It has officially come to an end and 50 Cent has been made to look silly. Pushed by the strength of three acclaimed singles in a row, alongside some pretty impressive video clips, Kanye West has outsold 50 Cent by 265,632 units in their illusory first week sales-battle.
Kanye's Graduation moved 956,936 units while 50 sold 691,304 copies of Curtis. Those numbers also give West the biggest album debut on the year, 50 landing at No. 2. The previous best was Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight, which sold 622,827 copies.
50 has claimed that he would retire if West beat him so we can expect some kind of announcement from the New York-based rapper today. Even if he doesn't retire, it's likely that he'll cancel some more publicity appearances or maybe just take the rest of the day off and get some leg. Who knows with this cat.
Since the numbers first started coming out, 50 has accused Kanye's record label of chart-rigging, but he also told a reporter that he was thinking about quitting rap before the sales battle ever started. Right. Tread that water Fif, tread it. He also canceled a series of European appearances on Monday after learning that he'd lost overseas.
Meanwhile, Kenny Chesney, Shoutmouth's should-coulda-woulda underdog, will debut his Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. Just Who I Am sold a reported 387,000 copies, a far cry from Kanye or 50. But, like I said originally, Kenny will have the incredible strength of country radio to bank on, versus the first-week demand of a popular hip hop release.
