Despite there being no hit single from Beyoncé’s 4, that did not stop the album from going to the top of the charts on this week’s Bilboard 200. That’s right Beyoncé’s fourth studio debuted at #1. This makes Beyoncé the third act in music to have her first four studio albums to debut atop, following Britney Spears and DMX.

Now, from afar and in the records book, this looks all too pretty but that’s the best part about it. This is the lowest opening sales numbers of Beyoncé’s career, thus far, with the album shifting 310,000 copies. Also, she can thank the lack of any real competition from Big Sean, Selena Gomez, David Cook, Limp Bizkit, etc… this week. But Bey’s tem were most likely well aware of who would be releasing on June 28 and that’s why they stuck with the release date.

But otherwise, congrats to one of this generation’s leading female performers for another feat.

Via: Rap-Up

Finally, Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne project is set for lift off very soon. The official album art has been unveiled. Givenchy Creative Director, Riccardo Tisci, who designed the single art for “H.A.M.” has designed the gold metallic album cover, pretty nice, isn’t it?

Ryan Seacrest claims new music from the project will surface around July 11. This will most likely be the single, “Lift Off,” featuring Bruno Mars and Beyoncé with an album release date of “mid-August.” With such a flamboyant album cover we hope the the music is as over-the-top good.

It seems the fourth time is the charm as Jill Scott earns her first #1 album debut on the Billboard 200 chart. The album titled The Light Of the Sun sits atop selling 135,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan. Scott leads the pack ahead of Bon Iver whose self-titled second album shifted about 104,000 whilst the #3 spot goes to next year’s “Album Of the Year” 21 by Adele. Adele shifted another 101,000. A huge congratulations goes out to Scott for being another to top the charts with music of substance.

In Billboart Hot 100 news, the MVA (Most Valuable Artist) within the past year has to be Katy Perry. Perry just scored her fifth consecutive #1 from her Teenage Dream album for “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.).” The single sold a decent 226,000 copies. What a feat Perry has pulled off with this album. In the #2 spot is the Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera “Moves Like Jagger” which shifted 213,000 copies. Still not too hot about that song. In the #3 spot is our drug, LMFAO‘s “Party Rock Anthem” featuring Lauren Bennett & GoonRock which sold 212,000 copies.

Retraction: Apologies, we have delivered you incorrect information. Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” was not the #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 this week. The #1 single this week is Pitbull‘s “Give Me Everything” featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer. “L.F.N (T.G.I.F.)” is actually the #4 single on the charts whilst Adam Levine‘s & Christina Aguilera‘s “Moves Like Jagger” debuted at #8. LMFAO‘s “Party Rock Anthem” is still #3 on the charts. The #2 spot goes to Adele‘s “Rolling In the Deep.”

Santigold sat down with Billboard to speak on her forthcoming sophomore album. In the one-on-one Santi spoke about the sound of the album:

“I wanted it to feel dynamic and powerful,” says the 34-year-old singer (real name: Santi White). “I still have the songs that sound very electronic and clubby, but I have a couple ballads on this one — my own type of ballads, where they just sound big, like the way some old Kate Bush or Peter Gabriel songs were…on this one song, we did a whole section that has a bottle used as the percussion, so there’s layers upon layers of Greg Kurstin playing a bottle and literally filling it with different layers of water, and stacking each note. Mixed with a marimba and taiko drums!”

Santi also spoke about her new experiences recording whislt being under a label:

“By December of 2010, I thought I was finished. I was like, ‘I’m done!’” she says. “I never really had the experience of labels and stuff, because last time I made the record and then got a deal… I didn’t have to deal with people talking about singles and stuff before I was even done the creative process. That was new, and annoying. So for the last six months I’ve been trying to tie up loose ends and do a couple more songs.”

Bring on this new album.

It’s about three weeks until the release of Beyoncé’s 4 along with her Glastonbury headlining gig. After a not so great start with “Run The World (Girls),” the album is looking up.

Famous songwriter, Diane Warren, has apparently penned the “career song” for Beyoncé. The humble Warren surprisingly boasts about the track entitled “I Was Here,” calling it “the best thing I’ve ever written.” The song’s producer was recently revealed as Ryan Tedder. “Halo” was a standout on the I Am… album so we’re expecting something greater than mediocre.

The highly anticipated “Party” featuring Andre 3000 is stated as sampling Slick Rick‘s and Doug E. Fresh‘s “La Di Da Di.” Beyoncé has a thing this go round for sampling singers of decades past as track nine, “Countdown,” supposedly samples Boyz II Men’s “Uhh Ahh.”

Not to worry, Beyoncé is in tune with the younger talents as the material submitted by Frank Ocean and Ester Dean will make the album. The Deluxe Edition’s tracks have been revealed, check them out after…

(more…)

The hype leading up the album was something of the 90′s, the promotional campaign was ideal enough keep up with the short attention span folk of this decade and now, Lady GaGa’s Born This Way is 1 of 17 albums to go platimum in its first week of being released. Born This Way debuted with 1,108,000, copies, the highest sales week since 2005. This also makes Lady GaGa the fifth woman to sell a million copies in a week. Britney Spears, Whitney Houston, Norah Jones and Taylor Swift precede GaGa.

Selling a million plus albums in these times is a huge accomplishment but GaGa & Co. are very hip to how people react to the purchasing of music these days. In joining with Amazon.com a promo deal was created where Born This Way was sold for $0.99. If it wasn’t for that then that one million mark would have been missed.

Another sign of music times was 60% of the first week sales of the album were digital. GaGa sold a record breaking 662,000 digital copies of the album. Say what you want about Lady GaGa but she really is the only Pop artist to generate the buzz of an 80′s rockstar, since Britney Spears.

At this moment, on the official Facebook page of Beyoncé, the official track list of 4 is being revealed, track by track, every hour. Thus far, two tracks have been revealed: “Run The World (Girls)” and “I Was Here.” The track list is being revealed in descending order with “Run…” being track number 12. So we can assume that the standard edition of the album will only have 12 tracks. Didn’t she record 60+ songs for this era?

Check back periodically for tracks

UPDATE: The full track lsit is available. The titles aren’t that great but I’m sure the music will be really good. We’re especially anticipating this Andre 3000 collab.
(more…)

Our very own Bahamian native, Alex C., who now goes by the name of Alex242 did her first public presentation. The Interscope artist performed her set in front of a crowd at Best Buy.

Yall see the screen? “Alex 242″ its my official stage name – yall kno i gotta rep my country!!!! [SOURCE]

Some great exposure for our native. Let’s see what else is to come.

Last night was the season finale of Saturday Night Live. The episode featured SNL fave, Justin Timberlake, and musical guest Lady GaGa. The promotional blitz for the Born This Way era is just massive, with GaGa hitting every bit of mainstream promo that could be booked.

GaGa took to the SNL stage to give three solid performances consisting of “The Edge of Glory,” “Judas” and “Born This Way.” GaGa also took part in two sketches; one with just Justin Timberlake and another with Adam Samberg and J.T. They weren’t as corny as expected.

Well the #1 Pop star/#1 most powerful celebrity, GaGa, is the face of the #1 #2 most powerful company, Google. Her ad for Google Chrome recently premiered. Also, make sure tune into ABC at 8pm EST for the Billboard Music Awards where GaGa will tribute Beyoncé. Watch vids after…
(more…)

Running off the buzz from the mainstream video premiere of “Run The World (Girls),” Beyoncé & Co. use the opportunity to unveil 4‘s album cover.

Not sure what to make of it but we notice the vintage tint used on the photo, as used by many hipsters. Four will arrive in stores on June 24 internationally and June 28 in the US.