With its hit ‘Shape of You’ at the wheel, Ed Sheeran‘s hotly-selling new album, ‘Divide,’ sold more in its first week of availability than any other album released in 2017 had sold in any week this year. Well, that was until the unveiling of Drake‘s new album ‘More Life.’
The serial hitmaker, who dominated 2016 with the release of his fourth album, ‘Views,’ is en route to do it again as industry analysts not only project he’ll top the Billboard 200 next week, but he’ll do so with a handsome figure.
How handsome you ask? We’ll say this – his sum leaves Sheeran in the dust:
With fans waiting in anticipation for Drake‘s ‘More Life‘ since the fall, its little surprise that the rapper is poised to have the biggest debut in 2017.
For, Drizzy’s 22-track “playlist”/mixtape/album hybrid has broken streaming records at both Spotify and Apple Music.
Drake’s ‘Boy Meets World Tour’ continued to impress fans in the city of London last night when he returned to the 02 Arena to deliver another live show.
There, with help from his brother from another mother Trey Songz, he rocked the venue with live renditions of his biggest hits as well as reworked versions of some of his lesser-know cuts.
In Nicki Minaj’s case, her discography can boast of packing both quality and quantity.
For, while it is yet to deliver a US #1 single, it did churn out several Gold, Platinum (and in some cases Quadruple Platinum) certifications by way of sales generated before streaming data was thrown into the chart mix.
The last two years have been rough for the 40-year following a life threatening illness, a poorly performing album, and an acrimonious departure from ‘The Real.’
More recent times have seen things on an upswing for the starlet. Case in point her newly inked a production deal (for a new talk show) with Steve Harvey.
Now, word on the curb is that Braxton’s music career has had an interesting development.
The R&B chanteuse has signed on as a coach on ‘The Voice Australia’ – following stints on shows such as ‘The X Factor (UK and US)’ and more recently BET’s ‘Chasing Destiny.’
Ms. Kelly will appear alongside Boy George, Seal, and Delta Goodreem on the hit Channel 9 series.
To whip up buzz ahead of the season premiere later this month, the quad have released a performance.
Check out their showing of John Farnham’s ‘You’re The Voice’ below…
Nicki Minaj continues to revive interest in her brand outside of the United States this week by touching down in London to shoot her ‘No Frauds’ visual.
Now tasked with competing with the UK industry’s answer to her Stefflon Don, the rapper arrived in the city hours ago and was met with what can only be described as hysteria.
The former Fifth Harmony star continues solo charge a-front of the newest issue of Fault Magazine.
It’s a busy window for the 20-year-old following her December departure from the Platinum selling band.
She’s rolled on full steam with promotion for her Billboard hit ‘Bad Things’ with Machine Gun Kelly, hit the media circuit hard, and cooked up a number of notable features.
All, she says, are leading to the crescendo of sorts that will be her own material – which we will apparently be hearing very soon.
This week, From The Vault salutes two of the most notable artists of the 00’s.
Today’s pick comes courtesy of Nelly and Pop princess Christina Aguilera and their collaboration ‘Tilt Ya Head Back.’
Issued as the second single from Nelly’s ‘Sweat’ LP in 04, the track was developed as a duet with Britney Spears which never materialized because of her management.
It was then shopped to Janet Jackson and eventually Xtina – who would end up the Hip-Pop star’s female counterpart on the single.
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The horn-heavy number was produced by Dorian Moore and Tegemold Newton and samples Curtis Mayfield‘s ‘Superfly’.
Only reaching the 58th position of the Hot 100 (after being overshadowed by Nelly’s own ‘My Place’), rumor has it promotion for the track was cooled because of Aguilera seemingly outshining Nelly on his own song.
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Little X directed the 1940’s inspired video which depicted Nelly as a dapper gangster who falls for a Marilyn Monroe esque Aguilera. The visual, together with the pair’s MTV VMA’s performance, led the press to believe that the pair were an item.
[Sidenote: It’s safe to say this was the very first musical and visual indicator of Aguilera’s next move, which turned out to be the ‘Back To Basics’ era.]
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Today, both names remain relevant in their own right – a testament to their respective staying power.
Musically, though…
We are salivating for new Christina material in a special kind of way.
