Thursday Billboard Update - 3/29/12

The Hunger Games soundtrack debuts at #1 (and is the first soundtrack to do so since Michael Jackson's This Is It soundtrack) this week with 175,200 sold. Odd Future's The OF Tapes Vol. 2 debuts at #5 with 40,200 and proves I probably should've remained not predicting album sales. Melanie Fiona's The MF Life debuts at #7 with 34,200 sold.

Fun.'s We Are Young featuring Janelle Monae remains at #1 for a 4th week.

The Billboard 200 1-10
first week debuts in bold

1. Various Artists - The Hunger Games sdtk (1)
2. Adele - 21 (2-2)
3. The Shins - Port Of Morrow (3)
4. One Direction - Up All Night (1-4)
5. Odd Future - The OF Tapes Vol. 2 (5)
6. Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball (4-6)
7. Melanie Fiona - The MF Life (7)
8. Various Artists - Now 41 (8-8)
9. Whitney Houston - Whitney: The Greatest Hits (6-9)
10. Esperanza Spalding - Radio Music Society (10)

• Diggy Simmons' Unexpected Arrival underwhelms by debuting at #13 with just 21,400 sold. JoJo Simmons' heart just smiled.
• Machine Gun Kelly's Half Naked & Almost Famous EP/soundtrack debuts at #46 with 8,500 sold.

The Billboard Hot 100 1-10
first time top 10's in bold

1. fun. - We Are Young (1-1)
2. Kelly Clarkson - Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) (2-2)
3. The Wanted - Glad You Came (3-3)
4. Gotye - Somebody That I Used to Know (5-4)
5. Nicki Minaj - Starships (6-5)
6. Adele - Set Fire To The Rain (4-6)
7. Flo Rida - Wild Ones (9-7)
8. Katy Perry - Part Of Me (10-8)
9. Drake - Take Care (8-9)
10. David Guetta - Turn Me On (7-10)

• Maroon 5's Come Away To The Water debuts at #83.
• Drake's Crew Love featuring The Weeknd debuts at #100.

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This Week In Flops 3/20/12

I pretty much took an entire year off from doing This Week In Flops, but it's time to bring back one of this site's originals. Let's guess some numbers!

Sometimes buzz comes and goes for artists, but in the case of Odd Future, it only seems to grow. If they can set up a pop-up-shop and get long lines like this of kids just wanting to buy their merchandise, I don't see why they can't move over 100,000 units first week. My prediction: 110-150k.

By the time Diggy was ready to release his album, he was suppose to be on top of the world with a massive hit. That didn't exactly happen, but I still think he'll do well off teenage girls alone. I think Run's talented son will fall somewhere in the 50-80k range.

I'm not gonna lie, I don't know shit about this project really, but Melanie has a nice little following, so I'm with 25-65k.

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Thursday Billboard Update - 2/9/12

Adele's 21 is at #1 for an 19th non-consecutive week. This shit is crazy.

We have a new #1 on the Hot 100 and it's Kelly Clarkson's Stronger (What  Doesn't Kill You). Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa's Young, Wild &  Free with Bruno Mars returns to the top 10 by jumping 12-8.

The Billboard 200 1-10
first week debuts in bold

1. Adele - 21 (1-1)
2. Lana Del Rey - Born To Die (2)
3. Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas (3)
4. Various Artists - 2012 Grammy Nominees (4-4)
5. Kidz Bop Kids - Kidz Bop 21 (6-5)
6. Drake - Take Care (9-6)
7. Tim McGraw - Emotional Traffic (2-7)
8. Fred Hammond - God, Love & Romance (8)
9. LMFAO - Sorry For Partying Rocking (18-9)
10. Rihanna - Talk That Talk (16-10)

The Billboard Hot 100 1-10
first time top 10's in bold

1. Kelly Clarkson - Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) (2-1)
2. Adele - Set Fire To The Rain (1-2)
3. Flo Rida - Good Feeling (4-3)
4. Rihanna - We Found Love (3-4)
5. David Guetta - Turn Me On (5-5)
6. Jessie J - Domino (8-6)
7. Tyga - Rack City (10-7)
8. Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa - Young, Wild & Free (12-8)
9. LMFAO - Sexy And I Know It (7-9)
10. Bruno Mars - It Will Rain (6-10)

• Following her Super Bowl performance, Madonna's Give Me All Your Luvin featuring Nicki Minaj & that idiot M.I.A. debuts at #13.
• Melanie Fiona's 4 AM debuts at #97.

