50, Will You Just Retire Already?

Early this morning, Kanye West's new single "Love Lockdown" took the top slot on iTunes. Just over a year ago, Mr. West took the top slot on another chart: the Billboard 200 Album chart. He had pushed up the release date of his third album, Graduation, to compete with rival 50 Cent's own third album, Curtis. 50 boasted that he would easily outsell Kanye and that if he didn't, he would retire. Unfortunatley, 50 Cent is still around. I guess going #1 in Switzerland and Ireland means something these days.

Curtis sold 691,000 copies in its first week behind Graduation which sold 957,000. The #3 album of that week was Kenny Chesney's Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates. A year later, how do these albums stack up? Graduation is still the big winner with sales of 2,166,000. Just Who I Am might have lost the battle but won the war in the long haul with sales of 1,424,000. Curtis comes in a dissapointing third place with 1,336,000 copies sold.

Mr. West's next release, 808's and Heartbreak, is scheduled to come out December 16 and 50 Cent's Before I Self Destruct is currently slated for December 9. If Kanye moves his release date up to the 9th and beats 50 Cent, will he finally retire? We can only hope.

Well done Ye. Now enjoy the final single from his chart topping Graduation, the animated "Good Morning".