GO WEST YOUNG MAN

Kanye’s Opening Week of 800k+ Will Be Biggest in Two Years, 50 Cent at 600k, Kenny Chesney 450k

September 12, 2007

School may have just started, but Kanye West’s Graduation has come just in time for the beleaguered music biz.
Following one of the worst weeks in the history of album sales comes one of the liveliest, and boy was it needed.

Thanks to a record-shattering first day at iTunes and traditional retail (where it reportedly sold more than 435k), IDJ artist West will debut at #1 on next Tuesday’s HITS Top 50 Album Chart, easily surpassing 800k in sales.

That would more than top Linkin Park’s previous one-week high of 625k set in May and Rascal Flatts’ 2006 high of 722k. In fact, it would be the biggest sales debut since West’s last album Late Registration bowed in August 2005 with 860k.

Shady/Aftermath/Interscope rapper 50 Cent, who has loudly declared he’d retire if West’s album sold more than his, better start boning up on his golf game, because Curtis will land at #2 with a still-impressive 600k, plus or minus.

Kenny Chesney will have to settle for third place with his new album Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates on SBMG Nashville, which will bow at #3 with around 450k.

The only other album of note to hit retail is the latest edition of the Gray’s Anatomy soundtrack from Disney's Hollywood Records.

The market was down a little less than 4% vs last week, down about 23% vs same week last year and now down 14.5% year-to-date.


Kanye 957,000
50 691,000

Good numbers for both
[Edited 9/19/07 5:49am]

damn i'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. i don't want kanye's big ass head to get bigger with his defeat and i don't want to hear another 50 cent album.

Kanye is the saviour of the recording industry

Well, better 'Ye than Curtis. I can take his style of Hit-Pop more than Fiddy, who has become what he once beheld.

On a side note, I'm hoping Kanye is nominated for every possible Grammy his album and videos are eligible for. Hopefully, it will be some absurdly high, record breaking number like 20. Then come grammy night, he loses in every category. The man would lose his mind and quite possibly explode. Must see TV, indeed.
Actually, I like Kanye as an artist. I'm not a huge fan, but at least he tries to be different. But if he keeps buying into the hype of the numbers and the awards, the only for sure thing in his future is a mental breakdown.
The entertainment business is nothing but smoke and mirrors, and Kanye is being used just as much as Britney. Probably more, since as a white woman, she most likely gets a better royalty deal than Kanye.

MikeMatronik said:

LOL

Hip hop artists are well known to drop dramatically after their first week.

I'm buying it this weekend

krayzie said:

Hence the irony!

who are these people buying these crappy albums...

TotalAlisa said:

I am....why waste your time posting if u aint interested?

anyway how come ITS HARDER for R&B artists to make classic albums rather than rappers? I can name a good couple of rap albums that are near classics (all 3 of Kanye's included, Common's Be, Jay Z "The Blueprint", Missy Elliott "Miss E So Addictive" just to name a few).

Im glad for Kanye though. The promotion was pretty good. 2 bad JANET cant even sell a good album these days..hell im just ranting, but I like those numbers..

I hate 50 Cent, but only detest Kanye.

So, it's pleasing to see Graduation top Curtis.

I don't see what folks see in Kanye though?? Puzzling.

He mentions some deep issues (not the same as being a socio-political artist or intelligently exploring them with skill, by the way) and people act like he's the second coming of Bob Dylan.

Strange.

He's weak, childish, annoying, shallow .... etc.

paisleypark4 said:

i was asking a question... it wasn't about me not being interested it was about me inquiring... why people would buy his weak album.... i heard him perform some of those tired weak beat rap songs the music is so boring.. nothing that i can remember...

TotalAlisa said:

4 me it's because upon the first listen of "College Dropout" songs like "Jesus Walks" "Slow Jam" "We Dont Care" "All Falls Down" they were not about "ice and chains" or having sex with girls.

He was actually talking about why women diminish themselves for men...why rappers cant talk about Jesus, that getting a degree is not the most important thing in the world.

It stuck with me and he made me want more. His albums to me go beyond just "trying to dance and be a hit". And "Kanyes Workout Plan" was one of the funniest tracks I ever heard from a rapper in 03. U dont have to like him though.

SynthiaRose said:

That says more about you then Ye.
Kayne did something they said could not be done.
People love Kayne and his music because he is so sensitive, and like the common man.

paisleypark4 said:

okay so you listen to the albm for the lyrics... well i was talking about the music.. and its seriously boring... but im a person who likes a nice beat.. something cute... my favorite music... is like pop/bubble gum music... but no one is making that anymore

i do like rihanna songs

Alamine said:

Yes. My thoughts say something about me and my feelings toward Kanye. Next.

shygirl said:

this post was hilarious!

TotalAlisa said:

Rhianna is cool, and I hated her first single, then I liked her after that 4 being different.

Lyrics are cool, as long as the music is listenable too. I am a fan of music + lyrics

TotalAlisa said:

600,000 people actually gave 50 cent their money! I'd rather shoot myself.

paisleypark4 said:

Those are all such classic tracks. But thinking back there's really nothing on the second album that hits me the same way, and the third one is even worse. I still prefer him to 90 percent of new rappers. The only hip hop albums I liked better this year were Common and Brother Ali.

paisleypark4 said:

im in to the actual music... the lyrics can be okay.. as long as its not about killing someone, drugs, violence, satan... then its okay for me... but i really dont' like to hear songs about sex... I don't care to know what people are doing in the bed room... but if the song is more of a metaphore/similie... and i can interpret it into something else.. then its okay with me...

and for all those people who bring up me being a prince fan... NO i can't say i am... I only know like 15 songs... i really found out about him from the movie purple rain... but i always a MIchael jackson fan... Michael is magic...

TotalAlisa said:

And you're a Janet Jackson fan, TA?

I still have no love for Kayne, but I'll admit Stronger is a pretty nice song

JackieBlue said:

yes.. i love her songs that aren't about sex (most of her old songs.. and a few new songs..).... believe me.. i complained to much about some of janet's songs.. and have been banned form a JJ forum.. because i picked janet apart... people thought i joined that forum to trash janet....

I was going to stop being a JJ fan for good ... last year.. because her Damita Jo was disgusting to me... and if her new album was anything like DJ.. she would be over in my book... (since 2004 the superbowl.. i have been an off and on again fan.. but you guys would not know about that.. because i was on her JJ forums... more then prince.org...)

but when she released 20 Y.O... she actually listened to my suggestions.. and stopped talking about explict sexual things... but if her lastest album is talking about oral sex... Im serious.. I will NOT be a fan anymore...

TotalAlisa said:

Oral is sinful

MikeMatronik said:

you guys are tooo much.... but seriously who cares what i think anyways... Im just a hamster....

I like that Kanye seems serious about his art, where 50 only seems serious about 50, but it's really hard to like either of them.

Martin Scorsese won his first Oscar this year. Before that, was he taking every opportunity to claim he'd been betrayed by the Academy? Or to interrupt someone else's speech claiming he'd spent 50 million on his movie and should have won?

And I can't have such high esteem for a guy who is just now realizing MTV is full of shit!

If he was coming out saying MTV is generally worthless I'd respect it more than his whining about being hurt & betrayed & used.
[Edited 9/14/07 11:14am]

NDRU said:

Well, here's my problem. Kanye wanted to play like he was "disrespected" by the music industry because he was a black man.

Tell that to Robert Johnson, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Jackie Wilson or any of the black musicians whose shoulders he stands on. They didn't have a fraction of the opportunities to make money he currently enjoys.

Looks like there will be a lot of folks listening to their new CDs this weekend while they have their cookies and milk.