Kevin Mazur/WireImage.comWhen it comes to "Love," Kanye West is a giver.
His new single, "Love Lockdown," just scored the rapper a career-high No. 3 opening on the Billboard Hot 100 Thursday, a day after it debuted at No. 2 on the Digital Tracks chart with nearly 213,000 paid downloads, and shot to No. 1 on iTunes within just hours of release.
With this much heat, it's no surprise Kanye also upped the release of his new album 808 Heartbreak.
"I changed my album to November something cause I finished the album and I felt like it," wrote Kanye in an all-caps post on his blog yesterday. "I want y'all to hear it as soon as possible."
808 Heartbreak was originally set for a Dec. 16 release, just one week after 50 Cent's Before I Self Destruct, which had stirred talk of sales rematch between the two rap titans. Last September, Kanye's Graduation outsold Fiddy's Curtis in a head-to-head matchup.
Although an exact new release date has yet to be announced, 808 Heartbreak is clearly getting a big push from "Love Lockdown." Besides giving Kanye his highest Hot 100 bow, "Love Lockdown" is the third-highest charting song of his career. Only "Stronger" and "Gold Digger" climbed higher, each reaching the No. 1 spot.
(Fall Out Boy singer Patrick Stump recently leaked a "Love Lockdown" cover to help generate buzz for his band's new album, Folie à Deux.)
While West scored the week's big bow, fellow rapper T.I. made the big comeback. After holding the No. 1 spot for three weeks, the rapper's "Whatever You Like" got bumped to No. 2 last week by Pink's "So What." But he climbed right back to the top.
Digital sales of "Like" remained relatively consistent, down just 4,000 copies between weeks at 172,000 downloads, but it's growing stronger at radio. This week, "Like" topped the Hot 100 Airplay chart as well.
In other Hot 100 news, Kid Rock continued to take a hit for not releasing "All Summer Long" as a digital track. The Hit Masters cover version has sold 270,000 copies to date, and now a new Rock Heroes version debuted at No. 38 with 63,000 downloads. That said, in a year when album sales are sliding faster than the economy, Kid's Rock N Roll Jesus just went double-platinum two weeks shy of its one-year anniversary.
In other chart news, Hootie & the Blowfish singer Darius Rucker topped the Hot Country Songs chart with his debut country single, "Don't Think I Don' t Think About It." Rucker is the first African-American artist to accomplish this feat since Charley Pride's "Night Games" did it a quarter-century ago.
Next week's Hot 100 should have a newcomer on it: Britney Spears' "Womanizer" is set for release on Friday, four days later than expected due to some last-minute tweaking.