NEWS: Lil Wayne's Carter III Clocks One Million in First Week

Multi-platinum US recording artist Lil Wayne further expands his dynasty with his new record breaking album Tha Carter III.  The new CD is the biggest US release by far for 2008, selling over 1 million copies its first week, reigning #1 on Nielsen SoundScan, besting Mariah Careys record-breaking release earlier this year.  Not since 50 Cents The Massacre in 2005 has an artist sold over 1 Million albums in their first week. 

Here are some other important statistics to note:

· Waynes first week sales represents the biggest sales week that the albums chart has seen since 2005.
· This first week total marks the biggest debut of any album in the history of Universal Motown.
· Only 14 other albums have notched million-plus weeks since SoundScan began tracking data in 1991.
· This first week scan more than doubled the first-week sales of any artist so far in 08.
· This is Lil Waynes first #1 album.

Two singles from Tha Carter III simultaneously blitz the Top Ten USA mainstream radio charts including the smash hit Lollipop at #2 and A Milli at #9, tagged as a Greatest Gainer. With these impressive figures, he eclipses Kanye West by nearly 10,000 units in first week performance. A dozen major US retailers including Amazon, Circuit City, Kmart, Target and Walmart show Lil Wayne outselling Kanye West since the album dropped on June 10.

Lil Wayne was born and raised in the infamous poverty-stricken section of New Orleans - the 17th Ward. His rise to stardom came in 1995 at the tender age of 12 when he made his debut on his former label mates B.Gs True Story CD. Shortly thereafter, the rap prodigy garnered national attention as a member of the group, Hot Boys, which consisted of rappers Juvenile, Turk and B.G., with their 1997 debut album, Get It How You Live, followed by 1998s platinum certified Guerilla Warfare and 2003s Let Em Burn. Success continued to follow Lil Wayne, as a solo artist, his debut CD, 1999s Tha Block Is Hot reached platinum status and was a #1 Billboard Album. He later released in 2000, Lights Out, 500Degreez in 2002 and his defining album, 2004s gold certified, Tha Carter, which featured the hit single Go DJ.

Since the release of his last CD, the platinum selling Tha Carter II, Lil Wayne has guest appearances on over 70 songs for other artists including Fat Joe’s 2008 Grammy nominated single Make It Rain, DJ Khaled’s We Taking Over, and Wyclef Jean’s Sweetest Girl.  He also released a duet CD with Bryan Birdman Williams titled Like Father, Like Son in 2006 which was a critical and commercial success.

Lil Wayne heralds THA CARTER III, as The album he was born to make.