new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart_watch/59820/week-ending-july-25-2010-its-every-rapper-for-himself/Week Ending July 25, 2010: It's Every Rapper For Himself
Posted Wed Jul 28, 2010 11:15am PDT by Paul Grein in Chart Watch
Eminem's Recovery logs its fifth straight week at #1 on The Billboard 200. It's Em's longest run on top since The Eminem Show led the chart for six weeks in 2002. Recovery sold 187,000 copies this week, down just 4% from last week. The good news for Eminem was bad news for fellow rapper Rick Ross, whose Teflon Don had to settle for #2, with sales of 176,000. The Florida-based rapper's last three studio albums, Port Of Miami, Trilla and Deeper Than Rap, all debuted at #1. Don't feel too bad for Ross, though. Teflon Don sold 18,000 more copies in its first week than his last album did.
Recovery, which has sold a robust 1,700,000 in five weeks, may even snag a sixth week on top. Avenged Sevenfold's Nightmare is likely to be next week's top new entry, at #2.
Recovery also holds at #1 in the U.K. for the fourth week. It's the only the fifth album in the past 10 years to top the chart in both countries for four or more weeks. It follows the Beatles' 1, Eminem's The Eminem Show, Norah Jones' Come Away With Me and Susan Boyle's I Dreamed A Dream. So, Eminem has two of the five albums that have done this in the past 10 years. I bet you didn't realize he was such a transatlantic titan.
"Love The Way You Lie," Em's smash collabo with Rihanna, tops Hot Digital Songs for the fifth straight week. It sold 332,000 copies this week, bringing its five-week total to 1,620,000. It's only the third song in digital history to top 300K in weekly sales four times. It follows Flo Rida's "Right Round" and "California Gurls" by Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg.
"Not Afraid," the first song released from Recovery, tops the 2 million mark in paid downloads this week. It's his biggest solo hit since 2002's "Lose Yourself," which has sold 2,858,000 copies.
Recovery sold 39K digital copies this week, which puts it on top of the Digital Albums chart for the fifth straight week. That's the longest run at #1 on this chart since the Juno soundtrack was on top for six weeks from December 2007 to February 2008. This brings Recovery's five-week digital total to 486K. It's #7 on the all-time list of digital album sellers. It has sold more digital copies in five weeks than John Mayer's Continuum has sold in nearly four years. Next week, Recovery will become only the sixth album in digital history to sell 500K digital copies.
The Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" this week becomes the first song to top the 6 million mark in paid downloads. As it happens, the Peas also had the first song to top the 500,000 mark in paid downloads. "Let's Get It Started" topped 500K in February 2005.
Shameless Plug: I'll have a Chart Watch Extra on Friday to commemorate this milestone. It's chronological list of 40 key milestones in digital history. You may wonder how it is that I have exactly 40 milestones and not, say, 38 or 43. Let's just say I didn't grow up listening to American Top 43.
I'll give you an example here of what Friday's blog entails. I'll turn it into a Pop Quiz. "Crazy In Love" by Beyonce featuring Jay-Z was #1 on the first Digital Tracks chart in Billboard on June 29, 2003. How many digital copies did it sell that week to enable it to rank #1? a) 1,500, b) 4,500, c) 15,000, d) 45,000. Answer below.
While you work on that, I'll tell you about another digital record that the Peas set this week. "Imma Be" tops the 3 million mark in digital sales. It's the third song from The E.N.D. to reach (or exceed) that sales plateau. The E.N.D. is the first album, in its originally released form, to spawn three 3-million-selling digital hits. The expanded versions of Lady Gaga's The Fame and Rihanna's Good Girl Gone Bad also contain three 3 million-sellers, but in both cases only two of the three songs appeared on the original releases. (Gaga's "Bad Romance" was added to The Fame Monster. Rihanna's "Disturbia" was added to Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded.)
Quiz Answer: "Crazy In Love" sold a whopping 1,500 copies in the week ending June 29, 2003, but that was enough to make it #1 on the first Digital Tracks chart.
