KENNY KILLS IT!!

There are 20 debuts in the HITS Top 50 this week, but one lonesome cowboy stands hat and shoulders above the rest.

BNA superstar Kenny Chesney’s Hemingway’s Whiskey tops the chart this week for newly named head Gary Overton’s label, with 182k. That tops his last album, Lucky Old Sun, which debuted with 176k back in October ’08.

Lil Wayne can bide his time in solitary confinement knowing that his digital-only Cash Money/Universal Motown 10-song album, I Am Not a Human Being, scores 109k, good for #2, with the 13-track physical album still a week away from its 10/12 release.

Asylum/Warner Bros. rapper Gucci Mane’s Appeal: Georgia’s Most Wanted is the other Top 5 newcomer at #4, just behind last week’s chart-topping effort from Atlantic’s Zac Brown Band at #3, with Shady/Aftermath/ Interscope’s Eminem at #5, sporting the year’s best-selling album in Recovery.

Reprise’s legendary rock guitarist Eric Clapton debuts at #6 with Clapton, followed by Warner Bros.’ Linkin Park (#7), Atlantic’s Trey Songz (#8), Hollywood’s Selena Gomez and the Scene (#9) and A&M/Octone’s Maroon 5 (#10).

With Mane, Zac Brown, Clapton, Linkin Park and Trey Songz, Lyor Cohen’s suddenly resurgent Warner Music Group has five in the Top 10.

DGC/Interscope’s Jimmy Eat World is a new entry at #11, followed by chart debuts from Asylum/WB’s Lil Boosie (#14), Reprise’s Neil Young (#15), Reach Christian rock act Lecrae (#19), Null’s Social Network Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross soundtrack (#20), Lench Mob’s Ice Cube (#22), A&M/UMe’s Soundgarden (#24), Reunion’s Michael W. Smith (#26), Def Jam/IDJ’s Jeremih (#28), Reprise’s Seal (#29), E1 Music’s Donell Jones (#33), Epitaph’s Bad Religion (#34), Atlantic’s Phil Collins (#35), Nonesuch’s Ben Folds & Nick Hornby (#37), HOR’s Doobie Brothers (#41) and Megaforce’s Mushroomhead (#48).

Glassnote’s Mumford & Sons is the week’s biggest mover, up 9% at #25, followed by Capitol Nashville/EMI’s Lady Antebellum (#31, +7%), Columbia’s Miranda Lambert (#46, +6%) and Def Jam/IDJ’s Rick Ross (#44, +3%).

Hitting retail this week are Show Dog’s Toby Keith, 19/Jive Label Group’s David Archuleta, Wind-up’s Finger Eleven, Atlantic’s Bruno Mars, Asylum/WB’s Waka Flocka Flame, Aware/Universal Republic’s Guster and Virgin/EMI’s KT Tunstall.