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Who Should Win, Who Will Win: BET Awards 2010

Best Female R&B Artist
Beyoncé
Mary J. Blige
Melanie Fiona
Alicia Keys
Rihanna

Who Should Win: Alicia Keys

Who Will Win: Alicia Keys

My Take: Rihanna is still considered a R&B artist??

Anyway, Beyonce is always great, but over the past year all she's done with make 2 videos with Lady Gaga. Mary J. Blige had a decent year sales wise, but no real hit singles. Melanie Fiona is great, but lets be serious. Rihanna does mainly pop and alternative music, and Rude Boy alone isn't enough to win her this award. That leaves Alicia Keys. She had several hits over past year, stayed relevant the entire time, and her album went platinum fairly quickly. She's GOT to win this award.

(Side note: How in the hell did Melanie Fiona beat out Monica for a spot here?? Not only has Monica outsold her, BUT SHE HAS A TV SHOW ON BET!)

Best Male R&B Artist
Chris Brown
Raheem DeVaughn
Maxwell
Trey Songz
Usher

Who Should Win: Usher

Who Will Win: Trey Songz

My Take: Let the records show now that if Trey Songz does indeed win, he deserved it. This was his breakout year, and you'd be hard pressed to find a female who doesn't want to help their neighbors know his name as well. I would give it to Usher though because I can't go anywhere without hearing OMG, Lil Freak, or There Goes My Baby! Whether I'm watching TV, driving in the car, or getting my haircut, you just can't escape them. And that's not to mention he's already outsold Trey, even though his album dropped 7 months later. Yeah he's Usher, but Trey is on fiyah right now with the ladies, he should have sold MUCH more than he has at the moment.

Also, Don't sleep on Maxwell. Ladies love him just as much, if not more, than Trey Songz and Usher. That's evidence by him coming from out of nowhere last year and selling 316,000 of his BLACKsummers'night in its first week. Here's the dark horse that could actually steal this one from the front-runners.

Best Female Hip-Hop Artist
Ester Dean
Lil’ Kim
Nicki Minaj
Rasheeda
Trina

Who Should Win: Nicki Minaj

Who Will Win: Nicki Minaj

My Take: Even though Nicki hasn't really done much over the past year outside of a few cameos here and there, she's got to win this one because her competition is basically non-existent. The nominees were essentially thrown together just to say they gave out this award. Seriously, Ester Dean, Lil Kim, Rasheeda, and Trina?? Ester Dean had a minor hit, then disappeared, Lil Kim is only in the news because of a feud with Nicki and Drake, Rasheeda is still an underground artist, and Trina's Amazin' album dropped with so little fanfare than I'm not even sure Slip-N-Slide knows it's out yet. They might as well had thrown Foxy Brown and Missy Elliott in there too. If anything, Nicki wins by default.

Best Male Hip-Hop Artist
B.o.B
Drake
Fabolous
Jay-Z
Ludacris

Who Should Win: Jay-Z

Who Will Win: Drake

My Take: Jay-Z dominated the competition again over the past year notching another #1 album, a platinum plaque, and 3 top 10 singles. Even so, this award will be given to Drake to reward him on his big first week numbers. Oh well, I doubt Jay will be trippin' off of this loss.

Best New Artist
Justin Bieber
Melanie Fiona
Nicki Minaj
Wale
Young Money

Who Should Win: Nicki Minaj

Who Will Win: Nicki Minaj

My Take: Justin Bieber?? Really?? Has BET even aired any of his videos?? Like the last award Nicki won, this one was seemingly thrown. I mean, Young Money is literally nominated for "Best New ARTIST," even though they're a group.

