I haven’t done a good job of putting you onto R&B lately like I should have, but with the Grammy’s around the corner, I thought I’d take a moment to talk about some of the nominiees. Now, there are way too many categories for R&B with them flipping in contemporary or traditional and all kinds of stuff to distinguish one from another. Me, I just want to talk about the music.

Anthony Hamilton – Garnering some much due respect and love for his work. If you see any interview, this dude is everyday people and he’s damn good at music. Since 2003, he’s put out 5 albums that are secretly must haves in the R&B collection of any real music lover. He sings and exemplifies the totality of bieng a true man and the dynamics of being that man and understanding feelings and relationships. I think he may split his noms with Maxwell, but he’s ahead of Maxwell as far as careers go in my book.

Maxwell – Now, I said that Anthony Hamilton was ahead…but according to sales, Maxwell just told me “bullshit”. The face of the neo-soul movement has had 3 of 4 studio albums go platinum and he’s less than 250k away from his 4th consecutive plaque. While BLACKsummers’night is a turn from his previous sound, he quietly put out the R&B album of the year…and it’s only 9 songs long. The scary part, “Pretty Wings” is a helluva song, and not even the best on the album. That award belongs to “Playing Possum”.

India.Arie – Admittedly, I’m biased. There is nothing elaborate about this statement, simply put, I love India Arie. She’s much more talented than you hear on her albums and I have had the pleasure of hearing her live, and I loved it. Her approach to the industry is admittedly underpromoted, underground, and strctly from the heart. She came to my college a few years back with NO advertisement outside of the local school paper. There were no commercials on the radio, no posters, no anything. Even more shocking was the cost…$10 bucks. Unfortunately, getting nommed and not winning a Grammy is know known as getting “India Arie’d” but lets look at the snubs: 2002-7noms no wins, 2003- 4 noms 2 wins, 2006 – 2noms no wins, 2007 – 3 noms no wins, 2008 – 1 nom no win, 2009 – 1 nom no win. So now we have her in 2010 with 3 noms. Unfortunately, she’s going against Maxwell for album of the year, Jamie Foxx and T.Pain for “Blame It”, and Foriegn Exchange for Urban Alternative Performance…whatever that is. I think she should win one, but I don’t know how when she’s going against such monsters as those. Understand this though, she doesn’t need a Grammy for you to appreciate this latest album.

Ledisi – Folks try and say that because she doesn’t look like the other ladies in the biz is the reason that she doesn’t get the shine she should. I don’t think that’s it. She has such a big talent, that in today’s music biz of put me in a box and package me doesn’t work for her. She can/does sing soul, jazz, and almost anything else that you can think of. On this album, she has gone very contemporary in comparison to her previous albums, but still manages to deliver one fantastic album. The most enjoyable revealation I got from this album was that she has now reached into the realm of Michelle Ferrell, the dopest female singer I’ve ever heard. I hate the phrase get your grown man/woman on, but Ledisi is the mascot for that thought process. If you are in the mood for something more in the jazzy soul arena, check any of her previous albums. Now, it’s always good to be on your Hip-Hop, but make SURE to Turn Yo’ Headphones Up to R&B

You see what they made me do? The releases are so slow right now that I had to go make a banner for The Numbers Game because I didn’t know who should be pictured (I mean, I could have threw Rihanna up there, but that would have been f*cked up.). I don’t know if the Grammy Awards “push” is in effect this week, but I really didn’t see much of a change (Damn, can I stop using “I” so much…). It’s good to see Jazmine Sullivan back in the Top 50 though. Not too much to talk about other that I just noticed that the Notorious soundtrack fell the completely out of the Top 100. Hey, you can always tell me how good the new banner looks.

