Kanye (957,000) slays 50 Cent (691,000) in sales.
According to Billboard Magazine, Kanye West outsold 50 Cent by a whopping 266,000 copies in the controversial first week of sales. That’s wild, but like I sort of expected. Ironically both camps admitted a face-off was not a smart move as both albums undersold their previous debuts in the hundred’s of thousands. Ultimately both artists made out less than they had in their previous debuts. Never-the-less where part of a media fiasco that lended to the strong sales. Despite the lower than previous units sold those #’s where far surpassed by the albums attention and promotion given to the face-off which was worth its countless weight in gold. I wonder how they both would have done had this not gotten the level of attention it did?
Yes, I bought Kanye’s album. Not suprisingly it was very creative and I’ve been rocking it in my car on the way into work. Although Kanye still is a featherweight in the lyrics department he makes up for the fault in clever, layer heavy, weighty beats that keep your attention on the overall flow of his songs. Kanye has an international appeal about his stuff. I’ve been saying this for years now, but people out of the States seam to have a better appreciation for the hip-hop culture than most of the people here in the U.S. do. Less gun talk, street cred, and more musically inclined genius coming from the underground are the champions of the airwaves and clubs oversees. Why is that? I guess another story for another time. But anyway… back to my point.
Sadly, 50 Cent seams to have revoked his challenge according to the LA Times story that says 50 recorded 12 tracks for a 4th album before ever making the Kanye album sales statement. That album is due out in 2008 ironically titled “Before I Self Destruct” which is also the last under contract with Interscope. I have been looking online for some rebuttal by Kanye but so far haven’t found anything. My suspicions are 50’s retirement will be a page out of Jay-Z’s book making a comeback a year or two afterwards and reluctantly the world has yet to hear the last of Curtis. Oh well. There’s more drama left in the world to contend with…
-Shaun