Kanye West sold 956,936 copies of Graduation in the past week — 265,632 more units than 50 Cent’s Curtis moved (Fifty’s final tally came to 691,304) — meaning the super-hyped September 11th hip-hop showdown has been handily won by Mr. “Stronger” by a landslide. West’s chart victory gives him the biggest debut of 2007, and 50 Cent’s second-place finish also bests the year’s previous record holder, Linkin Park’s Minutes to Midnight, which had opening-week sales of 622,827. While in the months leading up to their albums’ release 50 Cent was characteristically confident and famously boasted he’d quit the rap game if he didn’t reign supreme, over the past week he’s been blaming everyone from his record company to MTV’s VMAs as early projections put West out front (Rock Daily’s unscientific exit poll was pretty dead on, as well); when Kanye was victorious on the U.K. charts, 50 even postponed a European promotional tour. We anxiously await his response to today’s news …
Here’s Rolling Stone’s own guide to the showdown:
- Our New Music Tuesdays reviews of both albums.
- Easy access to three videos featuring Kanye West and 50 Cent talking about their chart feud, the future of hip-hop and their historic appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone.
- Excerpts of the 50 Cent and Kanye West interviews.
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- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC.
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