UGK Busts Out Of The Underground
UGK’s first album in five years, Underground Kingz, debuted in the top spot on this week’s Billboard 200, selling 160,000 copies. The long-delayed Kingz is the duo’s highest-charting album, and the 160,000-sold tally is its highest sales week ever.
Biggest Debuts: Plies’ unfortunately covered The Real Testament came in at No. 2, selling 96,000 copies. And the Jonas Brothers’ self-titled Disney debut–which came after the band was rescued from the clutches of inept marketing entered the chart at No. 5, selling 69,000 copies–or 6,000 less than the still-unstoppable Hannah Montana 2. Further down the chart, Okkervil River’s Stage Names benefited from Pitchfork love, selling 10,000 copies and bowing at No. 62.
Notable Jumps: The first High School Musical soundtrack leapt to No. 28, selling 21,000 copies. Anyone want to take bets on whether it’ll vault all the way to No. 2–second only, of course, to its sequel–on next week’s chart?
Dropping Off: Last week’s No. 1, Common’s Finding Forever, took a 63% hit (58,000) and fell to No. 7; Korn’s Untitled took a 64% sales hit (45,000) this week, but that only knocked them back to No. 10.
Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Let’s give it up for Amy Winehouse, whose collapse and subsequent hospitalization didn’t stop people from singing “Rehab” drunkenly at parties; Back To Black suffered only a 1% sales drop (38,000), falling from No. 12 to No. 13. Tune in next week to see if the irony of that song will be too much for record-buyers to bear, now that she’s checked into a treatment facility (at least as of right now).
The top 20, with estimated sales totals in parentheses: 1. UGK, Underground Kingz (160,000) 2. Plies, The Real Testament (96,000) 3. V/A, Now 25 (86,000) 4. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (75,000) 5. Jonas Brothers (69,000) 6. Hairspray soundtrack (69,000) 7. Common, Finding Forever (58,000) 8. Fergie, The Dutchess (52,000) 9. T.I. T.I. Vs. T.I.P. (45,000) 10. Korn, Unititled (45,000) 11. Kidz Bop Kids, Kidz Bop 12 (40,000) 12. Linkin Park, Minutes To Midnight (39,000) 13. Amy Winehouse, Back To Black (38,000) 14. Sean Kingston (37,000) 15. Nickelback, All The Right Reasons (35,000) 16. Taylor Swift (32,000) 17, Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad (27,000) 18. Bon Jovi, Lost Highway (27,000) 19. Maroon 5, It Won’t Be Soon Before Long (26,000) 20. Prince, Planet Earth (26,000)
