I know she’s not totally Hip Hop but you can’t deny that the music has a heavy influence on her albums.  Mariah Carey is right behind Jay-Z with her 12^th studio album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel.  She sells 53,000 copies of The Dream and Tricky Stewart produced disc but takes a drop from the third spot to sixth.

Moving above the top ten we have The Black Eyed Peas at the 23^rd position.  Their latest album The E.N.D continues to move units selling 25,000 copies this week.

Next we come to Drake at the 30^th spot with his mixtape-turned-album So Far Gone.  This is a rerelease of the mixtape released almost a year earlier and containing five out of the original 18 songs. This week Drake “Drizzy” Rogers manages to sell 19,000 more copies of the EP.  So far the Canadian MC has managed to sell a little over 140,000 copies of an album that was already released and has less than half the original songs.  If that’s any indication of how his debut album will sell then it looks like CashMoney/YoungMoney will have a good year.

Kid Cudi falls from 32 to 48 but still manages to sell 12,000 copies of his debut Man On The Moon: The End Of Day.  So far the G.O.O.D Music artist has sold over 150,000 copies of his first disc and has been pretty competitive on the charts. Fat Joe and Ghostface sold under 10,000 units. of Ghostface Killah's Ghostdini: The Wizard Of Poetry In The Emerald City pushed 7,200. 73. Fat Joe Jealous Ones Still Envy 2 sold 8,300

Let’s move on to “Dropping” and see if any of the artists are going to help Jay and Mariah hold it down for Hip Hop next week.

Dropping This Week

We have a lot of duo and compilation albums coming from some well respected individuals in Hip Hop this week.

First up in “Dropping” we have members from a well known group that has worked with artist like Tupac, Notorious B.I.G, Swizz Beatz, and Mariah Carey.  Bone-Ified appears to be mainly Bizzy Bone and Layzie Bone of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.  The new album, Thug Smoke Out, features the duo plus two songs by Krayzie Bone.  I’m not sure if this is official or not but I’m sure someone in the comment section will let me know.  Any BTNH fans out there?

Next up we have another duo consisting of Del Tha Funkee Homosapien & Tame One.  The West Coast MC and the New Jersey native get together to release Parallel Uni-Verses.  Tame One has been a part of the Artifacts and The Weathermen while Del has worked with everyone from Ice Cube to the Gorillaz.  This album should definitely be a display in lyricism from two well respected underground MC’s.

Keeping it underground we come to D.I.T.C which is short for Diggin’ In The Crates.  The 90’s crew consisted of Showbiz & A.G. (Andre the Giant), Lord Finesse, Diamond D, Fat Joe, O.C., Buckwild, and the late great Big L.  Each one of these individuals has separately gone on to achieve success in the rap game in some form or another, but in the nineties they displayed their serious lyrical skill as a group.  Those that aren’t in the know and want to hear some of their favorite MC’s earlier works may want to pick up Rare and Unreleased, Vol. II or Rare Breaks: Stack Two.

Here’s another underground group that had its debut in the nineties and has been making lyrical music ever since.  People Under the Stairs returns with their seventh studio album, Carried Away.  The Los Angeles duo rap over hard hitting underground production which should please any Hip Hop head…if you’re into that sort of thing.  P.U.T.S is usually a consistent group so you may want to give this album a shot.

R.A the Rugged Man has been rapping since the mid nineties and is now releasing Legendary Classics, vol. 1.  The Long Island MC is also an accomplished writer, contributing to books and magazines directed at the Hip Hop audience.  This album is a collection of…legendary classics.  Get a sense of history and pick up a copy.

Moving back to the present we have DJ Khaled and E-Class who drop DJ Khaled and E-Class Present From the 305.  The album features Billy Blue, Red Eyezz, Bizzle, Piccalo (ya’ll remember when Tupac played Piccalo in that episode of A Different World?  This is only the second time in life I have seen someone named Piccalo), and Flo Rida.  This should be a typical DJ Khaled/Florida affair so if you’re into the sound then pick it up.

You may know him as Lil’ Sci’ but on this album he goes by John Robinson.  Sometime last year he made an album that was entirely produce by MF Doom and now he returns with J. Rawls, an underground producer best known for his work on Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Blackstar.  Together Rawls and Robinson are known as Jay Are (get it….J Rawls and J Robinson…J Are…I like stuff like that..moving on) and are releasing a new album The 1960’s Jazz Revolution Again.  The duo summarizes the album as “an education of the past that is relevant to our present times, while giving ode to a period that flourished in political activism, progressive social movements, and cultural creativity.”  It’s always nice to see creative projects like this so if you get a chance give it a listen.

Ruff Dog entertainment gets a mention this week for having a….I believe I call it an interesting…album cover.  The Package.  That’s it for them.

That’s it for Dropping This Week.  They are selling cd’s for five dollars at places like Wal Mart and on Itunes.  That’s bootleg prices.  Go pick up an album or two.

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