Mos Def Sells Album Through T-Shirts

In an attempt to move beyond the norm, rapper Mos Def is selling his album through more modern means. He's selling them through t-shirts. Ok... what this means is instead of getting a cd like we normally do nowdays, fans will get a t-shirt with the cover art on the front of it and a track list on the back.

No, the shirt does not come with a cd, but it will feature a code for each fan to use in order to go online and be able to download the album off the i-net for free. The concept may just work for Mos Def's sales, which are presently approaching 40,000 units of The Ecstatic.

More amazing, the folks over at Nielsen Soundscan will be counting the t-shirt sales as actual album sales. "It's taking an album and turning it into a t-shirt," designer Jeremy Wineberg, president of Invisible DJ told Digital Music News this week. "Each shirt comes with a digital download tag carrying a unique code and is manufactured by clothing company LnA."How else does it help to have an artist make his album available through a site like lnaclothing.com?

"You're bypassing the middleman, like iTunes," Wineberg added. According to Wineberg, fans will start seeing this t-shirt sometime in July.

Keri Hilson Goes For The Gold

Prior to the last few songs that Keri Hilson has put out, I was never really a fan. But now Ms. Hilson is forcing you to listen with her flowing tunes and hip hop infused sounds. According to Interscope Records, has her first gold single, thanks to a little help from Ne-Yo and Kanye West.

The trio came together to collaborate on Keri’s “Knock You Down” track and the union proved to be a very profitable one. KYD has so far sold over 600,000 units, with the ringtone ringing up another 500,000 in sales. The single presently sits at #3 on the Billboard charts, jumping four spots up from last week and overtaking both “Halo” from Beyonce and “Blame It” from Jamie Foxx. Keri needs only take out Pitt Bull (I Know You Want Me) and The Black Eyed Peas (Boom Boom Pow) to achieve her first #1 single- an accomplishment very few singers achieve with their first record.

Keri Hilson will also be seen at this years BET Awards show which airs on June 28th. Keri will be nominated for four awards including Best Female R&B artist, Best New Artist, and Best Collaboration. Hilson is also up for a Viewer’s Choice Award for “Turnin’ Me On”.

Nelly's Brass Knuckles A Flop

You know, I wish rappers would just catch a freakin clue when it's time to call their musical career a wrap! Let's take our favorite St. Lunatic Nelly for example. His latest album, "Brass Knuckles" is a flop in every sense of the word. As of today, it's only sold 43k copies, and I'm hella suprised it even sold that much. Of course we all know that you can blame bootleggers and internet downloading sites for a reduction in artists sales, but c'mon. We see that it's somewhat possible by looking at what Lil Wayne pulled off with The Carter III.

My advice Nelly... run into the sunset with this Sean John modeling thing. Maybe you need to drink some more of the Pimp Juice stuff you were tryin to push years ago. It seemed to work for you then... well on second thought, are you even still making that crap? Nix that idea then!

John Legend Taps iTunes To Sell Album

Billboard.com is reporting that John Legend is the latest artist to employ iTunes' "Complete My Album" feature as a marketing tool in advance of his next album, "Evolver," due Oct. 28.

The campaign began July 29 with the release of the album's first track "Green Light." Next was "If You're Out There," in August, and "on Sept. 16 the remix of "Green Light" was made available. Two more tracks will be sold through the initiative Sept. 30 and Oct. 14.

Although the "Complete My Album" feature - which lets fans who buy individual tracks from an album acquire the remaining songs without having to purchase them individually - as a marketing tool, Legend is upping the ante by taking a more international approach and offering the pre-release songs in 20 territories worldwide.

Apple says it's the largest global implementation of a Complete My Album campaign to date.

T.I. Takes A Big Leap On Billboard

T.I. establishes the mark for biggest jump to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as "Whatever You Like" soars 71-1 in its third week on the list. A No. 1 opening on Hot Digital Songs with debut-week sales of 205,000 downloads is the impetus for the record-setting Hot 100 move, which surpasses the 64-1 hike taken by Maroon 5's "Makes Me Wonder" in the May 12, 2007, issue."Whatever You Like" is the rapper's first No. 1 as a lead artist (he was featured on Justin Timberlake's 2006 chart-topper, "My Love") and his opening-week digital sum is the best by a rap track since Nielsen SoundScan began compiling download data in 2003.

