Remember last week when Kanye West bragged that his newly released CD My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was on pace to sell 600,000 copies? Well, Kanye’s critically acclaimed album didn’t even go gold!
That’s right, according to Soundscan and Billboard.com, MBDTF sold only 497,089 copies in the first week — and that’s including the so-called ‘Black Friday’ sales.
According to the RIAA, an album must sell 500,000 copies in order to receive a gold certification.
I hope Kanye has a strong support structure of friends and gold diggers around him to prop him up when he hears the news that his album didn’t even go gold. Brace yourselves for another round of finger pointing and accusations of racism by the troubled producer.
The music industry aggregate site HitsDailyDouble.com originally reported Kanye’s album selling 518,000 units. But their numbers are never reliable.
Meanwhile, newcomer rapper Nicki Minaj’s debut CD also came in below the early estimates. According to Soundscan, Nicki’s Pink Friday eked by with 375,973 units sold to grab the #2 spot.
British superstar Susan Boyle’s The Gift takes the #3 spot with 262,865 sold. While Taylor Swift’s nearly double platinum disc Speak Now (#4), and Britain’s wunderkinder, Jackie Evancho, round out the Top 5.
Ne-Yo’s Libra Scale, which was originally released in Europe last year, debuted on the U.S. charts this week at the #9 position with 112,533 sold. I would call that a flop for him.
