During what is traditionally a slow week on the music charts, the soundtrack from Dreamgirls tops the Top R B/Hip-Hop Albums, where it rises 4-1, as well as the Billboard 200 where it dreamily ascends 3-1. The irony is the album dropped 36% in sales and ranks as the lowest sales total for a No. 1 album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991, according to Billboard.
Conversely, the set also counts as the first film soundtrack to rise to the top since O Brother, Where Art Thou? in 2002. Not only is it a slow sales week, the dramatic decrease in sales for rap albums (Young Jeezy fell 51%, while Nas fell 50%) adds fuel to the firey debate of the lack of staying power, and declining quality of mainstream rap and R B albums.
According to Nielsen SoundScan, R B and rap albums suffered the biggest sales drop, while album sales across genres continue to drop. Despite embarrassing sales declines, Young Jeezy s The Inspiration rises 2-1 on the Top Rap Albums list, while Nas s Hip-hop Is Dead falls one space to No. 2.
The only rap album enjoying significant gains is Mos Def s True (or Tru3 depending on what list you re looking at) Magic. The set jumps a whopping 50-26 in its second week on the Top R B/Hip-Hop Albums tally after opening on the strange date of December 29. While Dreamgirls rules album land, one of the film s stars, Beyonce, remains queen of the singles.
Irreplaceable is No. 1 on Hot R B/Hip-Hop Songs for a seventh week, a sixth week on the Billboard Hot 100, and snatches the Pop 100 No. 1 from Fergie s Fergalicious which had replaced it briefly last week.
The song also ranks as the week s airplay gainer on the Hot 100. It counts as the second best in terms of radio spins only behind Mariah Carey s 2005 smash We Belong Together. New singles this week include just two: Three Six Mafia s Doe Boy Fresh featuring Chamillionaire at No.
85. and Christina Aguilera s Candyman at No. 99.
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