Despite an infectious and scintillating single, “Rude Boy,” that sizzled to the top the charts and stayed there for six consecutive weeks, Rihanna was outsold in the first half of 2010 by R&B singers Monica, Sade and Usher.
Billboard just released its annual mid-year report, and it shows how Still Standing, Soldier of Love and Raymond v. Raymond enabled the three artists to shine despite an industry mired in a deep sales drought.
Featuring the single “Love All Over Me,” Monica’s Still Standing rest at the halfway point of 2010 at No. 9 with 454,000 copies sold. Usher nearly doubled that amount as his album with flagrant sexual overtones incited sales to reach nearly 900,000, good for third place. Sade has the best-selling R&B album of the year so far as she crossed the platinum threshold and currently sits at 1.2 million copies sold.
The list, which also features hip-hop efforts from Eminem (at No. 2 with 1.06 million sold in two weeks), Drake (No. 5, 709,000), The Black Eyed Peas (No. 4, 853,000) and Ludacris (No. 8, 470,000), covers sales from Jan. 10– July 4 as recorded by Nielsen SoundScan. Imprisoned rapper Lil Wayne sits in the No. 1 spot behind his protege Drake as Rebirth has sold over 617,000 thus far in 2010, good for sixth place.
Ri Ri’s Rated R, which was released at the end of 2009 and has sold 575,000 copies in total, and 433,000 thus far in 2010, to place the tight-bodied beauty from Barbados in at No. 10, three spots behind the product produced by keyboard killer Alicia Keys, The Element of Freedom.
Things could change the complexion of the list and bump Rihanna out of the Billboard Top 10 R&B/Hip-Hop sellers for the year. Usher’s scorching new video and single means he’s going to inflict more damage to the charts, and Luda and Drake are sure to release more cuts off their CDs. Speaking of Drake, his Young Money label mate, Nicki Minaj, is about to drop her debut solo project this fall. –terry shropshire