Oh well, it's not her fault there haven't been many hot new artists over the past year.

(Side note: Why isn't B.o.B nominated here?? I mean, yeah, he's been out for awhile, but so has Nicki, Wale, Melanie Fiona, and pretty much everybody in Young Money. B.o.B having two #1 singles to his credit cancels out the fact that he just dropped his debut album this past March?? If Melanie Fiona can be nominated for "Best Female R&B Artist" and "Best New Artist," why can't B.o.B be nominated here and "Best Male Hip-Hop Artist" too?? If he were nominated, he'd surely win.)

Best Gospel
The Anointed Pace Sisters
Kirk Franklin Presents Artists United For Haiti
Tamela Mann
Marvin Sapp
Vickie Winans

Who Should Win: Marvin Sapp

Who Will Win: Marvin Sapp

My Take: I won't claim to know all there is about Gospel music, but I do know Marvin Sapp has been the most commercially successful over the past year. It's his award.

Best Group
Black Eyed Peas
Clipse
Diddy-Dirty Money
New Boyz
Young Money

Who Should Win: Young Money

Who Will Win: Black Eyed Peas

My Take: The Black Eyed Peas sold more records than all these acts combined over the past year so they will win, but if you ask me, they shouldn't even be nominated. 1) They aren't a Hip-Hop or R&B act (anymore), and 2) I'm not even sure they get any play on BET. I don't watch 106 & Park or The Deal, but I'm almost positive Boom Boom Pow or I Got A Feeling were getting much play.

Best Collaboration
Beyoncé f/ Lady Gaga – “Video Phone”
B.o.B f/ Bruno Mars – “Nothin’ on You”
Drake & Trey Songz – “Successful”
Drake f/ Lil Wayne, Kanye West & Eminem – “Forever”
Jay-Z & Alicia Keys – “Empire State of Mind”
Trey Songz f/ Fabolous – “Say Aah”

Who Should Win: Jay-Z & Alicia Keys – “Empire State of Mind”

Who Will Win: Drake f/ Lil Wayne, Kanye West & Eminem – “Forever”

My Take: Drake is the hottest artist out right now, so they have to get him more camera time than just one award and one performance. Plus, the strength of the featured artists makes it easier to explain why it will beat out 2 #1 records in Nothin' On You and Empire State Of Mind.

(Side note: Why isn't Run This Town nominated?? It charted higher than 4 of the 6 songs that were.)

Video Director of the Year
Benny Boom
Gil Green
Anthony Mandler
Chris Robinson
Hype Williams

Who Should Win: I don't know.

Who Will Win: I don't know.

My Take: I'm not gonna lie, I hardly ever pay attention to who directed the videos I watch, so I don't know who did what. BET is banking on you not knowing either so they'll give it to either Benny Boom or Chris Robinson because we know who they are. We know Hype Williams too, but I doubt he actually directed many videos over the past year.

Video of the Year
Beyoncé f/ Lady Gaga – “Video Phone”
B.o.B f/ Bruno Mars – “Nothin’ on You”
Melanie Fiona – “It Kills Me”
Jay-Z & Alicia Keys – “Empire State of Mind”
Jay-Z, Rihanna & Kanye West – “Run This Town”

Who Should Win: Jay-Z & Alicia Keys – “Empire State of Mind”

Who Will Win: Jay-Z & Alicia Keys – “Empire State of Mind”

My Take: Since Empire State Of Mind will get snubbed in Best Collaboration, BET will make it up by giving this one to Hov and A. Keys.

