Rapper Lil Wayne has cemented his status as America's biggest name in hip-hop by scoring the biggest album sales week in over three years. The miniture, tattooed hitmaker has stunned chart watchers by debuting his new album Tha Carter III at the top of the new Billboard 200 chart with over one million first week sales. It's the first time any artist has scored a sales week of over a million copies of an album since 50 Cent debuted big with The Massacre in 2005. And now some of hip-hop's biggest artists who used to just talk about Lil Wayne's songs are now talking about his numbers too. Lil Wayne's peers are publicly recognizing how great a feat it was for the New Orleans native to move over a million units of his Tha Carter III in the first week.
"Congrats to my homie, Wayne," Kanye West, who produced on the album, posted on his blog Tuesday. "I'm happy to know this guy! Bow in the presence of a true living legend in hip-hop. Lil Wayne the God!" On Thursday (June 19), while calling in to New York radio station Hot 97, 50 Cent — who was the last artist before Wayne to sell a million copies in first week of release with 2005's The Massacre — labeled Tha Carter III's debut "amazing." "I think I'm really confused," 50 added. "I think all I need to do is make good music and see what happens. Usher had a #1 record across the board, and he only sold over 400,000. Then Wayne comes and does those numbers. ... I don't understand what the connection is. What audience is going out to buy it?"
While in Atlanta, Ludacris told MTV News that Wayne's success was hard-earned. "Wayne's been in the game a long time. I've done records with him. Apart from everything else that's going on, it's well-deserved. Wayne, congratulations. You worked hard for that's sh--, and you deserve it." A Luda and Wayne collaboration was originally slated to be on Tha Carter III and may still find a home elsewhere. "I know he has a million songs, but we're still trying to find a placement for this song me and Lil Wayne did," Luda said.
When fans are truly digging their favorite artist latest album, come hell or high water, they will make a run to their local record store and purchase a copy. As the old saying goes, 'If they like it, they'll buy it.' Lil Wayne is solid proof of that. Despite a recent leak of his latest album, Tha Carter III, Cash Money Records rapper Lil Wayne is expected to sell one million copies of it in its first week. Billboard reports that the Cash Money/Universal release could reach the milestone by the time SoundScan closes out its tracking week on Sunday (June 15) night. The last album to sell one million copies in a week was G-Unit frontman 50 Cent’s sophomore project The Massacre, which sold 1.1 million units upon its March 2005 release. On Thursday (June 12), Tha Carter III boasted unweighted sales at 630,000, the largest number the SoundScan Friday Building chart has seen since it began in September. News of Tha Carter III reaching the one million mark comes as Lil Wayne enjoys the success of his number one single Lollipop and follow-ups A Milli and Got Money.
Although the album is proving to be a success, its status was doubtful after Lil Wayne angered mixtape DJs when he spoke out against them during a recent interview with The Foundation Magazine. Offended by the rapper's remarks, DJ Chuck T intentionally leaked the album and encouraged fans to download the album for free instead of buying it in stores. Lil Wayne and Universal declined to pursue the matter regarding Chuck T’s leaking the album and the rapper later clarified his remarks and apologized to the DJs during an appearance on DJ Drama’s Shade 45 Sirius satellite radio show.
"Congrats to my homie, Wayne," Kanye West, who produced on the album, posted on his blog Tuesday. "I'm happy to know this guy! Bow in the presence of a true living legend in hip-hop. Lil Wayne the God!" On Thursday (June 19), while calling in to New York radio station Hot 97, 50 Cent — who was the last artist before Wayne to sell a million copies in first week of release with 2005's The Massacre — labeled Tha Carter III's debut "amazing." "I think I'm really confused," 50 added. "I think all I need to do is make good music and see what happens. Usher had a #1 record across the board, and he only sold over 400,000. Then Wayne comes and does those numbers. ... I don't understand what the connection is. What audience is going out to buy it?"
While in Atlanta, Ludacris told MTV News that Wayne's success was hard-earned. "Wayne's been in the game a long time. I've done records with him. Apart from everything else that's going on, it's well-deserved. Wayne, congratulations. You worked hard for that's sh--, and you deserve it." A Luda and Wayne collaboration was originally slated to be on Tha Carter III and may still find a home elsewhere. "I know he has a million songs, but we're still trying to find a placement for this song me and Lil Wayne did," Luda said.
When fans are truly digging their favorite artist latest album, come hell or high water, they will make a run to their local record store and purchase a copy. As the old saying goes, 'If they like it, they'll buy it.' Lil Wayne is solid proof of that. Despite a recent leak of his latest album, Tha Carter III, Cash Money Records rapper Lil Wayne is expected to sell one million copies of it in its first week. Billboard reports that the Cash Money/Universal release could reach the milestone by the time SoundScan closes out its tracking week on Sunday (June 15) night. The last album to sell one million copies in a week was G-Unit frontman 50 Cent’s sophomore project The Massacre, which sold 1.1 million units upon its March 2005 release. On Thursday (June 12), Tha Carter III boasted unweighted sales at 630,000, the largest number the SoundScan Friday Building chart has seen since it began in September. News of Tha Carter III reaching the one million mark comes as Lil Wayne enjoys the success of his number one single Lollipop and follow-ups A Milli and Got Money.
Although the album is proving to be a success, its status was doubtful after Lil Wayne angered mixtape DJs when he spoke out against them during a recent interview with The Foundation Magazine. Offended by the rapper's remarks, DJ Chuck T intentionally leaked the album and encouraged fans to download the album for free instead of buying it in stores. Lil Wayne and Universal declined to pursue the matter regarding Chuck T’s leaking the album and the rapper later clarified his remarks and apologized to the DJs during an appearance on DJ Drama’s Shade 45 Sirius satellite radio show.
