1.
Mary J. Blige
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Mary Jane Blige is an American singer, songwriter, model, record producer and actress. My Life, in particular, is considered among the greatest albums ever recorded according to Rolling Stone, Time, for her part in combining hip hop and soul in the early 1990s and its subsequent commercial success, Blige received the Legends Award at the World Music Awards. Blige made Time magazines Time 100 list of individuals around the world in 2007. As of 2013, Blige has sold more than 50 million albums and 25 million singles worldwide, Billboard ranked Blige as the most successful female R&B artist of the past 25 years. The magazine also lists her 2006 song Be Without You as the top R&B song of the 2000s, in 2011, VH1 ranked Blige as the 80th greatest artist of all time. Moreover, she is ranked number 100 on the list of 100 greatest singers of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, in 2012, VH1 ranked Blige at number 9 in The 100 Greatest Women in Music. Blige also earned high remarks for her work in film and she starred in the 2009 Tyler Perry box-office hit I Can Do Bad All By Myself and played a role in the film Rock of Ages. She received a Golden Globe Award nomination for her contribution to the film The Help. In partnership with the Home Shopping Network and Carols Daughter, Blige released her My Life perfume, the perfume broke HSN records by selling 65,000 bottles during its premiere. The scent went on to win two FiFi Awards, including the Fragrance Sales Breakthrough award, in 2017, she stars in the period drama film Mudbound directed by Dee Rees. Blige spent her years in Richmond Hill, Georgia, where she sang in a Pentecostal church. Blige later moved to Schlobohm Houses in Yonkers, New York, immediately north of New York City, Blige dropped out of high school in her junior year. Pursuing a musical career, Blige spent a period of time in a Yonkers band named Pride with band drummer Eddie DAprile. In early 1988, she recorded a cover of Anita Bakers Caught Up in the Rapture at a recording booth in the Galleria Mall in White Plains. Her mothers boyfriend at the later played the cassette for Jeff Redd. Redd sent it to the president and CEO of the label, Harrell met with Blige and in 1989 she was signed to the label, becoming the companys youngest and first female artist. After being signed to Uptown Records, Blige began working with record producer Puff Daddy and he became the executive producer and produced a majority of the album. Derived from Bliges past occupation as a 4-1-1 operator, it was also an indication by Blige of being the real deal, the music was described as revelatory on a frequent basis
2.
Eve (rapper)
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Eve Jihan Jeffers-Cooper is an American rapper and actress from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is also the winner of the Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration in 2002, for the song Let Me Blow Ya Mind. Eve was number 48 on VH1s 50 Greatest Women of the Video Era list and she has also achieved success in fashion, with her clothing line, Fetish. Eve was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Julie Wilch, a publishing company supervisor, and Jerry Jeffers, a chemical plant supervisor. She adopted the name Gangsta in high school as part of a group called EDGP During her early years in Philadelphia. Eves first musical interest was singing and she sang in many choirs and even formed an all-female singing group with a manager. This group covered songs from En Vogue and Color Me Badd, the groups manager suggested that the group should rap after seeing ABC, and Eve stuck with it. She then went on to form a rapping group, after the group split, Eve began working on a solo career under the name Eve of Destruction. Eve has lived in Los Angeles, New York City, in 1999, she was featured on Princes album Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic, and she was to co-star on the eventually cancelled Hot Wit U single from that same album. Eve is featured on the song You Got Me by The Roots, the song won a Grammy Award in 2000, which should have been Eves first. She stated on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in 2009 that she did not receive a Grammy for the track, questlove, from The Roots, had brought his Grammy to the show that night and showed shes not even credited on the award plaque. She also provided vocals on the song Aint Sayin Nothin New from the same album. In the albums notes, she is referred to as Eve of Destruction. Eve first appeared on the Bulworth soundtrack as Eve of Destruction while signed to Dr. Dres Aftermath Entertainment, Billboard Hot 100 peaking at 29. Her 1999 debut, Let There Be Eve, two singles were released from the album, Gotta Man and Love Is Blind featuring Faith Evans. The first one peaked at number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100, in November 1999, Eve featured on Missy Elliotts single Hot Boyz along with Nas, Lil Mo and Q-Tip. The song became a hit, spending 18 weeks at one on the Hot Rap Singles from November 16,1999 to March 7,2000. The follow-up to Ruff Ryders First Lady, Scorpion, was released in 2001 and its first single, Whos That Girl guaranteed the rapper first international success
3.
