Lil Wayne tops 1 million in sales

'Tha Carter III' outsells West's 'Graduation'

By PHIL GALLO

Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III” (Cash Money/Universal Motown) became the first album in more than three years to top 1 million sales in a week, according to Nielsen SoundScan data.

The million-seller opened strong -- 423,000 copies were sold on its first day of release -- which put it in a position to top the 957,000 that Kanye West’s “Graduation” sold in September. The album is available in four different configurations, which Universal Motown president Sylvia Rhone said helped drive sales.

“Lil Wayne is similar to Kanye (West) in that he knows how to deliver what people expect and then give them more,” she told Daily Variety last week after first-day sales figures were released. “At a time when all of the stories are about how this industry is collapsing, it’s refreshing to see the public respond to an artist who produces something special.”

The last album to hit seven figures in a week was 50 Cent’s “The Massacre,” which sold 1.1 million copies in March 2005. Lil Wayne’s previous best was “Tha Carter II’s” 238,000-unit sales week in 2005. Ten percent of “Tha Carter III’s” sales were digital.

Rhone noted that Lil Wayne’s success would have a “drafting effect” on other releases, and indeed album sales were up to 9.3 million units sold, a jump of nearly 23% from the week prior.

No. 2 slot went to Plies’ “Definition of Real” (Big Gates/Slip-N-Slide), which sold 215,000 copies in its opening stanza. For the second week in a row, the top five albums all sold more than 100,000 copies.

N.E.R.D.’s “Seeing Sounds” (Star Trak/Interscope) sold 80,000 copies to open at No. 7. Alanis Morissette’s “Flavors of Entanglement” (Warner Bros.) sold 70,000 to open at No. 8. My Morning Jacket landed its first-top 10 album as “Evil Urges” sold 49,000 copies to debut at No. 9. The Louisville, Ky., rock act’s 2005 record, “Z,” one of that year’s most widely praised discs, peaked at No. 67.

Other debuts included Montgomery Gentry’s “Back When I Knew It All” (Columbia), selling 27,000 (No. 20); Emmylou Harris’ “All I Intended to Be” (Nonesuch), 27,000 (No. 22); Jakob Dylan’s “Seeing Things” (Columbia), 24,000 (No. 24); the soundtrack to Nickelodeon’s “iCarly” (Sony), 20,000 (No. 28); and DJ Skribble’s “Total Club Hits” (Thrive), 20,000 (No. 30).