the 200,000 mark, with his debut Man On The Moon: End Of Day . The Cleveland rapper/singer was at #61 last week. A place behind, Eminem continues to lead Relapse as the top-selling Rap album of 2009, bringing the Shady/Aftermath reign back as 50 Cent and Dr. Dre are expected to follow-up.

Lil Boosie is approximately a week away from six-figure sales of his Superbad: The Return of Boosie Badazz . The rapper has recently been ordered to serve a felony jail sentence, and rumors swirl that he's already completed his next album's worth of material to release during incarceration.

The big debut on last week's shelves was Royce Da 5'9" with his four-years-in-the-making album, Street Hop . Executive produced by DJ Premier, a producer who's worked with Royce since his earliest releases, the project featured an all-star cast and a new label, The Orchard.

Lastly, Jay-Z cosigned artist and DXnext alum Melanie Fiona snuck attack her much-delayed LP The Bridge. The SRC Records release debuted in Top 130, a dismal debut from an artist that had such buzz at the top of the year.

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Est. Total
61	Kid Cudi	Man On The Moon: End Of Day	8,900	183,000
62	Eminem	Relapse	8,500	1,490,000
95	Lil Boosie	Superbad: The Return Of Boosie Badazz	5,500	95,000
111	Royce Da 5'9"	Street Hop	4,600	4,600
129	Melanie Fiona	The Bridge	4,000	4,200

Will Tech N9ne kill the charts with K.O.D., and can Triple C's buy new custom cars and cycles off of first week sales? Stay tuned to Latest World Wide to find out.