Spurred on by the release of her sophomore album Teenage Dream, Katy Perry’s latest single, also titled “Teenage Dream”, received a surge in downloads this week, topping the digital songs chart with 259k copies, enough to certify it Platinum for total sales of over 1 million. However, Katy’s strong digital showing wasn’t enough to knock Eminem & Rihanna off the top of the Hot 100, who log in their seventh consecutive week at No. 1 with their airplay ruler “Love the Way You Lie”, leaving “Teenage Dream” settle for for No. 2.

The next most notable move on the Hot 100 comes from everybody’s favorite party girl Ke$ha, who cracks the top ten with her latest single “Take It Off”, moving 16-10 in it’s seventh week. This gives Ke$ha four consecutive top ten hits from her chart topping debut album Animal – five overall when including her feature on 3OH!3′s “My First Kiss”. This now means that every single Ke$ha has released or appeared on has gone top ten. We’ll see if she can continue her winning streak when her collaboration with Taio Cruz, “Dirty Picture”, goes to mainstream radio later this month.

Also making a splash is Kid Cudi, who debuts at an impressive No. 22 with his Kanye West-assisted single, “Erase Me”. The song has been at radio for nearly three weeks, but it’s debut was mainly due to a strong opening week on iTunes, with 99k copies sold. The No. 22 debut makes “Erase Me” Cudi’s second highest-charting single ever — featured or solo — since his 2008 debut, “Day ‘n’ Nite”.

Another interesting move on this week’s Billboard charts belongs to Chris Brown, who seems to be staging somewhat of a comeback with his new mixtape single, “Deuces”. The song reaches a new peak of No. 24 on the Hot 100, and comes in at an impressive No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop singles chart — his first R&B chart topper since 2007′s “Kiss Kiss”. He also topped the box office on the weekend with his new movie, Takers. He’s now planning to capitalize off his current popularity with a brand new Polow Da Don-produced single titled “Calypso”, which is rumored to be coming out soon.

What a positive week on the charts for everybody. Until next time, folks.

Chris Brown (remember him?) finally got his wish tonight when he got to perform a tribute to his idol Michael Jackson at the BET Awards.

Breezy was supposedly meant to be part of last years tribute, but rumor has it that corrupt hip-hop kingpin Jay-Z had the performance cancelled. Since then, Breezy’s small-yet-insane posse of fans have been kicking up storm and demanding that the singer be given the opportunity to perform the tribute.

So, with all this anticipation, how did he do?

Chris stepped out and effortlessly busted his way through some killer MJ moves for a while, before suddenly breaking into tears, stumbling around the stage crying and mumbling to himself. It was far from the best tribute of all time, but it was pretty good.

The tears, while melodramatic, were probably genuine. Just think – if your career was in the dumps, the BET community had turned their back on you and you’d become one of the most hated celebrities of the past sseveral years, you’d also probably be overcome with emotion by being back on the same stage that banned you a year earlier, with an audience of your peers cheering you on. Throw Michael Jackson into the mix, and the floodgates are wide open.

As for Breezy’s career, well, that’s another story.

A clearly upset and stressed out Chris Brown left a new message on his SayNow account today, begging his fans to call up radio stations and request his songs to help salvage his struggling career. Check it out below via Toyas-World.

“I ain’t never really did this but right now I need all of my fans help. A lot of radio stations aren’t playing my records. They are not being that supportive and I wouldn’t expect them to. It’s on the fans and what you guys do in your power to bring me back. That’s all I need is you guys and nothing else will do that except for the fans. I don’t know what else to say. It’s nothing else that I can do. I’m doing everything that I need to do. I’m doing me as a person and I’m a better guy. It’s on ya’ll. My singing and my music I do it for you guys and everything else but it won’t be possible if I’m not relevant on the radio and it wouldn’t be possible for me to be an artist if I don’t have the support. I can’t be an underground mixtape artist. That’s where we are. I just want all my fans to help me. I love ya’ll. Peace”.

Brown’s latest album Graffiti has been a massive disappointment since it’s release last December, only selling around 260k in the US. The albums first single “I Can Transform Ya” managed a half-decent peak of #20 on the Hot 100, but the follow-up ballad “Crawl” stalled at #53, and so far the albums next two scheduled singles “Sing Like Me” and “Pass Out” have done zilch.

Graffiti is by no means a great album, so it’s poor reception isn’t a total shock. It’s a very mixed bag ranging from some stellar urban-pop to some mediocre cuts, and even some straight up garbage.

At the end of the day though Chris is only 20 years old, he’s talented and good looking and one flop album does not end ones career. OK, I lied, it can. Hell, Paula Abduls career was ended from one bad performance, but my point is that Chris still has a chance to pick up the pieces in the future.

Personally I blame Breezy’s big bomb on working with that annoying no-hit-wonder Eva Simons!