Contemporary R&B
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Contemporary R&B, also known as simply R&B, is a music genre that combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, funk, pop, hip hop and dance. The genre features a record production style, drum machine-backed rhythms, an occasional saxophone-laced beat to give a jazz feel. Electronic influences are becoming a trend and the use of hip hop or dance-inspired beats are typical, although the roughness. Contemporary R&B vocalists are often known for their use of melisma, popularized by such as Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Craig David, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston. That same year, Teddy Riley began producing R&B recordings that included hip hop influences and this combination of R&B style and hip hop rhythms was termed new jack swing and was applied to artists such as Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat, Al B. Guy, Jodeci and Bell Biv DeVoe, the style became less popular by the end of the 1990s, but later experienced a resurgence. In 1990 Mariah Carey released Vision of Love as her debut single and it was immensely popular peaking at number 1 in many worldwide charts including the Billboard Hot 100, and it propelled Mariahs carrier. The song is said to have popularized the use of melisma. During the mid-1990s, Whitney Houstons The Bodyguard, Original Soundtrack Album sold over 40 million copies becoming the best-selling soundtrack of all time. Janet Jacksons self-titled fifth studio album janet. which came after her historic multimillion-dollar contract with Virgin Records, sold over twenty million copies worldwide. Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey recorded several Billboard Hot 100 No.1 hits, including One Sweet Day, Carey also released a remix of her 1995 single Fantasy, with Ol Dirty Bastard as a feature, a collaboration format that was unheard of at this point. Carey, Boyz II Men and TLC released albums in 1994 and 1995—Daydream, II and CrazySexyCool. In the late 1990s, neo soul, which added 1970s soul influences to the hip hop soul blend, arose, led by such as DAngelo, Erykah Badu. Hill and Missy Elliott further blurred the line between R&B and hip hop by recording both styles, beginning in 1995, the Grammy Awards enacted the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, with II by Boyz II Men becoming the first recipient. The award was received by TLC for CrazySexyCool in 1996, Tony Rich for Words in 1997, Erykah Badu for Baduizm in 1998. At the end of 1999, Billboard magazine ranked Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson as the first, simultaneously, in the second half of the 1990s, The Neptunes and Timbaland set influential precedence on contemporary R&B and hip hop music. R&B acts such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Usher, in 2001, Alicia Keys released Fallin as her debut single. It peaking at one on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Top 40
4.
Hip hop music
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It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements, MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling beats or bass lines from records, while often used to refer solely to rapping, hip hop more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. Hip hops early evolution occurred as sampling technology and drum machines became available and affordable. Turntablist techniques such as scratching and beatmatching developed along with the breaks and Jamaican toasting, rapping developed as a vocal style in which the artist speaks or chants along rhythmically with an instrumental or synthesized beat. The Sugarhill Gangs 1979 song Rappers Delight is widely regarded to be the first hip hop record to gain popularity in the mainstream. The 1980s marked the diversification of hip hop as the genre developed more complex styles, prior to the 1980s, hip hop music was largely confined within the United States. However, during the 1980s, it began to spread to scenes in dozens of countries. New school hip hop was the wave of hip hop music, originating in 1983–84 with the early records of Run-D. M. C. The Golden age hip hop period was a period between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s. Notable artists from this era include the Juice Crew, Public Enemy, & Rakim, Boogie Down Productions and KRS-One, EPMD, Slick Rick, Beastie Boys, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Ultramagnetic MCs, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest. Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip hop that often focuses on the violent lifestyles, in the West Coast hip hop style, G-funk dominated mainstream hip hop for several years during the 1990s. I. G. In the 1990s, hip hop began to diversify with other regional styles emerging, such as Southern rap, at the same time, hip hop continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular music, examples being Neo soul and nu metal. Hip hop became a pop music genre in the mid-1990s. The popularity of hip hop music continued through the 2000s, with hip hop influences also increasingly finding their way into mainstream pop, the United States also saw the success of regional styles such as crunk, a Southern genre that emphasized the beats and music more than the lyrics. Starting in 2005, sales of hip hop music in the United States began to severely wane, during the mid-2000s, alternative hip hop secured a place in the mainstream, due in part to the crossover success of artists such as OutKast and Kanye West. Creation of the hip hop is often credited to Keith Cowboy, rapper with Grandmaster Flash. However, Lovebug Starski, Keith Cowboy, and DJ Hollywood used the term when the music was known as disco rap. Cowboy later worked the hip hop cadence into a part of his stage performance, the first use of the term in print was in The Village Voice, by Steven Hager, later author of a 1984 history of hip hop
5.
