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Jay-Z Tops Kanye West With New Album

07/18/2013
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(Radio.com) Turns out Jay-Z didn't need the 1 million free Samsung downloads of his new album Magna Carta... Holy Grail to have one of the best debut sales weeks of 2013.

Data from Nielsen SoundScan confirmed that Magna Carta, the rapper's 12th studio album, is the No. 1 album in the country, selling 527,000 (non-Samsung) copies in its first week.

The numbers place Hova as having the second-largest opening week of the year, bested only by Justin Timberlake, whose The 20/20 Experience opened with 968,000 copies sold.

The sales total also confirms that despite there being arguably more hype surrounding the release of Kanye West's Yeezus, Jay is really the king of the charts. Yeezus managed sales of 327,000 in its first week, no doubt hindered by a hit in prestige due to a pre-release leak.

Then again, it's not like Jay-Z was free of hindrances, either. The million free downloads for Samsung users would have impacted the final sales numbers, as may have a Spotify stream the day before the album's official release.

Regardless, Magna Carta's sales mean it is the best-selling rap record of the year in terms of its first-week numbers, taking the spot formerly occupied by Kanye West's Yeezus. more on this story

Radio.com is an official news provider for antiMusic.com.
Copyright Radio.com/CBS Local - Excerpted here with permission.

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