Conspiracy or Straight Up Sales?

Looking back on last month's intense music showdown between 50 Cent and Kanye West, we all know that Kanye came out on top. Originally, 50 had agreed that if Kanye's Graduation album had sold more copies then him, he would retire from producing solo albums. He most likely released the statement just his image at first, and then realized that he should probably pull the comment. Graduation sold approximately 957,000 copies in the US during its first week of release, and as of October 4, 2007, it has sold approximately 1,714,000 copies worldwide. Curtis on the other hand sold 691,000 copies in the US during its first week of release, and as of September 28, 2007, it has sold approximately 1,176,000 copies worldwide. Despite the difference in sales between the 2 albums, Curtis was debuted on the Irish and Swiss album charts at number one, and has the highest debut sales week for an East Coast Hip-Hop album since Jay-Z's Kingdom Come selling 680,000 copies in late 2006.

While the sales battle was clearly resolved, 50 and other rappers have a conspiracy theory about the results. Prior to the release of the albums Chamillionaire stated in an interview with radio station Wild949, "What I think is that whichever company buys the most records is gonna be the winner. I think they're both gonna cheat." Clearly this was not a biased opinion, but in 50's case he's probably just mad at the results. Anyway the point of the matter is that there doesn't have to be a conspiracy behind something that is either unfavorable or unexplainable; sometimes it is just a good ole' fashioned sales fight. Personally I don't believe that there was anything unfair to this hyped up head-to-head battle, as I think Kanye's album to be the superior. Sure there were street teams hired by the respective record labels, and certain promotional sales, but in the end it comes down to the numbers. Accept defeat and don't cry about it.

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