Following the untimely death of the great Michael Jackson, it was expected that fans would come out of the woodwork to stock up on Mike’s albums and music. Just as expected Michael Jackson (already the undisputed King of Pop) proved himself to be the King again. The preliminary sales numbers from the Nielsen SoundScan reveals that nine out of the top ten spots of Billboards Top Pop Catalog Albums chart will be held by Michael Jackson related projects. Michael has a record eight of the top ten spots and the Jackson 5 holds the ninth. Collectively, Michael Jackson’s solo albums sold 415,000 copies the past week with 58% of them being digital sales. For more details and a report of the countless Billboard records broken by Michael Jackson this past week CLICK HERE!!!
Everyone was wondering why Blueprint 3 continued to be delayed and I’m sure the world was shocked when Jay-Z bought out of his contract with Def Jam before releasing the highly anticipated album… Well “Blueprint 3″ will be released on September 11th (exactly 8 years after the release of “Blueprint”) through Jay-Z’s new Roc Nation imprint. The “Blueprint 3″ album will be distributed through Atlantic but the other artsist and Roc Nation works will be distributed through Sony. For more details CLICK HERE!!!
It was reported a while back that Universal Motown had won the bidding war for hip-hop’s next big thing, Drake. Unfortunately (for them) they came close but no cigar. Drake has signed with Lil Wayne’s Young Money imprint and will be distributed through Universal Republic. Drake’s highly anticipated major label debut, “Thank Me Later,” is scheduled to be released later this year. For the full story CLICK HERE!!!
NiaFree
As we all patiently wait for the August 4th release of Trey Songz’ third studio album, READY, he gives us a little something to hold us over for the next month. The new King of Remixes has released Anticipation which is ironically all original songs… 12 good tracks and I won’t go into a detailed description of the mixtape simply because I feel that his own description is much better than mine could ever be. Thus, below I’ve posted what Trey said on his blog… F.Y.I the Prince fan in me loves the “Purple Rain” inspired “Yo Side of the Bed” (its no “Purple Rain” by far though.. but its cool).
Just when some were starting to question what was going on in the world of R&B, Chrisette Michele’s second album Epiphany quiets all naysayers. Chrisette Michele stated that this album would be more upbeat and youthful than her 2007 release I Am, which in many cases means “this will be a pop-filled album with about 7 or 8 singles.” Luckily for those of us who appreciate the emotion, soul and power Chrisette possesses with her voice, that is not the case. Epiphany does have tracks that you can vibe too: “Playing Our Song,” “Fragile,” and “Mr. Right,” but the soul is still there. Each song gives you a different facet of Chrisette’s diverse voice: she can sing jazz, soul, comtemporary R&B (and no they are not the same!); she can make you feel her on “I’m Okay” or make stir up a few emotions on “Blame It On Me” or remind of the love you let walk by on “Notebook.” It is a great album for the true R&B lover; not overtly commercialized, great lyrics, no auto-tune, and a beautiful… It all makes for a great listen as you get ready for the day, as you settle down before dinner, or as you chill out that evening.