Viewer’s Choice
Beyoncé – “Sweet Dreams”
Jay-Z & Alicia Keys – “Empire State of Mind”
Monica – “Everything to Me”
Rihanna f/ Young Jeezy – “Hard”
Trey Songz f/ Fabolous – “Say Aah”
Young Money (Lil Wayne, Gudda Gudda, Nicki Minaj, Jae Millz, Drake, Tyga) f/ Lloyd – “Bedrock”

Who Should Win: Jay-Z & Alicia Keys – “Empire State of Mind”

Who Will Win: Young Money (Lil Wayne, Gudda Gudda, Nicki Minaj, Jae Millz, Drake, Tyga) f/ Lloyd – “Bedrock”

My Take: This award will be interesting seeing the viewers select the winner, and not BET. I know it's out of BedRock and Say Ahh, but I'm leaning towards BedRock because of Drake, Nicki, and Lil Wayne.

Best International Act
Kojo Antwi (Ghana)
Chipmunk (UK)
Dizzee Rascal (UK)
Estelle (UK)
Hip Hop Pantsula (HHP) (South Africa)
K’NAAN (Somalia)
M.I. (Nigeria)
P-Square (Nigeria)
Corinne Bailey Rae (UK)
Sade (UK)

Who Should Win: Sade

Who Will Win: Sade

My Take: This award is stupid, but I'm be totally shocked if Sade didn't win.

Centric Award
Melanie Fiona
Maxwell
Chrisette Michele
Monica
Sade

Who Should Win: Maxwell

Who Will Win: Maxwell

My Take: This award is really a slap in the face to Chrisette Michele, Monica, and Sade. BET is basically saying, "you weren't good enough to get nominated in any of the real R&B categories, so we'll give you this one."

Nevertheless, if Maxwell doesn't steal the "Best Male R&B Artist" award, they'll throw him a bone and give him this.

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Thursday Billboard Update - 12/10/09

Susan Boyle continues to reign over the charts as her I Dreamed A Dream moves another 527,000 and earns a platinum plaque in its 2nd week. Andrea Bocelli's My Christmas sees a 97% increase at #2 with 428,000 sold this week. R. Kelly's Untitled gets its start off at #4 with 114,300 sold.

Not much movement this week on the Hot 100.

The Billboard 200 1-10
first week debuts in bold

1. Susan Boyle - I Dreamed A Dream (1-1)
2. Andrea Bocelli - My Christmas (2-2)
3. Taylor Swift - Fearless (8-3)
4. R. Kelly - Untitled (4)
5. Lady GaGa - The Fame (6-5)
6. Carrie Underwood - Play On (9-6)
7. Norah Jones - The Fall (10-7)
8. Michael Jackson - This Is It sdtk (11-8)
9. Various Artists - New Moon sdtk (12-9)
10. Michael Bublé - Crazy Love (18-10)

• Juvenile probably should've re-thought the title of his comeback album because I don't know how Cocky & Confident he is at #43 with 23,100 sold.
  

The Billboard Hot 100 1-10
first time top 10's in bold
1. Jay-Z - Empire State Of Mind (1-1)
2. Lady GaGa - Bad Romance (2-2)
3. Ke$ha - TiK ToK (3-3)
4. Iyaz - Replay (5-4)
5. Owl City - Fireflies (4-5)
6. Jason Rulo - Whatcha Say (6-6)
7. David Guetta - Sexy Chick (8-7)
8. Black Eyed Peas - Meet Me Halfway (7-8)
9. Britney Spears - 3 (10-9)
10. Jay Sean - Down (9-10)

• Young Money's Bedrock jumps 12 spots 36-24 in its 2nd week.
• Trey Songz's Say Aah continues to move north, jumping 19 spaces 59-40 this week.
• Speaking of Trey, I Invented Sex moves 11 spots up 54-43.
• Gucci Mane's Spotlight rolls on to a new high 64-48.
• Melanie Fiona's It Kills Me stays on an upward track moving another 19 spots 75-56.
• After debuting at #76 last week, Timbaland's Morning After Dark flies 15 mores spaces 76-61.
• Timbo also sees his duo with Justin Timberlake Carry Out debut at #75.
• Pitbull checks in at #85 with Shut It Down featuring Akon.
• Timbaland's If We Ever Meet Again with Katy Perry starts off at #98.

