LL Cool J Debuts At Number 9 With Exit 13, Four Rappers in Top 10

LL Cool J began his swan song with Def Jam as the rapper debuted at number 9 on the Billboard 200 moving nearly 44,000 copies of Exit 13. The album is his last contractually-bound project for the storied label.
The veteran rapper had been outspoken regarding his disdain with the label. Most of his venom, however, was directed at then Def Jam president Jay-Z. LL infamously lashed out at Hov on the red carpet at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards when he made the rift public as he announced an alliance with 50 Cent.

LL, though, hasn’t spoken in detail about his next move. The rapper told XXLmag.com last month he wasn’t interested in being courted by labels like a new artist.

“I’m not interested in that free agent non-sense,” he explained. “I’m a businessman, but I’m not looking for that. That’s now where I’m at with this. This is more about just making history and just making great music. As far as free agency and running around, the thought of me running around taking meetings with record company labels is laughable.”

In addition to LL, a number of rappers cracked the Top 10 of the Billboard 200.

Todd Smith’s Def Jam counterpart Young Jeezy is locked in the number two spot. The Atlanta rapper slid just one spot from last week when his latest LP, The Recession, held the top spot. Jeezy pushed almost 90,000 copies of his project.

The Game continues to do well. The Compton rapper is at number seven with L.A.X. The album sold 49,000 copies in its third week, pushing the total sales to just over 377,000 units.

As the story has been for weeks now, Lil Wayne is still dominating the charts. The Cash Money star owns property in the Top 10 as he 14 weeks after the release of his latest, Tha Carter III, he’s going strong, notching the number eight position. The LP sold over 47,000 copies and has a total of 2.4 million copies sold to date.