Kanye West is flexing his producer muscles

Kanye West, the rapper-producer who was the hit pop arrival of 2004, gets off to a fast start this year -- as record company executive-producer.

John Legend’s “Get Lifted,” the first release from West’s Sony-affiliated label, Getting Out Our Dreams (Gold), was the only album to debut in the Top 50 national sales chart on Wednesday. The CD finished No. 7 after selling 116,000 copies in its first week in stores, Nielsen SoundScan reported.

In contrast to the hip-hop fervor of West’s “The College Dropout” album, Legend’s music is in a silky, elegant, R&B; groove. If his voice sounds familiar, it may be because he contributed some backup vocals to West’s “Jesus Walks” single and performed with West on last year’s tour with Usher. West is executive producer of the album and co-wrote four of the 14 songs.

Elsewhere on the chart, Eminem’s “Encore” held on to the top spot for the second consecutive week after selling 198,000 more copies. The CD, which was released in December, has now sold more than 3.5 million copies.

Green Day’s “American Idiot” moved up seven places on the chart to No. 2 after selling 171,000 copies last week -- giving the CD a total of 1.8 million. The album was released in September.

Two rap collections reentered the Top 10: Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz’ “Crunk Juice” climbed 12 spots to No. 3 (144,000 sales last week), while Tupac Shakur’s “Loyal to the Game” moved up five places to No. 8 (115,000 sales).

Dropping out of the Top 10: U2’s “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” (No. 3 to No. 14, with sales of 95,000) and Toby Keith’s greatest-hits package (No. 7 to No. 20 on 68,000 sold).

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By the Numbers: Southland CD rankings

Here are the 10 bestselling CDs in Southern California last week, along with their national ranking.

*--* TITLE, ARTIST NAT’L RANK PREV. WEEK

1 Green Day, American Idiot 2 3

2 Gwen Stefani, Love.Angel.Music.Baby 15 1

3 Tupac, Loyal to the Game 8 8

4 Jay-Z and Linkin Park, Collision Course 4 7

5 Eminem, Encore 1 5

6 Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, Crunk Juice 3 17

7 Snoop Dogg, R&G; 11 10

8 Usher, Confessions 6 6

9 Ludacris, Red Light District 5 11

10 John Legend, Get Lifted 7 --

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Source: Nielsen/SoundScan, Inc.