June 18, 2008

Lil Wayne's 'Tha Carter III' Cracks A Million Sales In Its First Week; MC Is 'Elated'

By Shaheem Reid (MTV.com)

Lil Wayne has known for the past week that he would have the #1 album in the country with his Tha Carter III bowing at stores - it was just a matter of how high the numbers would be. After selling some 400,000 copies in his first day, everyone knew he had a great chance of selling more than 900,000 albums, with 1 million first-week sales within a tatted arm's reach.

Well, Weezy nation has spoken: Billboard reported late Tuesday (June 17) that Tha Carter III is the first album since 50 Cent's 2005 LP The Massacre to sell more than 1 million copies in a single week, according to chart reports that will be issued Wednesday morning by Nielsen SoundScan. Billboard reported that Carter sold "just over" a million units in its first week.

So what does Wayne think about his monumental success? Well, he's pretty humble.

"Thank you, that's it," he said to MTV News when asked about the album's success earlier this week. "[I'm] just very grateful, that's it. Blown away, of course. Surprised, of course. Elated. Every positive word there is.

"I wasn't trippin' about this," he said about his numbers. "I didn't have no expectations. That's not only with music, [that's] period. You shouldn't expect anything. You never know what could happen."

Wayne did have a special message for his fans, however: "What's poppin', MTV. It's Weezy F. Baby, and I just wanna thank everybody out there for making Tha Carter III the #1 album in the country. Thank you."

Before Weezy's success, Kanye West had the largest sales week since 50's Massacre with last year's Graduation, which sold 957,000 copies in its debut week.

Wayne starts his Carter III tour on June 27. He also told MTV News that he and T-Pain are forming a supergroup.