Jailhouse blues? Not exactly

It’s a numbers game more than ever on the pop charts this week. Rapper 50 Cent remains at No. 1 on the nation’s album sales chart for the fifth straight week, while the No. 3 slot belongs to No. 57613-066 -- that’s rapper Beanie Sigel’s inmate ID number at the New Jersey prison he’s in.

Sigel, born Dwight Grant, is serving a one-year term after pleading guilty to federal drug and weapon charges, yet his new album, “The B.Coming,” sold 131,000 copies last week, making it the third-biggest selling album, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

It also gives Sigel the highest chart position of his career but in sheer numbers still fell short of the sales of his previous album, “The Truth,” which sold 156,000 in its first week in stores five years ago.

Landing between the two rappers is Beck, whose “Guero” sold 162,000 copies last week, still well shy of the 211,000 copies of 50 Cent’s “Massacre” sold. The rapper’s CD has now sold 2.8 million. “Guero” gives Beck the highest position on the national album chart of his career.

The other jailhouse rapper on the charts, C-Murder, serving time in a Louisiana prison on a murder conviction, dropped from No. 41 last week to No. 75 this week as sales of his new “The Truest $#!@ I Ever Said” album plummeted from 29,000 its first week in stores to 14,000 last week.

Other new entries in the Top 10 are 112’s “Pleasure & Pain” (117,347), Will Smith’s “Lost & Found” (98,000) and comedian Larry the Cable Guy’s “Right to Bare Arms” (92,000).

In addition, R&B-soul; singer John Legend’s major-label debut album, “Get Lifted,” crossed the 1 million sales threshold last week after selling 40,000 more copies, enough to push it back up the chart five positions to No. 16 in its 14th week in stores.