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Thursday Billboard Update - 11/26/09

Wow, not only did 50 Cent not grab the #1 spot, but he couldn't manage numbers 2, 3, or 4 either. Debuting at #5 is 50 Cent's Before I Self Destruct with 161,200 sold (I believe I called that). The sales reign for 50 is over.

The man who actually does get to sit atop the Billboard 200 is John Mayer as his Battle Studies pushes 286,000 out the store.

Jay-Z's Empire State Of Mind with Alicia Keys hangs onto the #1 spot for another week after seeing gains in airplay, sales, and online streaming.

The Billboard 200 1-10
first week debuts in bold

1. John Mayer - Battle Studies (1)
2. Andrea Bocelli - My Christmas (2-2)
3. Norah Jones - The Fall (3)
4. Casting Crowns - Until The Whole World Hears (4)
5. 50 Cent - Before I Self Destruct (5)
6. Justin Bieber - My World EP (6)
7. Michael Jackson - This Is It sdtk (4-7)
8. Various Artists - Twilight Saga: New Moon sdtk (10-8)
9. Carrie Underwood - Play On (3-9)
10. Taylor Swift - Fearless (5-10)

• Last season's American Idol winner Kris Allen's self-title debut album comes in at #11 with 80,000 sold. I smell "Ruben Studdard/Clay Aiken 2.0" brewing with Kris and Adam Lambert. You know, the clearly gay guy, that didn't wanna admit he was gay during Idol, that came in 2nd place and ends up having a more successful career than the actual winner. I can smell it, I can see it.
• Leona Lewis' 2nd album Echo comes in at #13 with 67,300 sold, a far cry from her 2008 debut Spirit.
  
• Rakim's long awaited come back album The Seventh Seal comes in at #61 with 11,700 sold.
• Pretty Ricky's self-titled album debuts at #97, but I can find their sales figures anywhere. If Rakim did nearly 12,000 at #61, I'm guessing PR sold around 5,000.
  

The Billboard Hot 100 1-10
first time top 10's in bold
1. Jay-Z - Empire State Of Mind (1-1)
2. Lady GaGa - Bad Romance (11-2)
3. Owl City - Fireflies (2-3)
4. Jason Rulo - Whatcha Say (3-4)
5. Ke$ha - TiK ToK (10-5)
6. Iyaz - Replay (4-6)
7. David Guetta - Sexy Chick (12-7)
8. Lady GaGa - Paparazzi (9-8)
9. Britney Spears - 3 (6-9)
10. Jay Sean - Down (7-10)

• Leona Lewis' Happy see's a surge with her album coming out last week and goes 59-31 this week.
• Kris Allen's single Live Like We're Dying jumps 29 spots 71-40.
• Alicia Keys' Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart (I'm sure she could just call up Mashonda if she really wanted to know what that was like) debuts at #58.
• Gucci Mane's bullshit (aka first single) Spotlight jumps 19 spot 86-67. I told y'all this was gonna finally move once he went to jail. Lets see how long this lasts.
• Trey Songz's Say Aah moves 13 spots up 81-68.
• Rihanna's Hard with Young Jeezy starts off at #80 this week.
• Melanie Fiona's It Kills Me comes in at #88.
• In a true shocker, the intro to 50 Cent's new album, debuts on the Hot 100 this week. The Invitation starts off at #97, lets see if it can hang around.

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This Week In Flops 11/10/09

You know, one good thing I can say about this new class of rappers is that they do drop albums. The new rappers from 2003-2008 really struggled with that, and I'd say about 3 out of 78 of them actually dropped an album. In the class of 2009 we've already got albums from Asher Roth, Skyzoo, KiD CuDi, and now Wale.

Anyway, Wale is an interesting artist to predict sales for because he seems to have a bigger buzz than he really has because he has some high profiled friends. Think about, you know Wale, and have known him for a minute, but what has he really done?? Not much in my book. Now that's not taking anything away from him, he seems to be cool, but it just feels like he has more buzz than his album. I'm going to go with 40-70k to be safe, wouldn't be surprised if it was much less though.

