Chinese Democracy’s label is making a sly move to beat 808s & Heartbreak in first-week sales.
By Chris Harris

Kanye West and Axl Rose

Photo: MTV News/ Getty Images

It was shaping up to be an epic battle between two of music’s biggest heavyweights, with Kanye West — the Louis Vuitton Don, and the man we crowned the Hottest MC in the Game — standing in one corner, wearing the gold trunks and white Shutter Shades, ready to drop 808s & Heartbreak. And in the other: Axl Rose — sporting the black trunks, a Los Angeles Raiders jersey, red cornrows and a little album called Chinese Democracy.

Who will walk away with the championship belt? Chances are, it won’t be ‘Ye.

Fans are excited, critics and industry watchers look on with great anticipation, and even oddsmakers have jumped into the fray, casting Guns N’ Roses as the favorite. But, at the 11th hour, GN’R are making things a bit interesting in this race toward Billboard’s peak position. That’s because Axl’s got a secret weapon: the Eighth Day.

After years of false starts and broken promises, Geffen Records will finally issue Guns N’ Roses’ eagerly awaited album this coming Sunday, a day before West’s latest hits stores. And a spokesperson for Geffen told MTV News that first-day sales figures for Chinese Democracy will not be reported to Nielsen SoundScan until November 30, the same day West’s label will report his week-one sales.

Typically, albums are released in the U.S. on Tuesdays, and SoundScan tracks weekly sales data from Monday through Sunday, meaning that most albums’ debut spots on the Billboard chart are based on six solid sales days. At first, most assumed day-one sales of Chinese Democracy — which took Rose more than 16 years to complete — would be reported next week and released the morning of November 26. But GN’R’s label is holding off on releasing those sales figures until the following week, setting the stage for an extra boost in the chart standings announced on December 3.

West’s only chance at a third consecutive #1 debut is the fact that Chinese Democracy will be available exclusively at Best Buy’s Web site and stores, whereas 808s will be everywhere.

This is a different game from last fall, when Kanye and 50 Cent released solo albums on the very same day. After weeks of hype leading up to their showdown, West’s Graduation pushed 957,000 copies, easily besting Curtis, which sold 691,000 copies in week one.

Before Geffen’s plan was known, MTV News reached out to U.K. betting company Ladbrokes and online-gaming purveyors Bodog Entertainment to see which album they favor for a #1 opening. Despite West’s immense popularity, the numerous leaks of Chinese Democracy over the years and GN’R’s Best Buy deal, oddsmakers from both companies said Guns’ LP has the best chance of scoring a chart-topping debut.

Bodoglife.com Sportsbook manager Richard Gardner put the odds at -130 in favor of Guns — which is basically the same thing as saying there’s a 56 percent chance that Axl will outsell West. Meanwhile, he put the odds at -110 for a Kanye West win, or a 52 percent chance that his album will enter the chart at the peak position.

“We would quote 1/3 on Guns N’ Roses, and 5/2 on Kanye West,” said Nick Weinberg, head of Ladbrokes’ novelty betting division. “So we make Guns N’ Roses the favorite to top the charts in the week immediately after the release, due to the massive sense of anticipation surrounding the album. A lot of people have been waiting a long time for it.”

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Bassist keeps expectations low, but says plane crash put things in perspective: ‘Life is too short.’
By James Montgomery

Blink-182 in 2003

Photo: Brian Appio

Last week, at the mtvU Woodie Awards, former Blink-182er (and current member of +44) Mark Hoppus spoke about his best friend and bandmate Travis Barker, who is recovering from second-and-third degree burns suffered in a September 19 plane crash that killed four people and seriously injured DJ AM.

And this week, Hoppus kept on talking — er, blogging — only this time it wasn’t just about about Barker, but former Blink bandmate Tom DeLonge, too. Seems that, for the first time since Blink went on “indefinite hiatus” in February 2005, all three members have been spending time together … which, of course, could mean that we’re in the early stages of a full-on Blink reunion. Maybe.

