THURSDAY'S SCRUMMY R&B JUICE ....

So I'm bombarded with the news that in the US chart, Rihanna not only will fail to reach the number 1 spot with her latest album Good Girl Gone Bad but she will only sell a disappointing 160,000-170,000 copies. With the monstrous reaction and huge global success of Umbrella, I was expecting Rihanna to go gold at least. And with Def Jam splashing out over half a million dollars on her second video Shut Up & Drive, it appears that such a gamble was too much of a risk to take especially if that figure cannot be recouped in album sales. So why isn't Rihanna getting those big numbers? She's had a high-budget promotion, has appeared on every huge TV show, and yet she can't even do HALF the gold figure. Has Rihanna's bubble finally burst? Or should she be happy that out of all three albums, this is her highest debut to date? Or maybe folks just weren't feeling her new sound as the album wasn't as edgy as Umbrella but more on the side of retro-pop fun. Here are some new Rihanna candids of Rih-Rih out and about in New York:

As much as I enjoy listening to Good Girl Gone Bad, this whole thing has brought on the realisation that she has hell of a long way to go before she can be considered the next Beyonce other than the fact that they both have connections to Jay-Z. And props to her being brave enough to rock those shoes. I know I couldn't.

New R&B singer Chrisette Michele attended David Letterman's Late Night Show:



She could very well become my next blog obsession after Rihanna. I am so digging this chick and she's destined for great things.

Check out her performance on Letterman:

She sang the track "Best of Me". Good stuff. Real good stuff. Let's not see another talented artist get pushed underneath the rug.

Yesterday, Kelly Rowland did a party at Movida club in London:

She looked really cute and sassy. Some of the celebrities that were also there were Enrique Inglesias, Louise Redknapp and Teri Hatcher.

And check out her King outtakes:



Love the hot pants!

R&B Bites

Chris Brown did a brand new interview with MTV today where he talks about how cool it was when Michael Jackson called him up on his 18th birthday. The funny part of the interview (for obvious reasons) is when MJ stated that his favorite song was 'Shorty Like Mine' (giggles, we know why Michael, lol!), a track that Chris did with Bow Wow.



And then he talks a little more about his new album Exclusive, which will drop on 28th August 2007, and confirmed tracks that will definitely make the album include Throwed, Picture Perfect and Kiss Kiss. He is also going to work with Justin Timberlake and Timbaland. Read the whole interview here.

And as we're on Justin Timberlake, he has signed a new YouTube singer to his label named Esmee Denters:


Here's a clip of her singing Justin's What Goes Around. Esmee is the first to be signed to Tennman Records. Here is Justin's announcement:

"In completely unpredicted news to all YouTubers and bloggers, we are proud to announce Esmee Denters has signed to Tennman Records and she will be joining me on tour this summer. Esmee is the real deal and I cannot wait for the world to hear her, but all of her fans on YouTube should not worry…we will keep you in the loop every step of the way".

Stay tuned!