P. Diddy and “Boys” Top Chart
The star-studded soundtrack to Bad Boys II sold 324,000
copies in its debut week, according to SoundScan, to handily secure
the Number One position. The album, which boasts new cuts from P.
Diddy, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Justin Timberlake, Nelly, Fat
Joe and numerous others, is the flagship release (and an apt one)
for Diddy’s Bad Boy Records, which the hip-hop mogul recently
bedded with Universal.
Bad Boys II finds P. Diddy continuing to move closer to
regaining his late-Nineties Midas touch. After his 1997 solo
release, No Way Out (which sold 561,000 copies in its
first week), the former Puff Daddy’s sales started to head south.
Forever, released two years later, sold less than half
that figure in its debut week, and missed a Number One bow. Ditto
2001’s The Saga Continues, which mustered an even more
measly 186,000 copies. But Diddy was always a better businessman
and producer than he was a rapper (and, for that matter, dancer).
Last year’s We Invented the Remix found him successfully
rejiggying Bad Boy cuts to the tune of a 256,000 unit debut week, a
number handily topped by BBII.
As for the rest of the charts, things looked better than a week
ago, with cumulative sales in the Top 200 up a half million. Rap
and country music fared best. Just behind BBII was
Chingy’s Jackpot. The Ludacris discovery looks to be the
latest minted rap star from the South, selling 157,000 copies of
his debut. Da Brat and Keith Murray made modestly successful
returns. The former sold 39,000 copies of Limelite Luv and
Niteclubz (her first album in three years) at Number
Seventeen. The latter returned five years after his last record (a
jail term among the reasons for the delay) with He’s Keith
Murray, which sold 27,000 copies at Number Forty. As for the
country, veteran country duo Brooks and Dunn scored a Number Four
debut with Red Dirt Road (Number 114,000) and Texas
singer-songwriter Pat Green, who has culled a remarkable grassroots
following over the past five years, squeaked into the Top Ten with
Wave on Wave, which sold 53,000 copies.
And this year’s “Smooth Criminal” Award for savvy cover song
looks like a lock for the Ataris. The band’s cover of Don Henley’s
“Boys of Summer” (on So Long Astoria) is warming up. The
tune earned the group a primetime spot during festivities for Major
League Baseball’s All-Star Game, and the album has jumped from
Number 102 two weeks ago to Number Sixty-five on this week’s
chart.
But much of what the rest of the chart had to offer was grim,
particularly Macy Gray, who is in dire need of a hit single. Her
third album, The Trouble With Being Myself, stumbled out
of the gate at Number Forty-four with sales of 24,000.
A gaggle of new releases flooded record stores Tuesday and
should make for an interesting chart next week. Mya’s
Moodring follows her high-profile appearance as part of
the “Lady Marmalade” remake two years ago, and also has the
momentum of a strong single. And Jane’s Addiction fed famished fans
with Strays, their first collection of new songs in
thirteen years.
This week’s Top Ten: The Bad Boys II soundtrack;
Chingy’s Jackpot; Beyonce Knowles’ Dangerously in
Love; Brooks and Dunn’s Red Dirt Road; Ashanti’s
Chapter II; Evanescence’s Fallen; 50 Cent’s
Get Rich or Die Tryin’; Luther Vandross’ Dance With My
Father; Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me; and Pat
Green’s Wave on Wave.