CHART PREVIEW:
MERRY LUDACRISMAS!
At this point, his Red Light District (Def Jam South/IDJ) appears headed for a first-week total of 320k-330k, meaning he’ll easily top last week’s #1, Jay-Z/Linkin Park’s Collision Course (Warner Bros.), which appears headed for about half of last week's 364k debut.
Merry Ludacrismas, everybody!
The week’s second-highest debut belongs to Lindsay Lohan, whose Speak (Casablanca/Universal) now appears to have sold around 260k for the week. J/RMG’s Mario, meanwhile, will see a healthy debut for his sophomore effort, Turning Point, which is headed for a 160k first-week total.
And lining up for fourth-highest chart debut is Cam’ron’s Purple Haze (Rock-A-Fella/Def Jam), which is now looking like it moved 130k for the week.
As for any potential sales spikes following last week’s Grammy nominations, Green Day appears to be seeing the best bump, with American Idiot soaring some 95% over last week's figures to around 150k. Also seeing positive action are Usher's Confessions, up around 30% at this point to about 175k, and Ray Charles' Genius Loves Company, up around 25% to about 105k. As for the rest, we don't know yet.
But one thing we do know is that even though it’s now the middle of December, there are still a few major release hitting the street this week: Keep your peepers peeled for Ashanti, whose Concrete Rose (Def Jam) blooms at retail tomorrow, along with 2Pac's Loyal to the Game (Amaru/Interscope) and Xzibit's Weapons of Mass Destruction (Columbia). Early predictions from retailers point to debuts on the order or 300k for Ashanti and 2Pac and 150k for Xzibit.
