50 Cent Cashes in on 2003

Here's another stat for shot-nine-times rapper 50 Cent's collection: One. As in, number one.

The 27-year-old's solo debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin', was 2003's best-selling album, with 6.5 million copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

In topping the charts, 50 Cent (born Curtis Jackson) did the boss proud. Shady Records CEO Eminem (born Marshall Mathers) was 2002's champ, moving 7.6 million copies of The Enimen Show, as well as 3.5 million copies of the 8 Mile soundtrack.

50 Cent contributed two tracks to the latter collection. His own album was powered by the single "In Da Club," radio's second-most played song of the year after 3 Doors Down's "When I'm Gone." It also didn't hurt that the rapper's backstory--i.e., getting plugged with nine bullets in front of Grandma's house in 2000--was imminently memorable.

Mr. Cent's remarkable comeback aside, it was another down year for the perennially downcast music business. CD album sales were down 2 percent, from 649.5 million jewel boxes sold in 2002 to 635.8 million in 2003. Overall album sales (presumably including the cave people who still buy audio cassettes and LPs) were down 3.6 percent.

Indicative of the industry's doldrums, these numbers actually represent hope, in that they weren't as lousy as usual. CD album sales in 2002, for example, were off 9 percent from the previous year. Apple's iTunes was one program credited with helping consumers reacquaint themselves with the quaint tradition of buying music. The download service, launched in April, had sold a whopping 25 million songs, at 99 cents a pop, through mid-December.

On Friday, the honor of most-downloaded iTunes tune went to OutKast's Polaroid-shaking "Hey Ya!" The Grammy-nominated single helped power the hip-hop duo's double-solo CD, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, to 3.1 million albums sold, the fifth-biggest hit of the 2003.

OutKast could cash in even more if its six Grammy nominations translate into big Grammy wins. At least that's how it worked for jazz baby Norah Jones, who upset Bruce Springsteen for Album of the Year honors at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards and went on to sell 5.1 million copies of Come Away with Me. (Since its 2002 release, Jones' collection has sold nearly 8 million.)

Other 2003 top performers included: Beyoncé, whose solo debut, Dangerously in Love, sold a lot (2.5 million copies), if a lot less than Destiny Child's last two R&B albums; teen queen Hilary Duff, who segued from the Disney Channel to Disney Radio with Metamorphosis (2.4 million copies); and Toby Keith, the year's top-selling country act for his take-no-prisoners Shock'n Y'All (2.3 million copies).

Controversy in the form of kiddie-porn charges didn't keep R. Kelly out of the Top 10 for his new album, Chocolate Factory (2.4 million). Controversy in the form of child-molestation charges didn't help Michael Jackson return to the Top 10 with his new greatest-hits collection, Number Ones (with just 121,000 copies sold in its debut week).

In the battle of the American Idols, 2003 runner-up Clay Aiken's Measure of a Man sold 2.1 million; 2002 winner Kelly Clarkson's Thankful moved 1.8 million; 2003 winner Ruben Studdard's Soulful edged toward 1 million, with 873,000 sold in its first three weeks; and 2002 runner-up Justin Guarini's Justin Guarini fell off the face of the Earth (not to mention the roster of its record label), with 135,000 copies sold through mid-December.

Pre-American Idol idol Britney Spears' In the Zone was certified double platinum, indicating 2 million copies sold, by the Recording Industry Association of America, as was Celine Dion's One Heart. Demonstrating how the mighty have fallen, though, neither release came close to challenging the two pop tarts' SoundScan-era blockbusters--Dion's Falling Into You (10.6 million copies) and Spears' ...Baby One More Time (10.5 million).

Madonna's American Life proved to be no match for The English Roses as a sales force. The latter was the M One's New York Times best-selling children's book; the former was her latest album which topped out at fewer than 2 million copies sold.

Also limping along, Limp Bizkit, with about 1 million copies sold of Results May Very, a long way down from the 7 million-selling days of 1999's Significant Other. To add insult to injury, Fred Durst's outfit was named worst band of the year in a new poll of Guitar World readers.

Among artists on the comeback trail: Luther Vandross' Dance with my Father, released just weeks after he suffered a stroke, was a certified platinum-seller; Metallica's St. Anger and Sarah McLachlan's Afterglow were certified double-platinum releases.

Here's a complete rundown of 2003's Top 10 best-selling albums, per Nielsen SoundScan:
1. Get Get Rich or Die Tryin', 50 Cent, 6.5 million copies
2. Come Away with Me, Norah Jones, 5.1 million
3. Meteora, Linkin Park, 3.5 million
4. Fallen, Evanescence, 3.4 million
5. Speakerboxx/The Love Below, OutKast, 3.1 million
6. Dangerously in Love, Beyoncé, 2.5 million
7. Chocolate Factory, R. Kelly, 2.4 million
8. Metamorphosis, Hilary Duff, 2.4 million
9. Shock'n Y'All, Toby Keith, 2.3 million
10. Rush of Blood to the Head, Coldplay, 2.2 million