Jay-Z Scores 10th #1 Album

Jay-Z tops this week's Billboard 200 album sales chart with his American Gangster album, which sold 425,861 records in its first week. While this figure is lower than the first week sales of last year's Kingdom Come (over 680,000), it was still enough to give Jay his tenth number one album, tying him with Elvis Presley for the second highest number of number one albums (The Beatles still have a lock on the top spot with 19). But with Kanye West's Graduation selling over 437,000 in September, Jay failed to have the year's biggest hip-hop opening week.

Cassidy's third album B.A.R.S.: The Barry Adrian Reese Story was the week's second highest hip-hop debut, coming in at #10 by moving over 63,000 units. Nas' Greatest Hits compilation, released by Columbia Records, landed at #124 with total first week sales of 6,882.