Kanye West‘s long-awaited ‘Donda’ album may have been a critical polarizer upon its August unveiling, but the commercial response to the effort has been everything but.

After debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200 with one of the year’s highest first-week figures, the set’s been a mainstay inside the chart’s top 10 (even found at #4 this week).

The ongoing success led to a quick GOLD certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) – meaning it’s already sold at least 500,000 copies in the United States alone.  But, before Kanye and camp could really celebrate the news he was greeted with reports his third #1 hit, ‘Stronger’ (2007), had muscled its way to Diamond status.

Details inside:

Before Wednesday (October 6), only 62 songs in the history of recorded music had ever been certified Diamond – meaning they sold the equivalent of 10 million units in the United States.  According to news from the RIAA, West’s ‘Stronger’ – found aboard his 2007 album ‘Graduation’ – is now in the exclusive class.

His first tune ever certified as high, the ongoing success of the Daft Punk-sampled hit helped push Kanye up to the #4 spot of the most-certified artists of the digital era (approximately 107.5 million).  Only Rihanna, Drake, and Taylor Swift have more career-wide sales.

In addition to great RIAA news for ‘Donda’ and ‘Stronger,’ West’s 2008 album, ‘Ye,’ was upgraded to Platinum status on September 30. [source]

[main photo:  Evan Agostini/Invision/AP]

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