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Tag: Jay-Z

  • Chart Chat Recap Part 1: Who Has The Keys To The Top?

    Yes, folks, it’s that time of the year again. Billboard recently released its’ year-end charts, and some of the results will surprise you. Chris Brown ranks as the year’s top artist, thanks to three huge hit singles and a double-platinum album. He’s also (obviously) the top male artist on the year-end survey, while to no one’s surprise, his girlfriend Rihanna ranks as the top female artist. In their breakout year, The Jonas Brothers rank as the top band/duo/group.

    This week, we turn our attention to the year’s top albums. Now, when doing their year end survey, Billboard does not use hard sales figures, nor do they use the strict calendar year. Their year end charts are based on a calculation of chart positions from week-to-week, while the time period they tally is from the first week of December 2007 to the last week of November 2008. Which should explain why the biggest-selling album of 2008 isn’t actually the Number One album of 2008. Let’s move on to the chart, shall we? Oh, and as always, all chart positions are courtesy of the good folks at Billboard communications.

    1) “As I Am” Alicia Keys

    Keys snared the #1 spot by spending all 52 weeks of the chart year on the Top 200. During that period, “As I Am” has sold 3.7 million copies. It’s the first time Keys has had a #1 album of the year. And here’s a sign at how flat record sales have become: “As I Am” is the worst selling studio album of Keys’ career.

    2) “Noel” Josh Groban

    “Noel” was actually the biggest selling album of the time period captured in the year-end chart, but as it was a holiday release, it’s time on the chart was limited. By the way, in terms of actual album sales, “Noel” wound up being 2007’s #1 album.

    3) “Tha Carter III” Lil Wayne

    2008’s #1-selling album by a healthy margin, Weezy joins Alicia Keys as the only artists in the Top 5 Artists, Albums and Singles of 2008. It’s also (obviously) the highest-ranking hip-hop title on the year end chart and the only one in the Top 20. The rest of the top 5, in order, T.I. (#23 on the overall chart), Rick Ross (#50), Jay-Z (#57) and Young Jeezy (#62)

    4. “Long Road Out of Eden” The Eagles

    5. “Fearless” Taylor Swift

    Swift had two hit albums this year (“Fearless” ranks at #66), and is the highest-ranking country artist on the chart, assuming we’re not counting The Eagles as a country band. Take that, Joe Jonas!

    6. “Rock ‘n Roll Jesus” Kid Rock

    Kid’s album, which came out in October ’07, is the oldest album in the year-end Top Ten. His hit single “All Summer Long” was a hit on both pop and country radio and gave him one of the biggest songs of his career. Who’d have thought that the hick rapper with the midget sidekick would still be on top of the charts ten years later?

    7. “Viva La Vida or Death & All His Friends” Coldplay

    Coldplay’s album, conversely, is the newest album to appear in the year-end Top 10, as well as the highest ranking album by a U.K. artist. Leona Lewis is the only other Brit import in the Top 25. The rest of the Top 5 as far as Brits go: Led Zeppelin (#31), Robert Plant (with Alison Krauss, #39) and Amy Winehouse (#43).

    8. “Now That’s What I Call Music Vol. 26” Various Artists

    This series has proven to be quite durable over the years, proving that some Americans are just too damn lazy to make their own mix tapes. “Now 28” is #37 and “Now 27” is #41.

    9. “Carnival Ride” Carrie Underwood

    Carrie’s one of four “American Idol” alumni in the year-end Top 100. The others? Daughtry (#33), Jordin Sparks (#35) and Jennifer Hudson (#93)

    10. “The Ultimate Hits” Garth Brooks

    11. “Hannah Montana Soundtrack 3/Meet Miley Cyrus” Miley Cyrus

    12. “Growing Pains” Mary J. Blige

    13. “Exclusive” Chris Brown

    Chris and Rihanna handily beat out R&B/hip-hop’s other power couple. Jay-Z, as previously mentioned, landed at #37 for the year with “American Gangster” and Beyonce’s “B-Day” ended the year at #170. “I Am…Sasha Fierce” came out too late to qualify, but it should figure mightily on next year’s chart.

