Idolator

Nas' new album, which was stripped of its epithetastic title in the months leading up to its release, took the No. 1 spot on this week's album charts, selling 187,000 copies in its first week out. The album, which leaked earlier this month, had a first-week total that was a little more than half of the 355,000-sold mark achieved by Hip-Hop Is Dead a year and a half ago. Nas is Nas' fourth career No. 1.

Biggest Debuts: Fresh off waking me up with his soundcheck, John Mellencamp enters the chart at No. 7, selling 56,000 copies of Life Death Love & Freedom; right behind him is David Banner, whose Greatest Story Ever Told moved 52,000 copies. Taylor Swift sold 45,000 copies of her Wal-Mart-exclusive Beautiful Eyes to enter at No. 9. O.A.R., Randy Travis, and the soundtrack to The Dark Knight also had top-20 debuts.

Notable Jumps: Bolstered by its attached film debuting in theaters last week and attracting a lot of people not interested in seeing the latest Batman installment, the soundtrack to the movie version of Mamma Mia! enjoyed an 89% jump, leaping to No. 3—ahead of Coldplay!—and selling 91,000 copies.

Dropping Off: Beck's Modern Guilt, last week's No. 4, was off 66% week-to-week and dropped to No. 18 (29,000).

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: There's nothing really inexplicable this week, although it should be noted that Kid Rock's boasting about sales got more ammo this week, as sales for Rock N Roll Jesus were up 20% week-to-week; of course, that gain wasn't enough to prevent the album from falling one spot to No. 6. (And really, the true durability test is going to come a year from now, when we see how many copies of this CD are in the used bins.)

The top 20 albums, with sales totals in parentheses (an asterisk indicates a debut):
1. Nas (187,000)^*
2. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (105,000)
3. Mamma Mia! soundtrack (91,000)
4. Coldplay, Viva La Vida (90,000)
5. Camp Rock soundtrack (78,000)
6. Kid Rock, Rock N Roll Jesus (73,000)
7. John Mellencamp, Life Death Love & Freedom (56,000)^*
8. David Banner, Greatest Story Ever Told (52,000)^*
9. Taylor Swift, Beautiful Eyes (45,000)^*
10. Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad (41,000)
11. Now 28 (40,000)
12. Taylor Swift (35,000)
13. O.A.R, All Sides (33,000)^*
14. Randy Travis, Around The Bend (31,000)^*
15. Katy Perry, One Of The Boys (31,000)
16. Beck, Modern Guilt (29,000)
17. Disturbed, Indestructible (29,000)
18. Journey, Revelation (28,000)
19. Usher, Here I Stand (26,000)
20. The Dark Knight soundtrack (25,000)^*

The top 10 digital albums, sales totals in parentheses (an asterisk indicates a debut):
1. Nas (28,000)^*
2. Coldplay, Viva La Vida (23,000)
3. O.A.R., All Sides (17,000)
4. Mamma Mia! soundtrack (17,000)
5. The Dark Knight soundtrack (12,000)^*
6. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Magic Tour Highlights (12,000)^*
7. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (8,500)
8. John Mellencamp, Life Death Love & Freedom (6,900)^*
9. Beck, Modern Guilt (6,700)
10. Camp Rock soundtrack (6,400)