Kanye West Outsells 50 Cent

Reports are surfacing that Kanye West has outsold 50 Cent by 200,000 copies.

Hahahaha!!!! I bought 2 copies of Kanye's Graduation yesterday, I'm so glad so many fans turned out to support him. Kanye's sales are expected to be around 700,000.

Yahoo music features some of the most talented writers, check out a Kanye vs. 50 review. I'm abbreviating it, but you can read the whole review here. Btw, I haven't listen to Kanye yet, but I've heard it's hot.

50 Cent, "Curtis" (Interscope) and Kanye West, "Graduation" (Def Jam)

If the contest was being judged solely on artistic vision rather than Soundscan tallies, however, West could claim a landslide victory. "Graduation" blends a different set of musical influences than West's past two efforts, 2004's "The College Dropout" and 2005's "Late Registration." Drawing from Daft Punk and Coldplay to loping, back-porch soul and '80s-era electro-disco rhythms, "Graduation" still sounds like a logical step forward. Yet "Curtis" sounds like Fiddy is standing in place, with the familiar bruising basslines and slick, synth-heavy productions that have transformed the former drug dealer into one of the top-selling recording artists of any genre.

To wit, on the radio-ready track "Good Life," featuring the digitally enhanced singing of T-Pain, West takes some of his adversary's own advice and paraphrases a line from Fiddy's 2003 smash "In Da Club": "50 told me go head switch your style up/ And if they hate, then let 'em hate and watch the money pile up."

The so-called "hate" West has received for his award-show outbursts, preppy fashion choices and unfiltered honesty results in a lot of explaining on his new album. On the haunting "Can't Tell Me Nothing," West alludes to his infamous "Bush hates black people" post-Hurricane Katrina comment: "I'm just saying how I feel man/ I ain't one of the Cosbys, I ain't go to Hillman," before speaking about himself facetiously, "I guess the money should've changed him/ I guess I should've forgot where I came from."

By disc's end, on the captivating "Big Brother," West even dares bite the hand the feeds him, detailing the mild beef but ultimate reverence he has for his label boss Jay-Z.

Neither self-deprecation nor humility is part of Fiddy's equation. He's more concerned about squashing rivals, real and imagined ("My Gun Go Off," "I Still Kill"), highlighting his street pedigree and reminding us of his bottomless wealth.

The disc is mostly standard-issue gangsta talk. On the menacing funk of "Fully Loaded Clip," Fiddy takes aim at rap/R&B elite who've gone soft, snickering: "When Jay and Beyonce was um-um kissing/ I was cooking 1,000 grams in my kitchen/ When Nas was telling Kelis, "I love you, boo"/ I was shining my nine, you know how I do."

And when Fiddy enlists Justin Timberlake and Timbaland for "Ayo Technology," Robin Thicke on "Follow My Lead" and Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger on "Fire," it feels like a rapper in a rut desperate to maintain his pop stranglehold. The songs aren't tough listens by any means, but Fiddy is going the easy route to appeal to the masses.