“In the midst of everything else that has happened lately, Tom, Travis and I have all spoken together,” Hoppus wrote on his official site, HiMyNameIsMark.com. First, through a number of phone calls, and then a couple of weeks ago we all hung out for a few hours. They’ve all been great, very positive conversations. We’re just reconnecting as friends after four years of not talking. It’s a good thing. Obviously the first question for a lot of people will be, ‘Does this mean a Blink-182 reunion?’ The answer is none of us know. We haven’t talked about it at all. Right now it’s just good for the three of us to see one another, reconnect and let the past be the past. The events of the past two months supersede everything that happened before. Life is too short.”

Despite the public silence from Barker’s former Blink-mates in the immediate wake of the crash — which lasted just a couple of weeks — this sounds very much like the hatchet being buried. And as if that news wasn’t enough to send Blink fans into a tizzy, consider what Hoppus told MTV News last week, when he was asked when fans can expect a new album from his and Barker’s post-Blink band, +44: “Hopefully, in the next couple months we’ll see [Barker] behind the kit, I pray. No matter what I work on, Travis will be part of, for sure.”

Hoppus’ post wasn’t entirely devoted to stoking the Blink flames. He also wrote at great length about “Little” Chris Baker and Charles “Che” Still, two of Barker’s friends and associates who were killed in the crash.

“These past two months have been the hardest times that I can remember, and I hope that we never see anything like this ever again,” he wrote. “Even two months later, I still can’t believe what happened, and it’s too much to talk about. But let me say that I think about Little Chris every single day, and the world is not the same without him. He is one of the best people I’ve ever known. We traveled the world together, spending countless hours on buses and planes, in hotel lobbies and dressing rooms. … I’m so sad that he is not here right now. There are just no words.”

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Clips from forthcoming ‘For the Record’ documentary continue to surface online.
By Jocelyn Vena

Kevin Federline and Britney Spears

Photo: Getty Images/ Matthew Simmons

In a new clip from Britney Spears’ forthcoming documentary, “For the Record,” that has made its way online, the singer opens up about her two-year marriage to Kevin Federline, and how in retrospect it probably wasn’t the best decision she could have made at the time.

“I think I married for all the wrong reasons,” she says in the 90-minute documentary, set to air on MTV on November 30, just two days before the release of her new LP, Circus. “Instead of following my heart and, like, doing something that made me really happy. I just did it because … for just, like, the idea of everything.”

In the clip she also talks about what the album means for her, after several tumultuous years in the spotlight. “It’s weird because your music is a reflection of what you’re going through,” she says. “It’s such a part of me, the record, ’cause of what I’ve gone through.”

In another clip, Spears talks about how she uses her work as a dancer and singer to deal with the stress of her life and how it helps her deal with her emotions. She said that for her, dancing is like therapy. “If I have a lot of nervous energy, when I start dancing it all goes away and I just feel emotion. It’s like a rollercoaster,” she says. “People think that when you go through something in life you have to go to therapy. For me, art is therapy, because it’s like you’re expressing yourself in such a spiritual way.

“Sometimes you don’t need to use words to go through what you need to go through,” she continues. “Sometimes it’s an emotion you need to feel when you dance, that you need to touch. And the only thing that can touch it is when you move a certain way.”

In previously released clips, Spears addresses her reasons for making the special now. “There’s a lot people don’t know about me that I want them to know. … I’ve been through a lot in the last two or three years. I’ve grown up, bigtime,” she says.

She also talks about being a public figure and having every moment of her life documented by the media. “I don’t think anyone can prepare themselves for what stardom brings,” she says, adding, “Do I know my life is weird? It’s all I’ve ever known.”

Getting pumped about the Britney Spears documentary? Share your thoughts by uploading a video to YouRHere.MTV.com, or sound off in the comments section below. “For the Record” airs Sunday, November 30, at 10 p.m. ET on MTV.

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‘It’s a celebration that means a lot to me,’ MC says of star-studded show.
By Shaheem Reid

Big Daddy Kane at B.B. King’s Bar and Grill in New York on November 14

Photo: Dmitriy Goldin

“Rap soloist, you don’t want none of this.” What if Rakim did listen to a lot of cats in the streets back in the day, and took Big Daddy Kane’s lyrics from “Set It Off” as a stone-cold dis? We might have seen the greatest battle of all time. Or, what if Kane decided to test the blast master KRS-One? What a showdown that would have been.