#5 Beyonce/I Am…Sasha Fierce (Last Week: #3) – 51,371; Total: 1,788,206 (Platinum) [13 Weeks]
#9 Kanye West/808’s & Heartbreak (Last Week: #5) – 33,900; Total: 1,291,200 (Platinum) [10 Weeks]
#8 Jamie Foxx/Intuition (Last Week: #7) – 36,550; Total: 578,032 (Gold) [8 Weeks]
#10 Keyshia Cole/A Different Me (Last Week: #8) – 33,593; Total: 666,127 (Gold) [8 Weeks]
#19 T.I./Paper Trail (Last Week: #16) – 22,919; Total: 1,661,189 (Platinum) [19 Weeks]
#20 Akon/Freedom (Last Week: #15) – 22,800; Total: 466,500 [9 Weeks]
#22 Lil’ Wayne/Tha Carter III (Last Week: #25) – 20,158; Total: 2,985,147 (2x Platinum) [35 Weeks]
#23 Ne-Yo/Year Of The Gentleman (Last Week: #29) – 19,600; Total: 876,400 (Gold) [21 Weeks]
#25 Rihanna/Good Girl Gone Bad (Last Week: #23) – 18,400; Total: 2,346,500 (2x Platinum) [88 Weeks]
#34 Plies/Da REAList (Last Week: #42) – 13,900; Total: 255,300 [7 Weeks]
#40 John Legend/Evolver (Last Week: #46) – 13,100; Total: 526,900 (Gold) [15 Weeks]
#44 Anthony Hamilton/The Point Of It All (Last Week: #38) – 12,600; Total: 264,100 [8 Weeks]
#45 Jazmine Sullivan/Fearless (Last Week: #67) – 12,400; Total: 353,400 [20 Weeks]
#46 Mariah Carey/The Ballads (Last Week: #31) – 12,200; Total: 55,700 [3 Weeks]
#49 Ludacris/Theater Of The Mind (Last Week: #40) – 11,900; Total: 542,400 (Gold) [11 Weeks]

You know there must be a shortage of Hip-Hop releases when Beyonce gets the picture…twice. I’m not gonna really gonna go into about how there are no relevant Hip-Hop album coming out in the beginning of 2009; if you read any past Numbers Game columns this year you already know I said this a hundred times already. So yeah, check out the numbers and get back with me next week.

#3 Beyonce/I Am…Sasha Fierce (Last Week: #2) – 51,531; Total: 1,736,835 (Platinum) [12 Weeks]
#5 Kanye West/808’s & Heartbreak (Last Week: #4) – 39,234; Total: 1,257,336 (Platinum) [9 Weeks]
#7 Jamie Foxx/Intuition (Last Week: #8) – 31,601; Total: 541,482 (Gold) [7 Weeks]
#8 Keyshia Cole/A Different Me (Last Week: #6) – 30,865; Total: 632,534 (Gold) [7 Weeks]
#15 Akon/Freedom (Last Week: #17) – 21,769; Total: 443,736 [8 Weeks]
#16 T.I./Paper Trail (Last Week: #18) – 20,600; Total: 1,638,300 (Platinum) [18 Weeks]
#24 various artists/Notorious [OST] (Last Week: #9) – 15,700; Total: 87,700 [3 Weeks]
#25 Lil’ Wayne/Tha Carter III (Last Week: #26) – 15,600; Total: 2,965,000 (2x Platinum) [34 Weeks]
#29 Ne-Yo/Year Of The Gentleman (Last Week: #29) – 14,800; Total: 856,900 (Gold) [20 Weeks]
#31 Mariah Carey/The Ballads (Last Week: #10) – 14,800; Total: 43,400 [2 Weeks]
#38 Anthony Hamilton/The Point Of It All (Last Week: #39) – 12,500; Total: 251,500 [7 Weeks]
#40 Ludacris/Theater Of The Mind (Last Week: #34) – 12,300; Total: 530,500 (Gold) [10 Weeks]
#42 Plies/Da REAList (Last Week: #42) – 11,929; Total: 241,441 [6 Weeks]
#46 John Legend/Evolver (Last Week: #41) – 11,200; Total: 513,800 (Gold) [14 Weeks]
#174 Katt Williams/It’s Pimpin’ Pimpin’ (Last Week: NA) – 14,800; Total: NA [Debut]

We still here? I thought a Numbers Game this week wouldn’t see the light of day, but here we are. But hey, we’ll talk about that drama another time. Even though this January has been rough for the nappyafro crew, I can’t wait for this releases to start coming in. Think about it: Mariah Carey is the only R&B/Hip-Hop debut this week in the Top 50…and that’s a compilation. The reason I chose to put Kanye pic up instead of Mrs. Cannon is because Kanye West Martin Louie the King Jr. made waves this week  with the Louis Vuitton sneakers and such. As much as people hate on 808’s & Heartbreak, it still pushed over 1,000,000 units. Just saying…

