T.I. may be currently behind bars, but that won’t stop him from selling records. The Atlanta-native’s latest album, No Mercy, debuted high on The Billboard 200 sales charts, released earlier today (December 15).According to the Nielsen SoundScan, Tip landed on the charts at the No. 4 spot after moving 159,500 units in his first week. The Grand Hustle general pushed about 15,000 more copies than projected by hitsdailydouble.com last Wednesday.
Sitting two spots down at No. 6 is Nicki Minaj. The Young Princess’s Pink Friday surpassed Kanye West’s sales for the first time since entering the charts three weeks ago, with numbers reaching 81,900. The stats were enough to make Minaj’s debut go gold. Her overall tally now stands at 561,000.
Kanye West fell from No. 7 to No. 14 this go-round. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy picked up an additional 66,500 in sales this week, making his three week total equal 672,000.
Rounding out the Top 40, at No. 25 is Eminem’s Recovery. The Grammy-nominated disc pulled in 49,300 in sales. In 25 weeks the Detroit lyricist has pushed out 3,145,800 CDs.
Entering the charts at No. 118 is Redman. The Def Jam vet’s latest LP, Reggie, earned about 10,500 receipts this week.
Next week look for Diddy’s Last Train to Paris and Sheek Louch’s Donnie G: Don Gorilla to impact The Billboard 200. —Elan Mancini for XXL
