Outkast Recast At #1 On Billboard Albums Chart
Three months after its release, Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is returning to the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart.
The dynamic duo's double-album masterwork sold more than 374,000 copies last week, according to SoundScan figures released Wednesday (December 31), to reclaim the #1 position. The album held the top spot for two weeks after it dropped in September but was bumped by Ludacris' Chicken-N-Beer, which comes in at #20 on the latest chart. Outkast's latest returned to the top once before in early November and has sold more than 3 million copies.
The Diary of Alicia Keys, which sold more than 371,000 copies last week, drops to #2, while Toby Keith's Shock'n Y'all slides to #3. The Very Best of Sheryl Crow moves from #7 to #5 (with more than 255,000 copies sold), No Doubt's The Singles 1992-2003 steps up a notch to #8 (217,000), and Britney Spears' In the Zone takes three steps up to #10 (205,000).
The rest of the top 10 finds Now That's What I Call Music! 14 taking a step back to #4 (302,000) and cracking 2 million copies sold; Josh Groban's Closer moving a spot down to #6 (249,000); Hilary Duff's Metamorphosis slipping from #6 to #7 (245,000); and Ruben Studdard's Soulful also taking the popular one-step drop to #9 (211,000).
G-Unit's Beg For Mercy climbs from #15 to #11; Jay-Z's The Black Album leaps six to #12; Blink-182's untitled fifth LP advances from #16 to #14; 2003's second-best-selling debut, Evanescence's Fallen, takes three steps forward to #16; Beyoncé's Dangerously in Love, the year's top album by a female solo artist, climbs four to #17; Tupac's Resurrection skips six places to #19; and the aforementioned Chicken-N-Beer moves up eight places to bring up the rear of the top 20. In making such strides, all of those albums saw increases in their weekly sales totals of at least 10 percent.
Juvenile's seventh album, Juve the Great, debuts at #32, having sold more than 103,000 copies, which should help him with those child-support payments he was recently brought to court for. B2K moved 102,000 copies of their soundtrack to "You Got Served," the group's feature film debut, due in theaters January 30. The album, featuring the single, "Bada Boom," bows at #34.
Two other hip-hop albums round out the week's notable chart debuts. David Banner's MTA2: Baptized in Dirty Water at #77 and the Bravehearts' debut, Bravehearted, with guest appearances from Nas, Mobb Deep and Lil Jon, at #82.