All roads lead to March 25th (today) for three of today’s most celebrated Urban pop acts – Zayn Malik, K. Michelle, and Anthony Hamilton.
Collectively stiffening competition for the existing heavyweights on the Billboard 200, the trio are set to unlock the gridlock Rihanna, Justin Bieber, and Adele have had on the upper rankings of the album charts since the beginning of the year (read more on that here).
With stakes high for different reasons per player, tuck in below to tell us: who are you buying?
First, there’s K. Michelle.
An anomaly amongst her R&B contemporaries, Michelle has successfully navigated the reality show game in a way that has yielded excellent returns on her desired claim to fame – music. Lifting two consecutive albums to the top of R&B charts (with impressive sales to match), her new release, ‘More Issues Than Vogue,‘ comes at an interesting time in the singer’s career. While her brand is hotter than ever (see: multiple reality shows, endorsement deals with Jack Daniels and other, furniture line, and other business ventures), such “wide stretching of self” may have come at the expense of her music career. Proof of this is found in the album’s leading singles, ‘Not A Little Bit’ and ‘Aint You,’s “so-so” performance on charts.
Will their failure to impact charts cause the third time to be the strike out for K’s luck?
Then, there’s Zayn Malik.
Using his ever-successful boy band One Direction as a launching pad, Malik has crossed musical shores from their Pop’ier offerings to lend tunes that are a bit more Urban-skewing. Like the Justin Timberlake‘s and Nick Jonas‘s before him, the move proved itself quite lucrative. His first solo single, ‘Pillow Talk,’ skyrocketed to the top of the Hot 100 upon its debut and has been a mainstay in the top 10 since.
And, while his subsequent releases from the set haven’t fared as well, the buzz around his inaugural project, ‘Mind of Mine,’ is enough to float it to the top of the Billboard 200 (where it’s projected to land based on the strength of pre-orders alone).’
Last, but never least, there’s Anthony Hamilton.
Hamilton has long proven himself a ‘rock’ in R&B – strong, steady, and consistent. A celebrated crooner whose every effort has been met with a hat-tipped from critics, contemporaries, and fans alike, Hamilton has prepared his 7th studio album, ‘What I’m Feelin,’ to enter the race for the Billboard 200’s upper dectet.
Like the releases that preceded it, ‘Feelin’ has been greeted with critical acclaim for its offerings ‘Amen,’ ‘Save Me,’ and more. Now, the Grammy winner is undoubtedly hoping that acclaim is shared among his faithful fans and certainly hoping to gain some new ones along the way.
So, after being introduced to this week’s highest anticipated players, tell us: who will win your coins?
Anthony has spent the last 13 years putting out solid quailty R&B albums (Not urban pop!). Talent-wise he’s not in the same conversation as the twink, but we all know who will sell the most and the reason behind it smh.
*20 years in fact. Dang, I didn’t realise Anthony has been around so long!
Girl, do you know what song made me cry yesterday? It was Demi Lovato’s “Stone Cold.” You can literally feel the raw emotion poured into the song when you listen to it. That last “if happy is her.. ” part made me shiver with that scream/wail she let out. I’m sure she must’ve had a grey hard time completing the recording, due to some serious crying. It deserves to be her first Hot 100 #1, but it’s underperforming in terms of charting, unsurprisingly.
The first time I heard her voice was when she was doing musical impressions on the Tonight Show, because i’ve never heard any of her music before. I’ll check her out on Apple Music.
None
None of them.
Zayn’s album is good . I’m not a big fan of K. Michelle but this album is great I loved all of the songs , I can tell that she’s growing as an artist , I love the song with Jason Derulo & Anthony is amazing as well he’s always been a soulful R&B/Soul singer who always stayed true to himself
Marikos is a broke bxtch he affords streaming only
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Centurion affords pirated ones for R5 at Noord in Joburg
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Molly licks a$$ first ‘to can’ afford to but an album
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LB claims to purchase with no receipts
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well I didn’t know about Anthony because you’ve been force feeding us that flopping drunkard called Rihanna
@Annalise, the Aaliyah Stan came for you in the Azelia Banks post.
You know you that bish when you cause all this conversation.
Im buying….None of them…I’m patiently Awaiting “Digital Distortion” from Iggy & “The Definition Of”…From Fantasia although I want Tasia to wait till she releases another single and maybe work “No Time For It” a lil more so some more awareness can be bought to her upcoming album plus she got this tour coming up i just think she should wait till at least June to release her album then follow up with a fall tour if possible Now for Iggy I think her Orginal release date is great “Team” Got Over 10 million views in a week with her not showing any of her female parts or rapping about s**
Iggy said June no date has been released but she said in June it will come out
Nope! Still blasting Anti and Purpose.
