1. Lady GaGa – ‘The Fame Monster’ – 5.8 million
2. Eminem – ‘Recovery’ – 5.7 million
3. Justin Bieber – ‘My Worlds’ – 5.6 million
4. Lady Antebellum – ‘Need You Now’ – 3.6 million
5. Taylor Swift – ‘Speak Now’ – 3.5 million
6. Susan Boyle – ‘The Gift’ – 3.0 million
7. Black Eyed Peas – ‘The E.N.D.’ – 3.0 million
8. Michael Bublé – ‘Crazy Love’ – 3.0 million
9. Sadé – ‘Soldier Of Love’ – 2.3 million
10. Alicia Keys – ‘The Element Of Freedom’ – 2.3 million
Via CNN:
(CNN) — Teena Marie, a celebrated R&B singer-songwriter, was found dead Sunday at her California home, her manager said.
Born Mary Christine Brockert in Santa Monica, California, the 54-year-old artist famously paired with late funk legend Rick James and was nominated four times for a Grammy Award, according to her official website.
Marie was found dead by her daughter after apparently dying in her sleep, manager Mike Gardner said.
“Teena was a black voice trapped in a white body,” said Cathy Hughes, founder of Radio One, a broadcasting company that targets African-American and urban listeners. “I would always tell her that she was one of the greatest vocalists of our time.”
Among her songs were “Lovergirl,” “Portuguese Love,” “Ooo La La La,” and “I’m a Sucker for Your Love.”
While no cause of death has been released, the singer’s publicist Lynn Jeter said that Marie suffered a grand mal seizure — a neurological event, marked by loss of consciousness and violent muscle contractions, according to the Mayo Clinic — a month ago.
“Luckily, someone was there,” Jeter said of that seizure. “The ambulance took her to the hospital, and on the way she had another seizure.”The publicist said that she had a “great” conversation on Saturday with Marie, who told her that she was excited about heading to Atlanta to perform this week — in what would have been her first performance since the seizure.
Marie sang under various record labels, including Motown, Epic, Stax Records and Cash Money Classics, since bursting on the scene as a 19-year-old, according to her website. Her last studio album, Congo Square, featured several collaborations.
“The enduring influence of Teena’s inspirational, trailblazing career, could only have been made possible through her brilliant song-writing, showmanship and high energy passion which laid the ground work for the future generations of R&B, hip-hop, and soul,” said Gene Rumsey, chief label officer with Concord Music Group. “We feel extremely fortunate to have worked with a visionary who changed music in indelible ways.”
Eddie Levert, founder of the vocal group The O’Jays, praised Marie as both a singer and mother.
“There are a lot of black people who swore by her and believed in her, as far as her music was concerned,” he said. “She was a good mom, and to me, that is saying a lot.”
Undeniably a great loss to R&B, our thoughts and prayers are especially with Marie’s family during this difficult time; 54 is just too young. Sad.
Teena Marie we salute you.
Check out the Ourasi Sneakers ($175) from San Diego based shoe brand Ateliers Arthur. These Ourasi high-tops from the Fall 2010 Collection feature soft gray leather with brown leather accents, a buckle strap, perforated detail on the toe cap, and a rubber sole.
Lupe Fiasco delivered a gift to his patient fans on Christmas Day with the video for “The Show Goes On,” the first single from his oft-delayed album Lasers, coming March 8, 2011. The green-screen clip was directed by Hiro and features the Chicago MC in the first visuals since he settled his much-publicized dispute with label Atlantic Records.
This year it wasn’t the Grinch who stole Christmas. Game was at the mall on Christmas Eve doing some last-minute shopping when he returned to his friend’s car to find $75,000 and some jewelry missing.
The Compton rapper was robbed while buying Christmas presents for his three kids at the Westfield Topanga Mall in Canoga Park, Calif. He shared his blue Christmas with his Twitter followers.
“So, heres my day: tried 2 do last minute shoppin 4 da kids & valet stole a Louis Duffle out @avanterose’s car & we 2 chains & $75,000 short,” he tweeted. “So police come & guess who get patted down ? Yea, US !!! then they tell us da palmtree was blocking the crime scene on the tape.”
He suspects the valet was responsible for the heist. “Topanga Mall Nordstroms valet is janky as FUCK !!! They gotta a lil stealing ring goin, PARKS YA OWN SHIT from now on!”
Game vows to deliver payback to the culprits. “They aint seen the last of us tho. Soon after xmas is over….IT’S ON you thieving mothafuckas !!! If u dont get a gift tomorrow THAT’S WHY & me or @avanterose couldnt do sh!t cuz both are dumb ass’s on parole. Ole’ Yes officer, No officer ass n!ggas we was !!!”
