The musical heavyweight championship of the season takes place just two days from now when 50 Cent's album
Curtis
and Kanye West's
Graduation
go on sale.
50 is the heavy, the muscle-bound gangsta-turned-Vitamin-Water-sales-
man out to remind the world who rules the hip-hop hood. Kanye is the savvy strategist, decked out in Louis Vuitton, stylishly using his brains to outmaneuver his rival's brawn.
But the rappers better watch it. There's a third man in the ring, and he's got a cowboy hat on his head and a mai tai in his hand. He's Kenny Chesney, the country-pop superstar whose Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates also comes out Tuesday, and just might outsell both of his urban competitors.
No matter whose arm is raised in victory, the music industry hopes that it winds up the real winner, and that big-name releases serve as a bulwark against further losses in music sales, which are down 15 percent this year.
What follows is a selective list of CDs and shows worth getting excited about - a reminder that though music may not sell anymore, that doesn't stop people from making it. - Dan DeLuca, Inquirer music critic50 Cent, Curtis. Count on 50 Cent to be unrepentant when it comes to Curtis, the rapper's first album since Don Imus got in trouble for borrowing from his vocabulary. In "I Get Money," the first single, Fiddy boasts that he has so much dough there's no end to the child support he can pay: "Have a baby by me baby, be a millionaire / I'll write the check for a million before the baby comes, who the - cares?" He'll care plenty if Curtis doesn't live up to the mega-platinum sales of its predecessors, Get Rich Or Die Tryin' and The Massacre. (Tuesday)
Kanye West, Graduation. Kanye West has never been shy about sharing his belief that, musically, he's one of the chosen ones. "To whom much is given, much is tested," is how he puts it on "Can't Tell Me Nothing," the lead single from Graduation, which features contributions from T-Pain, Mos Def, and Coldplay's Chris Martin. On this, the third in his trilogy with The College Dropout and Late Registration, West looks to continue balancing the hip-hop and production skills that win him respect in the hood with the brazen conceptualism that wins him props on the pop charts. (Tuesday, and at the Wachovia Center Oct. 19)
Chamillionaire, Ultimate Victory. The commercial champion of the Houston hip-hop boom of 2005 not only scored a massive ringtone hit with his song about racial profiling, "Ridin' Dirty," he also is to credit (or blame) for the Weird Al Yankovic spoof "White & Nerdy." Ultimate Victory includes guest spots from Devin the Dude, Krayzie Bone and Lil Wayne (whose Tha Carter 3 is due Nov. 13) and is notable in part because the H-town MC has sworn off using swear words in the post-Imus hip-hop era. (Sept. 18)
KT Tunstall, Drastic Fantastic. KT Tunstall is all glammed up in go-go boots wielding a Flying V on the cover of Drastic Fantastic, as if determined to let us know she's a pop star and not some granola-crunching singer-songwriter. The music largely bears her out, but the Brit guitarist also quiets it down on folklike numbers that won't alienate fans of her platinum-selling 2005 debut Eye to the Telescope. (Sept. 18)
Nick Lowe The white-haired elder statesman of British pub-rock doesn't come around much anymore but when he does, he makes it count. The elegantly soulful At My Age - which, in Lowe's case, is 58 - mines American roots-music styles on a set of sly, warmhearted ballads laced with wisdom and grace. (Sept. 18, World Cafe Live)
Bobby Zankel & the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound Philadelphia alto sax man Bobby Zankel marks the 40th anniversary of John Coltrane's death in '67 with Zankel's four-part suite A Force For Good. The 13-member WoWS lineup will be joined at this premiere by Odean Pope and Maugawane Mahoele, performing at the last Philadelphia venue where Coltrane played before he died. (Sept. 23, Church of the Advocate)
