{blackbabes} Kanye West, Nicki Minaj lead album chart

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) – Hip-hop stars Kanye West and Nicki Minaj claimed the top two spots on the U.S. album chart Wednesday, but their opening-week sales fell below industry forecasts.

West led the Billboard 200 after selling 496,000 units of "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" during the week November 24, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Minaj followed at No. 2, moving 375,000 copies of her debut release, "Pink Friday."

Some industry insiders had predicted in the early part of last week that the pair were on track to start with perhaps 550,000 and 400,000, respectively.

Nevertheless, West now logs his fourth consecutive No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 and the fourth-best sales week of 2010. It's also a better launch than the 450,000-unit start for his last set, 2008's "808s & Heartbreak."

Digital downloads accounted for 224,000 copies, or 45%, of West's "Fantasy" sales. The number ranks as the fourth-biggest digital week for any set, behind the debuts of Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" (288,000 in 2008), Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" (278,000 this year) and Eminem's "Recovery" (255,000 this year). Each of those albums began with well over 700,000 units overall, making West's digital debut more impressive because of its ratio of digital-to-physical copies. Amazon offered "Fantasy" for the entire week at just $3.99, while iTunes did not promote the album on the front its store until Saturday.

Minaj scored the second-best sales week for a female hip-hop act. Only Lauryn Hill has done better, when "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" started at No. 1 with 423,000 in 1998.

After two weeks at No. 1, Susan Boyle's "The Gift" fell to No. 3 with 263,000 copies, while Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" rose five spots to No. 4 with 241,000 copies on the heels of her NBC Thanksgiving TV special.

Jackie Evancho's "O Holy Night" dropped three to No. 5 with 142,000, and Rihanna's "Loud" was also down three to No. 6 with 141,000.

Justin Bieber's Wal-Mart and Sam's Club-exclusive set "My Worlds Acoustic" debuted at No. 7 with 115,000 units. It's the teen's third top 10 entry in a little over a year. His first came with his debut album, "My World," which arrived at No. 6 a year ago.

My Chemical Romance's "Danger Days: the True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys" bowed at No. 8 with 112,000. Its last studio set, 2006's "The Black Parade," started at No. 2 with 240,000.

The final debut in the top 10 this week came from Ne-Yo's fourth release "Libra Scale," which weighed in at No. 9 with 112,000 (about 200 copies behind My Chemical Romance), the R&B singer/songwriter's lowest debut sales week. He did best with his first album, 2006's "In My Own Words," which opened at No. 1 with 301,000 units.

The "Glee" Christmas album fell two to No. 10 with 108,000 (down 33%).

Some notable new releases failed to make the top 10. They included Ke$ha's "Cannibal" (No. 15, 74,000 units) and the soundtrack to "Burlesque" (No. 18, 63,000 units).

Overall album sales totaled 10.24 million units, up 26% from the previous week, but down 5% compared to the comparable sales week of 2009. Year to date album sales stand at 272.02 million, down 13% compared to the same total at this point last year.