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NEWS : STORIES
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04.01.1998 9:46 PM EST
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Cappadonna Swarms Into #3 Slot
Wu-Tang affiliate lands in top 10 while Van Halen drops out and Oscar winners enjoy surge.
by Contributing Editor Randy Reiss
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It's reached the point now that you apparently don't even have to be a member
of the Wu-Tang Clan to capitalize on their incredible popularity.
The chart success of all things Wu continued this week as SoundScan reported
that Wu-Tang
associate Cappadonna sold 132,000 copies of his solo debut,
The Pillage, and landed at #3 on the Billboard 200 albums
chart for the week ending March 29.
Though not a member of the Wu-Tang Clan proper, the hip-hopper's album
features the production work of Wu frontman RZA and has been marketed
heavily as a Wu-related project.
Elsewhere in the top 10, C-Murder -- No Limit Records gangsta-rap impresario
Master P's associate -- saw his solo debut, Life or Death, drop from #3 to
#7 on SoundScan reported sales of 91,000, bringing his grand total to 293,000
copies sold.
Two other albums that debuted in the top 10 last week, Van Halen's III
and the soundtrack to Ice Cube's "The Player's Club," didn't fare as well.
Hard-rock veterans Van Halen's first album with former Extreme singer Gary
Cherone at the mic tumbled from #4 to #13 on SoundScan reported sales of
64,000, while the soundtrack to the first film written and directed by gangsta-rap
legend Ice Cube slipped from #10 to #16 on reported sales of 62,000.
Further down the charts, soul legend Aretha Franklin's A Rose Is Still
A Rose was the second-highest debut of the week. The album, which
features the production work of the omnipresent rap artist Sean "Puffy" Combs
and Fugees singer Lauryn Hill, landed at #30. The closest competitors to the
Queen of Soul were hyper-active diggity rappers Das EFX, whose album
Generation EFX entered at #48 with reported sales of 22,000. Among
the other notable acts debuting on the charts this week were "big beat" buzz
band the Propellerheads, whose Decksandrumsandrockandroll sold
13,000 copies and debuted at #100; Legacy: A Tribute To Fleetwood Mac's
Rumours, which features covers of Mac classics by such artists as Jewel
and Matchbox 20, entered the charts at #101. Other debuts include:
Semisonic's Feeling Strangely Fine at #105; God Lives Underwater's
Life In the So-Called Space Age at #137; female-rapper Sylk-E. Fyne's
Raw Sylk, which features a guest appearance by pioneering gangsta-
rapper Too $hort, at #149; and Reverand Horton Heat's Space Heater at
#187.
This week's charts also found the soundtracks to many of last week's Oscar
nominees and winners receiving their traditional bumps. The soundtrack to
"Good Will Hunting," which features former Heatmiser guitarist Elliott
Smith's Oscar-nominated song, "Miss Misery," leapt from #146 to #91, while
Trisha Yearwood's Songbook collection, which contains the
Oscar-nominated "How Will I Live," climbed from #65 to #49. Same goes for
The Full Monty soundtrack, which moved from #169 to #99. And
for the 16th consecutive week, the mega-successful Titanic saw its sales
increase 5 percent to remain lodged in the top slot with total SoundScan
reported sales of 6.6 million.
The other notable chart action this week belongs to thrash-hip-hoppers
Limp Bizkit. Their debut, Three Dollar Bill, Y'all, made its first
chart appearance last week at #185 based on SoundScan reported sales of
6,200. Since their chart debut, it was widely reported that their label, Interscope,
paid a Portland radio station to play the album's single, "Counterfeit," in a "pay-
for-play" arrangement that requires the station to indicate -- before or after its
airing -- that the song was sponsored.
In the week ending March 29, SoundScan reported that their album sold 8,200,
moving the group up to #144 on the charts and bringing its sales total to
165,000.
The rest of the best: Celine Dion, Let's Talk About Love (#2);
Madonna, Ray Of Light (#4); Savage Garden, Savage Garden
(#5); Backstreet Boys, Backstreet Boys (#6); Eric Clapton,
Pilgrim (#8); K-Ci & Jojo, Love Always (#9); and Usher, My
Way (#10).
 
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