Dr. Dre
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Andre Romelle Young, better known by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, Dre was previously the co-owner of, and an artist on, Death Row Records. He has produced albums for and overseen the careers of many rappers, including 2Pac, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Xzibit, Knoc-turnal,50 Cent, The Game and Kendrick Lamar. He is credited as a key figure in the popularization of West Coast G-funk, in 1996, he left Death Row Records to establish his own label, Aftermath Entertainment. He produced an album titled Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath in 1996. During the 2000s, he focused on production for other artists, Dr. Dre signed Eminem in 1998 and 50 Cent in 2002 to his record label respectively, while contributing production on their albums. He has won six Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year, Dr. Dre has also had acting roles in movies such as Set It Off, The Wash and Training Day. Rolling Stone ranked Dre at 56 on their list of 100 Greatest Artists of All-Time, Young was born in Compton, California, the first child of Theodore and Verna Young. His middle name, Romelle, is derived from his fathers amateur R&B singing group and his parents married in 1964, separated in 1968, and divorced in 1972. His mother later remarried and had three children, sons Jerome and Tyree and daughter Shameka, in 1976, Young began attending Vanguard Junior High School in Compton, but due to gang violence, he transferred to the safer suburban Roosevelt Junior High School. Young is the cousin of producer Sir Jinx and he attended Centennial High School in Compton during his freshman year in 1979, but transferred to Fremont High School in South Central Los Angeles due to poor grades. Young attempted to enroll in a program at Northrop Aviation Company. Thereafter, he focused on his life and entertainment for the remainder of his high school years. Young fathered a son with Cassandra Joy Greene named Curtis, Curtis was brought up by his mother and first met his father 20 years later, when Curtis became rapper Hood Surgeon. Inspired by the Grandmaster Flash song The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel, he attended a club called Eve After Dark to watch many DJs. He subsequently became a DJ in the club, initially under the name Dr. J, based on the nickname of Julius Erving, at the club, he met aspiring rapper Antoine Carraby, later to become member DJ Yella of N. W. A. Soon afterwards he adopted the moniker Dr. Dre, a mix of previous alias Dr. J and his first name, Eve After Dark had a back room with a small four-track studio. In this studio, Dre and Yella recorded several demos, in their first recording session, they recorded a song entitled Surgery, with the lyrics calling Dr. Dre to surgery serving as the chorus to the song
6.
G-Unit
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G-Unit is an American hip hop group originating from South Jamaica, Queens, New York, formed by longtime friends and East Coast rappers 50 Cent, Tony Yayo and Lloyd Banks. The group released their debut album Beg for Mercy, in 2003, in 2008, the group released their second album T·O·S. During Tony Yayos imprisonment, the group recruited Tennessee-based rapper Young Buck, in late 2004, The Game was also added to the group, a proposition made by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, to promote the Aftermath/Interscope newcomer. However, due to The Games disloyalty in the eyes of 50 Cent, in April 2008,50 Cent revealed Young Buck was no longer a part of the group due to his excessive spending and inconsistent behavior. G-Unit Records rapper Kidd Kidd, was added to the group upon its reformation. In 2017. The groups founding members,50 Cent, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo all grew up in the same neighborhood rapping together,50 Cent signed to Interscope Records. Due to the success of his debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin. This was when G-Unit Records was created, the group continued to work hard and released several mixtape series which earned them a lot of attention in the rap industry. The most prominent of these being 50 Cent Is the Future, Gods Plan, No Mercy, No Fear, G-Unit has also started a mixtape series with their DJ, DJ Whoo Kid, called G-Unit Radio. G-Unit gained more popularity when a remix to 50 Cents P. I. M. P. was released, featuring Snoop Dogg and G-Unit. But before the group had a chance to record its debut album, during Tony Yayos prison sentence,50 Cent signed Tennessee-based rapper Young Buck to G-Unit Records and subsequently added him to the group. In 2003, the debut album Beg for Mercy, was released. However, while the album was being recorded, Tony Yayo was sentenced to jail on charges of gun possession, therefore, he only makes two appearances, both were pre-recorded tracks. His face is seen on the wall of the album cover because he could not be photographed on account of his jail sentence. Beg for Mercy went on to sell 2.3 million copies in the US and 4 million copies worldwide, the only guest appearances on the album were R&B singers Joe and Butch Cassidy. The albums production was handled by producers such as Hi-Tek, Dr. Dre and Scott Storch. 50 Cent also served as the executive producer. West Coast rapper The Game was originally placed into G-Unit by Dr. Dre and their plan was to market The Game as a devotee, or a card-carrying member of 50 Cents camp
7.
