Some general music news here for those among us who care about album sales: it has been officially announced that Taylor Swift's fifth studio album 1989 is on track to have the biggest-selling week for any album in any genre since The Eminem Show sold 1,322,000 copies in 2002. Her sales are currently estimated to be upwards of 1,200,000 copies. It's important to note that, with only two months remaining in the calendar year, no other album to be released in 2014 has reached platinum status yet. As far as hip-hop is concerned, Rick Ross' Mastermind remains this year's highest-selling release, having debuted with 179,000 copies sold and now hovering just above 360,000, meaning Taylor sold four times in one week what rap's biggest album did all year.
With no confirmed dates for Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, or any other of members of hip-hop's commercial elite, the question now is whether Lil Wayne's Tha Carter V or Nicki Minaj's Pinkprint will put rap back in the mainstream when their albums drop in December.
1989 was led by the number one single "Shake It Off," the video for which Earl Sweatshirt criticized as perpetuation black stereotypes.
[via Complex]
