While it is not a huge surprise to learn that, overall, 2014 was not the most fruitful year in terms of album sales, with a decline of 11 percent from 2013, it is unfortunate that the genre of hip hop did not see any love whatsoever in the top 10 best-selling album list.
As the 257 million albums sold in the past year are stacked, it was a difficult year for hip hop, with the top-selling hip hop and rap albums still being beat out by 500,000+ copies from the year's ranking albums.
The top-selling rap albums, as reported by Billboard, include J.Cole's 2014 Forest Hills Drive (577,000 copies), Iggy Azalea's The New Classic (485,000) and Nicki Minaj's The Pinkprint (300,000) respectably.
The year prior saw more than triple the sales in the hip hop/rap genre with Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (1.73 million, 2nd for the year overall), Drake's Nothing Was The Same (1.34 million, 7th overall), and Jay Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail (1.1 million, ranking in at number 10).
Pharrell William's "Happy" won the title of the top selling digital song, with 6.45 million downloads sold. While the song is closer to the lines of pop and soul music than hip hop, perhaps Pharrell's innovation and blurring of genres will help inspire those with a hip hop background and focus to create excellent music in the new year.
Taylor Swift earned the number one slot for her 1989 release with 3.66 million copies sold, beating out the Frozen soundtrack, which had 3.53 million.
The Top Selling Albums Of 2014:
1. Taylor Swift - 1989 (3.66 million)
2. Soundtrack - Frozen (3.53 million)
3. Sam Smith - In the Lonely Hour (1.21 million)
4. Pentatonix - That's Christmas To Me (1.14 million)
5. Soundtrack - Guardians of the Galaxy (898,000)
6. Beyoncé - Beyoncé (878,000)
7. Barbra Streisand - Partners (856,000)
8. Lorde - Pure Heroine (841,000)
9. One Direction - Four (814,000)
10. Eric Church - The Outsiders (811,000)
Do you have faith that 2015 will garner more successful hip hop LPs?
