Lil Wayne’s Rebirth Sells 175K in First-Week Sales

More good news for Lil Wayne. One day after learning that he won’t have to report to jail on gun charges until March, the New Orleans-bred rapper has sold close to 25,000 more copies of his new album, Rebirth, than expected.

Last week industry insiders at hitsdailydouble.com projected Weezy to sell around 140,000 to 150,000 units based on first-day sales. Now the official Nielsen SoundScan numbers are in and Wayne has managed to rack up 175,600. He also earned himself a seat at the No. 2 spot on The Billboard 200.

While the numbers aren’t as high as the rap superstar’s awe-inspiring one million tally from 2008’s Grammy award-winning Tha Carter III album, the estimation is still pretty impressive considering the setbacks that Rebirth faced.

Along with being plagued with countless push backs, the disc leaked to the ‘Net months before its official release. Not to mention the fact that the project is experimental in nature, with Wayne trying his hand at the hard rock genre on many tracks.

Also on the charts this week are the Black Eyed Peas, who climbed four places from last week’s no. 10 spot. Thanks to the Grammys, many artists have received an increase in sales this week, including the Peas, whose latest CD, The E.N.D., jumped up 76 percent in revenue, selling 69,700 units this go-round. This makes the Peas’ overall stats stand at 1,999,000 sold after 35 weeks.

Young Money sits tight at no. 28 this week, but their sales got an eight percent bump. We Are Young Money got bagged up by 20,900 fans this week, making their seven-week total 291,300.

Two spot down, Jay-Z sits at No. 30. Hova leaped 11 positions up the charts this week and was injected with a 35 percent increase in sales. Approximately 19,200 fans picked up The Blueprint 3 this week, putting the rap legend’s grand total at 1,596,900.

Fellow Grammy-winner Eminem landed four spots below Jay, at No. 34. Relapse scored another 18,400 to its total tally, which now sits at 1,823,500.

Failing to crack the charts this week was Styles P and Green Lantern’s The Green Ghost Project. The duo sold 2,400 units of the independent album in their debut week according to Nielsen SoundScan.