S. Samuel
R&B veteran R. Kelly and Childish Gambino's solo albums have received some extra insurance for entering next week's sales chart list with increased weekend projections.
Although they will not sell enough to crack the Top 3, Kells and Gambino’s new projects will both push at least 90,000 copies.
YOUR HOLLY JOLLY TOP 15: Garth Brooks, One Direction and holiday albums from Kelly Clarkson and The Robertsons manage to hold back this week’s debuts. Here’s how it looks headed into the weekend: Garth Brooks (Pearl) 165-175k Kelly Clarkson (RCA) 130-140k One Direction (SYCO/Columbia) 110-120k The Robertsons (EMI Nashville) 105-115k *R. Kelly (RCA) 100-110k *Childish Gambino (Glassnote) 90-95k Eminem (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope) 70-75k (HITS Daily Double)
Initial estimates had Kells’ Black Panties leading all new releases with up to 100,000 sold units.
YOUR NEW RELEASES: It doesn’t look like any of this week’s new releases will debut at #1, though we’re duty-bound to say that R. Kelly’s Black Panties has one of our favorite titles ever. R. Kelly (RCA) 90-100k Childish Gambino (Glassnote) 80-90k Neil Young (Reprise) 18-22k (HITS Daily Double)
The singer’s projections came in light of receiving some heated backlash courtesy of a Twitter Q&A session this week.
Twitter users went ham on R. Kelly Tuesday (Dec. 10) after discovering his #AskRKelly hashtag. The tweet session started out innocently enough — as innocent as a promotion for an album titled Black Panties can be — with a post from Kellz, “Getting ready to answer some of my favorite #AskRKelly questions!! Start tweeting!” Immediately, the responses took aim at those those pesky allegations that he likes to urinate on adolescents as a sexual act. “u still piss on ppl?” was the very first response, in fact, and from there, there was no slowing down. “#AskRKelly is her body still callin or did her parents let her use the house phone?” was another. Also, “Are you gonna get on the ‘Piss On You Remix’ with Dave Chappelle? I’m still waiting….. #AskRKelly.” (BET)
Kells did, however, receive other questions which he answered throughout the promotion.
Kellz did not respond to any of those — not publicly, at least — but he did answer a couple of questions about his music. “@LukeBattson Yes, Real Talk is a true story. Its also what led me to writing When a Women’s Fed Up… #AskRKelly,” he wrote about one of his songs off 2007’s Double Up, his eighth studio album. Black Panties, his twelfth LP, was also unleashed Tuesday, along with the video for his latest single, “Cookie.” (BET)
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