Mainstream Top 40
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Mainstream Top 40 is a 40-song music chart published weekly by Billboard Magazine which ranks the most popular songs being played on a panel of Top 40 radio stations in the United States. The rankings are based on radio airplay detections as measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, arbitron refers to the format as contemporary hit radio. The chart debuted in Billboard Magazine in its issued date October 3,1992, both Top 40 charts measured actual monitored airplay from data compiled by Broadcast Data Systems. Both charts were born of then-new BDS electronic monitoring technology as a more objective and this data was also used as the airplay component for Hot 100 tabulations. They returned to the print edition in the August 2,2003, songs on the chart are ranked by the total number of spins detected per week. Songs which gain plays or remain flat from the week will receive a bullet. A song will also receive a bullet if its loss in plays does not exceed the percentage of monitored station downtime for the format. If two songs are tied in total plays, the song with the increase in plays is placed first. Since the introduction of the chart until 2005, songs below No.20 were moved to recurrent after 26 weeks on the chart, in the chart week of December 3,2005, songs below No.20 were moved to recurrent after 20 weeks on the chart. Since the issue dated December 4,2010, songs older than 20 weeks on the chart are moved to recurrent after they drop below No.15 and this chart was often mistaken for and confused with the now discontinued Pop 100 Airplay chart. 12, Mariah Carey - Dreamlover, Taylor Swift - Shake It Off No,13, Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar - Bad Blood No. 14, Lady Gaga - Born This Way, Justin Timberlake featuring Jay-Z - Suit & Tie No,16, Madonna - Frozen, Britney Spears - Hold It Against Me No. I. The panel is regularly updated, with stations being added or removed sometimes even weekly, as of 2011, Britney Spears holds the record for the longest span between No. 1s at 12 years, seven months and four days between her first No.1 and her latest, katy Perrys Teenage Dream is the first and only album to have 6 singles top the chart. JoJo at age 13, became the youngest solo artist to have a single on the chart with Leave. Three acts have replaced themselves at No,1, Mariah Carey, OutKast and Iggy Azalea - with Azalea being the only one to do so with her first two chart entries. com BDS Top 40/CHR chart
8.
Record producer
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A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu
9.
