Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III” Goes Platinum After One Week
In an age where albums struggle to sell a million copies in their lifespan, Lil Wayne‘s much-anticipated and ultra-hyped Tha Carter III has gone platinum in one week of release, becoming the first album since 2005 to top a million units in its debut week. 50 Cent’s The Massacre was the last album to do so back in March 2005. In 2006, no album sold more than 800,000 in a week, and only Kanye West’s Graduation managed to crack 900,000 last year. Tha Carter III fared much better than its predecessor, as the Tha Carter II only sold 238,000 units in its opening week in 2005. To thank the fans and pretty much everybody else who helped TC3‘s rise to the top, Weezy posted a hilarious “Thank You” video where the rapper equates his success to the book drives he used to have in school. Watch the video above. Check back later today for more from this week’s charts, and click below for more on how Lil Wayne parlayed a deluge of mixtapes into superstardom.