50 Cent Blames Disappointing First Week Sales on Leak

50 Cent's latest album, 'Before I Self Destruct' debuted last week, with sales of 160,000; easily the worst selling release of his career.

The album, 50's 4th, was pushed out a week early, due to an online leak. Though its poor sales are dwarfed by his second worst selling album, 2007's 'Curtis,' which sold 500,000, 50 claims he's not upset.

"For myself, I'm asking myself, 'What did you expect, bro? Your fans got it when it was available, at the first available opportunity,' " he told DJ Green Lantern, earlier this week. "For me this album is a prequel -- it's full circle. When the energy around a project is the way this is, you can't really feel like it's a failure. Like, I look at the numbers and am like, 'What is this?' I've already assessed that the album has been out a month before its actual release period [due to an online leak, and the album's early digital release due to the leak]. So when you got that, you go, 'Well, what did you actually expect?' "

50 has historically made an event out of his opening week's sales, whether shocking the world by selling 872,000 copies of his first album, 'Get Rich or Die Tryin',' breaking records across the board with his followup, 'The Massacre,' which sold 1.5 million, or his 2007 release 'Curtis,' for which he staged a losing battle against Kanye West, but still managed to sell almost three times what he did on 'Self Destruct.'

While the album's sales are disappointing, you can't fault 50 for lack of trying. He attempted to instigate a beef with longtime rival Jay-Z to promote this release, and engaged in an extremely dirty campaign against Miami rapper Rick Ross, but the days of 50's opening week dominance appear to be at an end. Instead of self-destructing, 50 just burned out.