#2 Beyonce/I Am…Sasha Fierce (Last Week: #2) – 50,927; Total: 1,685,304 (Platinum) [11 Weeks]
#4 Kanye West/808’s & Heartbreak (Last Week: #5) – 39,234; Total: 1,224,108 (Platinum) [8 Weeks]
#6 Keyshia Cole/A Different Me (Last Week: #9) – 31,275; Total: 601,669 (Gold) [6 Weeks]
#8 Jamie Foxx/Intuition (Last Week: #8) – 30,270; Total: 509,881 (Gold) [6 Weeks]
#9 various artists/Notorious [OST] (Last Week: #4) – 28,989; Total: 72,024 [2 Weeks]
#10 Mariah Carey/The Ballads (Last Week: NA) – 28,700; Total: NA [Debut]
#17 Akon/Freedom (Last Week: #12) – 21,500; Total: 421,900 [8 Weeks]
#18 T.I./Paper Trail (Last Week: #17) – 20,900; Total: 1,617,700 (Platinum) [17 Weeks]
#26 Lil’ Wayne/Tha Carter III (Last Week: #23) – 15,900; Total: 2,949,400 (2x Platinum) [33 Weeks]
#29 Ne-Yo/Year Of The Gentleman (Last Week: #29) – 14,966; Total: 842,105 (Gold) [19 Weeks]
#34 Ludacris/Theater Of The Mind (Last Week: #25) – 14,100; Total: 518,200 (Gold) [9 Weeks]
#39 Anthony Hamilton/The Point Of It All (Last Week: #32) – 12,900; Total: 239,000 [6 Weeks]
#41 John Legend/Evolver (Last Week: #33) – 12,200; Total: 502,600 (Gold) [13 Weeks]
#42 Plies/Da REAList (Last Week: #41) – 12,104; Total: 229,512 [6 Weeks]

Damn, it’s 2009 already? After almost doing this column 40 times now, it still feels like I just started this yesterday. What does ‘09 hold for Hip-Hop on the charts? We’ll see a new Eminem album, maybe Detox, hopefully Blueprint 3 as well as a host of other releases (January looks slack as hell by the way). But before we get to that, here’s the first edition of the Numbers Game for the new year.

I was thinking yesterday if Kanye’s 808’s & Heartbreak was really a failure. I mean, yeah he didn’t sell 800,000 albums in the first week like he previously did with Graduation, but who is? Five weeks since the release of Kanye’s 4th album and he’s already has sold a million copies. In today’s market when going Gold in the “new” Platinum, is this really a failure? Now compare that to Common’s new album. Where the hell is Universal Mind Control?

T.I. jumps up 19 places on the charts and sells almost 80,ooo copies of Paper Trail in it’s 13th week. It might take a while, but I seriously think T.I.P.’s 6th album will go double.

Like a young Jerry Rice in a 49ers jersey, Lil’ Wayne just can’t be stop. After almost a month on the charts, Weezy moves up some spots and sells over 50,000 copies of Tha Carter III. Sitting at 2,874,420 album sold, he may go over that 3 “Milli” mark next week. And who the hell is still buying the retail version of Dedication 3? It sold over 9,000 albums this week.

The goon Plies drops form #14 to #36 this week with his 3rd album Da REAList. Maybe he won’t be getting that 3rd consecutive Gold plaque after all.

This week could be looked as a sorta good thing for Soulja Boy. Yes, his new album iSouljaBoyTellem still sits a the bottom of the Top 50 at #47, but he only dropped 4 spots from last week. Most of the time if a rapper debuts at #43, he’s not in the Top 50 the next week. But it’s really hard for me to pull for the kid when he makes statements like; “Nas killed Hip-Hop”.

I’m not really going into the R&B numbers this week (You can still check out the numbers below). Don’t be mad if I might not put ALL the numbers up for ALL the Hip-Hop/R&B artists in the Top 50 (Do you really care about Akon’s numbers?). See you next week. Peace.

