food for thought.

Hilary Duff's Metamorphosis sold more albums in the US alone than Janet Jackson's Damita Jo sold worldwide. Just thought you should know.

khia: back from the dead, now lick it now.

KHIA was victim to one of my favorite internet rumors. Years ago, the "My Neck, My Back" (you know what comes next) rapper was said to be dead. Apparently, she had given her boyfriend AIDS and he shot her. No. She didn't give him the HIV virus. The report said she gave him AIDS. Because that's how it works when you're the self-proclaimed "Queen of the South". You can just skip ahead to AIDS!

Speaking of the "Queen of the South" title...there's a bit of a problem with that. Three ladies claim to hold this title. One of them is Khia. One of them is Jacki-O, but she does not matter at all. Khia claims that she beats Jacki-O for the title because she has sold more albums and has a larger fanbase. And she's right. While Khia has ONE single that managed to get on the Billboard charts, the Poe Little Rich Girl doesn't have any. But both of these ladies must be kidding themselves. If we're going by fanbase and albums sold, Trina blows them all away. On that note, Trina once tried to offer Khia a verse on her latest album...Khia said no. She hypothetically said something like, "Hell nah, I'm the Queen of the motherfuckin' south. But I'll record a track with your man, Lil Wayne. And Trick Daddy. But not you. Ho."

Khia is very stubborn in that sense...but you gotta give her some respect. "Jealous Girls" is the jam, even if no one else has ever heard it. The girl writes her own shit, and pushes it out all by herself. She will not be featuring any other artists on her upcoming album Gangstress because she doesn't think she needs their help to sell her product. This product is going up in value now that it's been announced that she'll be featured on the second single off Janet Jackson's upcoming album, "So Excited". Well, her product is going up in value if the song is better than that stupid Nelly/Janet collabo.

Here is a remix of the first single, "Snatch the Cat Back", you can hear the original on the space. For kicks, I've also included the unreleased Janet Jackson song "Put It On Me", produced by Rich Harrison.

OH! Take note that Khia will be releasing a book called Gangsta Love this Christmas. This is going on my list next to Wendy Williams' upcoming novel in the Ritz Harper Chronicles, Is the Bitch Dead? Wendy, if you are reading this (I can dream!)...I just want you to know that you're my hero.

DOWNLOAD: KHIA- Snatch the Cat Back (remix)
DOWNLOAD: KHIA- I'm A Queen (freestyle)

DOWNLOAD: JANET JACKSON- Put It On Me

BUY Gangstress, PRE-ORDER 20 Years Old

BLOGWATCH: Indie christoph has a remix by Spank Rock of Cansei de Ser Sexy's "Let's Make Love and Listen Death From Above". Arjan Writes has some pics from a recent Justin Timberlake show that might prove to you that he is indeed bringing sexy back. You Ain't No Picasso brings us a live set by Colin Meloy of The Decemberists. The Passion Boys have a new song out called "Robot Sexie Time". It makes me "excite chicken dance feeling".

i'm sorry ms. jackson! no really, i am.

Janet Jackson is in desperate need of some emancipation a la Mimi. Since her career peaked with 1993's janet. (selling 19 million copies worldwide), her album sales have been steadily declining. Some blame the superbowl incident for her downward spiral...but apparently things started to slide around the time of 1997's The Velvet Rope, which sold less than half what janet. sold-- 8 million worldwide. The 2001 follow-up, All For You, sold only a million less...and then the real disaster occurred with 2004's Damita Jo, selling only 3 million worldwide despite churning out two #1 single on the US Dance charts.

RANDOM INTERRUPTION: Did you know that Janet Jackson is HUGE in Japan? Over there she has 19 number one singles, which is 9 more than she has in the US. Japan is also the only place where two singles from Damita Jo managed to break into the Top 5 on the charts. In the US, the highest charting single from the album, "Just a Little While", only managed to reach the #45 spot. Damita Jo was the first album by Janet since 1984's Dream Street to not produce at least one number one single in the US.

So Janet is thirsty for success...especially after her boyfriend Jermaine Dupri has recently aided in skyrocketing rival Mariah Carey's career to a level it hasn't seen since 1997's Butterfly. Dupri, along with Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam, are among a long list of individuals called upon to perform much-needed surgery on Janet's career with the album 20 Years Old (named for the 2oth anniversary of 1996's Control and the age Janet claims to feel). The first man on our team of surgeons is Johnta Austin, the man who co-wrote Mary J. Blige's big comeback single "Be Without You" and the first four US singles released from The Emancipation of Mimi. Next we have LRoc, who co-wrote and co-produced Nelly's "Grillz" and Usher's "Yeah". The list doesn't end there-- Nelly, Khia, Kanye West, and a rumored duet with Ms. Mimi herself. All of this sounds like an equation for success, but can Janet deliver?

If the canned first single "Weekend" is any indication of things to come, the answer is a big fat (just like Janet a few months ago!) "NO". The song was streamed on Janet's official website on May 1, 2006. The next day, Janet left a message on her site to let fans know that the song is not the first single and will not even appear on the album. And it won't appear on the album for good reasons...it's atrocious. Seriously. It makes Damita Jo look like The Beatles' White Album. "Weekend" samples Debbie Deb's 1983 single "When I Hear Music", which still receives plays on dance music radio stations to this day. Unfortunately, Janet can't even save this trainwreck.

Janet's actual first single "Call On Me" f/ Nelly will be released to radio this coming Monday. It samples S.O.S.'s "Tell Me If You Still Care", a song obscure enough for it's target audience that it shouldn't cause too much of a problem. Word on the street is that starsareblind.com will have this song the moment it leaks. Hopefully, it will prove to the world that Janet can still be cool at her actual age...40 years old.

WATCH: A super-gay (literally) collection of clips from Brokeback Mountain set to Damita Jo's "Just a Little While". Because it's the only time you'll get to see Jake Gyllenhaal taking it from behind to the sounds of Janet Jackson...unless there's something you're not telling me.

DOWNLOAD: JANET JACKSON- Weekend
DOWNLOAD: DEBBIE DEB- When I Hear Music

PRE-ORDER 20 Years Old

BLOGWATCH: Shake your booty to DJ Mehdi's "I Am Somebody" f/ Chromeo over at bigstereo. Listen to some new songs by Zero 7 at Culturebully.

CORRECTION: The song in my first post called "F as in Knife" is NOT by The Knife...It is actually by another Swedish group called Zeigeist. The song is called "Tar Heart".