Lil Wayne Cracks 1 Million With ‘Tha Carter III’

With “Tha Carter III,” Lil Wayne becomes the first artist since 50 Cent in 2005 to sell more than 1 million copies of an album in a single week, according to chart reports that will be issued tomorrow morning by Nielsen SoundScan.

In its first week on the market, “Tha Carter III” (Cash Money/Universal) sells just over 1 million units. The last album to top that milestone was 50 Cent’s “The Massacre” in March 2005.

No album in 2006 sold as many as 800,000 copies in a single frame, and the largest sales week since “The Massacre” belonged to Kanye West’s “Graduation,” which netted an opener of 957,000 copies last year when it hit stores on Sept. 11.