September 2006 Archives

Amidst all the hoopla of Beyonce being certified gold during her first week of sales of the much-talked about sophomore effort B'Day, Bad Boy, the little engine that could, released Cassie's second video, "Long Way 2 Go."

Approx CD Sales:
#1 Beyonce - 509,930
#2 Audioslave - 143,016
#4 Danity Kane - 65,253
#12 Outkast - 40,180

73% of sales tallied

For all of you who have emailed me wondering if Beyonce really sold 600,000+ during the first week of sales of B'Day, we'll be tracking sales all day at the top of this blog. Check back every few minutes to see if Jigga's girl can beat Mary J. Blige's record of 730,000+.

In the meantime we've got some new joints by Ruben Studdard, Kanye Westfeaturing John Mayer, Janet Jackson and some remixes you may have forgotten about.

I know this is going to sound like some ridiculous archaic, dated commentary that set race relations a few decades back, but I’ve gotta ask, is light skin coming back? LOL!

Follow me on this one. For a minute there, not only in R&B, but in entertainment in general brothas with darker complexion have made quite a foray into pop culture. Tyson Beckford, Tyrese aka Black Ty, Morris Chestnutt, Bill Bellamy, Derek Luke, Biggie, Diddy, Black Rob, Loon and many others have made darker skin not only desired but sought after by agencies, marketers and casting directors. This comes after decades of the brown paper bag test, having light skin and "good hair" ruined so many lives.

Kelefa Sanneh of the New York Times is fastly becoming one of my favorite writers. In the Thursday, September 7th issue Sanneh pens a story about there not being a true summer hip-hop hit. Looking at the songs that ruled the Billboard charts, Shakira featuring Wyclef's "Hips Don't Lie", Nelly Fertado featuring Timbaland's "Promiscuous Girl" and Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" all come to mind, however none are a true hip-hop hit, and of course none are a true R&B hit.

But since we are in a culture where traditional radio is almost obsolete and iTunes and last.fm rules the popularity of songs I ask, what song ruled your summer? (add me as a friend on last.fm, user name: cartierkev so I can see what y'all listening to!)

For all the Mary J. Blige fans who have been wondering about all the random new music is coming from, wonder no more. It seems Ms. Blige is releasing a new CD this year just around Thanksgiving.

Despite selling over 700,000 copies of The Breakthrough during it's first week of sales during last year's holiday rush, many of you said you didn't see what was SOHH special about the album. You said you were tired of Mary whining and her 'woe is me' approach to music.

Approx. CD Sales:
No. 1 Bob Dylan - 189,242
No. 2 Danity Kane - 123,271
No. 3 Young Dro - 103,909
No. 4 Jessica Simpson - 99,076
No. 5 Christina Aguilera - 98, 623

Lately, I've been thinking about all the tirades and rants that have been spouted by many recording artists about their labels and the antics that are pulled all in the name of selling an album. Everything from the good (Motown grooming it's artists from the inside out, setting an industry standard) to the bad (Motown dropping such groundbreaking artists like Diana Ross for not selling enough records).

A while back A Tribe Called Quest professed with industry rule #4080 that record company people are shady. But are they all bad?

If you are officially over B'Day and want some joints to jam to, you've come to the right place. Aside from deciding if the new joints by Beyonce, Chingy, Shareefa and Diddy are even worth the bullet, we will also be tracking the second-week sales to see if Danity Kane can fend off Outkast and continue their run as owners of the No. 1 album in the country. Come on in, make yourself comfortable and stay a while.

The 2006 MTV VMAs boasted for weeks that they would be bigger and badder than ever before. Somebody lied. Although I love having the award show back at home I was very underwhelmed by the so called thrillers. However the show did prove a few things; 50cent is a vampire, Jay-Z is irrelevant, Beyonce is a copy cat and the best hip hop producers are being lost to white hot pop establishment.