Rap star Lil' Wayne has become the first artist to sell more than a million albums in a week in the US for more than three years.

Tha Carter III, his sixth album, has gone straight to number one in the Billboard album chart.

The last album to sell a million in a week was 50 Cent's The Massacre in March 2005. Last year, Kanye West fell about 50,000 short with The Graduation.

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Charts boost

The figures, produced by Nielsen SoundScan, show Tha Carter III has easily had the biggest sales week of the year so far.

The previous holder of that title was Mariah Carey, who sold 463,000 copies of E=MC2 in April.

Lil' Wayne's achievement is a boost for the US charts, where selling more than 200,000 albums in a week is now considered to be a strong performance.

He is less well known in the UK, where Tha Carter III entered the album chart at number 23 on Sunday.

Nielsen Soundscan compiles the official US charts for Billboard magazine.

(BBC)

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