Kanye Outsells 50 Cent... thanks to Def Jam.

It's seems the public chose to go with the "Backpack Rappers" music of Kanye West over the "Bulletproof Vest" vocals of 50 Cent... or did they??? West, whose "Graduation" widely outsold 50 Cent's "Curtis" in first week sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan: 957,000 copies to 691,000 copies. It almost seems like it wasn't even close. Everyone heard about 50's claim, that if he lost the soundscan battle to Kanye. He would retire. What he didn't specify was, when he would retire.
What most of the public doesn't know. Is that upon a popular albums release, the record label itself may purchase a large number of copies of the album. They do this in order to :

1)Distribute them to street teams to sell back at less than retail value and create more of a buzz.
2)Give them to radio stations to use as free give aways to promote the album.
3)Boost soundscan numbers

Being well aware of this tactic, 50 stressed that he wanted no recouping done by his label. He wanted his soundscan numbers to be, and I quote, "raw."

Anonymous sources inside Def Jam have disclosed that an amount of 275,000 copies were purchased by the label. Now if this is true and you do the math, Kanye would acutally be down by 9,000 records. Not only making it a tight race, but also giving 50 the crown after the first week's sales. But if that happened, there would be no anticipation for a dramatic retirement date or farewell album. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Bringing the truth to you as clear as I possibly can.

Rahsheid White