R.E.M., Phish & Dru Hill Break into Top Ten

You just can't top Jay-Z. The seasoned rapper hangs tough at No. 1 for the fifth consecutive week, with Vol. II: Hard Knock Life selling 174,000 copies for the week ending Nov. 1, according to SoundScan. |The album's sustained success has helped ease the record industry myth that rap records are here today and gone tomorrow. In fact, Jay-Z's run at No. 1 is the longest this year since the soundtrack to Titanic held the top spot for four straight months last spring.

And it's not like Jay-Z didn't' have serious competition this week. New releases by Dru Hill, R.E.M., Phish, Faith Evans and Pras all hit store shelves. But none could oust the rap king. That will likely change next week, however, when Alanis Morissette's anxiously awaited follow-up to Jagged Little Pill debuts; industry insiders expect the new record to easily hit the No. 1 mark.

As for the week's newcomers, the messages were mixed. R&B crooners Dru Hill, riding the wave of their hit single featuring Redman, "How Deep is Your Love," debuted strong at No. 2, selling 128,000 copies. Faith Evans, the one-time wife of the late Notorious B.I.G., made a strong showing at No. 6, and the vagabond rock band Phish, known more for selling concert tickets than they are for selling records, scored a Top Ten debut.

On the injured list is R.E.M. The band's new album, Up debuted at a respectable No. 3. But it sold just 117,000. That's about half of what their last record, New Adventures in Hi-Fi, sold its first week in stores. Also hurting is rapper Pras, who scored one of the summer's biggest hits with "Ghetto Supastar," from the soundtrack to Bulworth. Problem is his new solo album came in at a distant No. 55 with his solo debut, selling just 26,000 copies.

From the top, it was Vol. II: Hard Knock Life, followed by Dru Hill's Enter the Dru; R.E.M's Up; The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (selling 93,000); Shania Twain's Come On Over (90,000); Faith Evan's Keep the Faith (85,000); 'N Sync (84,000); Phish's Story of the Ghost (76,000); the soundtrack to Rush Hour (70,000); The Backstreet Boys (69,000).

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Song Stories

“Too Close”

Next | 1998

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'" 

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