Rihanna Kissed The Girl... Goodbye

Rihanna has given Katy Perry the big kiss off. Ms. Rihanna is officially the bad girl gone good.

Her new single "Disturbia" just gave the singer a third No. 1 hit from Good Girl Gone Bad and ended Katy Perry's seven-week chart-topping streak for "I Kissed a Girl." Perry was the first female artist to hold the top spot for seven straight weeks since, ironically, Rihanna did it last summer with "Umbrella."

Rihanna's latest single made the two-spot jump to No. 1 after selling a week-best 148,000 digital downloads. Impressively, her previous chart-topper "Take a Bow" remains atop the Hot 100 Airplay chart, making this one of the rare times in which an artist simultaneously dominates the regular Hot 100 and the Hot 100 Airplay chart with different songs.

Good Girl Gone Bad originally scored just one chart-topper with "Umbrella," but Rihanna released a Reloaded version last June that contained the new hits "Take a Bow" and "Disturbia." As happens with bonus tracks on deluxe editions, fans often buy the individual tracks instead of the new version and this helps drive an artist's digital track sales.

Overall, Rihanna has scored four No. 1 hits, originally with "SOS" in 2006. This ties her with Beyoncé and Mariah Carey for the decade's most chart-toppers by a female artist.

Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" ultimately fell two spots to No. 3, with Chris Brown's "Forever" keeping at lock at No. 2. M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" claimed the No. 5 spot, a career best, thanks to an 11-spot jump. The song took flight thanks to digital sales following its use in the Pineapple Express trailer.

So take a bow Rih Rih... you deserve it girl!

Nas Unseats Lil Wayne For the Top Spot

Nasir Jones is numero uno! For you lames... that's #1. All of this is thanks in part to all of the hype and controversy surrounding his albums initial title... ya'll know what it is... I ain't gotta type it out for you! Nas saw his ninth studio release sell 187,000 to debut at No. 1 for the week ended Sunday, per Nielsen SoundScan, thwarting Lil Wayne's hopes of extending Tha Carter III to a fourth week on top.

Tha Carter III, the year's biggest seller so far, finished 82,000 copies behind at No. 2.

Usher May Hire His Mother Back On Board

Usher might just be coming to his senses... FINALLY! It's being reported that the once megastar, is fed up with his current manager Benny Medina. Usher is upset because his latest album Here I Stand only pushed 410,000 units in it's first week, when back when mama Patton was his manager, he would get at least a milli. I guess Benny was feeding him the old "well it's a bad market right now and people aren't buy like they used to". Yeah right! No!!! It's that people aren't feeling Ush like they did a few years back. Bad decisions, and a loss of swexy has been bad business for this dude. Yes, hiring back his mother would be a good look.

Lil Wayne Hits One Million Mark

Third time truly is a charm isn't it. Lil Wayne has hit a milestone in his career. His latest album Tha Carter III, has hit platinum status by selling one million copies world wide. It actually sold 1,005,545, which hasn't been made official but will be today when Nielsen SoundScan releases their report. This says a lot about Wayne and his work ethic, especially at a time when we're seeing music sales decline with the internet taking most of their business. Lil Wayne has proved everyone wrong on that aspect. With his many mixtapes, touring, and cameos on damn near everybody's songs, it's all paying off. No other rapper has sold 1 million copies in one week other than 50 Cent and that was when his second album, The Massacre dropped in 2005 selling 1.1 million in the first week of sales. Until Wayne, no one had matched 50, but Kanye West came close with his release of Graduation selling 957,000 in the first week. Tha Carter III’s showing surpasses Lil Wayne’s previous album Tha Carter II, which moved 238,000 copies upon its 2004 release while entering the Billboard 200 chart at No. 2.