Universal Music Group's well-orchestrated "battle" between Kanye West and 50 Cent appears to be paying off, because Billboard reported today that Kanye's Graduation will top Fiddy's Curtis in first-week sales, based on sales projections.

Graduation vs. Curtis.

Using Nielsen SoundScan's new Building Charts feature, which incorporates first-day sales data from major retailers like iTunes, Best Buy, and Target to project first-week sales, Billboard projected that West will come out on top.

The SoundScan Building Chart indicates first-day sales of 437,000 for West's Graduation, 310,000 for 50's Curtis, and 107,000 for country star Kenny Chesney's Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates.

West and 50 Cent have been pitted against one another in a much-hyped sales rivalry that was expected to boost sales of both albums above what they would have made otherwise. Both Island/Def Jam and Interscope, the labels for West and Fiddy, respectively, are owned by Universal.

50 Cent has joked that he would retire if West beat him in first-week sales, while many industry insiders have predicted that Chesney, whose last three studio albums have debuted at No. 1, would top both rappers. Some pundits project West will surpass 750,000, while Fiddy's album is expected to fall somewhere in the 500,000-600,000 range.

West's August 2005 release, Late Registration, was the last album to start above that mark. It bowed at No. 1 on The Billboard 200, with opening sales of 860,000 copies, and led the chart for two weeks.

The largest sales week this year belongs to Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight with 623,000, while Rascal Flatts' Me and My Gang had the biggest frame of 2006 when it started at 722,000.