Sunday May 19th, 2002
New CD's this week:
- Ruff Endz - Someone to love you: second album from this duo from Baltimore
Short news stories this week:
Tweet/Glenn Lewis Tour Postponed Until Further Notice
A 20-city tour featuring newcomers Tweet
and Glenn Lewis, which was scheduled to
kick-off in Boston on May 21, has been postponed until further notice due to
soft ticket
sales, according to sources. One factor that might have contributed to the slow
ticket sales
is that both acts are so new.
Tweet's debut album, Southern Hummingbird, is Number 26 on the Billboard 200
albums
chart and has been doing consistently well, moving more than 488,000 copies in
the six
weeks since its release.
Meanwhile, Lewis's debut album, World Outside My Window, is Number 83 on the
Billboard 200 albums chart. The set has suffered from sluggish sales, moving
only
250,000 copies in eight weeks of release.
Aretha Franklin Tapes Her Performance For Queen's Jubilee In London
"Queen Of Soul" Aretha Franklin
will tape a special performance for the U.K.'s Queen
Elizabeth II on Friday (May 17). Franklin opted to tape her
performance--honoring the
queen's 50th Jubilee--in New York because she does not fly, so attending the
June 3
festivities in London was out of the question for her.
Franklin will perform some of her biggest hits on a closed set at VH1 for the
taping. She
will reportedly wear an $82 million diamond during her performance, from the
jeweler
that makes Harry Winston's pieces, according to Fox News. The diamond is said to
be a
perfect canary, and recently held the world record for the least flawed in the
world.
Musiq Tops Albums Chart, Lauryn Hill Makes Big Debut
Musiq juswanstobenumbaone, and on next
week's Billboard 200 albums chart the Philly
soul singer who hates the space bar and has a penchant for omitting the letter
"t" will see
his desire realized.
Juslisen, the second album by the smooth crooner, who dropped the
"Soulchild" surname
for the effort, will place above all others on next week's chart. The follow-up
to 2000's
Aijuswanaseing sold more than 260,000 copies its first week in stores, according
to
SoundScan figures released Wednesday (May 15).
Lauryn Hill has been relatively quiet since her 1998 solo debut, which garnered
Grammys for the Fugees member for Best New Artist and Album of the Year, among
others. Although Hill has been out of the spotlight for a few years she has
obviously not
been forgotten by fans, as her second full-length LP, MTV Unplugged 2.0, will
make its
chart debut at #3, with more than 122,000 copies sold.
Ja Rule And Ashanti Glad Mariah Carey Joined Island Def Jam Family
Mariah Carey has begun working with the
producers of Murder Inc., according to her
new labelmates Ja Rule and Ashanti. Murder Inc. is a subsidiary of the Island
Def Jam
music group, where Carey is signed.
Ja Rule, who has been nominated for two BET Awards, recently explained how he
felt
about Carey joining the label, which is also the home to DMX, Jay-Z, and Musiq:
"Mariah's cool. Mariah's cool. She's working with the Murder Inc. family
right now.
Holla." Ja Rule wrote the song "If We," his first R&B song,
for Carey's Glitter album.
When we asked Ashanti if she was going to work on material with Carey she said
she
was not sure: "I don't think so. She's working with our producers in Murder
Inc. I don't
think I'll be doing anything with her...yet. Would love to."
Ashanti's self-titled debut album slipped two slots on the Billboard 200 album
chart this
week to Number Four.
Keith Sweat Wants To Know 'What Is It?
Veteran R&B crooner Keith Sweat has
recently released a new song, "What Is It?" The
track is the first single from Sweat's forthcoming album, Rebirth, which is due
out in
August.
Following the release of Rebirth, Sweat will reunite with Johnny Gill and Gerald
Levert
for a new LSG project. The trio's self-titled 1997 debut was certified platinum
for sales of
a million copies.
Sweat has enjoyed a long and successful career. The singer's 1988 debut set,
Make It Last
Forever, was certified triple-platinum, while 1990's I'll Give All My Love To
You went
double-platinum. Sweat continued his successful run with 1991's Keep It Comin'
and
1994's Get Up On It, which were both certified platinum. In 1996, Sweat released
his
double-platinum self-titled set, which was followed by 1997's Just A Touch,
1998's
platinum-certified Still In The Game, and 2000's gold-certified Didn't See Me
Coming.