HIS WAYNE IS TRUE
The best-selling hip-hop icon’s new Cash Money/Universal Republic album, Tha Carter IV, debuts at #1 on the HITS sales chart with a total of 1 million plus, nearly matching the 1.005 million sold by the previous edition of the series in June, 2008.
Warner Bros. veteran funk-rockers Red Hot Chili Peppers’ I’m With You is #2 with a total of 232k, a little more than half of its previous release, Stadium Arcadium’s 443k in May ’06.
Astralwerks/Capitol/EMI dance music ruler David Guetta’s Nothing but the Beat (#5) and RCA Nashville country star Jake Owens’ Barefoot Blue Jean Night (#6) are the other Top 10 newcomers in a chart dominated by sharp rises from MTV VMA performers.
The indomitable Adele tops that last, up a whopping 88% for her XL/Columbia best-seller 21, now #3 with another 155k added to its 3 million-plus total, ahead of fellow VMA performers Jay Z and Kanye West, whose Roc-a-Fella/Roc Nation release, Watch the Throne, solidifies at #4, down just 9%.
Expectant
Interscope’s Game (#8),
Other new chart entries go to Roadrunner’s Lenny Kravitz (#17), Fueled by Ramen’s Cobra Starship (#30), Hidden Beach’s Jill Scott From the Vault (#34), Surfdog’s Glen Campbell (#40) and Roadrunner’s Young the Giant, which cracks the Top 50, thanks to its searing VMA performance, which included lead singer Sameer Gadhia flying head-first into a mosh pit.
XL/Beggars Banquet’s Tyler, the Creator (#49) and Interscope’s LMFAO (#50) also re-entered.
The week’s biggest double-digit gainers all benefited from VMA exposure. In addition to Adele (whose 19 also moves #24-16, +57%) and Beyonce, that includes Young Money/Cash Money/Universal Republic’s Nicki Minaj (#38-26, +32%), Jive/JLG’s Chris Brown (#47-41, +32%), New Elektra’s Bruno Mars (#36-27, +29%) and Startime/Columbia’s Foster the People (#11, +26%).
Hitting retail this week are MCA Nashville’s
