Fiddy Feud Helps Rick Ross Lock Up No. 1

Rick Ross tops the album charts and beats Miley Cyrus(!) after instigating a fight with 50 Cent; Depeche Mode and Asher Roth don't do too shabby either

Rick Ross may have learned the trick to beating Hannah Montana: start a fight with 50 Cent.

The Miami rapper ruled the charts with Deeper Than Rap, but Ross didn't topple the Hannah Montana soundtrack alone. The self-proclaimed boss reached No. 1, selling 158,000 copies to Hannah's 104,000, per Nielsen SoundScan, with help from his red-hot feud with 50 Cent.

The origin of the feud is fuzzy—one day Ross claims Fiddy gave him a funny look at the BET Awards, the next day he says Fiddy dissed an associate—but Ross certainly fired the first musical salvo last January with "Mafia Music." 50 responded with "Officer Ricky (Go Head, Try Me)" and "Tia Told Me" and charged that Ross was a former correctional officer that fabricated his coke-dealer past.

 

Most recently, Ross shot a video for the Deeper track "In Cold Blood" that features a funeral for 50 Cent. In fact, claiming he's finished off the VitaminWater-swiggin' rapper, Ross says he might turn his attention to Fiddy's boss Eminem.

(Advice to Ross: Don't go there, just ask Moby, Sarah Palin, Ja Rule…)

Despite all the verbal jousting, a few critics have called the war of words a marketing gimmick. Since the feud started early this year, both artists saw a significant sales spike in their back catalog and got far more pub in the blogs and mags than they would have otherwise. Fiddy knows full well the benefits of a fight, even a friendly one, like his 2007 sales boon matchup with Kanye West.

Still, the real winner is Universal Music Group. Both rappers, like in the head-to-head battle with Kanye, are signed to UMG labels.

Rap WrestleMania aside, Depeche Mode made some noise as Sounds of the Universe sold 80,000 copies for a No. 3 debut, while college-lovin' rapper Asher Roth sold 62,000 copies of Asleep in the Bread Aisle at No. 5.

Down in the No. 59 spot, the Tinted Windows barely made a whimper, selling fewer than 8,000 copies of their eponymous debut. The band, whose lineup is more interesting than its music, features Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick), James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins, A Perfect Circle), Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne, Ivy) and the middle Hanson kid, Taylor.

Other notable debuts include babe-fronted Italian rockers Lacuna Coil at No. 16 with Shallow Life and Jars of Clay's The Long Fall Back to Earth at No. 29.

Thanks to the Ross-Fiddy feud, overall sales spiked 3 percent from last week, though they were still down 10 percent compared with the same week in '08.

Here's a recap of this week's top 10 albums:

1. Deeper Than Rap, Rick Ross
2. Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack, various
3. Sounds of the Universe, Depeche Mode
4. Unstoppable, Rascal Flatts
5. Asleep in the Bread Aisle, Asher Roth
6. Twilight soundtrack, various
7. The Fame, Lady Gaga
8. Forever in a Day, Day26
9. Now That's What I Call Music! 30, various
10. The Last Kiss, Jadakiss