PLATINUM
In a landslide victory in the battle for that number one spot, Kanye West (SSK) would once again like to let the world know that he “told you so.” According to Nielsen SoundScan, West also earned the largest opening-week sales total in over two years, since 50 Cent’s The Massacre opened with 1.1 million copies in March 2005.
This occasion is historic on multiple fronts. Metrics wise, Billboard reports that Graduation has set the new record for the largest week of digital album download sales with 133,000 copies (shout out to John B), breaking the record of 102,000 set by Maroon 5’s It Won’t Be Soon Before Long. It also marks the first time I can think of where artists, who more often spew hate in the form of “beef” in hopes to create controversy (ie publicity) and boost album sales, resorted to the much more civilized arena of fierce competition, earning this battle Hip Hop’s first PG rating.
So what does it all mean? First things first, it means MAD MOFOS WENT OUT AND ACTUALLY BOUGHT SOME SHIT! We havent seen a chart where the top three first week positions (Ye, 50, KC) totaled over 2 million units since … since the Okayplayer tool bar was at the bottom of the site. As a result, even Kweli and Common’s albums got a boost. Congratulations, then, TO YOU! (And of course to the artists for making records that we want to own in their entirety)
What else does it mean. Could it mean a shift in what is portrayed as popular hip hop toward artistry of real substance, where “heartfelt, sincere and honest music” (Jay-Z) prevails? (Scroll down to read Keter’s latest Blogarhythms) Naturally, Okayplayer would like to think so. But still, what other artists who fit into that category have the swagger, production prowess, and narrative of a Kanye West or Common (not to mention the resources) to pull it off? The Roots and Lupe Fiasco come to mind.
Does this mark the dawn of the era where Greg Tate’s Monologuist can take out the MC simply by being more relatable? We certainly have seen more average rappers taking at least some of the spotlight (see hipster-hop) over the last few years.
Well one thing is for certain, as Greg points out in his review, there is only one lyricist currently in the game who creates that level of excitement and “unabashed ‘hood love,” and that’s Jay-Z. This is clearly evident by his performance on the instantly famous “Billion Dollar Remix” (shout out to OnSmash). Now guess who’s in the studio right now? Guess who doesn’t like other artists taking his shine? (see the Chris Martin incident) Guess who didn’t top MTV’s list despite still being the most regarded? Now guess which time of year is the best to drop an album when you are a popular artist and its spending season. Only this album (*caugh* soundtrack to a movie featuring an OkayArtist) will be sure to receive a rating of R.
Okay, enough with the rumors.
-okpdan