To say that there’s been a lot of drama surrounding Chris Brown lately would be the understatement of the century. First the young singer delivered a controversial twitter rant accusing major retailers (such as Wal-Mart) of boycotting his new album Graffiti, then Billboard ran a story claiming that Brown was mistaken and that stores had in fact overstocked his CD but that it just wasn’t selling.

Brown’s Twitter account then mysteriously disappeared.

Well now the HitsDoubleDaily predictions are in and they’ve got Breezy at #6 with 100k, which is pretty disappointing for an artist of his calibre. I mean even his contemporary/rival Trey Songz outsold him with his third album Ready.

Anyways one Breezy fan decided to put on her detective hat and make Sherlock Holmes proud by heading down to Wal-Mart to investigate the situation for herself, and the results are pretty scandalous.

Despite Billboards claims that Wal-Mart stocked his album, the young woman discovers that the album has in fact not even been delivered to the store, and then when she asks an employee what’s going on they forcefully try to remove her camera as soon as they realise what she’s up to.

Is this just an unlucky coincidence, or are there actually some truth to Chris Brown’s claims?

After Chris Brown took to his Twitter this week to accuse stores (including Wal-mart) of botcotting his new album Graffiti, Billboard decided to do a little investigating into the claims, and according to them all is not what it seems.

A survey and store visits have found that Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Trans World, Newbury Comics are all carrying the Brown record and sources say that his album received widespread distribution and promotion by his label, Jive Records, and his distributor, Sony Music Entertainment.Jive shipped over 400,000 units of “Graffiti,” and also had it positioned in prime stores space at all key accounts, according to sources. In fact, sources suggest that Jive may have overshipped his record, as sales are slow.

“Not only am I carrying it, I am over carrying it, because it isn’t selling,” says the head of purchasing at one large chain. “I wish I could return it.” He says the album’s first week sales only reached 40% of expectations. At 27-unit Newbury Comics, Carl Mello head of purchasing, echoes that sentiment. “We have it; it’s not selling much.”

“We never considered not bringing it in,” Mello says. “If we stopped bringing in records from every unsavory character that puts out an album, there would be tumbleweed floating around our stores.”

And so far, consumers aren’t flocking to stores to vote on behalf of Brown. Sources project that Brown sold about 100,000 units last week, well below the 150,000-175,000 units he was expected to sell. Mello says that the album is probably about the No. 40 best-selling title at the chain. [source]

In fact even the particular Wal-Mart store that Brown singled out and accused of not stocking his album claim that they simply sold out over the weekend. Brown has since deleted his Twitter account.

I’m a fan of Breezy’s but this is not a good look — at all. Either Billboard are actin’ shady and it’s one giant conspiracy against Chris, or the young singer simply can’t accept the fact that his career isn’t as hot right now as it once was.

Chris Brown let his guard down during a new interview with Hot 97, where he discussed his favourite songs from Graffiti (“Gotta Be Ur Man, I.Y.A, I Love U”), working with Cassie (“She’s modelesque and very beautiful”), his rumoured beef with Jay-Z (“I don’t care what he does. My life isn’t focused on Jay-Z”) and much more.

This one of the best Breezy interviews in a long time because he was so relaxed and open, rather than being tense and on edge reading off a script. The best of all was that nobody mentioned the “R” word!

Did anybody feel a little animosity when he mentioned Jay-Z though? I sure as hell did and I always believed those rumours so I’m glad that Chris didn’t start crawling up Jay’s ass like some faker stars would have. Thanks to YK2 Daily for this.

Chris Brown must have taken a look at his first week sales predictions because he took to his Twitter account today to put the music industry on blast after fans reported that stores weren’t stocking his album properly in order to sabotage his sales.

im tired of this shit. major stores r blackballing my cd. not stockin the shelves and lying to costumers. what the fuck do i gotta do…

WTF… yeah i said it and i aint retracting shit. im not biting my tongue about shit else… the industry can kiss my ass.

thx again to my real fans. u dont go unnoticed .love yall

Do you think the industry really does have a grudge against him, or is Breezy just being a bitter betty?

It looks like Chris Brown’s new album Graffiti will be unable to meet its first week sales predictions of 150k, with HitsDoubleDaily now reporting that the Graffiti will sell between 95k-100k.

The young singer is no match for Billboard queen Susan Boyle, who’s predicted to sell another 600k of her debut I Dreamed a Dream which will bring her total sales close to 2 million.

If the predictions are on target then Breezy will fail to come close to ex-girlfriend Rihanna’s 180k for Rated R, but it should comfort him to know that her album has almost fallen out of the top twenty in it’s second week.

I’m a fan of Chris Brown as a person but I don’t think his album is any better or any worse than Rihanna’s — they’re both decent, but nothing special.

