With an onslaught of R&B debuts this week including albums from Chris Brown and Jennifer Hudson capturing the top two slots, hip-hop struggled to find their place on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart.

According to the Nielsen SoundScan Report released today (March 30) hip-hop was not as well represented as they had been in recent weeks.

Lupe’s Lasers remained ranked highest for hip-hop albums although he dipped from the No. 3 to the No. 10 spot on the charts. The Chi-Town MC’s third solo LP moved 28,900 units a generous drop off from last week to bring his total to 279,900 units over the last three weeks.

Debuting in the top 40 this week at No. 18 is Gucci Mane with his album Return of Mr. Zone 6. The street album moved 24,500 units in its first week out.

Although Nicki Minaj saw a slight drop in sales and ranking from No. 13 to No. 20 she’s still moving major units each week. This period saw 22,400 in sales for a total of 1,261,400 units overall.

In its fortieth week on the charts Em’s Recovery too saw a slight drop from No. 19 to No. 27 but his grand total now lies at a cool 3,775,600 after he pushed another 18,700 units this past week.

Although it didn’t manage to crack the top 40 Pharoahe Monch’s album W.A.R.(We Are Renegades) debuted at the No. 55 spot. In it’s first week of sales W.A.R. sold 9,622 units.

Look for Wiz Khalfa’s highly anticipated major label debut Rolling Papers to enter the charts in a big way next week. —Michael Naclerio

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