Brisk sales over the holiday weekend helped spur three debut albums into the top five, according to figures released by SoundScan.

Lil' Kim's highly anticipated sophomore release, "Notorious K.I.M.," which debuted at number four, was a shoe-in for the top ten. But few could have guessed that r&b singer Kelly Price or regional hip-hop act Nelly would sell a bit less and a little more, respectively, than Kim.

Charismatic rapper Nelly, whose single "Country Grammer" catapulted the St. Louis, Missouri native into the national spotlight, debuted at number three selling nearly 253,000 copies, a full 23,000 more than the Queen Bee. Kelly Price's sophomore LP "Mirror Mirror" sold 157,000, landing Ms. Price at number five. "Notorious K.I.M." sold 230,000 in its debut week.

Eminem's "Marshall Mathers LP" held at number one for the sixth week in a row, totaling over 4,442,000 in sales. Britney Spears, maintaining at number two, sold another 257,000 units, bringing

sales for "Oops!...I Did It Again" to 3,603,000.

Rounding out the top ten were multi-platinum artists Creed at number six, whose "Human Clay" has sold over 4,271,000 units and 'NSYNC, at number seven, whose "No Strings Attached" has sold a whopping 6,592,000 copies. Kid Rock fell to number eight with "History of Rock" while Papa Roach advanced to number nine with "Infest," which has gone gold. Eric Clapton and B.B. King, who would seem out of place in today's teen-pop dominated market, closed the top ten with their blues-rock release "Riding With the King.