Lil Wayne album sells 1m copies in first week

It's all very well going around harping on about being "the best rapper alive", but it doesn't mean much if you're only selling 38 records to your mum. Luckily Lil Wayne now has the stats to back up his bragging, as his album Tha Carter III has sailed past the 1m mark in its first week.

This means our favourite vocally manipulated syrup-slurper now boasts the fastest-selling first week release of the year in the US, trouncing Mariah Carey's E=MC2, which sold just under half a million copies in its first week.

Lil Wayne's achievements haven't been matched since 50 Cent topped the mil mark three years ago with The Massacre. Kanye West's The Graduation came close, but fell about 50,000 under the crucial million.

The news will be especially gratifying for Wayne, who recently told Vibe magazine how he never seemed to get the respect his rapping deserved.

Tha Carter III was pushed up the charts on the back of the track Lollipop, which had topped the Billboard Hot 100 for weeks before being pushed off by Coldplay's Viva La Vida.


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