I’ve been hinting at it… no, outright declaring it since I heard that Lecrae was returning to the marketplace with a new project, Rehab.

This week, he did just that and did so with a HUGE splash at #1, selling over 25,000 units. Not only did that land him at #1 on the Gospel Albums chart at Billboard, but he’s also #1 on the Christian Albums chart (debuting higher than CCM favorite Michael W. Smith’s new project, Wonder!), #17 on the Billboard 200, #1 on the Independent Albums chart, #5 on the Rap Albums chart and #6 on the Digital Albums chart.  WOW.  Major congrats to Lecrae and his team.

The rest of the top 10 in gospel looks a bit like this…

#1 | Lecrae – Rehab
#2 | Israel Houghton – Love God. Love People.
#3 | Mavis Staples – You Are Not Alone
#4 | Marvin Sapp – Here I Am
#5 | Shekinah Glory Ministry – Refreshed By Fire
#6 | VaShawn Mitchell – Triumphant
#7 | WOW Gospel 2010
#8 | Beverly Crawford – Live From Los Angeles, Vol. 2
#9 | Lizz Wright – Fellowship
#10 | Kerry Douglas – Gospel Mix Vol. IV

Kudos also to jazz vocalist Lizz Wright for debuting at #9 with her new project, Fellowship.  The album has received great reviews by critics at mainstream and in gospel (gospel historian Bob Marovich, of TheBlackGospelBlog.com gave it five stars out of five stars).  I’ll have to take a listen!  Anyone have it already?

How about that new Lecrae project?  Got it?  Love it?

Whatd’ya think???