Although the album's first-week sale of 496,000 was a little below industry expectations and barely half of the 957,000 copies his 2007 album Graduation sold on its first week, it is a stellar total for 2010, and is 10% up on the first-week tally which earned his last album, 808s & Heartbreak a number one debut in 2008.

While an established male hip-hop artist debuts at number one, a new female rapper debuts at number two - Nicki Minaj, a ...