Search Results for: Interscope Records

The way things are shaking out, Eminem will go down in history as starting more feuds than Richard Dawson. Last week the rapper’s latest battle, pitting his Shady Records camp against Ja Rule and Murder Inc., took center stage at Giants Stadium during Summer Jam, the annual hip-hop fest thrown by Big Apple radio’s Hot 97. Em protégé 50 Cent started his set with several Ja digs accompanied by a video display. Then Eminem delivered da bomb, performing the blistering Ja Rule-dissing salvos “Doe Ray Me” with D12 and “Hail Mary” with 50 Cent and Busta Rhymes. But don’t start… Read more »

Godsmack takes over the Billboard 200 with a No. 1 debut for “Faceless,” and leads the charge of seven top-20 entries on the album chart. The Universal album sold 269,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, giving the band its best debut week on the chart. The total is easily enough to end the two-week reign of Linkin Park’s “Meteora” (Warner Bros.), which falls to No. 2 on a 30% sales decline to sales of 186,000 copies. “Faceless” is Godsmack’s third major label album and its entry bests the opening position of its last set, “Awake.” That release… Read more »

In a pairing that would alter the architecture of the music business, Apple Computer Inc. is in talks with Vivendi Universal to buy Universal Music Group, the world’s largest record company, for as much as $6 billion, sources said. Such a seemingly unlikely combination would instantly make technology guru Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder and chief executive, the most powerful player in the record industry. Universal, which reaps about $6 billion in sales annually from artists such as 50 Cent, Shania Twain, U2 and Luciano Pavarotti, would be controlled by a maverick who revolutionized the computer market and coined the mantra… Read more »

New York’s finest new rock acts will be anthologized on “YES New York,” a 15-track collection due June 3 from Wolfgang Morden, the soundtrack imprint of Vice Records. The album kicks off with a previously unreleased live version of the Strokes’ “New York City Cops” recorded in Iceland, and concludes with an acoustic version of “Our Time” performed by Unitard, a side project of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. “As transplants to New York, we had spent a decade watching the New York rock scene kinda suck with too many Heartbreaker wannabes and noisy sound-alikes,” executive producers Chris White and Brian… Read more »

The Super Bowl halftime show will be a little bit country and a little bit rock n’ roll. Canadian singer Shania Twain and Southern California band No Doubt are headlining halftime entertainment for Sunday’s game. Sting also will appear. “It’s such a big event that there are no limits,” Twain said Thursday. “The sky is the limit.” Twain will perform two songs: “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” from her blockbuster album “Come on Over,” and the title song of her latest album, “Up.” “‘Cause that’s where the ball is going,” Twain said. She’s looking forward to the game, but… Read more »

The Eminem show was everywhere this week as two albums by the rapper commanded top spots on the U.S. sales charts ahead of the Friday opening of his highly anticipated debut movie. The newly released soundtrack to his film “8 Mile” – which features music by Eminem as well as other rappers such as Jay-Z, Nas and D-12 – debuted at No. 1 on the charts, selling an estimated 702,000 units in the week ended Nov. 3, according to music tracker Nielsen SoundScan. The album features three new solo songs by Eminem, who has the starring role in the movie… Read more »

A federal judge threw out a $70 million lawsuit filed by an anti-gangsta rap crusader who claimed lawyers for two record labels tried to drive her to emotional and financial ruin. C. DeLores Tucker and her husband sued in 1999, claiming she was the victim of malicious prosecution because of her campaign against gangsta rap. According to her lawsuit, she met with executives from Time Warner and Death Row Records in 1995 to try to persuade them to clean up the language in gangsta rap. The Tuckers claimed that Death Row Records, rap label Interscope, five attorneys and two hired… Read more »

Bruce Springsteen kept a firm grip on the top spot on the album charts for the second straight week, despite a 55% slide in sales. “Rising” (Columbia), Springsteen’s first disc of new material since 1995, sold just under 239,000 units, according to numbers released Wednesday by Nielsen SoundScan. The Jersey-born rock legend recently launched a U.S. tour to support the release, backed for the first time in a decade by the E Street Band. The Boss was followed in the rankings by a trio of Universal Music Group hip-hop stars. Nelly rebounded one spot to second with “Nellyville” (Universal), selling… Read more »

Music fans weren’t quite ready to vacate “Nellyville” this week, as the sophomore album from St. Louis rapper Nelly stood strong against a heady debut from funk-punk foursome the Red Hot Chili Peppers and held on to the top spot for the third week running. Sales of “Nellyville” (Universal) slipped 24% to 340,000 units, according to data compiled by Nielsen SoundScan, but the album still managed to top 1.5 million in total sales after less than a month out. Fresh off that success, the hip-hop star is said to be planning a move into the TV world, starring in his… Read more »

Last week Eminem was a little uneasy about the fact that bootlegging had pressured Interscope to release his much-hyped The Eminem Show way ahead of schedule. Would such a hasty move screw up his game plan? (See “Eminem Show Moved Up Again – Album In Stores Sunday”). Well, 1.6 million records sold later, Em can relax – not that he was really sweating how many units he was gonna move. “I don’t ever buy into the pressure of trying to top my last album for record sales,” he said, cruising around Manhattan on top of a double-decker bus. “The pressure… Read more »