THROWN FOR A LUPE

Chicago-bred rapper Lupe Fiasco—whose real name is Wasalu Muhammad Jaco—proves the third time’s the charm, debuting at #1 with his new Atlantic Records effort, Lasers, boasting the still-new year’s second biggest debut, with 205k.

That’s enough to leapfrog him over XL/Columbia U.K. pop diva Adele’s 21, which racks up another 132k, to give her a three-week total of more than 650k, at #2.

The next four entries are all debuts, starting with Columbia’s Glee: The Music, Vol. 5, which enters at #3, sporting 92k in sales, followed by RCA/RMG’s Avril Lavigne (#4), RCA Nashville’s Sara Evans (#5) and Warner Bros. college rock godfathers R.E.M. (#6).

Glassnote’s still-strong Mumford & Sons (#7), J/RMG’s Marsha Ambrosius (#8), Island/IDJ’s Justin Bieber Never Say Never—The Remixes (#9) and Capitol/EMI’s Now 37 (#10) round out the leaders.

Other chart newcomers include veteran IceH20/EMI Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon (#11), Six Steps Records’ Passion Band (#31), Fontana Int’l’s Children of Bodom (#34) and Legacy’s Billy Joel Live at Shea Stadium CD/DVD (#47).

Biggest (and only) double-digit gainer of the week is Big Machine’s Rascal Flatts, with Nothing Lke This climbing #27-21, up 29%.

Hitting retail this week are Geffen’s Rise Against, Inerscope's Travis Barker and Columbia’s iCarly star Miranda Cosgrove, with next week’s (3/22) releases to include Arista/RMG’s Jennifer Hudson, Jive/ZLG’s Chris Brown and RCA/RMG’s The Strokes, among others.