JAY-Z REDUX; MUSE, WHITNEY, KID CUDI VIE FOR #2

Not even Kanye West can hold back Jay-Z, who will return to the top of the HITS’ Album chart next week, with a total that should top 200k for his much-acclaimed Blueprint 3, the first release through his Roc Nation label on Atlantic Records.

In addition to his spate of live TV, The Blueprint 3 will be featured in both Best Buy and Target circulars in its second week in stores.

The figures are estimates from one-day sales reports called in by those retailers who still have working phones and computers.

The real battle will be for second place, where veteran Reprise U.K. rock band Muse, fresh off their triumphant MTV VMA performance with new album Resistance, look headed for between 120-125k in first-week sales, which will put them neck and neck and neck with Arista/RMG’s Whitney Houston and Universal Motown’s debuting Kid Cudi, both in the 110-120k range.

Sales of Houston's album I Look to You are exploding, thanks to the singer’s tell-all appearance on Oprah this week.

Other chart newcomers include Cash Money/Universal Motown’s Drake (55-60k); Asylum’s Lil Boosie (45-50k); Roadrunner’s Megadeth (40-45k); Hollywood teen rockers Honor Society (28-30k); WB’s Mark Knopfler (18-20); and Essential Music’s Ace Frehley, Dunk Ryder’s Trick Daddy and Vagrant’s Thrice (all at 12-15k).

The market was up 7% vs. last week, down 2% vs. same week last year and still down 14% year to date. Thank god for The Beatles. You may now return to streaming your favorite celebrity mea culpa.