Eric R. Danton | Sound Check

Kanye stomps 50 Cent in first-week sales

The headline says it all: "Kanye Crushes 50 Cent in Huge Sales Week"

Kanye West's third album, "Graduation," has moved 957,000 units in its first six days, according to data compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and reported by Billboard.com. Not only was that more than enough for West's album to hit the Billboard 200 albums chart at No. 1, it's the biggest-selling first week for an album in nearly two years.

Though he lost the face-off with West, 50 Cent sold 691,000 copies of his third album, "Curtis," which was enough to land at No. 2. Kenny Chesney places third with sales of 387,000 copies of "Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates."

With "High School Musical 2" placing fourth at 133,000 copies, the top four entries on this week's chart sold a combined 2.2 million records — more than all the albums combined on last week's Billboard 200. If the rap showdown was a marketing gimmick, it most certainly succeeded.

Fiddy has been anything but gracious in defeat, canceling three appearances in the UK and suggesting on the air on New York's Hot 97 that Kanye's label, Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam (which, by the way, is also a subsidiary of the company that owns his label, Interscope) bought up 200,000 copies of Ye's album to make Fiddy look bad.

Or maybe the public at large has simply had enough of 50 Cent.

50 Cent, Lil' Kim sued

This week's not getting any better for 50 Cent. First Kanye West's new album appears poised to out-sell Fiddy's, forcing the rapper to either retire as promised or renege and lose face.

Now, NME.com reports, he and Lil' Kim are the subject of a lawsuit by Carlos Evans, who claims the pair and their record labels did not pay him royalties for his work on the song "Magic Stick." Evans produced, engineered and mixed the song, which appeared on Lil' Kim's "La Bella Mafia" album, which is certified platinum with sales of more than 1 million copies.

Evans is asking for $1 million each in compensatory and punitive damages. Given the similarities between the songs, maybe he should file suit over "Candy Shop," too.

Kanye leads Fiddy in early sales

Kanye West's "Graduation" is likely to handily thump 50 Cent's "Curtis" in first-week album sales, Billboard reports.

It won't put an end to the vitriolic debate about which rapper is better, but it puts 50 Cent in a tough spot: Fiddy recently promised to retire from releasing solo records if Kanye outsells him the first week their albums are available.

According to preliminary data compiled by Neilsen SoundScan, "Graduation" sold 437,000 copies Tuesday, compared to 310,000 for "Curtis." Country star Kenny Chesney's latest, "Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates," was a distant third with sales of 107,000.

Billboard cites "some pundits" who predict that West's album will sell around 750,000 copies the first week, which would make it the top first-week seller this year, surpassing Linkin Park's "Minutes to Midnight" (623,000). But it's less than West's previous album, "Late Registration," which sold 860,000 copies its first week. Fiddy 's "Curtis" is expected fall well short of first-week sales for his 2005 album "The Massacre," which moved 1.1 million units.

So, will 50 Cent retire? More to the point, should he?

Go Kanye, Go!

Ego-laden rapper 50 Cent has threatened to quit music if ego-laden rapper Kanye West's new album outsells his, NME.com reports. Both albums are due out Sept. 11.

It's not a full retirement — "I'll write music and work with my other artists, but I won't put out anymore solo albums," Fiddy says — but half a victory is better than none.

On the other hand, that only sets the stage for some faux-triumphant return in a year or two. Still, this is our chance to see if 50 Cent is as good as his word.