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“The buzz in front of Kanye West was huge, but these gargantuan first week sales were far beyond anybody’s expectations."
——Hastings’ George Deahl

KANYE’S A SLAM-DUNK, LEADING THIS WEEK'S NUMEROUS NOTABLE DEBUTS

Tony Yayo, Brooks & Dunn, Death Cab For Cutie and Rihanna All Debut in Top 10
Man, dude’s a wizard—a true star—and it’s little surprise that Roc-A-Fella/IDJ’s Mr. Kanye West debuts at #1 this week, selling a whopping 904k his first week of release. And as is fitting of all great American icons, we’re betting George W. Bush will be inviting the entertainer to a state dinner at the White House in the very near future!

The next two spots happily also belong to debuts—with G Unit/Interscope up-and-comer Tony Yayo coming in #2, with 217k, and Arista Nashville’s Brooks & Dunn taking the #3 position, with 108k.

“The buzz in front of Kanye West was huge, but these gargantuan first week sales were far beyond anybody’s expectations,” says HastingsGeorge Deahl. “He’s a bona fide superstar. It’s also nice to see a week with so many hot new releases.”

Mariah Carey (Island/IDJ), the Black Eyed Peas (A&M/Interscope) and Now That’s What I Call Music 19 (Capitol) all hang tough at #4, #5 and #6, at 85k, 83k, and 77k, respectively. (Mariah and the Peas dropped one position each this week, with Now dropping six spots as the summer winds down.)

The former indie label band Death Cab For Cutie (not to be confused with their lesser known “brother” band, Choose Life Train For Ugly) debut their first major label release for Atlantic at #8, with a very healthy 71k, while another major label newby Rihanna (Def Jam/IDJ) secures the #9 spot, with 69k (and possibly a telegram from Stevie Nicks inquiring as to why her parents spelled her name wrong). And Young Jeezy is back to round out the Top 10 in the tenth spot, with a 5% sales increase at 64k (...though he has to stop soon, since—as we lamented last week—we’re plum out of Jeezy jokes, dammit!).

Other notable debuts: Young newcomer Bob Dylan (but you can call him “Zimmy”) hits #14, selling 50k of the Columbia Legacy soundtrack to his upcoming and much-anticipated Martin Scorsese documentary; Reprise’s Eric Clapton—yet another young buck—hits #17, with 45k; and HearVictor/Hancock’s Herbie Hancock—what’s with the youngsters this week?—is at #19, with 41k. Also: Elektra/Atlantic’s Yolanda Adams at #27, with 29k; Flip/Atlantic’s Cold at #31, with 28k; Columbia’s Our Lady Peace at #33, with 26k, and Immortal/Virgin’s 30 Seconds To Mars at #38, with 24k. Epic’s Shakira returns to the Top 50, hitting #41, with 24k, and—not surprisingly—Kanye West’s debut album returns to the charts on the heels of his #1 sophomore release, hitting #44 , with 22k. And we’re betting the lovely Barbara Bush owns copies of both.

Watch for debuts next week from The Rolling Stones and a 50 Cent reissue with DVD.

And if you haven’t donated to the Red Cross hurricane relief fund yet, please do so when and if you can. Peace.

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