Shock the Shocker
Pint-sized rapper Foxy Brown, riding the wave of her new single
“Hot Spot,” has found her way to the hottest spot — she’s got the
new No. 1 album in the country. For the week ending Jan. 31, her
album Chyna Doll sold 173,000 copies, according to
SoundScan. She easily ousted Silkk the Shocker from the No. 1 spot.
The volatile hardcore rapper, who allegedly attacked the editor of
Vibe late last year on a New York City sidewalk, follows
up her hugely successful 1996 debut, Il Na Na, in style.
As usual, she’s joined on record by close friend Jay-Z.
Elsewhere on the chart, skeptics who thought teen singer Britney
Spears was a flavor of the week after she recently shocked the
industry by debuting at No. 1, need to look elsewhere. Last week,
Spears climbed from No. 3 to No 2, and sales of her album,
…Baby One More Time, have increased every week the album
has been in stores.
Down a bit further on the chart, ageless wonder Cher is quietly
assembling one of ’99’s most improbable comebacks, as her
three-month-old album, Believe, jumps from No. 31 to No.
21. (Cher’s single by the same name — the best selling single in
the U.K. last year — is currently barreling toward the Top Ten.)
Interestingly, she’s done it with almost no help from the video
channels. Her “Believe” clip is barely among VH1’s forty
most-played, and it’s nowhere to be seen on MTV. Look for Cher’s
impressive sales pace to continue next week as she cashes in on her
recent facetime at the Superbowl, where she sang the national
anthem in front of 100 million U.S. television viewers.
From the top, it was Brown’s Chyna Doll, followed by
Spears’ …Baby One More Time (selling 150,000 copies);
Silkk the Shocker’s Made Man (116,000); the Offspring’s
Americana (109,000); Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of
Lauryn Hill (98,000); Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds’ Live
at Luther College (96,000); 2Pac Shakur’s Greatest
Hits (88,000); ‘N Sync (86,000); The Dixie Chicks’
Wide Open Spaces (84,000); and DMX’s Flesh of My Flesh
Blood of My Blood(80,000).