March 4th, 2009 | Jake Paine

After a one-week showing from '70s and '80s Gap Band veteran and Snoop uncle Charlie Wilson, Beyonce re-assumed the top urban spot last week with her I Am...Sasha Fierce. Behind such stars as Taylor Swift, The Jonas Brothers, Nickelback and the Oscar-noted Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack, B was actually down a spot from a week before. Jamie Foxx remained on her high-heels though, with his Intuition.

Kanye West's 808's & Heartbreak and T.I.'s Paper Trail came in at #10 and #11, holding strong, as both reach for the two million mark. With India.Arie out of the Top Five fold, Keyshia Cole also bounced back after the two rap heavyweights with her A Different Me.

Top 200 Album Sales (Top 5 Hip Hop/R&B)

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Est. Total
6	Beyonce	I Am...Sasha Fierce	35,391	1,918,074
9	Jamie Foxx	Intuition	30,796	681,447
10	Kanye West	808's & Heartbreak	25,535	1,385,991
11	T.I.	Paper Trail	25,335	1,749,142
12	Keyshia Cole	A Different Me	24,436	750,263

The week was filled with three new Hip Hop releases. K'naan's led the way with the A&M Records release Troubador. This is A&M's first Hip Hop release to chart since The Black Eyed Peas. The release was followed 10 spots later by Joe Budden's second official retail album, Padded Room. A first in five years for Budden, the release was a high placement for the label, Amalgam Digital, and rumored to be one of the final retail releases for the digital-minded imprint.

Next was Project Pat's first Asylum Records release, Real Recognize Real. Despite limited marketing and promotion, the Memphis veteran's second project in 18 months nearly cracked 10,000 first week sales. Followed by that, Cypress Hill frontman B-Real brought out his solo debut after an 18 year career on Duck Down Records, titled Smoke N' Mirror.

Lil Wayne sold just under 15,000 copies of Tha Carter III , placing him at #36 this past week, with just over three million in gross sales.

Lastly, as artists like E-40, Scarface and DJ Drama's Lil Wayne mixtape have all bookended the Top 200, Nelly's Brass Knuckles re-appeared for the first time in over a month.

Other Notables

Rank	Artist	Album	This Week	Est. Total
32	K'naan	Troubador	15,288	15,386
42	Joe Budden	Padded Room	13,561	13,860
70	Project Pat	Real Recognize Real	8,664	8,803
148	B-Real	Smoke N' Mirrors	3,828	3,897
166	Nelly	Brass Knuckles	3,392	202,160

Where will Joe Budden and the veteran B-Real stand? Stay tuned to HipHopDX for next week....

Courtesy of: HipHopDX