S. Samuel
Rap stars Young Jeezy and Common's new albums, Thug Motivation 103 and The Dreamer/The Believer, are both reportedly en route to dominate the sales chart next week.
Based on one-day estimates, Jeezy’s long-awaited LP will easily outsell Common’s new solo project.
Def Jam/IDJ’s Young Jeezy album, Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition, hits fourth, looks set for an impressive first week sales number of between 200-225k, based on one-day reports from those retailers who took time out from making fun of Newt Gingrich’s double chin to respond. The South Carolina-born rapper’s previous album, The Recession, debuted with nearly 260k upon its release in Sept. 2008. Windy City hip-hop icon Common’s Think Common/Warner Bros. bow, The Dreamer/The Believer, looks headed for first-week sales of between 55-65k. His last album, 2008’s Universal Mind Control, on G.O.O.D./Geffen, debuted with 82k. (HITS Daily Double)
Jeezy’s album suffered a leak days prior to its release.
“Yeah, it’s all good, man,” Jeezy said during a live Ustream session. “We ain’t tripping off those suckers leaking nothing. Real n*ggas ride with real n*ggas, you know. Real n*ggas gonna go and purchase that album. That sh*t ain’t just about the music. It’s a movement, man. We all we got. It’s us and then it’s them, baby. You know what I mean? We all we got and I gotcha.” (Ustream)
The LP will mark an end to Jeezy’s Thug Motivation series.
“I think this is the last one,” Jeezy said in an interview. “That’s why I put it together the way I did, you know. It’s on to the next chapter, the next phase. We did TM 101, which was [the first] Thug Motivation, 2 milli, changed the game a lil’ bit. I like to call it a classic. Just a lil’ bit though. … We did The Inspiration. I didn’t call it 102, but I think everybody in the streets called it 102 so I had to kind of ride with that. And then of course The Recession, shout out to Barack Obama, so now we’re back to motivating the thugs. … 2012, I just wanted to be there for my people.” (WPGC 95.5)
Common’s The Dreamer/The Believer marks his latest since 2008.
Three years on from Universal Mind Control, Common reverts back from that album’s Neptunes-produced techno grooves to a more old-school hip-hop style, courtesy of his long-time friend (and Kanye West‘s mentor) No ID, with whom he last worked on 1997’s One Day It’ll All Make Sense. (The Independent)
Check out a recent Young Jeezy interview below:
