CHART PREVIEW: R. KELLY & JAY-Z ALBUM IS TOPS, EVEN AS TOUR BOTTOMS OUT

As the sales reports continue to come in and be counted like so many ballots in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania (and the many lawsuits sure to follow), the early tally appears to confirm that the second R. Kelly & Jay-Z album collaboration, Unfinished Business (IDJ/ZLG) will take #1 on this week’s album chart with first-week sales of about 280k.

Break out the pepper spray! Everybody get some in the face! Hey, wait a minute—that’s no way to celebrate! Well, the superstar rapper and the superstar R&B crooner may have had their final breakup on the road over the weekend, with Kelly ending up on the wrong end of a can of thug-be-gone (see Rumor Mill), but they’ll still have the top album in the country this week. Come on, guys!

The next-highest debuts on this week’s chart are likely to be Trick Daddy’s Thug Matrimony: Married to the Streets (Slip-N-Slide/Atlantic) and Simple Plan’s Still Not Getting Any (Lava/Atlantic), the latter falling surprisingly short of expectations.

Big albums hitting the street tomorrow include Now 17 (Capitol), which early guessers have pegged at 350k or so, and A Perfect Circle’s Emotive (Virgin), expected to have a first week of around 100k-120k.