After a relatively slow start to the year, Urban retail picked up in a major way this week when new releases from Ashanti, Pharrell Williams, and Rick Ross charged into stores.

Naturally, all eyes have been fixed on how each project fared – especially following questionable sales predictions.

Now, with the final numbers in, how did Ashanti’s ‘Braveheart’, Pharrell’s ‘G I R L’, and Ross’ ‘Mastermind’ perform?
The answer awaits, as ever, after the jump…

{UPDATED}

{Story has since been updated to reflect Billboard/SoundScan’s final, definitive numbers}

Echoing early sales forecasts, the Bawse will this week top the Billboard 200, after ‘Mastermind’ sold 179,000 copies. The figure represents an almost 20k increase on the initial prediction.

Exceeding expectation is a trend that continued into the count for both Williams and Ashanti; for the ‘Happy’ led ‘G I R L’ nabbed the #2 spot with sales of 112,000 – besting his initial prediction of 85k.

Elsewhere, ‘Brave’ nabbed a #10 placement, after totalling 28,000 first week. The sales represent a 9k increase on early forecasts.

{Source}

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Congrats to Rick, whose audience continue to prove themselves uber loyal (see: solid album sales in absence of a hit single).

As for Pharrell, we’re sure all involved are breathing a relative sigh of relief now that the album has (at least) crossed the 100k mark. What’s more, the first week picture is rendered all the more “sunny” given the blockbuster sales in international markets such as the UK. That said, given the immense spend on global promotion, it’ll be interesting to see how the project holds up in the weeks and months to come.

The Ashanti situation still presents quite the debate, in that on the one hand it’s a small victory given that the project was released independently. Hence, there’s every chance she’ll personally receive more dollars per unit sold than many of the major label acts above her.

That said, for a Grammy winning act, who’s first week sales have been as much as 20x her current numbers, it’s a mess. Especially when considering that she could have sold much more independently (and enhanced the success of the indie narrative) had the project not been delayed and mishandled so much over the two-year period she’s been promising and promoting it. Still, congrats, ay?

Your thoughts?