This Year in Music 2008...

The year is almost coming to a close in approximately 1 month. 2008 was supposed to be the year that we would hear some albums that we have been anticipating for a while. Some of them were released and others were not. Beyonce released her album I Am...Sasha Fierce as expected and so did Kanye with 808's and Heartbreak. Many were eager to hear Jay-Z's Blueprint 3 and Dr. Dre's Detox. Even, Michael Jackson was supposed to drop an album this year. It looks like we won't hear those albums until next year. Kanye has pretty much confirmed that Jay-Z's album won't be released until 2009. Recently, it has been confirmed by Jimmy Iovine that Dre won't drop this year either. I haven't heard anything about Michael Jackson's album so I guess it's safe to assume that it won't be coming out either. However, that is how things can go in the music world. Release dates often change and, especially for these albums that we expect to be masterpieces, it takes time to deliver classic material. I was really hoping that Detox would drop this year. I thought it was really going to happen since it was confirmed by so many, but if you remember last week, Eminem's album was cited as being the cause of the delay. I am definitely excited to hear Jay-Z's album as well, but maybe it's good we will these albums to anticipate next year.

Who's done the most damage in 2008 so far? The culprit seems to be Lil Wayne with his album Tha Carter III. The current stats on the album is about 2.4 million copies sold for the year of 2008. The thing that made Tha Carter III so phenomenal was it's first week sales, which surpassed a million copies. If you want to factor in total album sales for the year, Mariah Carey and Lil Wayne are pretty much neck in neck, according to the research I have done. However, Lil Wayne smoked Mariah Carey in the first week, who sold about 463,000 copies. T.I. did fairly well this year too selling about 500,000 copies in it's first week, with his album Paper Trail. Currently, the album is certified Platinum and I believe it will sell more. His single, "Live Your Life" ft. Rihanna is also doing damage on the Billboard Charts. In fact, it beat out Beyonce on the charts this week holding the #1 spot

Kanye's and Beyonce's albums were recently released and have the potential to do major damage as far as album sales are concerned. Beyonce has already went Gold in the first week and Kanye is expected to do the same. I wonder if they will have enough time to surpass Lil Wayne or even Mariah with one more month to go in the year? Will both albums sell as much as Lil Wayne, when it's all said and done. I really hope that Kanye's album continues to do well. I also believe that the album is going to do sell very well overseas.

You may ask, what left for 2008? Who else is going to drop? Common is going to drop his album Universal Mind Control on December 9th. Also, look out for Akon, Britney Spears, Keyshia Cole, Jamie Foxx, Brutha, Anthony Hamilton, Musiq Soulchild, Brandy, and Avant to drop this year.