This week we were extremely impressed by the numbers that Justin Timberlake pulled with his new album, The 20/20 Experience. Within the hip-hop/r’n’b-sphere, we haven’t seen a chart topper sell the amount JT sold in a while. The artist pulled in 980k, which funnily enough takes away a record from Lil Wayne, who happens to also have a new album that released this past week. Wayne previously held the high-selling opening week for a male artist with his last album, The Carter IV, selling 946k. However Lil Wayne's newst album, I Am Not A Human Being II, is not on pace to see similar success as his previous. Although he's projected to sell a good amount, in comparison to his past LPs, it's nowhere as high-- 190-210k-- in Weezy terms, that might be low. Can we attribute an early leak as well as mixed reviews of the album to this? Or is the Weezy fan-base decreasing? Nonetheless, Wayne will still (probably) be comfortably sitting at #2 next week, so we're sure we'll be seeing him on Charts Don't Lie for awhile.
1) Justin Timberlake—The 20/20 Experience: JT’s comeback album turned out to be his best-selling LP yet. The album moved an astronomical 980, 622 units in opening week, obviously giving it the #1 spot on the charts. No doubt we’ll be seeing Justin on Charts Don’t Lie for weeks to come. Interestingly enough, Justin Timberlake’s last album, Future Sex/Love Sounds resurfaced on the charts this week at #44, moving 9k. It seems with the release of his newest LP, some fans have also returned to his old one
2) Rihanna—Unapologetic: Rih Rih’s album saw a rise this week, moving up from #12 to #9 and selling a solid 27,590 copies. Although Unapologetic moved up, the sales decreased ever so slightly from last week’s 27,821.
3) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis—The Heist: With “Thrift Shop” going platinum yet again (that’s five times platinum for those of you who lost track), there will probably be a boost in sales for The Heist. This week the album saw a 3% increase in LP sales, moving 24,610 and coming in just below the top 10 at #11.
4) Kendrick Lamar—good kid, m.A.A.d city: It seems as though everyone’s rising up a little on the charts this week. K. Dot rose up three spots to #23, however, he still managed to sell less than last week with around 14k copies moved off the shelves.
5) Alicia Keys—Girl On Fire: Alicia Keys climbed up seven spots this week, from #36 to #29. Her album may be losing steam but it’s not enough to knock her out of the top 50. Girl On Fire moved 11k this week.
6) A$AP Rocky—Long.Live.A$AP: A$AP Rocky’s Long.Live.A$AP stays right where it was last week, this week. Coming in at #48, he remains within the top 50, if only just. The LP moved 8,732 units this week.
In single news, will.i.am's new single #THATPower featuring Justin Bieber is a new entry on the Digital Songs chart, coming in at #9. This follows his single "Scream & Shout" which was his first #1 song as a solo artist. As we previously reported, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' "Thrift Shop" has gone 5x platinum, thus returning to the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, and edging out Baauer's "Harlem Shake."