Keep an eye out for Breezy’s third single “Pass Out” with Eva Simons, which will be released to pop whilst “Sing Like Me” gets sent to urban. Check it out below.

I can’t stand the cheap generic dance sound of “Pass Out” and I’m still shocked at how the no-hit-wonder Eva Simons scored a feature on Breezys album. “Sing Like Me” is so much better.

The official predictions for Chris Browns new album Graffiti are in, with HitsDoubleDaily putting it at 150k.

The numbers are significantly lower than Breezys sophomore album Exclusive which did 295k first week, and Rihanna’s Rated R which moved 181k. However there is still room for the album to sell a bit more with predictions sometimes missing the mark by a few thousand.

These numbers were to be expected, but I thought that maybe he’d be able to outsell RoBo-RiRi. His first single “I Can Transform Ya” has done ok by reaching #20 on the Hot 100 and #11 on the R&B charts, but it’s definitely underperformed when compared to the success of some of his more recent songs like “With You” and “Kiss Kiss”.

The same goes for the follow-up “Crawl” which is at #68 on the Hot 100 and #69 on the R&B.

What do you think about Breezy’s first week numbers, and do you think he has the potential to sell more in the long run? I haven’t really listened to the album properly yet but I’ll definitely pick a up a copy later down the line. Thanks to Toyaz-World for this.

Singer Chris Brown (looking like a 40-year-old thug) has landed the cover of the new issue of YRB. The star opened up to the mag about a number of things, including his views on the current state of the music industry.

“Right now, not to be disrespectful to anybody, but I’m not fond on the industry that much. I’m more kind of to myself. I love Owl City and, um, Cobra Starship and even Miley Cyrus; that’s where my head is at with music now, going more pop and kind of different with those guys.”

Brown, who co-writes and co-produces the majority of his material, also admitted that many stars in today’s industry take credit for songs just to make themselves look better.

“Being realistic, it’s [songwriting] not as important to me as you would think. But I think as far as this album, me being able to get feelings out, gettin’ my ideas and creative stuff that I wanted to get out is definitely important. A lot of people like to write just to say they wrote so they can get credit and look bigger than what they are. I’m not saying any names; I’m just saying that’s just how the industry is.”

Hmm, who ever could he be talking about? *blank stare*

Breezy has a good head on his shoulders though. I think this whole Rihanna experience has humbled him and removed him from some of the negative industry bullshit, so now he’s just busy working on his music and career.

“Basically I just wanted to prove to everybody that I was focused on my music and I just had a story to tell as far as my writing and my feelings. Graffiti is the art of me, the art of Chris Brown. That’s why I named it Graffiti – because graffiti is art. I know it’s a form of vandalism, but not lookin’ at it on a negative aspect, it’s art and my music is my graffiti. [Graffiti’s] got all different shapes and sizes and colors, so that’s what my music brings – different feelings, different emotions. It brings different genres of music together all in one… Really this album has so many great songs and you can just play it straight through. It’s more of me growing with my audience.”

What do you think of Chris Browns “art” so far? I’m only listening to the album now for the first time so I can’t say anything yet.

Chris Brown and Drake are both sharing a double cover for the highly anticipated re-launch issue of Vibe Magazine.

Judging by the cover I assume that Breezy’s article is another “apology” feature. I’d much rather check out what Drake has to say, especially if he’s spilling the tea on his debut album Thank Me Later.

The R&B boys aren’t the only ones sharing a double cover, with pop princesses Lady GaGa and Britney Spears both appearing in Elle Magazine.

It’s nice to see that GaGa left her silly little props at home for this shoot because she looks gorgeous.

Chris Browns highly anticipated third album Graffiti has now leaked online so I wanted to get everybody’s thoughts on it. I’ve had a quick listen through and so far so good.

During interviews Breezy may not have a vocabulary that extends outside of “I’m sorry” and “Umm”, but he sure knows how to pour his heart into his music which is evident in the explosive Rihanna diss “Famous Girl” which you can listen to above.

Drake would say that you’re the best he ever had / Rumours come and go… / Everywhere you go it follows / Can’t understand I still love you / I thought I found the right woman / There were other guys who thought the same about her / Damn you let me down / Because you’re famous girl for breakin’ hearts

Sorry Bey I don’t wear no Halo / You were first to play the game though / Sorry I bust the windows out ya car / I might have cheated in the beginning / I was wrong for writing Disturbia / You thought you found the right man / There were other girls who thought the same thing about me / I guess I’m famous girl for breakin’ hearts

Chris is really letting the world know that there are two sides to every story, whilst still acknowledging what he’s done wrong.

I haven’t listened to the album in full yet but I do own his first two so I’m definitely hyped to check this out. How does Graffiti stack up against his previous efforts? How is it compared to Rihanna’s Rated R? Will you be buying it?