R&B/Hip hop sales lagging · Jul 21, 02:47 PM by J-Cent
So we are now over six months into 2006, and so far the overall R&B/hip-hop album sales have suffered a resounding 22.4% drop to 53.8 million units from the record setting 69.3 million units scanned during the same six-month period in 2005.
Taken alone it looks very grave, rap sales for 2006’s first half stand at 29.5 million units versus last years 35.1 million units, a 15.9% drop.
However this time last year, R&B/hip-hop was flush with major-league blockbusters from three artists: the Game, 50 Cent, who had the only million-selling week last year and Mariah Carey.
In the first half of this year, R&B/hip-hop still has several million-plus sellers on the billboard top 10: Mary J. Blige (1.5 million sales), T.I. (1.3 million sales), Ne-Yo (1 million sales) and Jamie Foxx (1 million sales). Although those numbers are strong, they don’t compare to the tune played by the 50 Cent/Carey/Game trio in 2005.
When you subtract the 8.4 million that those three projects sold in the first six months of last year, R&B/hip-hop’s sales would remain ahead of the 2006 number but by a much slimmer margin. And remember, there are still a few superstar releases coming up, including Beyonce, Ludacris, OutKast, Janet Jackson and the Game’s long-awaited follow-up.
