Speaking of Puff Daddy and the Billboard charts, his album, No Way Out was bumped out of the top spot when Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's sophomore project, The Art Of War, debuted at No. 1 after selling 394,000 copies during its first week on the CD racks. The other albums in the Top 5 all moved down one position each - Men In Black Soundtrack (No. 3); Spice Girls Spice (No. 4); Hanson's Middle Of Nowhere (No. 5); and Sarah McLachlan's Surfacing (No. 6).

Not surprisingly, the soundtrack to Spawn, which features numerous collaborations between today's top alternative and electronic music artists, charted at No. 7 with sales of 98,000. Along with Men In Black and My Best Friend's Wedding (No. 14), Spawn is Sony Music's third soundtrack in the Top 15 - a feat that Sony said has never been achieved before by another label.

Two years ago, Bone Thugs' debut album, E. 1999 Eternal, entered the charts at the top of three categories - pop, R&B, and Rap - with first week sales of 307,000.

Among other new releases, Joe's All That I Am debuted at No. 13, Pantera's Official Live came in at No 15, Stevie Ray Vaughan's posthumous album Live at Carnegie Hall charted at No. 40 and Lisa Stansfield's self-titled release opened at 55. (AB)
(photo courtesy of Ruthless Records)