Soundscan: May 11-18, 2009

Soundscan: May 11-18, 2009
M.D. Wright
5.20.09

Chart Position
3

Artist
Cam'ron

Label
Asylum

Album Title
Crime Pays

Last Week Sales
42,161

This Week Sales
--

% Change
--

Cam'ron debuted 3rd on the charts. Only Green Day's heavily anticipated new album and Hannah Montana's collaboration with Disney sold more with 221K and 68K, respectively. Cam reportedly sold 42K according to soundscan, including all outlets online. With the typical expectation of 60% drop in 2nd week, sales figures don't bode well for those expecting the sales of "Crime Pays" to exceed those of "Killa Season" (which also debuted high on the charts - actually #1 overall in April 2006).

For people who hate Cam'ron or are apathetic to him, this is good news. To Cam'ron fans, this is somewhat bad news, but with one caveat: Asylum, while maintaining distribution with a major label (Warner) does not distribute as Def Jam, Bad Boy/Arista/J or Sony. Cam'ron's next album may not be on Asylum, and may feature more cameo appearances and better production with more promotion with singles and videos on the major outlets. I believe Cam pretty much put "Crime Pays" out as a taste test before putting out Killa Season II the movie and the other album that he mentioned that will drop in late 2009.

However, those who have followed Cam'ron's career know that such a declaration regarding release dates is worthless, as there have been delays of up to nearly two years with regard to his albums' release dates ("Purple Haze" due to label politics at Roc-a-Fella in 2003/2004, and "Crime Pays", which was originally titled differently and intended for release in mid 2007).

Eminem's new album, "Relapse" is expected to debut at #1 on the charts and to move approximately 450,000 units by most estimates. Soundscan numbers will be available for that record one week from today.