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“It was going to take a lot to dethrone 50 Cent, but Mariah obviously had the star power to do it.”
——VEG’s Jerry Suarez

MARIAH MANIA, THE SEQUEL

Fitty Falls to #3 Behind Carey's Comeback and Mudvayne's Hair-raising Debut, Garbage Picks Up #4 and Green Day Keeps On Keepin’ On
Puffs of white smoke came wafting out of retail this week, signaling a change at the very top of the chart hierarchy. And look who pulled off the coup.

Mariah Carey has made a boffo career comeback following a pair of major disappointments, with the expert A&R help of IDJ honcho L.A. Reid. Carey’s new album, The Emancipation of Mimi (Def Jam/IDJ), racked up a zaftig #1 debut on first-week sales of 406k—the diva’s biggest first week ever—and in a down year, yet—outpacing 1999’s Rainbow, which logged first-week sales of around 320k.

Just as significantly, Carey knockered…um, knocked 50 Cent’s off his throne following a six-week, nearly 3 million unit run at #1 with The Massacre (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope). Fitty drops not one spot but two to #3 after getting mugged by Epic’s Mudvayne, whose Lost and Found scared up 148k fans, nearly doubling the first-week total of the shock-rock band’s previous album, 2002’s The End of All Things to Come. Another rock group, Geffen’s Garbage, grabbed the #4 position on first-week sales of over 75k.

“Mariah is a perennial,” says Virgin Entertainment Group’s Jerry Suarez, pulling on the hem of his hot pants. “She’s once again proven her ability to give her fans what they want, and they’ve come out in droves. It was going to take a lot to dethrone 50 Cent, but Mariah obviously had the star power to do it. We also saw some strong debut numbers from Mudvayne and Garbage.”

Rounding out the Top 5 was Faith Evans, whose Capitol album fell just short of 60k in its second week at retail. Evans topped #6 Beck (Interscope) by a mere 73 units, a virtual dead heat.

Also of note: Reprise should call the band EverGreen Day, cuz American Idiot refuses to go away, keeping a stranglehold on the Top 10 at #8. The fact is, Green Day is as crucial to WMG as IPO time nears as the upcoming Coldplay is to EMI. And how about that new Coldplay single, kids? Whoa.

In case you were wondering, there are 10 albums in the Top 10 this week. The others are #7 Now 18 (Epic), #9 Gwen Stefani (Interscope) and #10 Killers (Island/IDJ).

If you took away Interscope/Geffen’s four entries and the two apiece from IDJ and Epic, the Top 10 would be very a lonely place.

Next week, look for debuts from Asylum/WB rapper Mike Jones, Atlantic’s Rob Thomas and Columbia’s Anna Nalick.

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