Last Friday night in New York, BDK was sitting back in chill mode, fantasizing about two dream battles with his peers.

“It would have to be Rakim and KRS-One,” Kane answered, when asked whom he would have wanted to battle back in the day in a dream face-off. When asked how the battles would go, Kane displayed the humor that enhanced his obvious lyrical and style acumen in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

“How would it go?” he asked, before impersonating a boxing commentator. “Out comes Hardy. Griffin retreats back to his corner.” (Kane’s real name is Antonio Hardy, and Rakim was born William Griffin.)

A big burst of laughter immediately filled the room (”Mad Money” Murph, whom you’ve heard shouted out in plenty of Kane’s records, was there as well). Then, getting a little more serious, Kane explained the rationale behind his dream battle.

“It’s the type of thing where, if you gonna battle somebody to prove your greatness, you wanna go to somebody that shares that same seat with you,” he said. “Those are probably two of the ones who I felt like [could present a challenge]. Also, [Kool] G. Rap, but I’ve always felt like G. Rap was like a brother. With us, it was friendly competition.”

Kane was in New York on Friday celebrating his 20th anniversary in the rap game. Not only was he partying at B.B. King’s Bar and Grill, Daddy Kane was also rapping, sounding as great as he did two decades ago.

“Well, who’s gonna come, we will see,” he said backstage before his performance. “That’s based on surprises, but I know on my part, I’m here to have fun and do the damn thing. I wanna entertain and make sure people have a good time. It’s a celebration that means a lot to me.”

A little before showtime, friends and famous fans of the Prince of Darkness such as Ice-T, Sugar Hill Gang’s Wonder Mike, Greg Nice, XXL Editor in Chief Datwon Thomas, Tony Rock, AZ, Roxanne Shanté, Positive K (who performed his classic “I Got a Man”), DJ Polo, DJ Enuff, Miss Info and Busta Rhymes crammed into the jam-packed building — everybody wanted to hear those hits.

“My best album is probably my second one, It’s a Big Daddy Thing,” the MC said. “I like a lot of the songs on there. It was put together … just the structure of the album was tight.” He said that Long Live the Kane was his favorite to make, though, because it was his first.

One of Kane’s closest friends and collaborators in rap, Biz Markie, was the first to touch the stage on Friday night. The diabolical one set it off with hits such as “Something for the Radio,” “Going Off” and “Pickin’ Boogers.” Roxanne Shanté then got onstage with Biz and the MC-turned-doctor blessed the mic with some throwback flavor on “Def Fresh Crew”: “I’m Shante, he’s Biz Markie/ Side by side, you know it’s we/ No, I don’t speak French, when I say ‘we’/ I mean us two, not ‘Yes, sirree’/ Everyone knows that I am much better/ Come on Biz Markie, get it together/ Talk to the girls, you know they are wack/ Tell those crabs they sound like cats.”

Biz killed it, wowing the crowd while finishing off with “Nobody Beats the Biz,” “Vapors” and “Just a Friend.”

When it was time for Kane to come on, a live band, dressed in black suits and red shirts, played the beat to “Another Victory.” Kane arrived onstage, wearing a black vest, red dress shirt and jeans.

His first four records were unmerciful: “Set It Off,” “Warm It Up, Kane,” “I Get The Job Done” and “Smooth Operator.” The second verse of the latter was rapped over Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.”

Later, when Kane asked the crowd what year they wanted him to take it back to, a man in the crowd yelled, “Take it back to them bad Reagan years.” As the show progressed, BDK told the audience, “No excuses now that Barack is in the White House,” before going into “Ain’t No Half Steppin’.”

Kane’s finale included cameos from Masta Ace, Craig G and Marley Marl, but unfortunately no Kool G. Rap. The Brooklyn King’s send-off was “Raw,” which made everyone in the crowd look forward to the 25th anniversary.

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