The half-million tally would place the rapper behind Justin Timberlake in the year's sales race.



Kanye West's Yeezus, due Tuesday on Def Jam, is expected to sell 500,000 copies its first week.

'That's what industry forecasters suggest,' says Keith Caulfield, Billboard's associate director of charts/retail. 'It's difficult to a degree to predict an album's sales until it actually goes on sale, but the closer you to are to the release date, the better you can tell. It's like a weather forecast.'

The half-million mark would put the rapper's sixth studio album in the same ballpark as previous releases. Watch the Throne, 2011's collaboration with Jay-Z, opened with 436,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan. West's two most recent solo albums enjoyed similar launches: 2010's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy with 496,000, and 2008's 808s & Heartbreak with 450,000. Both were released during Thanksgiving week.

'They had a big holiday and Christmas to drive sales, and you don't have that now,' Caulfield says, adding wryly, 'Plus, he's missing the Father's Day window.'

What may boost Yeezus is its air of secrecy and unconventional marketing. So far, the album has not leaked.

'Nobody knows what it sounds like,' Caulfield says. 'There's no single, n.