"California Gurls" by Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg tops the 3 million mark in paid downloads this week. It took just 11 weeks to reach this milestone, which ties Flo Rida's "Right Round" as the fastest that any song has reached 3 million in digital sales. This is Perry's third song to reach 3 million, following "I Kissed A Girl" (3,833,000) and "Hot N Cold" (4,450,000). Perry's sophomore album, Teenage Dream, is due Aug. 24. It has a very good chance of becoming her first #1 album. One Of The Boys debuted (and peaked) at #9 in June 2008. The title song, "Teenage Dream," enters Hot Digital Songs at #11 this week, with first-week sales of 84,000.
Sheryl Crow's 100 Miles From Memphis enters The Billboard 200 at #3. As you probably know by now, the title alludes to the fact that Crow's hometown, Kennett, Mo., is roughly 100 miles from Memphis. This is the second hit album in the past month to salute Memphis in its title. It follows Cyndi Lauper's Memphis Blues, which debuted at #26 three weeks ago.
This is Crow's eighth top 10 album, which is her entire output except for a 1999 live album. It's her sixth album to reach #2 or #3. She has yet to land a #1 album (or a #1 single on the Hot 100, for that matter), but she has lasted for 16 years, which more than makes up for it.
Crow won a Grammy as Best New Artist of 1994. Only four other Best New Artist winners in Grammy history have amassed eight or more top 10 albums. The Beatles (the 1964 winners) have had 30 top 10 albums (not counting solo albums). Mariah Carey (the 1990 champ) has had 15. Sade (the 1985 victor) and LeAnn Rimes (the 1996 champ) have also had eight.
Jonas Brothers' Jonas L.A., the soundtrack from their Disney Channel TV show, enters The Billboard 200 at #7. It's the second time they've had the week's top-selling movie or TV soundtrack. Their album from the theatrically-released 3D Concert Experience was the #1 soundtrack in March 2009. That's the good news. The bad news: Justin Bieber's My World 2.0 sold more copies in its 18th week than the JoBros' album did in its first.
Here's the rest of the top 10 on Hot Digital Songs. Taio Cruz's "Dynamite" holds at #2 for the second week (223K), Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg's "California Gurls" holds at #3 for the second week (190K), Enrique Iglesias featuring Pitbull's "I Like It" jumps from #5 to #4 (183K), B.o.B featuring Hayley Williams' "Airplanes" dips from #4 to #5 (153K), Mike Posner's "Cooler Than Me" holds at #6 for the second week (137K), Travie McCoy featuring Bruno Mars' "Billionaire" holds at #7 for the second week (137K), Jason Derulo's "Ridin' Solo" holds at #8 for the sixth week (132K), Eminem's "Not Afraid" hold at #9 for the fourth week (123K) and Usher featuring will.i.am's "OMG" holds at #10 for the third week (96K).
"Ridin' Solo" has been locked at #8 for six straight weeks. That must be a stationary bike that Jason is ridin'.
Usher featuring Pitbull's "DJ Got Me Falling In Love" jumps from #17 to #12. With "featured" credits on two songs in the top 15, Pitbull is the new Bruno Mars or Ludacris; this week's go-to featured artist.
Here's the low-down on this week's top 10 albums.
1. Eminem, Recovery, 187,000. The album holds at #1 for the fifth straight week. Seven songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Love The Way You Lie" (featuring Rihanna), which holds at #1 for the fifth week.
2. Rick Ross, Teflon Don, 176,000. This new entry is Ross' fourth top 10 album. Five songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Aston Martin Music" (featuring Drake and Chrisette Michele), which debuts at #65.
3. Sheryl Crow, 100 Miles From Memphis, 55,000. This new entry is Crow's eighth top 10 album. "Sideways" enters Hot Digital Songs at #166.
4. Drake, Thank Me Later, 47,000. The former #1 album slips from #3 to #4 in its sixth week. Four songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Find Your Love," which dips from #12 to #14.
5. Various Artists, Kidz Bop 18, 43,000. This new entry is the 11th in this series to make the top 10. Kids Bop 17 stalled at #12, but every other edition since Kidz Bop 7 has made the top 10. Kidz who were kidz when the first Kidz Bop album came out in October 2001 are no longer kidz.
6. Justin Bieber, My World 2.0, 39,000. The former #1 album dips from #5 to #6 in its 18th week. Three songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Somebody To Love," which drops from #22 to #29.
7. Jonas Brothers, Jonas L.A., 32,000. This new entry is JoBros' fifth top 10 album. Two songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "L.A. Baby (Where Dreams Are Made)," which jumps from #198 to #119.
