September 8, 2005 10:01

Kanye West tops US album charts

The controversial rapper outsells his nearest rival by over 600,000…

Photo Gallery: Kanye West
Photo: Pa Photos

KANYE WEST has shot to the top of the US BILLBOARD album charts, outselling his nearest rival by more than 600,000 copies.

Despite his controversial appearance at a charity telethon last Friday (September 2) in which he declared that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” and that America is set up “to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slowly as possible”, West’s second album ’Late Registration’ sold more than 860,000 copies during its first week.

The rapper’s debut ’The College Dropout’, released in early 2004, shifted 441,000 during its first seven days on shelves and debuted at Number Two.

’Late Registration’ outsold the Number Two record Stateside this week - G-Unit member Tony Yayo’s ’Thoughts Of A Predicate Felon’ - by over half a million copies, while ’Hillbilly Deluxe’ from Brooks & Dunn went in at Three with 111,000 units scanned.

’The College Dropout’ has also seen sales boom this week – a 69 per cent boost - with it climbing 50 chart positions to number 57.