Single (music)
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In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record, an album or an EP record. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats, in most cases, a single is a song that is released separately from an album, although it usually also appears on an album. Typically, these are the songs from albums that are released separately for promotional uses such as digital download or commercial radio airplay and are expected to be the most popular, in other cases a recording released as a single may not appear on an album. As digital downloading and audio streaming have become prevalent, it is often possible for every track on an album to also be available separately. Nevertheless, the concept of a single for an album has been retained as an identification of a heavily promoted or more popular song within an album collection. Despite being referred to as a single, singles can include up to as many as three tracks on them. The biggest digital music distributor, iTunes, accepts as many as three tracks less than ten minutes each as a single, as well as popular music player Spotify also following in this trend. Any more than three tracks on a release or longer than thirty minutes in total running time is either an Extended Play or if over six tracks long. The basic specifications of the single were made in the late 19th century. Gramophone discs were manufactured with a range of speeds and in several sizes. By about 1910, however, the 10-inch,78 rpm shellac disc had become the most commonly used format, the inherent technical limitations of the gramophone disc defined the standard format for commercial recordings in the early 20th century.26 rpm. With these factors applied to the 10-inch format, songwriters and performers increasingly tailored their output to fit the new medium, the breakthrough came with Bob Dylans Like a Rolling Stone. Singles have been issued in various formats, including 7-inch, 10-inch, other, less common, formats include singles on digital compact cassette, DVD, and LD, as well as many non-standard sizes of vinyl disc. Some artist release singles on records, a more common in musical subcultures. The most common form of the single is the 45 or 7-inch. The names are derived from its speed,45 rpm. The 7-inch 45 rpm record was released 31 March 1949 by RCA Victor as a smaller, more durable, the first 45 rpm records were monaural, with recordings on both sides of the disc. As stereo recordings became popular in the 1960s, almost all 45 rpm records were produced in stereo by the early 1970s
10.
Rich Girl (Gwen Stefani song)
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Rich Girl is a song by American singer and songwriter Gwen Stefani from her debut solo studio album, Love. Produced by Dr. Stefani says the song discusses her dreams of fame, the last song to be included on the album, Rich Girl was released as the albums second single in late 2004 to mixed reviews from music critics. It was a success, reaching the top 10 on most of the charts it entered. In the United States, Rich Girl was certified gold, Stefani and Eve had previously collaborated on the 2001 single Let Me Blow Ya Mind. When Stefani first began recording material, Eve expressed interest in working with Stefani again, saying, Shes fly, shes tight. Its going to be hot regardless, the two decided to work together again after talking in Stefanis laundry room during a party. After Stefani had co-written more than 20 songs for her debut, she approached Dr. Dre. Dre had produced Let Me Blow Ya Mind as well as Wicked Day, after playing some of the songs on which she had been working, Dr. Dre told her, You dont want to go back there. Stefani and Eve helped each other with their parts, but when they presented Dr. Dre with the demo, he told them to rewrite the song, suggesting that Stefani play a character in the song. Since she had not seen the musical since she was a child, Stefani went to Broadway to better understand the theme that even if youre poor and you have love, the idea which became the final version came to Stefani while brainstorming on her treadmill. She commented that the troubles in writing the song came because Dre was really pushing me to write in a new way, Rich Girl is a reggae song composed in the key of C minor. It is written in time and moves at a moderate 100 beats per minute. The beat is accompanied by a perfect fifth dyad and an accented piano trichord. The song is written in form, and its instrumentation includes the electronic keyboard, guitar. Stefanis voice ranges from G3 to E5, the introduction consists of the repeated use of the word na. Stefani reaches her highest note of the song, E5, as part of a trichord and her lowest, G3, after the first chorus, Stefani discusses dreams of wealth and luxury, and she namechecks fashion designers Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano. Stefani commented that the references were not product placement but that she included them because I think theyre rad, id give all my money to and buy all her clothes. A bridge, in which Stefanis voice is overdubbed, precedes the second chorus, during the second verse Stefani discusses her Harajuku Girls, and she then repeats the bridge
11.
