Rap Missing From Top 10 Albums

This week's Billboard 200 album chart top 10 is devoid of hip hop, though there are a few hip hop artists and rap tracks on some of the following albums.

1. Godsmack - IV
2. Taking Back Sunday - Louder Now
3. Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
4. Avant - Director
5. Rihanna - A Girl Like Me
6. Rascal Flatts - Me and My Gang
7. Soundtrack - High School Musical
8. NOW! That's What I Call Music, Vol. 21
9. The Goo Goo Dolls - Let Love In
10. Andrea Bocelli - Amore

Good news for UK act The Streets:
The Streets debut at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Electronic Albums chart and at No. 68 on The Billboard 200 with "The Hardest Way To Make an Easy Living" (Vice). With more than 13,000 units scanned, this is the act's biggest Nielsen SoundScan week, second consecutive No. 1 debut on the Top Electronic Albums chart and highest position on The Billboard 200.

PopMatters Review:
The Streets - The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living

Comments

[jonjon]

ya'already know, the big names, Mobb Deep,Lil Jon whatever will sell big only in it's first wek-them boom from the canon-blows right off the charts

[Rizoh]

What a travesty!

[JD]

....for the first time in 15 years.

[J. Space]

My question is, when Gnarls Barkley moves more units than Mobb Deep next week and lands at #1, can we claim them as an urban act? In my opinion, we'd be CRAZY not to

[Clyde Smith]

J., that's one of my problems with the urban label. It's just too restrictive to reflect contemporary hip hop and related musical genres.

But I'm looking forward to see how well Gnarls Barkley does. The album releases this week in the UK (I think) so it will be a possible preview of next week's US release.

[Rizoh]

J Space,
I don't know about other sites, but I've already claimed Gnarles as our own genre-bending hip-hop staple, and I'll continue to shower them with coverage...
The good thing about that project is that it's for everyone: hip-hop, urban, dance, pop, etc but it reeks of alt-rap more than anything else. It's definitely going to move more units than Danger Doom.

[michael]

its a shame that hip hop is falling off. hova (jay-z) dumbed down to sell, now dumb people are just selling. what happened to the life. the new ideas. now peeps just sample with no shame. timbaland sampled oliver mtukudzi (holla at the zim boy making it big, big up zimbabwe) back on IP but he did it with class. Kanye did it o.k. on CD but now it just sucks. if i wanted to listen to old shit i'd pop out my moms records. thats why hip hop/ rap isnt in the top ten, cause its not progressing. sure its making money but at what cost. dont sell your souls.

[The Black Death]

This is what needs to happen for hip-hop to get back on track. It's just like what happened to rock in the mid to late '80's. We need the Jay-Z's and 50's to die off(figuratively not literally) for the next evolution to explode like Nirvana and Pearl Jam did in the early '90s.

[fredo]

fuck you niggaz,hiphop aint dead.its jus taking a short break but when it gets off the bench,itll do it big time.the mobbs coming off,baks is right the corner.etc,

[Clyde Smith]

I'll have to say that I was surprised at the resonses this post has received. I never kept up with charts very closely before starting ProHipHop but, since then, it's been pretty obvious that contemporary rap does much better on the singles chart than on the album chart.

The Black Death - interesting comparison to grunge which was definitely opposed to metal/hair bands that were rock's version of bad music that charts well (for a while). The thing is, it took punk rock to clear the slates for grunge to emerge. And punk went back to basics without going old school or it would have simply been a retro movement.

Is there anything equivalent to punk within hip hop that strips rap down to basics and cuts through the junk without going retro?

If hip hop doesn't chart, does that mean it's dead?