Friday, 27 June 2008
Rap Chart Movement: Lil Wayne Still Reigns, Carter III Moves 300K Copies In It's Second Week
Tha Carter III scanned 308,500 discs this week, pushing it's total to 1,316,200 copies.
Florida rapper Plies holds on to the No. 2 spot. Definition Of Real moves 67,600 CDs this week. After two weeks, the album has sold a total of 282,500 copies.
Houston's TMI Boyz move five steps up to No. 3. Grindin' For A Purpose cashes out 18,000 copies this week. After 3 weeks, the album has sold a total of 27,500 units.
Young Jeezy affiliate Blood Raw enters the charts at No.4 with his debut album titled My Life: True Testimony. The album scans 17,400 copies in its opening week.
Also making his first appearance on the charts is 2 Pistols at No. 5 with his debut album Death Before Dishonor. The set shifts 15,700 copies in its first week on the charts.
Total Club Hits drops two slots to No. 6. The set shelved off 13,800 discs this week. So far, the set has sold 33,800 copies.
Posted at No. 7 are The Flobots. Fight With Tools ringed out 13,700 copie
s this week, pushing the album's total to 122,000.
Right behind them is Bun B at No. 8. II Trill pushed 13,300 discs this week, bringing the album's total to 195,800.
Chilling at No. 9 is Rick Ross. Trilla, which has sold 588,700 copies since its March debut, gets scooped up by 11,200 folks this week.
Rap/reggaton duo Wisin Y Yandel wraps things up at No. 10. Los Extraterr bags up 8,400 copies this week. So far, the album has sold 290,600 units.
Thursday, 19 June 2008
50 Cent Responds To Young Buck On Hot 97, Explains Why He Tapes Conversations
Round ... um, everybody is losing count. On Thursday (June 19), 50 Cent told his side of the latest drama between him and Young Buck on New York's Hot 97 radio station.
Earlier this week, 50 released portions of a call between him and Buck, in which his former crew member broke down in tears over his dismissal from the group and financial difficulties. Buck responded Wednesday afternoon with a dis record called "Taped Conversations." 50 retaliated by putting out the entire phone call on ThisIs50.com.
"A lot of times people don't see what the other person is doing," 50 said, explaining to host Angie Martinez why he taped the talk between him and Buck. "They don't understand the cause and effect. They don't see the other person; they just pay attention to me."
50 said the phone call took place just three months ago, at a time when he "was trying to be as helpful as possible" to Buck. 50 also said that he wasn't coming with any records toward Buck, but did imply that their friendship is beyond repair.
"It's crazy. When I see people showing me so many different things within their character, I don't value them anymore," the Unit's leader said.
When asked if he taped all his phone conversations, 50 said, "With idiots, yeah! So if they saying something crazy, it's right there."
Right before the break, Fif told stories of Buck's impulsive spending and once again alleged that he has a drug problem: "He needs to go to a program and get some real help," 50 said. "Then maybe we can talk to each other."
The MC brought up footage that recently appeared on the Internet in which Buck curses his former comrades during a concert.
"He's in the middle of his show, saying 'F' me and everything else that created him."
On Hot 97 on Friday at 12 p.m. ET, 50 plans to debut his new mixtape Sincerely Yours, featuring him and his team rhyming over old-school R&B beats.
See Also
Thursday, 12 June 2008
Friday, 6 June 2008
Dizzee Rascal brings 'Maths & English' to El Rey
But the video also symbolizes his lengthy and tumultuous career in music. Rascal (real name Dylan Mills) -- who plays the El Rey tonight -- is a hugely ambitious MC who, in the U.S. at least, remains a perpetual outsider.
"I don't think they had ever met anybody from England," Rascal says of the Houstonian extras in the video. "Half the time I didn't think they understood a word I was saying, but I connected with them."
Rascal's squelching beats and wild patois are sometimes difficult to sort. But his albums capture the many-sided emotional realities of street life, while also promising on one track that "there's a world outside the ghetto, and I want you to see it."
His 2003 debut "Boy in Da Corner" was heralded as the high point of a new genre -- an English strain of panicked, dub-influenced rap known as "grime." But even as he won Britain's Mercury Prize for his first album (which sported the hilarious and ghastly teen-pregnancy lament "I Luv U"), he was eyeing foreign rap markets and different production styles, but still treading lightly after a knife attack that year ("Maths & English" opens with a drum sample of sharpening blades).
The single "Sirens" begins harrowingly, with "12 black boots on my bedroom floor" coming to arrest the narrator over a "99 Problems"-style guitar riff. But Rascal reveals they had reason to: He beat and robbed a couple, and he ruefully predicts that "I break the law, I will never change." Rascal admits "Sirens" is autobiographical, but by admitting his complicity, Rascal explores the fear that drives violence.
"The song doesn't make me out to be a victim," Rascal says. "What I do comes from a more vulnerable place."
There's a riotous house influence on the lascivious single "Flex," and playful collaborations with Arctic Monkeys, Lily Allen and disco maven Matthew Herbert imply Rascal's vision beyond his laurels as Britain's best rapper. It's fitting that his most eccentric album would also be his most approachable. But as "Sirens" suggests, emotionally incisive art is inherently complicated.
"When my first album came out, I was an outsider then, and I still am," Rascal says. "I'm not Lil' Wayne just yet."
DIZZEE RASCAL WHO: With El-P and Busdriver
WHERE: El Rey Theater, 5515 Wilshire Blvd., L.A.
WHEN: 8 tonight
PRICE: $21.50
INFO: (323) 936-6400