Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music LP Faces Competition, "Cruel Summer" First-Week Sales Projections Revealed

News: Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music LP Faces Competition, "Cruel Summer" First-Week Sales Projections Revealed

Wednesday, Sep 19, 2012 5:13PM

Written by Cyrus Langhorne

Grammy-winning rapper Kanye West's long-awaited G.O.O.D. Music Cruel Summer compilation album may have to settle for second best based on initial first-week sales projections.

Based on one-day estimates, Team Yeezy could fall short of toppling its competition courtesy of rocker P!nk's latest release.

She's the daring young diva on the flying trapeze. RCA diva P!nk's latest, The Truth About Love, her sixth studio recording, is on target to be her first-ever #1 album, with a projected total of 200-225k. Her previous high was the #2 slot reached by the last album, 2008's Funhouse. That would be enough to top Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music compilation on Def Jam/IDJ, Cruel Summer, which may have suffered from a brief, one-day absence of the album from iTunes, but is gaining ground quickly, according to one-day sales reports from retailers both physical and digital lucky enough not to find themselves part of Mitt Romney's 47% cut-off. At this point it looks like it will sell in the 170-190k range. We'll keep an eye on the battle as we head into Friday's Weakend Chart Preview. (HITS Daily Double)

The G.O.O.D. Music release could gain a slight edge over P!nk if his Ye's girlfriend Kim Kardashia! n's 16 million Twitter followers take her tweets to heart.

"CRUEL SUMMER IS OUT NOW http://smarturl.it/goodcsit CHECK IT OUT!," she tweeted September 18th.

""We on the galaxy that haters cannot visit, thats my reality so get off my SCOTT DISICK" -THE ONE #CruelSummer. @ScottDisick fav song?" (Kim Kardashian's Twitter)

The compilation project serves as Yeezy's latest effort since last summer's Watch the Throne joint Jay-Z project.

It's not surprising that giving one Kanye all that power results in a generally successful album. What's surprising is the way Cruel Summer succeeds. On My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Watch The Throne, bigger was always better. Here, the most entertaining tracks are the minimalist ones, and it's once you dig into the seemingly grand songs that they crumble under the weight of Kanye's self-indulgence. But as West challenges on "Cold": "If you can do it better than me, then you do it." The man has a point. (Idolator)

The feature-packed LP contains over 20 guest appearances from start to finish.

There are 22 artists featured on the disc -- a veritable "something for everyone." Hip-hop heads were amped when Wu-Tang giants Raekwon and Ghostface first appeared on the Cruel Summer tracklists floating around the internet, and Top-40 fans are sure to be pleased by the inclusion of buzzy young stars like Big Sean and genre mainstays like Jay-Z. It's inspiring to see West continue to highlight those who supported him: Grammy-winning songwriter Malik Yusef (one of the folks behind "All of the Lights") and young vocalist Teyana Taylor ( you've unknowingly heard her on "Dark Fantasy" and "Hell of a Life") are also featured on Cruel Summer. It's a narrative not often seen in the media -- where lazy tales of Kanye's sometimes erratic behavior dominate headlines for weeks -- but it's clear to anyone paying attention to music that West not only cares deeply about production quality, but about those around him. (Huffington Post)

Check out the Cruel Summer teaser below: