Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III Sells 1 Million Copies in Its First Week

The rapper Lil Wayne sold 1 million copy of his new album 'Tha Cater III' in its first week or release. The highly anticipated album was finally released on June 10th 2008 after being pushed back several times last year as majority of the tracks had been leaked. According to Nielsen SoundScan figures, this album has had the best first week sales this year. That is very impressive for a rap album at a time when album sales have plummeted. Mariah Carey was the previous titleholder for 2008 with 475,000 copies of E=MC² sold in the first week or release.

The last album to sell 1 million or more in its first week of release was 50 cent's 'The Massacre' which sold 1.1 million copies in its first week back in 2005. This takes me back to an argument I was having with some of my friends a week ago; the day Tha Cater 111 was released. Some of them were saying that Lil Wayne is the best rapper of his time while the others argued that 50 cent was the best. Surely you can see the irony here.

The conclusion we came to is that every rapper has their time to shine if they play their cards right. 50 cent came into the game and took the industry by storm. He's the master of club-banging hooks that get you dancing from the first time you hear them. That, plus his industry 'beef' with various artists including Fat Joe, Ja Rule and later the Game, put his name on everybody's lips. There was no getting away from 50 cent and his music. That was his marketing ploy that saw him selling more than a million copies in his first week of sales.

Lil Wayne took a different route. Last year, he put out hit after hit, either as a collaborator on projects with various artists or in form of mixtapes including 'The Leak' and 'Da Drought 3'. These ventures made him a household name and there was always something of Lil Wayne to listen to all year round. He promoted and marketed himself through his huge volume of work, earning the title of 'The best rapper alive' somewhere along the way. Once that title stuck, he had it made. Anything Lil Wayne put out was gold.

So here we are today with neck-to-neck platinum sales from two artists. Who is more talented? Who is the better rapper? Do album sales determine talent? How much does marketing and self-promotion of the rappers play in determining who sells the most albums? Granted, album sales are an indicator of how well and artist is doing. People wouldn't spend their hard-earned money to buy something that wasn't good quality. The more albums sold would therefore indicate the more impressed people are by your work.

What about the marketing? What part does that play? Last year, 50 cent and Kanye West had a run-off to see who would sell the most albums in the first week if sales. 50 cent's 'C.U.R.T.I.S' was up against Kanye West's 'The graduation'. Kanye West won that battle with 957,000 albums sold in the first week. That was 266,000 more albums than 50 cent managed to sell. His response to his dismal performance was that his label (Interscope records) didn't push his album. It is no secret that the more an album is promoted through media, music videos and all that, the better it does. If this wasn't the case, we would see artist all over our TV screens around the time their albums are released. Music, like any other product has to be marketed to sell well.

So there is your formula. The ingredients for a successful album (even in this time of dwindling album sales) are talent to ensure a product that can sell and very creative marketing. These are the makings of 'The best rapper alive'.