Early projections last week had Kanye West moving around 800,000 copies versus 50 Cent selling 600,000. Those figures are even bigger after the Soundscan closing for the first week.

The total album sales for Kanye West Graduation is the largest by any album since 50 Cent released The Massacre in march 2005 and opened with 1.1 million copies sold. Kanye’s own August 2005 album Late Registration was the last album to surpass 800,000 copies in the first week when it began with 860,000 units.

Billboard reports that Kanye West new album ranks 15th among all sales weeks since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking in 1991. The double punch provided by Graduation and Curtis also marks just the second time in that era that two albums have bowed in the same week with totals surpassing 600,000 copies.

In interviews prior to his September 11 release date, 50 Cent claimed that he would retire from making music if Kanye West outsold him in the first week.

He also added that Def Jam is cheating Soundscan and claimed that the label was purchasing copies of Graduation to boost Kanye’sales and give hime the #1 spot.

Here is what Jay-Z had to say about Kanye being on top of the charts: “It’s pretty much how much he cares about it. It’s not done for any other reason but to be the best music out at that specific time … Every single song he makes, he makes because he thinks it’s the best record at that specific time".

50 Cent, who is planning a world tour for his album, was conciliatory in defeat. In a statement to the AP, which didn’t address whether he planned to make good on his vow to retire, he said: "I am very excited to have participated in one of the biggest album release weeks in the last two years. Collectively, we have sold hundreds of thousands of units in our debut week. This marks a great moment for hip-hop music, one that will go down in history."

That’s right, it was a crazy week for the music industry since no one had sold that much albums in a single week and was constantly blaiming Internet on poor album sales.

In addition, the third member of this race,country music artist Kenny Chesney found himself well behind but still sold big with 387k copies of his Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates sold in its first week.

Total sales for Kanye West, 50 Cent and Chesney with 2.2 million units tops all sales combined on last week’s entire Billboard 200!

Stay tunes for next week albums sales.