This Week in Hip-Hop Sales: Usher Stands Alone

The last few weeks were looking great for urban music. Eminem was flying up the charts, B.o.B. was holding the crown at number one, Usher was staying strong, but this week? This week Usher's the only urban artist even within striking distance of having a top ten album (he's currently at number seven, "The Adventures of Bobby Ray" is number 13 and falling). That means that I'm now in the uncomfortable position of giving huge props to usher for holding it down, even though I'm on record as saying I thought "Raymond vs. Raymond" would flop. Oops. Of course he's still getting chart bitch-slapped by a pre-pubescent boy (it's Justin Bieber bitches!), but so's everyone else, so I can't rub it in too much.

Let's take a look at the top 10 urban selections on the "Digital Song Sales" for this week.

Top Digital Song Sales (w/ units sold)

1. Usher ft. will.i.am - OMG (240,403)
2. B.o.B. ft. Hayley Williams - Airplanes (219,624)
3. Eminem - Not Afraid - (202,334)
4 (6 overall). Jay-Z ft. Mr. Hudson - Young Forever (138,842)
5 (7 overall). Taio Cruz - Break Your Heart ft. Ludacris (123,865)
6 (11 overall). B.o.B. - Nothing On You ft. Bruno Mars (96,496)
7 (16 overall) Drake - Find Your Love (77,202)
8 (17 overall) Rihanna - Rude Boy (71,846)
9 (20 overall). Ludacris - My Chick Bad ft. Nicki Minaj (64,412)
10 (18 overall) Black Eyed Peas - Rock That Body (63,109)

The Refined Take:

1) Fuck Arab money, I want that Justin Bieber money. Don't kid yourself, every rapper in the game wishes they were balling out of control like the Biebs right now. Two top 20 albums?! Damn I wish I was the accountant that was illegally shuttling money out of his accountant to an offshore account.

2) Oh shit! Looks like Drake might have a top ten hit to launch his debut album on. Although "Over" just did ok, his latest effort "Find Your Love" is continuing its climb up the charts. It usually takes a few weeks for a new track to knock an established hit out of the top ten, but I wouldn't be surprised if Drake found himself with a top ten single next week. Of course, anything less than number one will feel like a disappointment for the most hyped young man in hip-hop history, but let's give credit where it's due.

3) Can someone explain the appeal of Jay's "Forever Young" to me? That's one of my least favorite cuts off "BP3", that's shit's softer than baby poo. And yet people are eating it up. I don't watch "Lost" or "American Idol", and now this? I'm so out of touch with America.

4) With Nas & Damian Marley's excellent "Distant Relatives", Reflection Eternal's excellent "Revolutions Per Minute" and Janelle Monae's crazy but excellent "ArchAndroid" all dropping this week we'll find out soon how much America truly supports quality music. I sweat to god, if Ke$ha's album does better than Distant Relatives you'll be able to find me sucking on an exhaust pipe.

5) This week's Mr. Irrelevant Award, given to the song that sits at the absolute bottom of the charts (the number 200 spot), goes to..who else but Drake for "I'm Goin In". Really? Why would anyone buy this when you could download in under a minute. Oh well, congrats Drizzy,