Sunday January 6th, 2002
Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles and R&B Album Chart January 12
New CD's this week:
Due to the New Years's break no new releases
this past week
Short news stories this week:
U2, India.Arie, Alicia Keys Snare Top Grammy Nominations
Rock veterans U2 lead the field with eight
nominations for the 44th annual
Grammy Awards, to be handed out Feb. 27 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
R&B newcomer India.Arie was close behind with seven, while fellow rising
R&B
star Alicia Keys and conductor Pierre Boulez snared six each. R&B vocalist
Brian
McKnight, roots artist Alison Krauss, and hip-hop duo Outkast earned five
nominations, while "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack producer T
Bone
Burnett, pop vocalist Nelly Furtado, rock act Train, Aerosmith frontman Steven
Tyler, and singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams were named in four categories.
U2 is up for album of the year for "All That You Can't Leave Behind"
(Interscope),
song of the year for "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of," record
of the year
for "Walk On," and best rock performance by a duo or group with vocal
for
"Elevation." The latter two tracks will compete against each other in
the best rock
song category. Last year, "Beautiful Day," the lead single from
"All That You
Can't Leave Behind," won both song and record of the year.
Arie and Keys will face off in the best new artist category with Furtado, U.K.
singer/songwriter David Gray, and hard rock act Linkin Park. Arie's
"Acoustic
Soul" (Motown) was the lone R&B set nominated in the album of the year
field,
which also includes Outkast's "Stankonia" (LaFace/Arista), Bob Dylan's
"Love
and Theft" (Columbia), and the various artists bluegrass soundtrack to
"O Brother,
Where Art Thou?" (Mercury Nashville). Keys' six nominations include record
and
song of the year nods for "Fallin'."
Among the artists receiving three nominations were Ryan Adams, Aerosmith,
Coldplay, Dylan, Missy Elliott, Janet Jackson, Ja Rule, Jay-Z, Linkin Park, Tim
McGraw, Jamie O'Neal, 'N Sync's Justin Timberlake, and Trisha Yearwood.
Ja Rule is among the nominees in the newest Grammy category, best rap/sung
collaboration. His collaboaration with Case on "Livin' It Up," is up
against Eve
and Gwen Stefani for "Let Me Blow Ya Mind," Jagged Edge and Nelly for
"Where
the Party At," Ludacris and Nate Dogg for "Area Codes," and
Mystic and Planet
Asia for "W."
Grammy Awards winners in 101 categories across 28 musical fields will be
determined by the 13,000 voting members of the Recording Academy. Ballots
will be mailed Jan. 11 and tabulated by the accounting firm of Deloitte &
Touche
LLP in February.
Mary J. Blige And P. Diddy Reunite For 'No More Drama' Remix
Mary J. Blige and Sean "P. Diddy"
Combs, the man who was instrumental in
launching her career, have reunited for a remix of Blige's latest hit, "No
More
Drama," which features Combs rapping. Combs was the vice-president of
A&R
at Uptown Records when Blige signed with the label in the early '90s. Under
Combs's guidance, Blige's debut 1992 set, What's The 411?, sold more than 3
million copies, and the 1994 follow-up, the Combs-produced My Life, matched
its predecessor's performance and proved that Blige was no fly-by-night, one-hit
wonder.
Combs and Blige parted ways shortly after the release of My Life. Blige, in a
recent interview, shared that the separation was fueled by her need to be the
only
female singer that Combs was working with. At the time of their split, Combs had
been fired from his post at Uptown Records and was thoroughly engulfed in
getting
his new Bad Boy Entertainment label off of the ground. One of the first acts
that
Combs signed to the new label was singer-songwriter Faith Evans.
"No More Drama" is the second single from the Blige's latest album of
the same
name. The set, which came out in August, is currently Number 38 on the Billboard
200 albums chart and has sold more than 1.6 million copies to date.
In related news, Blige is scheduled to perform four North American dates in
February and several more European dates in April.
Mary J. Blige tour dates (subject to change):
February 6 - Boston, MA - Orpheum Theatre
February 10, 11 - New York, NY - Radio City Music Hall
February 23 - Toronto, ON - Massey Hall
April 5 - Hamburg, GER - Congress Centrum
April 6 - Cologne, GER - Palladium
April 7 - Rotterdam, NET - Ahoy
April 11 - Stuttgart, GER - Liederhalle
April 15 - Munich, GER - Colosseum
April 17 - Zurich, SWI - Hallenstadion Zurich
Fake Ginuwine Might Face Real Time
Minnesota resident Ronrico Madison was
indicted on Wednesday (January 2) in
New York City on federal charges of mail and wire fraud for impersonating
R&B
star Ginuwine and DeVante Swing of the R&B quartet Jodeci.
Madison pretended to be R&B star Ginuwine from April 2000 until December
2001.
The impostor booked performances with promoters and agents, and fooled several
victims into sending him money and paying his personal bills. Madison even
received
a $25,000 advance from a promoter for a show in Ohio. In addition, Madison
secured photos and phone numbers from aspiring models on the pretense that he
was searching for new models to feature in his new video.
Madison, 23, was arrested on December 13 in St. Paul, Minnesota, and is
currently
being held without bail pending his transport from Minnesota to New York by
federal marshals. If convicted of the wire and mail fraud charges, Madison could
face up to five years in prison and a substantial fine. The fine would be the
greater
of $250,000 or the gross gain or loss resulting from the crime on each of the
two
counts. Assistant United States attorneys Jonathan S. Kolodner and Alexander H.
Southwell have been assigned the case.
The real Ginuwine released his third album, The Life, in April 2001. The set is
currently Number 130 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and has sold 1.2 million
copies to date.
Montell Jordan To Release New Album In February
R&B singer Montell Jordan will now
release his new self-titled fifth album on
February 5. The set was originally scheduled for release on January 29. The
first s
ingle from the set is "You Must Have Been." The Steve Carr-directed
video for the
song features Bring It On co-star Gabrielle Union.
The track listing for Montell Jordan includes: "MJ V Intro,"
"MJ's Anthem" featuring
WC, "You're The Right One," "You Must Have Been,"
"Can't Take It No More,"
"Coulda Woulda Shoulda" featuring Case, "Tasty," "Mine
Mine Mine," "Top Or
Bottom," "Why Can't We," "The Rain," "Are You With
Me," and "The You In Me"
featuring Bishop Eddie L. Long.
Jordan, first burst on to the music scene with his 1995 platinum debut, This Is
How
We Do It. In 1996, he released the certified-gold follow-up, More..., which was
then
followed by 1998's certified-gold, Let's Ride. The singer's last release was
1999's
certified-gold Get It On... Tonite.