Love & Life (Mary J. Blige album)
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Love & Life is the sixth studio album by American R&B recording artist Mary J. Blige. It was released by Geffen Records on August 26,2003, in the United Kingdom, the album marked Bliges debut on the Geffen label, following the absorption of her former record company MCA Records. Commercially, it became her second album to debut at the top of the US Billboard 200 chart with 285,298 copies album-equivalent units, though less successful than its predecessor No More Drama, the album was eventually certified platinum by the RIAA. Internationally, it entered the top ten in Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Love & Life also received numerous accolades, earning Blige her first nomination for Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 46th Grammy ceremony. In support of the album, five singles from the album were released, not Today featuring rapper Eve, Whenever I Say Your Name, a duet with singer Sting, and final single Its a Wrap were less successful. In April and May 2004, Blige promoted Love & Life in her Love & Life concert tour, citing creative differences, Blige and Combs parted ways after the release of her multi-platinum second album My Life. The pair reconnected in 2001, when Combs was consulted to produce a remix for Bliges single No More Drama from her album of the same name, Combs declared Love & Life a continuation of My Life. Love & Life received generally positive reviews from critics, at Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 72, based on 10 reviews. Michael Paoletta from Billboard found the album spirited, if uneven, and noted that it was home to funky sensations, hip-hop attitude, vibe editor Dimitri Ehrlich wrote that on Bliges sixth studio album, its the songs of sadness and anger that work best. In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau argued that the selling point is a reborn P. Diddy overseeing a catchy set husbanded by many co-producers. It peaks in the middle, and. ends stronger than No More Drama, Mary sounds older yet still girlish, rounder and smoother and pitch-improved but praise Shirley Brown not perfect yet. Despite her signature heartache-inducing voice, Blige could not save Love & Life from her songwriting, Drumming wrote, finding the lyrics soggy with relationships. Jonah Weiner of Blender commented that every song sounds as though weve heard it before – because, well. Q panned the record as mostly a procession of syrupy ballads with added self-help litanies, in the United States, Love & Life debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart, selling 285,298 copies in first week. It became Bliges second number-one album on the chart, following 1997s Share My World, the album also opened at the top spot on Billboards R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, marking Bliges sixth consecutive album to top the latter chart. All of Bliges three most recent releases each sold between 240,000 and 294,000 copies in the weeks they debuted, in October 2003, Love & Life was eventually certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for the shipping of one million copies. At 994,000 sold units, however, it was ranked as Bliges lowest-selling studio release at that time – until the release of her album Stronger with Each Tear in 2009. In the United Kingdom, Love & Life became Bliges fourth consecutive album to reach the top ten of the UK Albums Chart, in November 2003, it was certified silver by British Phonographic Industry, indicating sales of more than 60,000 units
12.
12-inch single
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The 12-inch single is a type of gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time compared to typical LPs. This allows for levels to be cut on the disc by the cutting engineer, which in turn gives a wider dynamic range. This record type is used in disco and dance music genres. They are played at either 33 1⁄3 or 45 rpm, 12-inch singles typically have much shorter playing time than full-length LPs, thus require fewer grooves per inch. This extra space permits a broader dynamic range or louder recording level as the grooves excursions can be greater in amplitude. Many record companies began producing 12-inch singles at 33 1⁄3 rpm, although 45 rpm gives better treble response and was used on many 12-inch singles, the gramophone records cut especially for dance-floor DJs came into existence with the advent of recorded Jamaican mento music in the 1950s. With the 1967 Jamaican invention of remix, called dub on the island, those specials became valuable items sold to allied sound system DJs, who could draw crowds with their exclusive hits. The popularity of sound engineer King Tubby, who singlehandedly invented and perfected dub remixes from as early as 1967. By then 10-inch records were used to cut those dubs, by 1971, most reggae singles issued in Jamaica included on their B-side a dub remix of the A-side, many of them first tested as exclusive dub plates on dances. Those dubs basically included drum and bass-oriented remixes used by sound system selecters, the 10-inch acetate specials would remain popular until at least the 2000s in Jamaica. Most likely, the use of exclusive dub acetates in Jamaica also led American DJs to do the same. In the United States, the 12-inch single gramophone record came into popularity with the advent of music in the 1970s after earlier market experiments. In early 1970, Cycle/Ampex Records test-marketed a 12-inch single by Buddy Fite, the experiment aimed to energize the struggling singles market, offering a new option for consumers who had stopped buying traditional singles. The record was pressed at 33 rpm, with run times to the 7-inch 45-rpm pressing of the single. Several hundred copies were available for sale for 98 cents each at two Tower Records stores. Another early 12-inch single was released in 1973 by soul/R&B musician/songwriter/producer Jerry Williams, 12-inch promotional copies of Straight From My Heart were released on his own Swamp Dogg Presents label, with distribution by Jamie/Guyden Distribution Corporation. It was manufactured by Jamie Record Co. of Philadelphia, PA, the B-side of the record is blank. The first 12-inch single made specifically for DJs was actually a 10-inch acetate used by a mix engineer in need of a Friday-night test copy for famed disco mixer Tom Moulton, the song was Ill be holding on by Al Downing
