Thursday, March 16, 2006

Juvenile Debuts At #1 On Billboard's Top 200

New Orleans rapper Juvenile achieved his first No. 1 album this week, with Reality Check debuting atop the Billboard 200 album chart.
The album, which sold more than 174,000 copies in its initial week of release, also took the top spot on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop albums chart.
Reality Check features the single "Rodeo," as well as collaborations with
Fat Joe, Ludacris, Bun B, Paul Wall and Mike Jones, among others.
Songs on the New Orleans resident's album accused President Bush of failing to act before and after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city. The rapper lost his property and possessions in the late 2004 disaster.
A scandal erupted in Feb. 2005, after the Associated Press unearthed a videotape emerged swing Bush's top advisors warning him the levees could be topped.
"The levee was breached, but not by water," Juvenile told AllHipHop.com in a recent interview. "It was breached by military, by military firearms..the water was backing up in the wrong areas: the tourist areas. And they knew it, and it was backing up in areas where some strong people was politically. Now you got [wealthy real estate barons] down there, buying up all the property - now it’s a big business venture. If you didn’t pay your taxes on your property - and half of the people weren’t able to pay taxes, you know - a lot of people lost their money for real."
The album is Juvenile's seventh and his first on Atlantic. The rapper signed with Atlantic in 2004 after a falling out with his longtime label Cash Money.
Juvenile's previous chart peak was 2001's Project English, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart.