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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Jay-Z

  • Whitney Looks To #1: Chart Chat 9/9/09

    Whitney Houston’s rehabilitation is complete. Her “I Look to You” debuts at #1 on this week’s Billboard chart with 305,000 copies sold. It’s the best Soundscan week of her career-not counting the “Bodyguard” and “Waiting to Exhale” soundtracks, on which she was a featured artist. Sales should stay pretty healthy, with what promises to be a quite revealing interview with Oprah airing soon.

    Elsewhere in new releases, R&B singer Trey Songz debuts at #3 with his new album, while right behind him stands the Insane Clown Posse. Yes, folks, there are still a lot of Juggalos out there. Other debuts include Chevelle at #6, Pitbull (on the heels of 2 big singles) at #8, The Used (they’re still around?) at #10 and The Black Crowes at #12.

    Next week, look for Jay-Z to crown the Billboard chart with “The Blueprint 3”. Of course, the Beatles reissues that came out today will sell big, although they will not be eligible for the Billboard 200 and will instead appear on the “catalog” and “comprehensive” charts.

    Here’s this week’s Top 20

    1) Whitney Houston “I Look to You”
    2) Miley Cyrus “Time of Our Lives EP”
    3) Trey Songz “Ready”
    4) Insane Clown Posse “Bang! Pow! Boom!”
    5) Colbie Caillat “Breakthrough”
    6) Chevelle “Sci-Fi Crimes”
    7) Kings of Leon “Only by the Night”
    8) Pitbull “Rebelution”
    9) Taylor Swift “Fearless”
    10) The Used “Artwork”
    11) Black Eyed Peas “The E.N.D.”
    12) The Black Crowes “Before the Frost…”
    13) Zac Brown Band “Foundation”
    14) Soundtrack “Hannah Montana-The Movie”
    15) Maxwell “BLACKsummersnight”
    16) George Strait “Twang”
    17) Reba McEntire “Keep on Loving You”
    18) Various “Now 31”
    19) Chris Young “Man I Want to Be”
    20) Daughtry “Leave This Town”

  • Dear iTunes, Where’s My Blueprint 3?

    Yesterday, Money Mike let everyone know what they should’ve known, even if they didn’t know. Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3 was moved up a few days to a normal Tuesday release date, away from the 9/11/09 release date, which would’ve been the 8th anniversary of his first Blueprint album.

    While I understood the meaning immediately of the release date, it still left a slightly bad taste in my mouth for him to specifically release his album on a day where thoughts should be elsewhere. I don’t know how everyone else felt originally about that, but now, it’s neither here nor there, because the album was moved up.

    Jay-Z's Blueprint 3
    Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3
    But the reason it was moved up had more to do with Def Jam putting out the first and second Blueprint albums in the store on the same day in one special package to either confuse buyers, or entice buyers to buy their special edition release, alongside Jay’s newest joint.

    However, if you go to iTunes, where I buy all of my music, the album still has the 9/11/09 release date. I pre-ordered the album beforehand and expected it to be all queued up on Tuesday morning before I went to work. I had a yearning to hear some Empire State Of Mind. But alas, that track, as well as the other tracks from the new album, are nowhere to be found.

    So iTunes, where is my Blueprint 3 and why didn’t y’all get the memo that the release date was bumped up?

    I will send Apple an e-mail and see if I get a response. If I do, I’ll let everyone know right here.

    Update: 4:25 PM Pacific

    I didn’t actually e-mail Apple, but they had a chat feature that I was able to use. In short, for whatever reason (and the nice lady didn’t know), they’re not releasing the album until Friday.

    What was funny is that when I told her that the album actually came out everywhere on Tuesday, she asked me if iTunes let me know, rather than being on the up and up in the music news. She probably didn’t have to necessarily be on the up and up when it came to music, but being that she’s doing customer service for iTunes, it’s probably a good idea to know what’s going on.

    Even though I was bothered that they simply didn’t have a clue what was going on, she did refund my pre-order money and apologized. I may still buy the album from iTunes on Friday, but I wanted the freedom to get it from the store, in case I had the chance.

    All in all, iTunes has failed me for one of the only times in my life.

  • New Release of the Week: Jay-Z’s “Blueprint 3”

    One thing that you can definitely say is that Jay-Z knows how to make an event. “The Blueprint 3” has been shifting producers and release dates for the better part of a year. Originally scheduled to be Hova’s last release on Def Jam, Jay eventually bought the rights to the album and it will be released on his own Roc Nation label. Of course, the title represents Jay’s 2001 classic “The Blueprint” (arguably his best album) and “Blueprint2” (which was way too long but had some good spots), so expectations are high for this record. I haven’t exactly been bowled over by the two singles so far (“D.O.A.” and “Run This Town”), but they haven’t been bad, either. So I give this one a 50/50 chance of being good. Producers include the usual suspects: Kanye, Timbaland, The Neptunes, while guests include current “it” boy Drake and alternative rock outfit MGMT. This album had a September 11th release date (8 years to the day after the release of the first “Blueprint”), but due to leaks, Jay has moved the album up so it comes out on the more traditional Tuesday. That means it’s in stores now, so what are you waiting for?