Lil Wayne Tops the Charts, But Sells 100K Less Than Expected

Lil Wayne is back on top. The incarcerated rap star’s latest release, I Am Not A Human Being, catapulted to the No. 1 spot on The Billboard 200 albums chart today (October 20), after physical copies of the disc were shipped to stores last Tuesday. Good news for Weezy, who is set to return home from his 10-month gun charge bid on November 4.

Initially released three weeks earlier in a digital-only format, a retail version of the CD with two bonus cuts were stocked on shelves last week. Since then the album earned 125,300 in sales—about 100,000 less than Weezy’s label Cash Money/Universal expected. According to the Nielsen SoundScan statistics, the disc has sold around 258,700 units to-date.

Eminem landed four seats down at No. 5 this go-round. In its 17th week on the charts Recovery picked up an additional 50,400 in sales, making its tally stand at 2,818,500.

Sliding from No. 6 to No. 21 is Waka Flocka Flame. In week two the Brick Squad rapper’s debut LP, Flockaveli, was purchased 18,300 times. So far the Atlanta-based rep has 55,500 discs sold. Twelve positions down at No. 33 is Waka’s one-time mentor Gucci Mane. Fans bagged up 11,700 copies of The Appeal: Georgia’s Most Wanted this sales cycle, making Gooch’s four-week total equal 92,000.

One spot down at No. 34 is Young Money star Drake, who rounds out the hip-hop releases on the Top 40 this week. Thank Me Later’s stats now sit comfortably at 1,123,700 after pulling in 11,600 in sales over the last seven days.

Cam’ron protégé Vado, whose street album Slime Flu, flew into stores last week, failed to crack The Billboard 200. The Harlemite’s E1 release sold about 2,300 units in its first week on shelves.

Next week look for Eminem and Weezy to battle it our for hip-hop's top spot on the charts. —Elan Mancini