The police stepped in, but nothing was accomplished. “Then after 4 hrs of no answers we drivin off & da most racist of all da cops gone say: ‘Thats a sweet ride man’. WHAT ?!? B!tch, investigate.”
The security camera didn’t help either and Game left without his money. “Nordstroms talmbout the palmtree was in the way of the crime scene…….. Mothafucka please ! $75,000 dollar lesson learned.”
Niggaz is crazy!!!
After touring with U2 in Australia, Jay-Z returned back home to New York for the holidays. He caught up with his friend, music executive Steve Stoute, and chef of Italian restaurant Nello’s at Hermes on Christmas Eve. The hip-hop mogul will ring in 2011 by performing at an invite-only concert with his friend Chris Martin and Coldplay at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve. He was reportedly paid $1 million for the gig.
Sean “Diddy” Combs was spotted on the sunny beaches of St Barths, France for the holidays with his sons Quincy Jones Brown, Justin Dior and Christian Casey.
What started as a print magazine that ceased publication due to increasing print cost and decreasing advertising revenue has returned as the first hip hop magazine app to hit the Apple store.
Spearheaded by Chris “Cartel” English and Lord Jamar (of Brand Nubian fame), the Hoodgrown Magazine app is now available for download in the Apple App store.
“Though the website has been gaining in popularity I always knew that one day we would return to our print roots,” says Hoodgrown’s CEO, Chris English. “This app allows us to combine the best of the print and web experience in a whole new package. I’ll admit it took a little longer to bring to fruition than I would have liked, but already we’re improving on design and interactive elements.”
The app is available as a free download in the app store as will each issue due to its advertiser supported model.
Watch a video demonstration of the app here:
Denver Nuggets player Carmelo Anthony has left the team to be with his family after the death of his sister and is expected to return after Christmas.
The team said Wednesday night that Michelle Anthony died of a pre-existing medical condition Tuesday (Dec. 21) in Baltimore. She had four children.
Masai Ujiri, the Nuggets executive vice president of basketball operations, says, “Our entire organization supports Carmelo during this difficult time for him and his family. It is heartbreaking news, particularly during the holiday season.”
Nuggets head coach George Karl says the news “brings us down to earth,” and reminded his organization that there are more important things than basketball.
Anthony missed the Nuggets’ game in San Antonio. Denver’s next game is Christmas Day at Oklahoma City.
Anthony, 26, has been the subject of trade rumors since he spurned the team’s offer of a three-year, $65 million contract extension last summer. He’s averaging 24 points and 8.3 rebounds this season.
He has recently been hampered by a strained right elbow, sitting out the last two days of practice leading up to Wednesday night’s game against the Spurs.
Black Enterprise recently sat down with art lover & collector Swizz Beatz for a one-on-one. In the interview, Swizz Beatz breaks down the beauty of investing in Artwork and what mistakes amateurs should avoid:
As far as investing in art there’s a lot of different ways that you can go about it. You can invest in things you like…you can invest just for the value of the art, which I really don’t recommend because I’ve did that before and I ended up with a bunch of expensive paintings that I didn’t want to hang on my wall. Yeah, the value is there but you invested in something that you put in storage until it’s time to sell it. You can make the money but you could have done something else with that investment. At least, if you’re going to invest in art, invest in something that you love and take the risk.Right now, I like to invest in new artists because that’s the future. Imagine if everybody knew [Jean-Michel] Basquiat was going to be Basquiat at that time or [Andy] Warhol…whatever..they didn’t know that. I just think that the couple generations before my generation they didn’t really know what was going on until the passing of the artist. We have so much politics in art from the sellers, the buyers it became like a hustle. Art never depreciates so its like “Wow, how can I put my money into something that doesn’t depreciate?” Art. So then art became a storage house for the super wealthy and then it became like a betting and trading game. People would bet and trade through art, so that wall that was once forty thousand is [worth] fifteen million. It’s a reason and able to justify the reason because one he’s not there anymore so he didn’t produce a lot of work like Piscasso and Monroe….these artists had hundreds and hundreds of work like Basquiat. I could go on and on about this because there’s so much but to make a longer story short, I suggest that people invest in art that they love and just be smart about the research. At the end of the day, even if the value doesn’t grow at least you have something on your wall everyday that you love to look at and inspires you.
I can dig it!! I love art and all kinds of it. I definitely would like to travel the world and collect different pieces. One of my favorite artists is Salvador Dali.
Dre Black So Fresh 
