Stones can’t displace hip-hoppers

EVEN though the Rolling Stones’ new album has been called the group’s best in two decades by numerous critics, the veteran rock band still couldn’t enter the national pop chart at No. 1 on Wednesday.

Its new CD finished No. 3 behind two contemporary hip-hop favorites.

Kanye West’s “Late Registration,” which entered the chart at No. 1 last week after selling 860,000 copies in its first week in stores, continued to top the chart even though second-week sales slipped to 283,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Boosted by a new deluxe version, 50 Cent’s “The Massacre” captured the second spot on the chart with sales last week of 154,000 copies.

The original edition of “The Massacre” entered the chart at No. 1 in March, thanks to first-week sales of 1.1 million.

The album, which had fallen to No. 35 last week, rebounded thanks to new content that includes videos for all the album’s songs. With last week’s spurt (which reflects sales of both versions of the album), “The Massacre” has now sold 4.5 million copies, which makes it the biggest-selling new release of the year by far.

There has been so much media and retail attention on West’s album that some observers think it has a chance to eventually move past “The Massacre” and Mariah Carey’s “The Emancipation of Mimi,” which has sold 3.3 million, in 2005 sales.

The Rolling Stones’ “A Bigger Bang” contains songs with a classic Stones swagger and some surprisingly vulnerable tunes. With a first-week total of 129,000, it was the only other album to top the 100,000 figure last week.