50 Cent Gets Richer
In its first full week of sales, 50 Cent‘s Get Rich or Die
Tryin’ moved a hearty 822,000 copies, according to SoundScan,
nearly matching its previous (partial) week tally of 872,000. So
with a week and a half in stores, the rapper has topped 1.5 million
sales, and shows no signs of letting go of the Number One spot on
the charts.
Get Rich was that rare album on the charts this week
that didn’t enjoy a sales increase. Only Ja Rule’s The
Last Temptation, LL Cool J’s 10 (which after climbing
from Number Eighty-four to Number Nine, promptly fell to Number
Thirty-four) and Blake Shelton’s The Dreamer (which took a
nosedive from a Number Eight debut to Number Thirty-five) were Top
Fifty entries with sales decreases from the previous week. The
catalyst behind the spiked sales? Valentine’s Day, of course.
Big gains were posted by the Dixie Chicks’ Home, which
enjoyed a 57,000 unit increase to 171,000 at Number Two. Norah
Jones’ Come Away With Me moved up to Number Three with
sales of 140,000, a 40,000 gain.
Cupid’s effect was more obvious on deal-closing veterans (Rod
Stewart’s It Had to Be You: The Great American Songbook
moved from Number Twenty-six to Number Ten with sales of 71,000)
and rookies (Josh Groban’s self-titled debut jumped from Number
Thirty to Number Eleven with sales of 68,000). Lionel Richie’s
The Definitive Collection (Number Nineteen with sales of
58,000, a 15,000 copy jump) and Mannheim Steamroller’s Romantic
Melodies (up from Number 119 to Number Forty-one with sales of
39,000) were also hot picks for mood music.
And while no album really challenged Get Rich, there
were still a handful of strong debuts. George Strait’s For the
Last Time sold 101,000 at Number Seven. Healthy week one
postings were also made by Vince Gill’s The Next Big Thing
(Number Fourteen, 67,000), the Daredevil soundtrack
(Number Fifteen, 65,000) and John Mayer’s Any Given
Thursday (Number Seventeen, 64,000).
Next week offers new debuts by the likes of Cat Power and
Ministry, but nothing with a snowball’s chance of dislodging 50
Cent from the Number One spot.
This week’s Top Ten: 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’;
Dixie Chicks’ Home; Norah Jones’ Come Away With
Me; Kid Rock’s Cocky; the Chicago
soundtrack; Avril Lavigne’s Let Go; George Strait’s
For the Last Time; Jennifer Lopez’s This Is Me . . .
Then; Shania Twain’s Up!; and Rod Stewart’s It
Had to Be You: The Great American Songbook.