ManSlippers

Black Artists' Billboard Breakthrough
Fri Oct 10, 8:00 PM ET
By David Jenison

Some major musical history was made this week.

For the first time ever on Billboard's single chart, every slot in the Top 10 was occupied by an African-American artist.

Once considered a musical subculture, urban music has increasingly sold in suburbia, with rap and R&B frequently outselling rock and pop on the album charts. OutKast, for example, has held the top slot on the album charts for the past two weeks. It wasn't a matter of if but when the Top 10 singles domination would come.

"Urban music has crossed over and gone beyond its normal audience," says Violet Brown, director of urban music for the Wherehouse Music chain. "People of all ages and cultural backgrounds are buying the music."

Whereas the album chart is based strictly on sales, Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart is compiled using such criteria as radio ratings, play lists and sales numbers. Artists making up this week's Billboard breakthrough were mostly rappers, including such heavyweight stars as 50 Cent, Nelly, P. Diddy, Ludacris, Chingy and Fabolous. Nevertheless, it was a female R&B singer that bested the big-time rap pack.

Destiny's Child breakout Beyonc Knowles owned the number one Hot spot with "Baby Boy." The new single from her Dangerously in Love album features rising dance-hall star Sean Paul.

Also making his presence felt on the history-making singles chart is Atlanta's Lil' Jon, who appears on two of the Top 10 singles. He sits at number three with his own recording "Get Low," featuring the Ying Yang Twins, and he guests on the number-six track, the YoungBloodZ's "Damn!" Aside from being the only artist to pull a two-fer on this week's charts, Lil' Jon is also the only Top 10 act released on an indie label, TVT Records.

"This speaks a lot for the influence of black music," says Bryan Leach, vice president of Urban A&R at TVT Records and the man responsible for signing Lil' Jon. "Having black music dominate the Top 10 shows how strong the music is in a time when the music industry is in a recession."

Leach also points out the creative depth of the urban music genre, noting that half of the Top 10 singles come from debut albums. Those charting with tracks from rookie albums are Beyonc Knowles, Lil' Jon, 50 Cent, Chingy and Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes.

The chart also features "P.I.M.P." from 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' and "Shake Your Tailfeather" from the Bad Boys 2 soundtrack, two discs that have made significant marks on the album sales chart this year. Get Rich held the number one spot longer than any other album in 2003, while the Bad Boys 2 soundtrack held the peak position for the most consecutive weeks. Fiddy's rookie release also sold 872,000 first-week copies, the best this year and the most ever for debut album. It was also the biggest sales week of any rapper not named Eminem.


Other singles making up the historic Hot 100 include Chingy's "Right Thurr" at four, Pharrell and Jay-Z's "Frontin'" at five, Fabolous ' "Into You" at eight and Ludacris's "Stand Up" at nine. Black Eyed Peas wrap it up at number 10 with "Where Is the Love?" which features background vocals from Justin Timberlake, the only white artist to appear in the Top 10.

Also worth noting, Black Eyed Peas, P. Diddy, 50 Cent and Fabolous as the only Top 10 charters from the historically dominant Los Angeles and New York City scenes. Other represented regions include Houston, Virginia Beach and three contributors each from St. Louis and Atlanta.

Billboard's Top 10 singles from its Hot 100 for week of October 6:


1. "Baby Boy," Beyonce featuring Sean Paul
2. "Shake Ya Tailfeather," Nelly, P. Diddy & Murphy Lee
3. "Get Low," Lil' Jon &the East Side Boyz featuring Ying Yang Twins
4. "Right Thurr," Chingy
5. "Frontin'," Pharrell featuring Jay-Z
6. "Damn!," YoungBloodZ featuring Lil' Jon
7. "P.I.M.P.," 50 Cent
8. "Into You," Fabolous featuring Tamia/Ashanti
9. "Stand Up," Ludacris featuring Shawnna
10. "Where Is the Love?," Black Eyed Peas