Lil Wayne‘s latest single off his Tha Carter IV album featuring Drake, “She Will“, has debuted at #3 on Billboard‘s Hot 100! This is Weezy‘s highest-ever opening rank on the chart, and it also marks Wayne‘s top 10 Hot 100 debut, pushing him past other male artists such as: Eminem and Kanye West. “She Will” is the fourth entry on the Hot 100 chart from Tune‘s C4 album too, as “6 Foot, 7 Foot” featuring Cory Gunz reached #9, “John” featuring Rick Ross reached #22, and “How To Love” reached #5.
Hit the jump to read who CMB are about to sign next to their label, and what Cortez Bryant (Wayne’s manager) and Birdman said to Rolling Stone on August 24h about how they have stopped Tunechi‘s Tha Carter IV album leaking so early like Tha Carter III did back in 2008.
“I think we’re lucky this time.” Bryant said of Wayne’s ninth album, which was officially set to premiere on iTunes at midnight on August 29th after his closing performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, and everywhere else that same day. “We held it until the last moment we could, and we didn’t send any songs or beats by e-mail – we used iChat, or a person had to get on a plane to share music…I’m knocking on wood before I get off the phone with you and it’s all over the Internet.”
Hours later, Tha Carter IV leaked. As fans sucked up bandwidth to download it, others wondered exactly what artists have to do to keep a hot album under wraps: Hotel studio sessions? Pelican briefcases? Biometric fingerprint detectors?
Wayne is no stranger to controversial rollouts: I Am Not a Human Being, released while the MC was still in prison, was a digital-only album for two weeks before CDs were let loose. Bryan “Birdman” Williams, CEO of Cash Money Records, says Wayne went the equal-opportunity route this time because those tactics “just piss everybody off. This is one of the biggest releases of the year, and we wanted to make sure that everybody got to play their part at the same time.”
Cash Money delivered Carter IV to Universal about 10 days in advance, which Williams says was necessary to press the two million units being shipped in its first week. “The goal is to sell a million-plus copies,” he explains. Although that’s likely what led to Carter IV breaking free, Williams says he’s actually OK with leaks, to a point. “I can deal with it for short period of time,” he says. It’s when you have a leak out for a long time that it’s crazy.”
In Cash Money news, the label are about to sign an internationally known pop group, who go by the name of Savvy:
Cash Money Records will expand the roster next week when they officially welcome the first pop group to their label. Internationally known pop band Savvy has inked a deal with Cash Money Records.
Savvy, the label’s latest acquisition, is an internationally known six–member teen band that’s featured in the international TV show “The Wannabes,” which will premiere in North America on September 5th on Starz Kids & Family. The group will be introduced to North America via their upcoming debut album for Cash Money Records.
This Monday (August 29th), Cash Money’s CEO’s, Bryan “Birdman” Williams and his brother, Co-CEO Ronald “Slim” Williams, will be on hand to welcome the group to Cash Money Records. The brothers will preside over a swanky event at 11:00 AM at The Montage Hotel, which is located in Beverly Hills. – AHH
