Nelly Thomas's Country Grammar, is still at No. 1 this week.
Country Grammar, the debut album from St. Louis rapper Nelly, has spent most of the seven weeks following its June release at No. 3, but moved up this week after its sales remained fairly steady.
A solo emcee previously with the St. Lunatics, Nelly put the long-ignored St. Louis scene on the map with his album's title track and chart-topping debut single Country Grammar. Supported by bouncy beats and undeniably catchy production, his charismatic sing-song rhyme style has earned him love from millions of new fans.
Meanwhile, Britney Spears is still going strong with "Oops!... I Did It Again" at No.2. Oops! has been untouched in the No.2 spot for the sixth week in a row.
Born in 1982 in Kentwood, Louisiana. Britney is possibly the last teenage superstar of the millennium; Britney Spears enjoyed her breakthrough success at the end of 1998. She appeared in local dance revues and church choirs as a young girl, and at the age of eight auditioned for The Mickey Mouse Club.
Eminem's The Marshall Mathers, remained at No.4 for yet another week with sales just shy of 200,000 copies, according to a spokesperson at Interscope Records.
Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP has been certified at five-times platinum in its first month of release, leading the list of notables among the Recording Industry Association's gold and platinum certifications for June. Only one hip-hop album--The Notorious BIG's Life After Death--has gotten off to a faster start, though two 2 Pac albums were also certified at five times platinum during their initial audit month.
Born Marshall Mathers in Kansas City, USA. This white rapper burst onto the US charts in 1999 with a controversial take on the horrercore genre. Mathers endured an itinerant childhood, living with his mother in various states before eventually ending up in Detroit at the age of 12. He took up rapping in high school before dropping out in ninth grade, joining ad hoc groups Basement Productions and the New Jacks, and, later, the duo Soul Intent. The newly christened Eminem released a raw debut album in 1997 through independent label FBT.
Now That's What I Call Music has gone down one spot to Number 4, while Creed's Human Clay jumped up a notch to rest at No.5.
'N Sync's No Strings Attached dropped one notch to number 6 and 3 Doors down pushed up a spot to No.7.
Dropping two spots down to No.8 is Papa Roach's Infest.
A surprising push for Sting's Brand New Day, the single jumped back up into the charts after being pushed out to number 11 by the soundtrack for The Nutty Proffesor II: Klumps, which in turn stays at number 10 this week.
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