    14. “Sleep Through the Static” Jack Johnson

    15. “Black Ice” AC/DC

    16. “Death Magnetic” Metallica

    AC/DC, Metallica, The Eagles and Garth Brooks (who sneaks in by virtue of debuting in 1989) are the only artists on the year-end Top 25 whose careers predate 1990. Mariah Carey and Kid Rock narrowly missed, as both issued their freshman efforts in 1990. So, basically, if you want a long career? Record metal or country.

    17. “Jonas Brothers” Jonas Brothers

    The Jonases are the only artists with two albums in the Top 25. Touche, Taylor Swift.

    18. “Coco” Colbie Caillat

    19. “Spirit” Leona Lewis

    Leona’s the only artist in the Top 25 to debut in 2008, although Colbie Caillat narrowly tops her with the highest-ranking debut album on the chart. As far as debut albums go, those two are followed by Daughtry, Jordin Sparks and Amy Winehouse (“Back to Black” counts because it was her U.S. debut).

    20. “High School Musical 2 Soundtrack” Various Artists

    21. “Good Girl Gone Bad” Rihanna

    If “Rehab” ascends just a few more positions in the next couple weeks, Rihanna will follow Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson and Bruce Springsteen as the only artists to pull seven Top 20 songs from one album. Not too shabby.

    22. “E=MC2” Mariah Carey

    23. “Paper Trail” T.I.

    T.I  not only found himself beat by Lil Wayne on the charts this year, I’m pretty sure Weezy got arrested more times in the past year as well. However, T.I.’s the one looking at a stretch upstate, so he wins something after all.

    24. “Mamma Mia Soundtrack” Various Artists

    25. “A Little Bit Longer” Jonas Brothers

    I would love to make another Jonas/Taylor Swift joke here…but I can’t think of one. Shit.

    Next week…the year’s Top 25 singles.

  • The Sunday Seven: Relax Yourself Girl, Please Settle Down

    Hey Folks, I’ve been asking for volunteers to put their iPods on shuffle and let me know what they’re listening to (in totally random fashion, of course), and lo and behold, somebody bit!

    Ladies & Gentlemen, coming straight out of the Jersey suburbs, here’s my boy Kyle, taking over the Sunday Shuffle from me. Kyle is a full-on hip-hop head, although he’s also enjoyed music by everyone from John Mayer to Ben Folds (which means that this is someone who has damn good taste in music similar tastes in music to mine). Take it away, Kyle!!

    Aight, since my iPod lacks a working skip button thanks to a dumb decision I once made to listen to it during a long walk during a rainy vacation day I was thinking about listening via iTunes, but decided I might as well just listen to it through my iHome. There are plenty of times I skip songs just to get to ones I wanna hear, so I am not doing that today.

    “Puppy Chow” – Common: Maybe it’s finally time I try to write a review of “Can I Borrow A Dollar?” (although one of these days I also have to do “One Day It’ll All Make Sense”.) I’m sure as of now there are plenty of people ready and willing to write an essay comprising 24 paragraphs about how and why Common has fallen off (even though I’m worried about his new album too) but I won’t go into detail about that right now, I’ll fight temptation. This song is fun and has a lot of Common’s hard-to-describe old style, but it’s definitely not as memorable as some of my favorite tracks on his debut.

    “Electric Relaxation” – A Tribe Called Quest: I’ve been meaning to pull out my copy of “The Low End Theory” for weeks (although I do think “Midnight Marauders” is better.) My opinion of this song is no different from any other big hip-hop head/Tribe fan, and it also has a classic Phife Dawg punchline, great stories from both emcees (I’m relistening to Q-Tip’s November solo album to see how much I like it) and I accidentally once found out the actual words they say in the chorus. There’s actually been a remake of the song by producer Marco Polo and J*Davey (that I thought wasn’t too good) and I think it’s also been sampled a few times in hip-hop songs as well. Probably the best song on their best album.


