ALICIA KEYS KEEPING THE PACE ON THE CHARTS; GHOSTFACE...NOT SO MUCH

On the chart's this week Alicia Keys stayed strong while the critically acclaimed new album "Big Doe Rehab" from Ghostface Killah debuted low. Alicia Keys holds on to the #2 (234,000 sold) position on this week's Billboard chart as her sales continue to climb. She is joined in the top 10 by American Idol runner-up Blake Lewis whose debut album landed at #10 (98,000 sold). But the real story on this week’s chart is the debuts of some big Hip-Hop releases. Scarface leads the pack with his new album "Made" coming in at #17 (63,084 sold) while DJ Drama's first retail mixtape "Gangsta Grillz: The Album" landed at #26 (48,848 sold). New albums from Wyclef Jean and Ghostface Killah, while critically acclaimed, disappointed sales wise on the charts with their albums coming in at #28 (46,519 sold) and #41(35,671 sold) respectively. Styles P.'s new KOCH distributed album "Super Gangster, Extraordinary Gentleman" landed at #52 (29,047 sold). It was also clear this week that while fans may still love 2Pac, they aren't too interested in purchasing another hits album from the legendary artist. Two new 2Pac hits releases, "Thug" and "Life" hit the charts this week and sold 22,539 and 18,943 copies respectively. One of the week's biggest Hip-Hop gainers was Soulja Boy whose album "Souljaboytellem.com" was up 29% in sales and came in at #32. The week's #1 album was once again Josh Groban's "Noel" selling another 568,000 copies.