The hip-hop star breaks into the top 10 strongly with 'Trouble Man: Heavy Is the Head', but it's not enough to dethrone Taylor Swift's 'Red'.
- Dec 28, 2012
AceShowbiz - T.I.'s "Trouble Man: Heavy Is the Head" debuts at no. 2 in the Billboard Hot 200 chart with 179,000 records sold. It, however, is not enough to take the hip-hop star to the top spot, as Taylor Swift's "Red" album still holds on to no. 1 with an indomitable 276,000 units in sales.
"Trouble Man" is T.I.'s eighth album that makes it to the Billboard 200 charts, following his "No Mercy" album's no. 4 debut back in 2010. Despite his strong debut, he becomes the third of 3 male artists to end up as runner-up to the 23-year-old country music superstar.
Swift is on her sixth non-consecutive week at no. 1, with the past three weeks in a row seeing the country music superstar strongly edging out Wiz Khalifa, Bruno Mars, and this time T.I. for the coveted top spot.
A whopping 12.79 million albums were sold this week, the busiest in terms of record sales this year, when consumers were busy buying last minute Christmas gifts. Still, it pales in comparison to last year's 15.11 million record sales. This was mainly due to the fact that last year, the sales week ended on Christmas Day itself, compared to this week when the impact of Christmas sales was spread out to two successive weeks.
Bruno Mars' "Unorthodox Jukebox" may be the only album in the top 10 to decline in sales output from its total last week, but its 178,000 sales figure is still impressive to bring it to the no. 3 spot. The decline may just be attributed to his very strong debut of 192,000, and still nothing to feel bad about considering other albums drop considerably more, like The Game's "Jesus Piece" which suffers 59|percent| decline and falls from no. 6 to no. 37.
One Direction remain unflappable at no. 4 with "Take Me Home", while Michael Buble drops from no. 3 to no. 5, in spite of a 7|percent| increase in his "Christmas" album sales. Nevertheless, it has now surpassed the 3 million mark, making it the second album by the Canadian crooner to achieve that milestone, with the first one being his 2005 release "It's Time", reaching 3.7 million in total sales.
Rod Stewart finds himself in the same situation as Buble. Despite a 4|percent| increase in copies sold, he steps down a notch to no. 6, but with cumulative sales of 823,000, "Merry Christmas, Baby" gives him his biggest-selling release since his 2005 "Thanks for the Memory... The Great American Songbook Vol. IV" (1.15 million).
"Phillip Phillips' "The World from the Side of the Moon" remains at the no. 7 spot while Mumford & Sons' "Babel" breaks into the top 10 at no. 8. "12-12-12 The Concert for Sandy Relief" debuts at no. 9 while "Now 44" rounds up the top 10.
- Taylor Swift - "Red" (276,000)
- T.I. -"Trouble Man: Heavy Is the Head" (179,000)
- Bruno Mars -"Unorthodox Jukebox" (178,000)
- One Direction - "Take Me Home" (177,000)
- Michael Buble - "Christmas" (148,000)
- Rod Stewart - "Merry Christmas, Baby" (113,000)
- Phillip Phillips - "The World From the Side of the Moon" (98,000)
- Mumford & Sons - "Babel" (93,000)
- Various artists - "12-12-12 The Concert for Sandy Relief" (82,000)
- Various artists - "Now 44" (80,000)