    “Mama Had A Baby And It’s Head Popped Off” – Atmosphere    : Not my favorite Atmosphere song (off my favorite Atmosphere album – their debut “Lucy Ford”.) It’s got some interesting lyrics from Slug regarding God and politics, but the beat is just sinister and not something I really like. I don’t know what else to say about this one…wish a better song from them came up here.


    “The Definition” – DJ Jazzy Jeff & Kel Spencer    : The emcee Kel Spencer (ed.: Isn’t Kel Spencer the dude who was on “All That” with Kenan Thompson back in the 90s?) raps over some pianos and DJ scratches here about observing the bad habits and trends perpetuated by wack emcees around him, and how he doesn’t like being overlooked by them. Jeff’s last album, “The Return of the Magnificent” was started off by lesser-known rappers like Kel (that has so far been the only time I’ve heard him) but still was one of 2007’s best, and perfect to listen to during a long-ass road trip (the album concept was that Jeff was forced to listen to the radio during a trip between Philly and Florida because there was no CD changer in his rent-a-car.)

    “Final Frontier” – Blueprint & RJD2    : I want Soul Position to release another album, and I also want to know whether or not it has been confirmed that RJD2 is no longer doing hip-hop producing. This is kind of a tough song to describe thanks to Blueprint’s unusual lyrics, which some people could say are obviously pretentious. Blueprint also needs to release another album – it’s been pushed back for years. He’s done better than this song, but it’s still enjoyable (although the best performance on “Deadringer”, RJ’s first album which this is on, is from Copywrite on “June”…but that’s another story.)

    Final Frontier – RJD2

    “American Dreamin” – Jay-Z: This song is kinda moody. Jay rhymes about trying his hardest in the New York grind he’s detailing, and he sounds good throughout the whole song (even though there are many other tracks I’d rather listen to from “American Gangster”.) Considering Nas and Kanye West dropped great albums I was really anxious about this year, hopefully Jay will next year.

    “Inherited Scars” – Sage Francis: Damn, had to end this on a depressing note. And I’ve been in a decent mood today so far too. He’s an easy artist to play when you want self-pity or are reflecting about your life’s misfortunes, but here he’s kinda vulnerable, talking about a secret his sister told him about a deadly habit of hers and is not sure what to do about the situation. The lyrics are fantastic as is the message, and he details what he’s feeling and what he expects his sister is feeling, hoping for empathy from her side. I’m gonna have to listen to some more happy music soon.

    Inherited Scars – Sage Francis

    There ya go, folks. Thanks Kyle, for sharing at least a portion of your music collection with us. Now that someone has thrown down the gauntlet. Anyone else wanna share? You know where to find me.

  • So Much for Prognostication: The 2009 Grammy Award Nominations

    Well, for the most part, it was out with the old and in with the (fairly) new when the Grammy nominations were announced last night. With 8 nominations for Lil’ Wayne, 7 for Radiohead and Coldplay, and 6 apiece for Jay-Z, Kanye West and Ne-Yo, the hipness quotient got raised quite a bit. There were also a couple of surprise shutouts, as Alicia Keys and Mary J. Blige, both Grammy favorites, got relegated to minor categories despite two of the biggest selling albums released during the eligibility period. There were a ton of surprises. Here are a couple of them.

    *Ne-Yo for Album of the Year: An album that kind of slipped by unnoticed on the critical scale, Ne-Yo’s third album is sharing space with Lil’ Wayne, Radiohead and likely winner Robert Plant and Alison Krauss for Album of the Year. Pretty impressive.

    *Where’s Leona Lewis for Best New Artist? “Bleeding Love” got nominated for Record of the Year and Leona got a nod for Best Female Pop Performance, but she got beat out by Duffy, Adele (who scored a surprise nomination for Record of the Year), The Jonas Brothers (!!!), Lady Antebellum and Jazmine Sullivan (with an unexpected 5 nominations) for this award.

    *AC/DC gets nominated for Best Rock Performance, Group: Not so much a surprise, but I bet our own Mikey Hersh just peed his pants.

    There are plenty of other surprises-and surprise omissions-but you’ll just have to rifle through the list of nominations yourself.