What the fuck is going on with this album?? I knew it came out in June in other countries like Canada and the U.K., but its schedule for its U.S. debut today. The problem with that is that it already debuted on the Billboard 200 2 weeks ago on October 29th.

Anyway, the album only sold 4,200 that time so I'd be foolish to say it'd sell much more than that now. I'll go with 4-12k.

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Thursday Billboard Update - 10/29/09

Another slow week for the Billboard 200, Joss Stone's Colour Me Free does debut at #10 with 27,000 sold.

Some group that goes by Owl City takes over at #1 with their single Fireflies. Beyonce's Sweet Dreams finally makes the top 10 with a 1 spot jump, 11-10.

The Billboard 200 1-10
first week debuts in bold

1. Various Artists - Twilight Saga: New Moon sdtk (2-1)
2. Tim McGraw - Southern Voice (2)
3. Michael Bublé - Crazy Love (1-3)
4. Jay-Z - Blueprint 3 (3-4)
5. Miley Cyrus - The Time Of Our Lives (5-5)
6. Black Eyed Peas - The E.N.D. (6-6)
7. Taylor Swift - Fearless (7-7)
8. Owl City - Fire Flies (20-8)
9. Barbara Streisand - Love Is The Answer (4-9)
10. Joss Stone - Colour Me Free (10)

• Down at #111 is Street Hop by Royce Da 5'9" with 4,600 sold. I thought this was a mixtape? Oh well.
• Melanie Fiona's The Bridge debuts at #129 with 4,200 sold. I thought this album already came out? It looked in like June.
  

The Billboard Hot 100 1-10
first time top 10's in bold

1. Owl City - Fireflies (7-1)
2. Jason Rulo - Whatcha Say (2-2)
3. Jay Sean - Down (1-3)
4. Miley Cyrus - Party In The U.S.A. (3-4)
5. Jay-Z - Run This Town (4-5)
6. Lady GaGa - Paparazzi (6-6)
7. Black Eyed Peas - Meet Me Halfway (9-7)
8. Britney Spears - 3 (5-8)
9. Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling (8-9)
10. Beyonce - Sweet Dreams (11-10)

• Usher's Papers sees a huge 61 spot jump this week, 92-31, in its 2nd week on the charts. He might have a hit on his hands...but I wouldn't be shocked if things died down about he got into the low 20s.
• Snoop Dogg's first single Gangsta Luv with The-Dream debuts at #57 this week.
• Birdman's Money To Blow featuring Lil Wayne & Drake soars 30 spots 94-64 in its 3rd week on the charts.
• T-Pain's Take Off Your Shirt debuts at #80. I don't know, I feel like this song came out around this time last year.
• Trey Songz and Drake make a return to the Hot 100 as Invented Sex starts at #90.
• Owl City is holding down the top spot with Fireflies, and their follow up, Vanilla Twilight, debuts at #95.
• Rihanna's comeback single Russian Roulette gets off to a slow start at #100, but look for her to turn it on in the next few weeks. (How crazy would it be if this and Chris Brown's I Can Transform Ya were battling for the #1 spot in a few weeks??)

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Melanie Fiona - It Kills Me

I fucks with Melanie! This song is awfully hot too. Her debut album The Bridge drops November 3rd.

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Melanie Fiona - Give It To Me Right Video

I love this song (especially the hook... no, mainly the hook), but this video is retarded. Like what's the point of it?? Its just her in a bunch of different scenes until the very end when she walks up to some random guys with a nappy beard and sings part of the hook then walks away. I don't get it. I still like the song though and Melanie can get it lol.

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Melanie Fiona - Give It To Me Right (Remix) (feat. Busta Rhymes & Raekwon)

I don't know if she's really a new artist, but I've never heard of her before so she's new to me lol.

Melanie Fiona - Give It To Me Right (Remix) (feat. Busta Rhymes & Raekwon)


I love this record! And not only because Busta and Chef were on it. I LOVE the way she sung the hook and I'm about to go search the internet for the original version of this shit right the fuck now!

Bonus Raekwon track after the jump.

Raekwon - Staten (Go Hard)

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