GHETTO ALLSTARS

Young Money’s crowned Queen Nicki Minaj dropped by BET’s 106 & Park Wednesday to premiere the video for her single “Massive Attack….”

“Massive Attack,” the first official single from her upcoming debut album. That’s right— the track marks the first time fans will be hearing Nicki as the featured artist on one of her own songs.

Rock It or Drop It?

Trey Songz is the R&B “It Dude of the Hour.” Not only is he shirtless and oiled up on the cover of the May issue of VIBE, the “I Invented Sex” crooner recently sat down for a photoshoot with Complex Magazine’s April/May that was inspired by the days of old school rhythm and blues. Check out some more pics and behind the scenes footage of that photoshoot HERE:

After the flop that was last year’s Fantasy Ride, Ciara is reinventing herself and is busy in the studio recording her upcoming fourth album — due out this summer. Ci-Ci taps into the mid-tempo sound that made her an R&B “It Girl” in the mid-2000s on the newly leaked track titled “Speechless,” featuring The-Dream.

Rock It or Drop It?

Eccentric soul star Janelle Monae brings along OutKast’s Big Boi, outstanding choreography and imagery, and some very big bowties for her latest video premiere, “Tightrope.”

Monae’s debut LP, The ArchAndroid, is due out May 18.

ChartWatch for March 31, 2010

There
is only one artist from Hip-Hop in the top ten this week but that’s not what’s
important.  What is important is that I
went to check the comments from last week’s column and guess what?  No spam. 

No bootleg Jordans.  No fake
Gucci.  No “come check my website” or “listen
to my demo”.  Just comments about….Hip
Hop.  I had to go and check some other
articles just to be sure.  Looks like it’s
a new day…but not for the Hip Hop charts. 
This week it’s the same old, same old. 
It’s still that slow part of the year so expect some more Hip Hop albums
as we get closer to the summer.

Ludacris is the number
one selling Hip Hop artist this week and holds the number six spot.  This week the Atlanta MC sold 44,000 copies
of seventh album, Battle of the Sexes.

For now, the only other Hip
Hop in the top ten is the Black Eyed Peas with their latest album The E.N.D.  This week the group grabs the number ten spot
and sells 33,000 copies. 

Next
on the charts is Lil Wayne, who sells 20,000 copies of his rock album, Rebirth, and secures the number twenty
spot.  He is followed by Snoop Dog.  The West Coast rapper’s rerelease entitled More Malice enters the charts at number
twenty-nine and moves 15,000 copies.

Finally,
Young Money drops from twenty-five to thirty-four but still manages to sell
12,000 copies of We Are Young Money.

Dropping
This Week

First
up in Dropping is Vallejo, California rapper E-40 who is releasing two albums this
week.  The rapper best known for his
extensive slang-vocabulary drops Revenue
Retrievin: Day Shift and Revenue
Retrievin: Night Shift.  Both albums
feature notable Bay Area artists so if you’re a fan of the music then pick up
both.

Last
up we have three members of Wu-Tang who are joining together to drop an
album.  Ghostface, Method Man, and Raekwon
team up this week to release Wu-Massacre.  The album features production by RZA,
Mathematics, Ty Fyffe, and Scram Jones.  A
few of the artist featured on the album included Solomon Childs, Streetlife,
and Sheek Louch.

That
does it for Dropping This Week. 
Hopefully more Hip-Hop is coming out soon.