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So here are the BPI Urban Blog Heat Seekers…The Top 10 newest, hottest urban blogs who are less than a year old and are burning it up in terms of growth and momentum. This list does not measure overall traffic or inbound links like the BPI Top 40, but rather focuses on how fast a blog is growing month over month. For example, Highbrid Nation has less traffic and inbound links than A Hot Mess, but Highbrid Nation’s metrics are growing at a faster in the past four months than A Hot Mess. So The Heat Seekers are all about growth. Get it? Good. Take a look at the chart in detail after the jump…

1.Necole Bitchie – Urban blog networking guru. Hard work and hustle is paying off. Traffic and linking momentum off the charts

2.Highbrid Nation – Great layout, branding and dedicated fanbase is helping build traffic

3.Blogs Is Watching – Proving regionalized hip-hop blogs outside of NY, The ATL and LA can work. Fast growing Seattle hip-hop blog

4.Soul Bounce – An eye for unique news and well-written commentary. Already becoming an established urban blog in less than a year

5.Ill Seed – Capitolizing on his famed AllHipHop gossip column. Took a little to build up the buzz but now traffic is growing rapidly

6.Satchel of Gravel – The anti-street wear blog, takes a look at the anti-coporate/trend side of style and hip-hop; attracting broad audience

7.That Grape Juice – One of the U.K.’s fastest growing urban blogs; gaining heat in the U.S. in the past three months

8. A Hot Mess – Light hearted look at urban news with plenty of updates per day, slowly escalating to Top 5 Urban Blogs level

9. The Corporate Takeover – Unique take on business side of hip-hop. Dedicated core group of readers allows for high linking momentum

10. Ill Doctrine – Jay Smooth’s video blog gains popularity stemming from his original hiphopmusic.com blog

You will notice a common theme to The BPI Heat Seekers is the unique angle or twist each blog positions itself as. Some take advantage of their credibility from other sites, others find truly unique angles to share about hip-hop or urban news. But this list just proves being unique, having your own voice and getting your networking on are critical for early blogging success. Congrats to this month’s BPI Heat Seekers!

The Flamingo Las Vegas says Braxton’s show will remain dark this week while the 40-year-old Grammy winner has more medical tests following her April 7 hospitalization for chest pain. Braxton was released the following day, but last week’s shows were canceled.

Flamingo President Don Marrandino said her Tuesday-through-Saturday shows are also off, and Braxton will take advantage of a previously scheduled two-week break.

She is due to resume her show at the Flamingo Showroom on May 6. The Flamingo is offering refunds for the canceled shows.

The exact cause of Braxton’s chest pain hasn’t been made public. She has been treated in the past for pericarditis, a viral inflammation of the heart.

Braxton is in the midst of a two-year run at the Flamingo.

Here’s hoping she has a quick recovery. Selfish as it may sound, I’m wanting her to prove that she still has what it takes; I’m still kinda salty about the poor performance of her last LP – 2005’s ‘Libra’, which stands as one of my best R&B albums in a long while.