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Fiddy Won't Bow to "Now"
03/23/2005 3:18 PM, E! Online
David Jenison
Now that's what I call a massacre.
The latest edition
of the hugely popular Now That's What I Call Music! series just
turned legal with Volume 18, but didn't get lucky, thanks to 50 Cent.
For the third straight week, the rapper's The Massacre held tight
at number one, outselling Now! 18 364,000 to 339,000 for the week
ended Sunday, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures Wednesday.
This puts Fiddy's three-week tally at 2.3 million copies. He
becomes the first artist to stay on top for three or more weeks since
Usher's Confessions ruled supreme for seven of eight weeks last
spring. (Coincidentally, Confessions celebrates its one-year
anniversary on the charts this week at 14.)
Fiddy's rein
broke a streak of consecutive number ones for the Now series,
whose last two installments both topped the Billboard 200.
Now! 18 features radio hits by U2, Nelly, Destiny's Child, Chingy
and Omarion among the 20 total tracks. The previous installments,
Now 16 and 17, debuted with sales of 504,000 and 407,000,
respectively.
Jack Johnson 's In Between Dreams,
which challenged Fiddy last week, dropped a spot to number three.
Jennifer Lopez 's Rebirth, which was set for a number one debut
two weeks ago before the rapper moved up his release date, fell to
number seven in its third week.
The rest of the Top 10 were
familiar faces: Green Day's American Idiot at four, the Game's
The Documentary at five, Kelly Clarkson 's Breakaway at
six, the Killers' Hot Fuss at eight, John Legend's Get
Lifted at nine and Ray Charles' Genius Loves Company at 10.
Just missing the Top 10 was Latin rapper Baby Bash, who moved
48,000 copies of Super Saucy for a number 11 bow. The Bay Area
emcee also appears on the Now! 18 track "Obsession" with Frankie
J. Meanwhile, Brooke Valentine's Chain Letter opened at 16 with
42,000 copies and Miranda Lambert's Kerosene at 18 with 40,000
discs.
Other noteworthy newbies included Crosby, Stills &
Nash's Greatest Hits charting at 24, the Reverend Al Green's
Everything's OK at 50, Brit buzz band Kaiser Chiefs'
Employment at 86, B.B. King's Ultimate Collection at 96
and Daft Punk's Human After All at 98. Wrapping up the week's Top
200 entries, Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee landed at 104 with
Ahora Le Toca Al Cangri! Live.
Over on the singles
chart, Destiny's Child's has finally relinquished its iron grip on the
top slot. The trio's past two singles have held the top spot nearly
every week for the past five months, but this week Destiny's hit
"Soldier" dropped a spot thanks to Natalie's "Goin' Crazy."
Here's a recap of last week's top-selling albums, per Nielsen
SoundScan:
1. The Massacre, 50 Cent
2. Now
That's What I Call Music! Vol. 18, various
3. In Between
Dreams, Jack Johnson
4. American Idiot, Green Day
5. The Documentary, The Game
6. Breakaway, Kelly
Clarkson
7. Rebirth, Jennifer Lopez
8. Hot
Fuss, The Killers
9. Get Lifted, John Legend
10.
Genius Loves Company, Ray Charles
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