Flo Rida, D4L & Shop Boyz Among RIAA’s Top Selling Artists of Decade

Record sales may be down, but the first 10 years of the millennium still produced some chart-topping releases. Earlier this week (Feb. 17), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) released a list of
the decade’s top gold and platinum award winners
and hip-hop was definitely in the house.

While Michael Jackson undoubtedly holds the crown as the King of Pop with a whopping 44 certifications of the past decade, the self-proclaimed King of the South didn’t do too shabby himself. T.I. was
credited as having the most master ringtone certifications by a male
solo artist with 15, while Kanye West earned props for receiving the
most digital song certifications (19) by a male soloist.

In terms of actual album sales, OutKast’s 2003 opus Speakerboxxx/The Love Below tied with *NSYNC’s 2000 release, No Strings Attached, as the highest certified group album of the decade with
11 million units in sales.

The new millennium also saw the increased popularity of digital downloads and ringtone sales, which opened the door for a few surprising names amongst the decade’s top artists. Flo Rida’s 2008 single “Low”
was credited as being the highest certified digital song, going 5x
multi-platinum. Meanwhile, D4L and Shop Boyz tied for highest certified
master ringtone honors, going 3x multi-platinum for “Laffy Taffy” and
“Party Like a Rock Star,” respectively.

Lil Wayne rounded out the hip-hop honors with “Lollipop,” which became the highest certified master ringtone by a male artist, going 5x multi-platinum.

“We’ve seen a decade of major music milestones and extraordinary
artist achievements as part of our historic Gold and Platinum program,”
said Mitch Bainwol, RIAA Chairman and CEO, in a statement. “The names,
songs and albums on our list are the decade’s best and are etched in our
music DNA.”