#2 Beyonce/I Am…Sasha Fierce (Last Week: #5) – 210,918; Total: 1,458,853 (Platinum) [7 Weeks]
#5 Kanye West/808’s & Heartbreak (Last Week: #11) – 148,157; Total: 1,023,927 (Platinum) [4 Weeks]
#7 Keyshia Cole/A Different Me (Last Week: #2) – 126,506; Total: 448,591 [2 Weeks]
#9 Jamie Foxx/Intuition (Last Week: #3) – 104,506; Total: 369,868 [2 Weeks]
#15 T.I./Paper Trail (Last Week: #34) – 78,319; Total: 1,522,103 (Platinum) [13 Weeks]
#16 Akon/Freedom (Last Week: #31) [4 Weeks]
#29 Rihanna/Good Girl Gone Bad (Last Week: #37)  (2x Platinum) [82 Weeks]
#31 Ludacris/Theater Of The Mind (Last Week: #39) [5 Weeks]
#32 Lil’ Wayne/Tha Carter III (Last Week: #49) – 57,813; Total: 2,874,420 (2x Platinum) [29 Weeks]
#36 Plies/Da REAList (Last Week: #14) – 52,707; Total: 167,381 [2 Weeks]
#39 Anthony Hamilton/The Point Of It All (Last Week: #12) [2 Weeks]
#40 Ne-Yo/Year Of The Gentleman (Gold) (Last Week: #61) [15 Weeks]
#43 T-Pain/Thr33 Ringz (Last Week: #55) [7 Weeks]
#44 John Legend/Evolver (Last Week: #59) [9 Weeks]
#47 Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em/iSouljaBoyTellem (Last Week: #43) – 34,370; Total: 79,935 [2 Weeks]
#163 DJ Drama & Lil’ Wayne/Dedication 3 (Last Week: #185) – 9,496; Total: 17,780 [2 Weeks]

What? You thought I was gonna miss out on telling you how much Plies and Soulja Boy sold last week. Consider this a early X-Mas present; The Numbers Game is here a day early (Now in paragraph format!). A lot of artists benefited from the holiday shopping boost (while some didn’t). Well since H20’s iSouljaboytellem review last week had the comments jumping, we’ll start there: After all the debate on Soulja Boy, the kid’s sophomore album performance on the charts was underwhelming with only 45,000 copies sold and a #43 debut on the charts. Hey, I think SB’s hustle was good, but this might be the beginning of the end.

One person who won’t stop (releasing albums that is) is Plies. Even though homie gets a lot of hate, somebody out there loves him. His third album in 2 years, Da REAList, pushes over a 100,000 copies. I guess that means we can expect more albums from Plies (And more goon references).

Did anybody else know that DJ Drama & Lil’ Wayne was releasing a retail version of Dedication 3? Well they released it last week  and over 8,000 people knew about it and purchased it. Other than the actual mixtape not really being that good; Why would anyone buy a mixtape by an artist who is officially giving it away for free online? The Weezy fans are dedicated…

On the R&B front, all the debuts in the Top 50 all sold at least 100,000 albums. Keyshia Cole’s A Different Me gave her the #2 spot with over 300,000 copies sold (Country powerhouse Taylor Swift only beat her by 6,000 copies for #1 spot). Hey, I guess this shows that Keyshia has some real fans out there. Jamie Foxx’s second album, Intuiton (It’s officially his third), also did pretty good coming right behind Keyshia Cole at #3. It’s funny because Thic Saule actually recommended Foxx’s new album to me in the forums and I brushed him off (Saule: 1, B-Easy: 0). Just to prove that this was a good week for R&B, Anthony Hamilton’s new album, The Point Of It All, debuted at #12 and sold 130,000 copies. I like Anthony Hamilton, but I had no idea that he had an album coming out. None.

That’s all I really got for today; Here’s the half assed numbers. Shit, it’s the holidays. Peace.

#2 Keyshia Cole/A Different Me (Last Week: NA) – 322,085; Total: NA [Debut]
#3 Jamie Foxx/Intuition (Last Week: NA) – 265,362; Total: NA [Debut]
#5 Beyonce/I Am…Sasha Fierce (Last Week: #6) – 195,392; Total: 1,247,935 (Platinum) [6 Weeks]
#11 Kanye West/808’s & Heartbreak (Last Week: #4) – 138,910; Total: 858,810 (Gold) [3 Weeks]
#12 Anthony Hamilton/The Point Of It All (Last Week: NA) – 133,556; Total: NA [Debut]
#14 Plies/Da REAList (Last Week: NA) – 114,674; Total: NA [Debut]
#43 Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em/iSouljaBoyTellem (Last Week: NA) – 45,565; Total: NA [Debut]
#49 Lil’ Wayne/Tha Carter 3 (Last Week: #47) – 37,822; Total: 2,816,607 (2x Platinum) [28 Weeks]
#185 DJ Drama & Lil’ Wayne/Dedication 3 (Last Week: NA) – 8,284; Total: NA [Debut]