Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Hip Hop Super Tuesday: How'd I Do??
So a couple weeks ago, I took a guess at how some of the major hip hop releases for Sept. 15 would do on soundscan. Luckily I qualified my estimates by saying, "I did this without cribbing from Hits or reading any other industry trade info or talking to any of my peoples in the industry so these are pretty much blind predictions that could be wildly off on the high or low side" because most of my numbers were way off and, happily, way low. Like I said previously too though I was happy to be so off. Who says no-one buys music, especially hip hop any more? Here's the final results:
1. Drake - So Far Gone: 45,000 (Actual: 73,000 #6)
2. Lil Boosie - SuperBad: The Return of Boosie Bad Azz: 35,000 (Actual: 49,000 #7)
3. Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon: The End of Day: 30,000 (Actual: 104,000 #4)
4. Q-tip - Kamaal the Abstract: 18,000 (Actual: 6,000 #77 - ouch!)
5. M.O.P. - Foundation: 16,000 (Actual: 2,100 but did not chart - damn!)
6. KRS-One & Buckshot - Surivival Skills: 12,000 (Actual: 8,400 #64)
7. N.O.R.E. - S.O.R.E.: 2,500 (even hip hop site, XXL didn't get into what this sold , that's how irrelevant the numbers must have been. Damn!)
Congrats to Cudi on his surprise (to me, at least) 6-figure, 1st week bow on the charts. I really didn't see that coming but I'm happy for him. Even though I'm not sure I love his record as much as others, I do recognize that this kid is pioneering something new here in hip hop and these sales figures are clearly a validation of that. In the end, Art wins and that's a good thing no matter what you may think of his music.
I forgot this when I first did this post, congrats to Hov too on staying at #1 a second week with just shy of 300,000 units sold. Dropping only 37% second week and moving a total of 775,000 units in 2 weeks for a veteran rapper on his eleventh album is nothin' to sneeze at! So much for my prognostications on BP3 too. Fail all around?
Other notables hip hop chart stats:
New Boyz: 10,000 (#56), Trick Daddy: 13,000 (#34)
[Sales figures via MTV | Rolling Stone | XXL]