8. Various Artists, NOW 34, 27,000. The album rebounds from #12 to #8 in its sixth week. This is its fifth week in the top 10.
9. Lady Antebellum, Need You Now, 25,000. The former #1 album rebounds from #11 to #9 in its 26th week. This is its 24th week in the top 10. It's #1 on the country chart for the 25th week. Three songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Need You Now," which drops from #38 to #47.
10. Lady Gaga, The Fame, 24,000. The album rebounds from #13 to #10 in its 91st week. This is its 49th week in the top 10. Six songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Alejandro," which drops from #16 to #24.
Seven albums drop out of the top 10 this week. (Easy come, easy go.) Korn's Korn III-Remember Who You Are slips from #2 to #13, The Newsboys' Born Again dives from #4 to #35, Sting's Symphonicities slips from #6 to #23, Jerrod Niemann's Judge Jerrod & the Hung Jury slips from #7 to #17, Hellyeah's Stampede plummets from #8 to #42, M.I.A.'s MAYA drops from #9 to #34, and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse drops from #10 to #18.
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is the top theatrical soundtrack for the seventh straight week. On the down side, it's the first Twilight album to fail to reach #1 on the big chart. It peaked at #2.
Marc Cohn's Listening Booth: 1970 debuts at #28. It's Cohn's highest-charting album to date. His 1991 debut, Marc Cohn, peaked at #38. It spawned the top 15 hit "Walking In Memphis" and brought him a Grammy for Best New Artist. Incidentally, two artists who had top 30 albums in 1970 are listed in this week's top 30. James Taylor, whose Sweet Baby James hit #3 that year, is #19 with Live At The Troubadour, his collabo with Carole King. Ozzy Osbourne, who had his first hit album with Black Sabbath in 1970, is #26 with Scream.
The Inception soundtrack jumps from #53 to #44 in its second week. The movie was #1 at the box-office for the second straight week.
Everybody knows who Michael Jackson was. For the most part, only fans of Contemporary Christian music know who Chris Tomlin is. But as of this week, they are tied for the most weeks at #1 on the Catalog Albums chart so far this year. Jackson's 2003 album Number Ones was the top-selling catalog album for the first nine weeks of the year (which began with the chart dated Jan. 10, 2010). Tomlin's 2007 album See The Light was #1 for four weeks in March and April. Now, his 2008 album Hello Love is #1 for the fifth week. On The Billboard 200, it drops from #37 to #51.
Song Scorecard: Daniel Powter's 2006 mope classic "Bad Day" tops the 3 million mark in digital sales this week...Three hits from 2007 top the 2 million mark: Daughtry's "Home," John Mayer's "Say" and Matchbox Twenty's "How Far We've Come." It's the second 2 million digital seller for both Mayer (following 2006's "Waiting On The World To Change") and Daughtry (following 2006's "It's Not Over").
Taio Cruz and Justin Bieber each pick up their second million-selling song of 2010 this week. Cruz scores with "Dynamite." Bieber scores with "Eenie Meenie" (featuring Sean Kingston). The common thread, of course, is that Ludacris was featured on both of their previous 2010 million-sellers: "Break Your Heart" and "Baby," respectively.
A Final Thought: KIIS-FM in Los Angeles plays Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" fairly often as a recurrent. What strikes me every time I hear it is how it still sounds so vital and, well, current. The record is nearly 28 years old. It's as old as Bill Haley And His Comets' 1955 smash "(We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock" was in December 1982 when Thriller was released. And while "Rock Around The Clock" was (and is remains) a classic, it sounds like an antique. "Billie Jean" sounds as hot and contemporary as any record on the radio. Credit for this goes to Jackson, who wrote and sang it, and to Quincy Jones, who produced it brilliantly. (Jackson has a credit as co-producer.) "Billie Jean" is closing in on sales of 2 million digital copies. As of this week, it has sold 1,931,000 digital copies.
Heads Up: As noted above, Avenged Sevenfold's Nightmare is expected to be next week's top new entry, probably at #2. Also due: Dru Hill's Independence Day, Tom Jones' Praise and Blame, Ringo Starr's Live At The Greek Theatre 2008 and the Step Up 3-D soundtrack.
