Who Charted?: Hip-Hop May Not Be Dead, But “Hannah” Is Lurking Right Behind Nas

Nas’ Hip-Hop Is Dead took the top spot on the Billboard 200 this week, selling 355,000 copies; the album is his third career No. 1. Hip-Hop Is Dead barely edged out the never-say-die Hannah Montana soundtrack, which sold 349,000 copies, for the top spot.

Biggest Debuts: With the meager roster of new releases last week, the only other album to debut in the top 10 was Bow Wow’s The Price Of Fame; it sold 262,000 copies and landed at No. 6.

Biggest Slides Gains: There wasn’t a single album in the top 10 that took a dive from last week’s tallies, thanks in part, no doubt, to the rush of last-minute holiday shopping. Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveSounds nearly doubled its sales tally from the previous week, vaulting to No. 9 after a 98% sales gain. We’re sure that the every-five-minutes airplay that “My Love” has been getting for the past few weeks (honestly, we heard it more than any Christmas song over the holiday weekend) helped. Another beneficiary of gift-list gaps was the Beatles mash-up collection Love, which saw a 58% sales increase and rose to No. 5.

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: We might ban Chris Daughtry (up 38% over last week) from this category, because clearly he’s tapping into the bombast-loving market of people who have worn out their “Lips Of An Angel” ringtones, but we just have to say one thing–we’re betting the bald Ed Kowalczyk fan is really glad that he didn’t win American Idol this year, what with silver-haired Idol winner Taylor Hicks tumbling out of the top 10 after his No. 2 debut last week.

Nas Scores Third No. 1 Album With ‘Hip-Hop Is Dead’ [Billboard]