And the Best Selling Rapper of the Decade is....

Nielsen Soundscan has recently revealed figures for the best selling albums of the 2000s. Focusing on hip hop, Eminem was the highest selling artist mainly due to the massive selling Marshall Mathers LP (10,240,000 copies sold) and The Eminem Show (9,799,000 copies sold).

It's no great surprise that Em has sold so many with his massive crossover appeal (i'm not gonna go there at the moment and explain why...that's a whole other post!) but some might be surprised at other big entries.

Next most popular rap artist was Nelly....yes Nelly! His debut album Country Grammar sold a massive 8,461,000 back in 2000.

It's amazing to look at these numbers in comparison to album sales nowadays. The whole music industry has shifted so much, for example Eminem's latest top selling release sold around 1.5 million and in today's number that's a big numbers.

We are now in the digital age and consumers seem to cherry pick the singles they like off of an album rather than purchasing entire albums containing what they might consider throwaway tracks. There is evidence in this with the high single sales seen for the likes of the Black Eyed Peas, Soulja Boy and Flo Rida who each sold around 5 million copies of a single alone.

Personally I see the shift in the way music is being bought has pluses and negatives. On the up side, artists are being made to up their game and produce a consistent effort when it comes to albums because if they don't the consumer will ignore the fraff. On the other hand I kind of miss the feeling of getting the album then sitting down and listening to it front to back and really taking it in. This can still be done of course but I don't know, it's just not the same...you have to move with the times though.

All I will ask is please do not contribute to the likes of Soulja Boy being near the top of a best selling list come 2010!

Kanye West and Soulja Boy Link Up

In what may seem like an unlikely pair, Kanye West and Soulja Boy are currently working on producing tracks for each other's upcoming albums.

When he's not touring on the "America's Most Wanted Music Festival," Soulja Boy has been working on creating tracks for Kanye's fifth album.

"I'm working on Kanye's next album right now. We working together on production because he makes beats and I make beats," said the 19-year-old rapper to Rap-Up.com. "Right now I'm remixing a couple of records for him."

Soulja Boy isn't coming away from the arrangement empty-handed, as Kanye is going to produce for him in return, contributing to Soulja Boy's upcoming The DeAndre Way. "I'm actually working on Kanye's album while he's working on my album."

Last year, Kanye defended Soulja Boy when Ice-T criticized him infamously. "Soulja Boy is fresh as hell and is actually the true meaning of what hip-hop is supposed to be," he blogged at the time. "He came from the 'hood, made his own beats, made up a new saying, new sound, and a new dance with one song. If that ain't hip-hop, then what is?"