The Official Top 10 Biggest Selling Urban Albums of 2012

Rihanna is the undisputed queen of the 2012 Urban Charts, with three of her albums securing spots in the Top 10 biggest selling urban albums of the year, and with combined sales of close to 1m copies.

Released in December following the controversial promo tour 777, Rihanna's seventh studio album Unapologetic sold 475,000 copies in a month, becoming the UK's most popular urban album of the year, while her previous album Talk That Talk, released in December 2011, follows suit with 334,000 copies sold. Meanwhile, her 2010 album Loud was the eighth biggest-selling urban album of the year, with just over 150,000 copies sold.

Helped by 2012's biggest selling urban single Starships, our favourite Bieber-grinding, technicoloured pop star Nicki Minaj became the second biggest selling urban act of 2012 as second album Pink Friday…Roman Reloaded shifted 242 000 copies. It also elevated Minaj to the status of the UK's highest charting solo female rapper on the Official Albums Chart, as Pink Friday...Roman Reloaded hit Number 1 back in April of last year.

In a typically US-heavy genre, the UK is well represented by Brighton hip-hop duo Rizzle Kicks, Hackney singer-songwriter and producer Labrinth and Plan B who released the fourth, fifth and seventh biggest-selling urban albums of 2012 respectively, separated only by Jay-Z & Kanye West's collaboration Watch The Throne.

[The Official Urban Chart 2012 has been compiled by combining the biggest RnB and hip hop singles of the year, as classified by the UK music industry, using Official Charts Company sales data.]

The Official Top 10 Biggest Selling Urban Albums of 2012 are as follows:

© 2013 The Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.