History:
Billboard Top Ten chart ruled by Black acts
For the first time ever in it's history, Billboard
magazine had a record take place this past week that has never
happened before. Their single's chart, every slot in the Top 10
was occupied by an African-American artist. Normally occupied with more
pop, rock and even dance tracks than most, it goes to show just
how popular urban music has become within the last decade. OutKast,
for example, has held the top slot on the album charts for the
past two weeks and this has since become a familiar pattern. It
wasn't a matter of if but when the Top 10 singles domination would
become a reality.
"Urban music has crossed
over and gone beyond its normal audience," says Violet
Brown, director of urban music for the Wherehouse Music
chain. "People of all ages and cultural backgrounds are buying
the music."
On the album chart where
position is based strictly on sales, Billboard's Hot 100 singles
chart is compiled by using such criteria as radio ratings, play
lists and sales numbers. Artists making up this prestigious breakthrough
were mostly rappers, including such heavyweight stars as 50
Cent, Nelly, P.
Diddy, Ludacris,
Chingy and Fabolous.
Nevertheless, it was a sexy female R&B singer that tops them
all.
Destiny's
Child breakout Beyoncé
Knowles owned the number one Hot spot with 'Baby
Boy' her new single from her Dangerously
in Love set featuring dance-hall star Sean
Paul.
Also making his presence
felt on the history-making singles chart is Atlanta 'crunk' rapper
Lil' Jon, who appears on
two of the Top 10 singles. He occupies the number three spit with
'Get Low', featuring the Ying
Yang Twins, and he guests on the number-six track,
the YoungBloodZ's 'Damn!'.
Aside from being the only artist to pull a two-fer on this week's
charts, Lil' Jon is also the
only Top 10 act released on an indie label, TVT Records. "This
speaks a lot for the influence of black music," says Bryan
Leach, VP of Urban A&R at TVT Records and the person responsible
for signing Lil' Jon. "Having
black music dominate the Top 10 shows how strong the music is
in a time when the music industry is in a recession."
Here is the top ten list
for the week ending Oct 6th
- 1. Beyoncé
featuring Sean Paul - Baby
Boy
2. Nelly, P.
Diddy & Murphy Lee
- Shake Ya Tailfeather
3. Lil' Jon & the East
Side Boyz featuring Ying Yang
Twins - Get Low
4. Chingy - Right
Thurr
5. Pharrell featuring Jay-Z
- Frontin'
6. YoungBloodZ featuring Lil'
Jon - Damn!
7. 50 Cent - P.I.M.P
8. Fabolous featuring Tamia/Ashanti
- Into You
9. Ludacris featuring Shawnna
- Stand Up
10.Black Eyed Peas
- Where
Is the Love?
.
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Former
Fugee star Wyclef Jean is hospitolized
 'Wyclef
Jean the former frontman to the rap group The
Fugees has been hospitalized for exhaustion and dehydration
after becoming ill from food poisoning, so reports a J Records
spokesperson.
"Apparently, he was on his way back from his promotional
tour in Europe and got food poisoning," the spokesperson
said. "It just seemed to snowball into something that made
him very sick and put him in the hospital."
The rapper/producer came down with food poisoning last Tuesday,
the day after appearing at the Source
Awards in Miami. He was admitted to a hospital there
and was hospitalized through to the weekend.Jean is currently on a promotional
tour to promote his new album, 'The Preacher's
Son', due out Nov. 4. 'Doctors is recommending that
he slow down a bit', the spokesperson said.
- Source: billboard.com
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The
new Napster returns with PPD version
-
The new Napster
returns but this time as a legit Pay-Per-Download serice. Recording
software giant, Roxio unveiled
its new version of the Napster music service last week (Oct.
8), according to Billboard Bulletin.
The former file swapping, free music service which was suit
down by RIAA in late 2001 was brought out by the new owners
of another PPD service, Pressplay
who's former owners Universal Music
Group sold the struggling online music service to
Roxio.
Roxio bought the remains of Napster in a bankruptcy auction
in late 2002, but details of the service built off the old Pressplay
technology platform, were not disclosed though. Sources
say the new Napster will feature a mix of a la carte and subscription
options-synthesizing features currently available through iTunes,
Rhapsody, MusicNet and MusicMatch.
Source: billboard.com
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Singer
Blu Cantrell caught in a club punch up in Paris
 Singer
Blu Cantrell has gotten
herself into a bit of bother as she been caught up in a nightclub
brawl. The former porn pin up's boyfriend Tony
De Niro could lose sight in one eye as a result of
it though. De Niro was smashed in the face with a glass ashtray
during the incident in Paris in the early hours of last Thursday
morning.
An eye witness who saw
what happened stated "The first thing we knew about the
fight was when they came flying out of the door and into the
street, there was a lot of kicking and punching and bouncers
were trying to split it up. One of the men was lying on the
floor covered in blood. He looked in a bad way. The police arrived
and arrested a man, while an ambulance took the other one away.
It was terrifying to watch."
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