Relapse Rolls Over the Competition

Rapper Eminem's newest album, "Relapse," was the top-selling album on the Billboard charts this week, moving 608,000 units and becoming the top-selling record of 2009 thus far.

"Relapse" marks Eminem's fifth consecutive No. 1 debut.

"Relapse," the rapper's first album in five years falls short of Eminem's previous studio efforts that reached No.1. 711,000 copies of "Encore" sold the first week of its release in 2004. However, "Relapse" has the best first week sales since last year's "Black Ice" by AC/DC.

Eminem's six-album catalogue has sold 34 million copies in total, making him the most successful hip-hop artist since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking album sales.

The release and success of "Relapse" was just one of the new albums to land in the top echelons of the Billboard chart. Kenny Chesney's "Greatest Hits II" took the third spot while Method Man and Redman's "Blackout! 2" and Dane Cook's "Isolated Incident" took fourth and fifth, respectively, reports Rolling Stone.

The only record released earlier than last week to capture a spot at the top of the chart was Green Day's "21st Century Breakdown," which debuted at No.1 two weeks ago and maintained second place in last week's poll.