This may be rapper Jay-Z's biggest week to boast about the continued success of his #1 album Vol. 2 ... Hard Knock Life.

Jay-Z's ironically titled album held on to the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart for the fifth week in a row, fending off challenges from such high-profile artists as R.E.M. and Dru Hill.

Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life moved 174,000 copies in its fifth week of release, according to sales-tracking company SoundScan, bringing its grand total to 1.1 million. It has been at #1 since its debut five weeks ago, spurred on by the success of such songs as "Hard Knock Life" (RealAudio excerpt), Can I Get A..." (RealAudio excerpt) and "Money Ain't A Thing" (RealAudio excerpt).

Though Jay-Z has broken with the trend of rappers debuting high and then plunging down the charts, he has a long way to go before he breaks the record for hip-hop at the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart. That award goes to pop-rapper M.C. Hammer, whose Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em was lodged in the top slot for 21 weeks in 1990.

The highest debut of the week belongs to R&B group Dru Hill, whose Enter The Dru lands at #2 with sales of 127,000 in the week ending Sunday. They are followed closely by rock superstars R.E.M., whose Up moved 117,000 copies and landed at #3.

Up is the group's 11th full-length album and their first without long-time drummer Bill Berry. Its first single, "Daysleeper" (RealAudio excerpt) is currently doing well on rock and alternative-rock radio.

"That we've managed to carry on, to me, is the most surprising thing," singer Michael Stipe said of the Athens, Ga., group's success over the years. "It just doesn't happen. And to carry on and remain vital -- and I feel like we're vital. I feel like we're doing great work, and it's important stuff -- to me, and maybe to a very select number of people, but that's enough."

Other notable debuts on the chart were Mötley Crüe's Greatest Hits, which includes the new songs "Enslaved" and Bitter Pill," at #20; Neil Diamond's As Time Goes By, which finds the adult-contemporary singer/songwriter covering songs made famous in films, at #31; Pras' Ghetto Supastar, which features the hit title-track, at # 55; and the "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" soundtrack, which features Sugar Ray's cover of the Steve Miller Band's "Abracadabra," at #99.

On the bottom half of the chart, rocker Bryan Adams' On a Day Like Today, which features a duet with Mel "Sporty Spice" Chisholm on "When You're Gone," landed at #103; R&B trio Divine's Fairy Tales, which features the hit single "Lately" (RealAudio excerpt), came in at #136; and the soulful-rockers Afghan Whigs settled into the #176 slot with 1965.