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 Top 200 Album Sales (Top 5 Hip Hop/R&B)

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The Black Eyed Peas take top spot holding back powerhouse Eminem, and the excellent, underappreciated Mos Def hangs in there.

SRC: hiphopdx.com

VIA: DJSemtex.com

Yesterday it was announced that Vibe Magazine was shutting down and their next issue would be their last. Since then though there have been some developments with Vibe's founder Quincy Jones pledging to save the magazine, he said ;

I’m trying to buy my magazine back now, they just messed my magazine all up, but I’m gonna get it back. You better believe it, I’m'a take it online because print and all that stuff is over.”

“We gotta get into the 21st century you know, Print and all that stuff is over, we gotta remember that. The Chicago Tribune, The Seattle Post Intelligencer. The Miami Herald. They’re over the same way as the record business. We have got to get into this century.”

“Sony is Roc Nation. That’s where Roc Nation’s going through,” Jay-Z told Billboard.com on Friday (June 29).

As for the deal he recently signed with Atlantic, he clarifies that it is a one-off situation for his upcoming album, “Blueprint 3,” slated for a September 11th release.

“That’s pretty much just for this specific album. Roc Nation — we’re experts in marketing and making records. But we do distribution deals,” he says. “On this one, we’re working directly with the Atlantic staff, which is Julie [Greenwald], Lyor [Cohen], Kevin [Liles] and Kyse [Mike Kyser]. For the rest of the Roc Nation artists, we did a distribution deal with.

VIA: rapbasement.com

Nas is currently on tour and doing press to promote his shows. During a recent interview with the Omaha World-Herald, Nas talked about what who he is currently listening to and what he thinks of up-and-coming rapper Drake. "[I'm listening to] Drake and always Scarface," Nas revealed in an interview. "Drake is new. He's here to show anybody who questions him that he'll get at you. He's like fresh water right now on dry land."

Nas went on to talk about the respect he has for rap legend Scarface. "Scarface is the realist rapper. He's the most musically serious, besides Kanye [West], right now. What Scarface says in his rhymes is real. You can't get away from [Lil] Wayne right now. So that's what I'm listening to. I'm waiting on Dr. Dre's album."

 Vibe, one of the nation’s leading popular music magazines, is closing immediately, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Word was broken early this afternoon by the Web site dailyfinance.com and spread to other music and media news sites. The spokeswoman, Tracy Nguyen, said the Vibe staff would be formally notified in a meeting at 2 p.m. She said she did not know how many people would be laid off as a result of the closure.

Vibe’s closure leaves just one large-circulation magazine, The Source, focusing on hip-hop and R&B. The Source has had its own troubles, going through a bankruptcy and emerging under new ownership last year. A rock-focused magazine, Blender, folded last year.

In a memo to the staff announcing the closure, Steve Aaron, CEO of Vibe Media Group, wrote that for months, the company tried in vain to either find new investors or “to restructure the huge debt on our small company.”

“The print advertising collapse hit Vibe hard, especially as key ad categories like automotive and fashion, which represented the bulk of our top 10 advertisers, have stopped advertising or gone out of business,” he wrote.

The musician Quincy Jones and the company then called Time Warner created Vibe in 1992. The Wicks Group, a private equity firm, bought it in 2006. Vibe reported circulation of 818,000 in the second half of last year, a healthy figure, but like most magazines it suffered from falling advertising. It announced in February that in July, it would cut its rate base - the circulation promised to advertisers - from 800,000 to 600,000.

src: mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com

VIA: MTV.news.com

Mixtapes are a movement. For some, giving away music could mean much more than trying to sell their tunes — but Drake played the game right. He started giving away his mixtape So Far Gone earlier this year, and the word of mouth spread with fans, his peers and record-company executives: a recent New York concert found [Warner Music exec] Lyor Cohen in the crowd, standing among screaming fans, including Kanye West and Talib Kweli.

Well, the wait is over: After weeks of speculation, Drake has chosen to go with the home team and sign with Lil Wayne's Young Money Records, according to a source close to the situation. The deal breaks down as a joint venture between Young Money and Cash Money, with Universal Republic distributing. Drake's management was adamant that he should be viewed as an independent artist, although Universal will distribute the project.

"Today is a definitely a comfortable day for me, having my team now that's been in place for a couple of years. It's just a great day," Drake said. "It's something new, but it feels familiar."

Drizzy is excited about having a corporate push to help with the momentum he's gained independently.

"Independent is a funny term," he told MTV News on the set of his video for "Best I Ever Had." "I can go independent, but you need distribution, period. You need somebody to distribute your record and you need that army that a label has to really push the record."

So Far Gone became this year's most talked-about mixtape because, in effect, Drake combines the best of both worlds by being a strong singer and rapper. His singing talent is prominent on the tracks "HoustonAtlantaVegas," "Little Bit" and "A Night Off"; his rapping on songs like "Uptown" and "Ignorant Sh--" is as sharp as a broken bottle in a barroom brawl. He rhymes are just as strong: "The game needs change and I'm the muthaf----n' cashier" (from "Successful"); "Account's in the minus, yet I'm rolling round the f---ing city like your highness" ("Say What's Real").

His popularity has gotten so strong that Drake performed — along with Weezy and the Young Money crew — in a prime slot at the BET Awards on Sunday night.

Drake's official debut LP, Thank Me Later, is currently in production and due later this year, with Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Jay-Z listed as possible collaborators. This summer, look for Drake on tour with Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy and Soulja Boy Tell'em as part of the Young Money Presents: America's Most Wanted Music Festival. 

Here's a full list of the winners of last night's 2009 BET Awards...

- Male R&B Artist: Ne-Yo.
- Female R&B Artist: Beyonce.
- Male Hip Hop Artist: Lil Wayne.
- Female Hip Hop Artist: M.I.A.

- Group: Day 26.
- Collaboration: "Blame It," Jamie Foxx featuring T-Pain.
- New Artist: Keri Hilson.
- Gospel Artist: Mary Mary.
- Video of the Year: "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)," Beyonce.
- Video Director of the Year: Benny Boom.
- Actor: Will Smith.
- Actress: Taraji P. Henson.
- Female Athlete: Serena Williams.
- Male Athlete: LeBron James.
- Centric Award: Jazmine Sullivan.
- Viewer's Choice Award: "Live Your Life," T.I.
- Humanitarians of the Year: Alicia Keys and Wyclef Jean.
- Lifetime Achievement Award: O'Jays.

VIA: hiphopdx.com

Like Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G. and others, record sales for the late pop icon Michael Jackson have spiked in the days following the singer’s untimely passing.

According to new reports, the demand for Jackson’s music has far exceeded the supply, leaving retailers rushing to fill backorders for The King of Pop.

Several Best Buy outlets are completely sold out of Michael Jackson albums and the 25th anniversary edition of Thriller is currently out of stock at online retail outlet Amazon.com.

Bill Carr, vice president of music and video at Amazon says, "This is simply unprecedented.” In addition to the legendary Thriller album, Amazon is also out of all Jackson and Jackson 5 albums.

"We've seen the death of Johnny Cash and Frank Sinatra and many other artists, but none of them compare to what we're witnessing today,” Carr added.

So exactly how popular is Jackson’s music these days? "In the last 24 hours, we've actually sold more Michael Jackson albums in our MP3 and CD stores than we have in the 11 years since the launch of our music business," he said.

For those who cannot get enough of Michael Jackson music, there may be one—or several—posthumous albums released. Michael Jackson was 50-years-old.