Rick Ross No.1 W/"Deeper Than Rap," 158K First Week Sales

Rick Ross' Deeper Than Rap becomes the No.1 album in the country this week with its 158,000 sales debut atop Nielsen Soundscan's Top 200.

The new album was able to fend off stiff competition from other debuts discs including Asher Roth and mainstays like Hannah Montana.

Rick Ross' Deeper Than Rap led the way this week landing at No. 1 with 158,000 scanned discs followed by the Hannah Montana soundtrack which landed at No. 2 with 104,300 copies and Depeche Mode's Sounds of the Universe at No. 3 with 80,100 copies. Asher Roth's Asleep in the Bread Aisle debuted at No. 5 with 62,000 copies while Chester French's Love the Future opened at No. 77 with 6,300 copies. (Sales Wrap)

Early speculation of Ross' one-day numbers showed him easily debuting atop the competition this week.

Miami rapper Rick Ross will top next week's HITS Album Sales chart, with between 150-160k in sales for his third album, Deeper Than Rap, and first for his new Maybach Music Group through Def Jam after a pair for Slip-N-Slide. His last, the gold-certified Trilla, now over 700k and his 2006 debut, Port of Miami, both debuted at #1. (Hits Daily Double)

Entertainers voiced their opinion upon the project's release including Kanye West who displayed his approval of Ross' highly anticipated release.

"Rick's album is the sh*t!!!!," Ye wrote in his daily blog. "He made an album I can play in my apartment which is the highest honor I can give any piece of music. TV On The Radio, Pink Floyd and the new Rick Ross album!" (Kanye's Blog)

Def Jam labelmate Fabolous recently spoke with SOHH on whether the Internet may have helped or hurt the rapper's overall first-week sales.

"I don't know, it's hard because this digital era, people will watch your videos and stuff all day but not go get your album," Fab explained. "So, it doesn't translate. You can have one million, two million, ten million views on something but that doesn't mean that people are going to actually go buy the album." (SOHH)

Despite taking extreme measures in his rap battle with 50 Cent, both emcees' generated consumers' attention which, in turn, purchased their past releases.

The real winner may be Universal Music Group, which owns Island Def Jam and Interscope, the labels the rappers are signed to. Since the dispute started in January, the sales of Ross' two previous albums have increased by 62%, while sales of 50 Cent's three catalog titles grew by 74%, according to Nielsen Soundscan. And the more that bloggers wrote about the battle, according to the online chatter tracker Nielsen BuzzMetrics, the more the two artists reaped the benefits. (Billboard)

Ross has yet to release a statement regarding his album's stellar debut.