DMX Is Grand Chart Champ
DMX scored his fifth consecutive chart-topping album with The
Grand Champ, which sold 312,000 copies last week, according to
SoundScan. The title of the rapper’s latest is apt, a reference to
the victor in a series of pitbull fights. While DMX continued his
Number One-winning streak, he’s taken a few licks over the years.
DMX’s last album, The Great Depression, sold 440,000
copies upon its debut two years ago, and his previous records —
And Then There Was X and Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of
My Blood — were both spitting distance from 700,000 copy
debut weeks.
But enough with the chart gloom. Sales are up more than 500,000
units in the Top 200 from last week, and it’s the first time five
albums reached six-figure sales since July. A Perfect Circle and
Erykah Badu both posted very strong debuts; the former sold 231,000
copies of Thirteenth Step at Number Two and the latter
moved 144,000 copies of Worldwide Underground at Number
Three. And John Mayer’s Heavier Things (Number Four,
137,000) and Hilary Duff’s So Yesterday (Number Five,
126,000) maintained strong sales.
And even more newcomers peppered the Top Ten: Thursday sold
74,000 copies of War All the Time at Number Seven; Sheek
Louch sold 64,700 copies of Walk Witt Me at Number Nine;
and Bubba Sparxxx moved 64,500 copies of Deliverance at
Number Ten. The Ying Yang Twins just missed at Number Eleven, with
62,000 copies sold of Me and My Brother.
Veterans also got on the scoreboard. David Bowie’s
Reality debuted Number Twenty-nine with sales of 33,000
(though both numbers pale compared to last year’s Number Fourteen,
55,000 copy bow for Heathen). The Steve Miller Band’s
Young Hearts: Complete Greatest Hits jumped in at Number
Thirty-seven, selling 26,000 copies. And The Very Best of the
Grateful Dead charted at Number Sixty-nine, with sales of
16,000.
On the singles charts, a pair of buffed and re-polished vintage
tracks duked it out. Last week’s Number One-selling single, Elvis
Presley’s “Rubberneckin'” (as remixed by Paul Oakenfold), was
unseated by the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” (remixed
by the Neptunes, Fatboy Slim and others) by a mere ten copies,
8,610 to 8,600.
Next week’s chart promises a second straight week of strong
sales, as a rush of new albums dropped into record stores this
week, led by Dave Matthews’ solo debut, the latest from Limp Bizkit
and a two-CD set from OutKast.
This week’s Top Ten: DMX’s The Grand Champ; A Perfect
Circle’s Thirteenth Step; Erykah Badu’s Worldwide
Underground; John Mayer’s Heavier Things; Hilary
Duff’s So Yesterday; Beyonce’s Dangerously in
Love; Thursday’s War All the Time; Alan Jackson’s
Greatest Hits, Volume Two; Sheek Louch’s Walk Witt
Me; and Bubba Sparxxx’s Deliverance.