Wiz Khalifa knocks Guardians from atop Billboard's album chart

LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) - Rapper Wiz Khalifa knocked the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack from the top spot on the weekly US Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday, scoring his first No. 1 album.

Khalifa's Blacc Hollywood sold 90,000 copies in its first week, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.

It outpaced last week's chart-topper, the retro Awesome Mix Vol. 1 soundtrack from Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy film, which sold 64,000 copies in its fourth week of release. The film climbed to the top of the box office over the weekend as well.

Country music artist Chase Rice debuted at No. 3 with Ignite the Night selling 44,000 copies.

Other new entries in the top 10 included Nashville Outlaws: A Tribute to Motley Crue, a compilation of tracks featuring country music artists such as LeAnn Rimes, at No. 5 and former Kiss musician Ace Frehley at No. 9 with his solo album Space Invader. For the week ending Aug 24, total album sales clocked in at 3.97 million copies, down 19 per cent from the comparable week in 2013, while year-to-date sales stood at 154.5 million, down 15 per cent from the same point last year, Billboard said.

On Billboard's digital songs chart, pop singer Taylor Swift debuted at No. 1 with Shake It Off selling 544,000 copies, the fourth biggest digital song debut behind Flo Rida's Right Round, Swift's own We Are Never, Ever Getting Back Together and Katy Perry's Roar. Shake It Off is the first single from Swift's upcoming October album 1989, and the singer performed it live at Sunday's televised MTV Video Music Awards, or VMAs.

Other songs on the top 10 of the digital Songs chart that received a VMAs bump included Bang Bang by Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj at No. 3; Iggy Azalea and Rita Ora's Black Widow at No. 4; and Sam Smith's Stay With Me at No. 5.

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