This Week in Hip-Hop Sales: Usher’s “Raymond vs. Raymond” Debuts at #1

I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong, and so far I'm completely and totally wrong about Usher's new album "Raymond v. Raymond". Despite my predictions that it wouldn't sell strong (due to leaks and a lack of a real hit), Ursher baby's latest opus came in at the number one slot in the country, moving 329,107 units in its first week. It's still too early to conclusively say that the album is a success - as we saw from Chris Brown's "Graffiti", publicity can push an album for the first couple weeks, but after the initial rush it plummets - but so far, Usher's making me look like a very bad psychic. Congratulations Raymond.

And now onto the tracks: Top 10 Songs with units sold

1. Train - Hey, Soul Sister 219,144
2. Rihanna - Rude Boy 198,557
3. B.o.B. ft. Bruno Mars - Nothin' On You 196,745 Taio Cruz ft. Ludacris - Break Your Heart 174,849
4. Justin Bieber ft. Ludacris - Baby 164,265
5.
6. Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce - Telephone 136,625
7. Lady Antebellum - Need You Now 120,037
8. Black Eyed Peas - Imma Be 116,191
9. Timbaland ft. Justin Timberlake - Carry Out 99,249
10. Ke$ha ft. 30H!3 - Blah Blah Blah 97,041

The Refined Take:

1) One of the major reason "Raymond v. Raymond" had such a strong showing is the last minute success of "OMG", which shot up the charts in the last couple weeks to the number 7 slot. Albums don't do well without
some hits behind them, and it looks like "OMG" was exactly the boost Usher needed. He better buy will.i.am a new car with some of those royalties, will saved his ass.

2) Looks like I spoke too soon in regards to B.o.B.'s "Nothin' on You". After slipping a few spots to number five last week I thought it would continue to fall, but Bobby Ray rebounded this week to a solid number three showing. I've got a feeling his debut album's going to be huge. Let's hope I'm better at predicting success than failure.

3) Wait, what's this? Ke$ha's not in the top ten anymore! Pop botles! It's a celebration bitches!!!

4) We might as well make this an all Usher sales breakdown. You know what's crazy? Usher's "Yeah", which came out in 2004, is charting higher (#88) than his new singles "More" (#141) and "There Goes My Baby" (#135). If that doesn't prove his old stuff's better, I don't know what does.
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..Pitbull's "I Know You Want Me", a track that came out over a year ago. It may not be as flashy, but I've learned that it's how long you stay on the charts, not necessarily how high you get on them, that really rakes in the dough. Pit must be swimming in it.