Anti the free copy or youre one of the less than 300,000 people out of 350 million to buy it?
unfortunately, the least talented of the the three will sell the most.
That’s usually how it works.
I just purchased k Michelle’s! I liked majority of the songs. All of zayns songs sound the same. Not really feeling any song but drunk which I feel is a definite number 1.
hate k michelle’s 3 note voice….anthony hamilton is a talent but not my flav…and zayn is cute…buying none, but zayn will win…
First time listening to a K Michelle album! And I am absolutely SLAYEDT!!!!
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She did her thang, her album flows so nicely and i love her story telling.
My favorite bop has to be “Rich Ft. Trina & Yo Gotti”
Yes! Beginning to end. You literally count the albums now a days that you can listen to from start to finish. That song rich puts me in the mood of it being summer time on some Dab appeal. Definitely a bobber on the cruise.
none of the above
Im not buying none of them…. I’ll stream the hell out of K Michelle & Zayne Though!!
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Zayne Slays Justin Beebz btw!
Girl, shut up.
Justin slays Zayn*
@Molly your musical opinion is just about as consistent as your loyalty to a Stan base, no one cares or takes you seriously.
drag haaaa
I don’t know why all the Zayn hate. The boy can actually sing. I will be buying his when I get off and K. Michelle’s for my boo. Not a Anthony fan but he has followers.
For me, Kmichele’s first 2 albums were quiet storms in my opinion. Her sales is what was loud and clear for many. Mainly her last album since that was the last she put out.. but I think it was more promoted than her first. She really expanded that album. But this one, is very low key, I’m not hearing the hype I heard about from her first 2.. compared to this one. So it’s going to be interesting to see. They say 3s a charm so, I’m really anticipating what numbers she will do. .
I’ll be buying K. Michelle’s album. Anybody Wanna Buy a Heart? was all kinds of good. I’ll stream the rest.
Anthony will only have about 2-3 songs I might like on his album. I did download Amen when it came out tho. Not interested in Zayn. K. Michelle’s last album was hot so I’ll check it out…even tho none of her singles have been interesting so far for this new album.
hmmm,um still deciding,
Is it me or does K Michel look like Beyonce in partition on that photo?
who here reads Lame Eri and Chile’s comments?
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they’re so basic I just scroll past without reading any word
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their essays stay getting paid dust
Thanks for the shoutout, babe. It clearly shows how relevant and important I really am to you. You’re lucky, though. Next time, you won’t be gracious enough to receive a reply from me, so you better savor this special moment. Oh, and find yourself!
All I know is that I’m definitely going to buy Jhene Aiko’s new album. I’ve been playing her new single constantly ever since the video was released.
Zayn album is good ya. I just got my copy at Target, sis buying Ks and as for Anthony mama bought his as I did Zayns at Target. We got them all lol its a win win.
Look I’m tired of k michelle fantasia and jazmin Sullivan ghetto and fat a**e$.. They don’t do nothing for me, they have to understand that we are in a Beyonce and rihanna type of world, these girls could never stand on the same stage as bet and rih, they don’t even promote their music, nor do they put out good music, they will never get close to even as many awards as bey and rih, how many hot 100 singles do these girls have, they will never tour outside the country they will never be at the fashion shows or the met Gala, they make music that go straight to urban ac, they can’t even hit r&b charts, thank you for your services ladies, but we already have two dynamic artist for this generation and they consist of rihanna and beyonnce, so y’all go ahead and take a seat,
Omg, that has to be one of the dumbest comments I’ve ever read. Rihanna would be ashamed if she read this.
Of course they don’t promote their stuff or go outside the US like RiRi or Beyoncé because they have less money invested in them and their music gets played in certain places…this is like saying I’m tired of poor countries like Zimbabwe that can’t make money and export succesful professionals like Sweden.
I Love RiRi’s music but vocally she can’t touch Jazmine, Fantasia o K.Michelle. And she’s a pop artist, not R&B, so why compare them?
There is a lot of ppl (including me) enjoying those artists…so instead of complaining about something you say you’re not interested in, go and buy copies of Anti.
Zayn’s album is okay but the sound has been done and there’s not really a song that stands out.
I’m not a fan of K Michelle’s voice and the album sounded like her other albums and i wasn’t a fan of those either.
I’m yet to listen to Anthony’s
Those people had said The most voted is none of them cause they ain’t buying none of those album 38.84%
Zayn and Gwen albums are both great tbh!