The results are in. The blogosphere has gone abuzz. Thats right, as predicted, Kanye West’s Graduation entered at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Charts, topping the surprisingly bitter-sweet (okay, but still crappy) Curtis by an obnoxiously bitter-sweet (I hate him but he’s entertaining) 50 Cent. Something no one expected, though, are the numbers — Curtis still moved an-impressive 691,304 copies in the six days since its release last Tuesday, but Graduation sold an amazing 956,936, giving Kanye the best first-week album sales in more than two years. Don’t Like Like I Never Told Ya!
Its amazing how the top two albums sold over 1.5 million copies combined, rap albums of all things. There is more at work here than just two arguably talented artists releasing albums at the same time, it turns out that the 50 Cent initiated feud turned out to be a goldmine. How can someone — in 2007, a year where record sales are down the crapper — sell so many records? Obviously, people wanted to see 50 Cent retire (or break his promise), or they really, really like Kanye. And, completely by accident, 50 just might have found a way to save the wounded music business.
VULTURE — The solution is clear: If a record label wants to sell one artist’s albums, it needs to promise to make another similar, more loathsome artist pay a serious and/or hilarious price. If Jive Records (owned by parent label Sony BMG) wants Britney Spears’s terrible new album to sell in November, it should promise never to release or promote another album by Avril Lavigne (another Sony artist) ever again if Britney goes platinum in her first week. Hell, we’d buy her album. Want Usher’s next CD to sell 5 million copies? Say you’ll make R. Kelly plead guilty to his child-pornography charges (although please don’t, since we’re dying to find out what happens in the next 50 chapters of Trapped in the Closet). Be creative! If the Strokes go gold, the White Stripes have to hire a bass player. We can’t think of any reason why this wouldn’t work. Problem solved. SOURCE
mp3: Kanye West ft. Dwele – Flashing Lights
mp3: Kanye West ft. Lil Wayne – Barry Bonds
