July 24, 2008

Nas Ends Lil Wayne's Billboard Reign With 'Untitled'

By Gil Kaufman (MTV.com)

After weeks of trading places at the top of the weekly Billboard albums chart, Lil Wayne and Coldplay have been vanquised by a new champion. Following months of hype about its original title and subsequent change, Nas' Untitled will cruise to the top spot on the chart on sales of 186,600. The Nas takeover will push Weezy's Tha Carter III down a notch to #2 on sales of 105,500, according to Nielsen SoundScan, just one week after Wayne had regained the pole position from Coldplay.

Nas' debut was strong, giving him his fourth #1 bow, but it paled in comparison to the first week for his previous album, Hip Hop Is Dead, which scanned 354,000 units back in 2006. The soundtrack to the ABBA-centric Mamma Mia! busts into the #3 slot on sales of 91,400, dropping Coldplay's Viva la Vida down to #4, with 90,300 more converts, and the Camp Rock soundtrack follows with another 78,000 units moved. The second wind for iTunes holdout Kid Rock's Rock N Roll Jesus continues unabated, as the album sees sales tick up almost 20 percent from last week with 73,500 more satisfied customers, landing it in the #6 spot.

The top 10 also features three other fresh faces: Rock Hall of Famer John Mellencamp's Life Death Love and Freedom at #7 with 56,200 in sales, David Banner's The Greatest Story Ever Told at #8 on 51,800 units and Taylor Swift's Wal-Mart-only album Beautiful Eyes at #9 with 44,700. The top 10 is rounded out by the expanded edition of Rihanna's Good Girl Gone Bad, which slipped two spots from last week with sales of 41,300.

There were plenty of other debuts in the mix, with jam band O.A.R.'s All Sides landing at #13 with 33,200 in sales; county veteran Randy Travis clocking 31,000 in sales for Around the Bend at #14; the soundtrack to The Dark Knight, swooping into the #20 position on 24,700 in sales; and bar-rock heroes the Hold Steady grabbing the #30 slot with their latest chronicle of lovable losers, Stay Positive, which won over 17,400 big spenders.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's Magic Tour Highlights EP appears at #48 with 11,800 units moved. Aussie rising star Delta Goodrem breaks through at #116 on 6,000 copies of Delta, and Atlanta rockers Rehab punch in at #132 with sales of 5,100 for Graffiti the World.

While both Coldplay and Weezy have seen their sales drop off slowly but steadily, a couple of acts that debuted in the top 10 recently took major falls, including Beck, whose Modern Guilt saw a 66 percent drop in sales, landing him at #16, and G-Unit's T.O.S. (Terminate on Sight), which skidded 40 percent in its third week on the chart, dropping from #9 to #24.