Sunday November 4th 2001
Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles and R&B Album Chart November 10
New CD's this week:
New releases this week come from Michael
Jackson and his long awaited new album
"Invincible", Destiny's Child with their Christmas album called
"8 Days of Christmas".
Jermaine Dupri, with a little help from artists like Jagged Edge, Bilal and
Xscape, to
name a few delivers his album "Instruction". Also new this week are
D'Dambi "Tuninn'
up and cosignin" and Ann Nesby " with "Love is what we need: The
dance essentials".
Short news stories this week:
Dawn Robinson Says She's A New Artist
Former En Vogue and Lucy Pearl member Dawn
Robinson is glad that her solo
debut has now been rescheduled for a January 29 release. The singer and
songwriter
said that she needed more time to complete the album, and she also wanted to
have
the best set up.
Though Robinson achieved fame as a member of the multiplatinum-selling En Vogue,
as well as the critically acclaimed act Lucy Pearl, she tells us that she still
considers
herself to be a new artist: "I don't take it for granted that because I was
in a group,
and a huge group, En Vogue, internationally known and all that, and then I was
in
Lucy Pearl... Just because I had that success doesn't mean that it's going to
happen for
me as a solo artist. So, there's a lot of kids that weren't even born when En
Vogue first
came out. But they don't know who En Vogue is, so I still have to prove myself
to
these young kids out here who don't have a clue who I am. Or to people who may
have known me in those groups but still don't know me as a solo artist as Dawn.
So
you're constantly having to prove yourself to people."
In September, Robinson released "Envious" as the first song from her
album, which
is tentatively titled Dawn.
Mary J. Blige's 'Family Affair' Marks Her First Number One Song
Nearly 10 years after her 1992 debut, Mary
J. Blige has achieved her first Number
One single with her song "Family Affair," the first song released from
"No More
Drama", her sixth album.
The song produced by Dr. Dre reached Number One on The Billboard Hot 100 and
the R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart last week. Blige recently told us
that she
has always anticipated working with Dr. Dre: "That was one of my dreams
that came
true, working with Dr. Dre, and I think that he's a wonderful person. You know,
I've
met a lot of men with his caliber in the music business, and he's definitely not
an
egomaniac, he's just humble, and I can work with him."
Blige has three triple platinum albums, 1992's "What's The 411?",
1995's "My Life",
and 1997's "Mary". Her 1999 album "Mary" is double platinum,
and her live album
"The Tour" is gold.
Joi Seeks 'Revenge' On New Solo Set
Accomplished Southern soulster Joi is at
work on her fourth solo album and her
CrazyWorld/Universal debut, "Star Kitty's Revenge," which is set for
an early
2002 release. The singer was most recently heard as a member of R&B
supergroup
Lucy Pearl, replacing Dawn Robinson of En Vogue after the latter's exit last
year.
Lucy Pearl principal Raphael Saadiq, whose debut solo album "Instant
Vintage" will
also be released in early 2002 on Universal/Pookie, is one of Joi's many
collaborators
on the 19-track "Star Kitty's Revenge," alongside the likes of Dallas
Austin and Sleepy
Brown. Austin produced the set's first single, "Missing You," which
will be serviced
Nov. 27 to multiple radio formats.
Joi also has penned a tribute to her late father, NFL quarterback Joe Gilliam
Jr., on
the new album. "Jefferson Street Joe" remembers Gilliam, one of the
first NFL
quarterbacks to break the color barrier. He died of a heart attack at age 49 on
Christmas Day 2000.
Lucy Pearl's debut self-titled album (Beyond) debuted at No. 3 on Billboard's
Top
R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart last year.
The O'Jays Enjoying The Ride Of 'Let's Ride'
R&B vocal group the O'Jays has been on
the publicity road of late promoting its
recently released album For The Love. The collection contains all new tracks
written
by the trio of Eddie Levert, Walter Williams, and Eric Grant, expect for
"Let's Ride,"
the album's first single Levert was asked about what he and the rest of the
group felt
after hearing "Let's Ride" for the first time: "We thought that
it was, it was a very
radio-friendly record--that it could work very well--and once we put, put our
voices
on it, we felt like we could make it become an O'Jay record. It could become an
O'Jay record because we're singing it."
"Let's Ride" was actually a song that writer Steve Huff considered
giving to Eddie
Levert's son Gerald, a popular recording star in his own right. The theme of the
song deals with a couple getting into their car and driving off, as Eddie Levert
said:
"People who like to drive distances and like to have something that they
can listen to,
it's a good riding record. We've been trying to get some of these car
dealerships to let
us do a commercial with that record, and they, they keep looking at us like
we're
going to want too much money."
"Let's Ride" currently sits at Number 68 on the Billboard
R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
chart.