Steve Earle, Washington Square Serenade. Roots-rock troubadour Steve Earle now makes his home in Greenwich Village, and the Woody Guthrie-ish Washington Square Serenade is his New York City album. He revisits his demons on "Oxycontin Blues," and covers Tom Waits' "Down in the Hole" - the theme song for the next season of HBO's The Wire, in which Earle has a featured role. (Sept. 25)
Bettye LaVette, The Scene of the Crime. They seem an odd couple, the reborn 61-year-old soul/R&B singer Bettye LaVette, last heard from on 2005's divine I've Got My Own Hell to Raise, and the whiskey-drinking bar band the Drive-By Truckers. But the Truckers hail from the Southern soul-music capital of Muscle Shoals, Ala., where LaVette recorded her 1972 gem Child of the Seventies, and lately they've been hanging with musicians who've worked on classics by Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin. So this album sounds more like a purposeful marriage, with the Truckers aiding LaVette as she heads back South to take care of unfinished business. (Sept. 25, and at the Sellersville Theater Nov. 1)
Joni Mitchell/Herbie Hancock The Canadian archetypal singer-songwriter will release the gentle, not-too-jazzy Shine, which (regrettably) contains an updated "Big Yellow Taxi (2007)," on Starbucks' Hear Music label. The same day, Herbie Hancock, who worked with Mitchell on her 1979 Mingus album, comes with River: The Joni Letters, a tribute album with Wayne Shorter and Dave Holland, as well as singer Norah Jones and Corinne Bailey Rae. (Sept. 25)
Jill Scott, The Real Thing. If "Hate On Me," the fired-up and throwin'-down single is any indication, Jilly from Philly is back with a vengeance on The Real Thing: Worlds and Sounds, Vol. 3. Hollywood has caught on to Scott's flair for the dramatic: She plays Big Mama Thornton in Hounddog and appears in two other forthcoming films. (Sept. 25)
The Three Tenors of Soul, All the Way From Philadelphia. Russell Tompkins Jr. of the Stylistics, William "Poogie" Hart of the Delfonics, and Ted "Wizard" Mills of Blue Magic team up like old-school R&B Pavarottis on this disc, produced by TSOP vet Bobby Eli. (Sept. 25)
Common The Chicago rapper born Lonnie Lynn has come on strong with two excellent albums produced by Kanye West, most recently this year's Finding Forever. Hopefully, Philadelphia love man Bilal, who guests on Forever's "Black Maybe," will pop in; if not, Common has more than enough smooth rhyming and calmly intelligent songs to get by on his own. (Sept. 25, Electric Factory)
Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez The costars of the Hector LaVoe biopic El Cantante start off their first tour together in Atlantic City. In fact, it's the first tour ever for Lopez, who has a new English-language album, Brave, due on Oct. 9, on the heels of last year's all-Spanish Como Ama una Mujer. (Sept. 29, Trump Taj Mahal)
Tartit All the way from Timbuktu, this Malian desert nomad ensemble is made up of four men (who wear veils) and five women (who don't). On last year's Abacabok, they conjure hypnotic trance music from tinde drums, handclaps, three-string lutes, and electric guitars that echo the blues. (Sept. 30, World Cafe Live)
Van Halen Diamond Dave is back, and Eddie Van Halen is all dried out. The Van Halen reunion tour had been announced earlier this year but Eddie went into rehab. Now it's back. Original bassist Michael Anthony will be replaced by Eddie's 16-year-old son Wolfgang, and David Lee Roth is back hamming it up in a role he's more suited for than morning-radio shock jock. As fall reunions go, I'll take this over Phil Collins' Genesis any day. (Oct. 1 and 3, Wachovia Center)
Bruce Springsteen, Magic. With four studio albums this decade, this is the busiest the Boss has been since his 1980s commercial peak. And Magic is the one fans have been waiting for - it marks a reunion with the E Street Band. Early word is it's a rocked-out, guitar-driven affair. With Clarence "Big Man" Clemons now 65, speculation among the faithful is that this E Street tour could be the last. (Oct. 2, and at the Wachovia Center Oct. 5)
Elizabeth Cook Somewhat overshadowed by Miranda Lambert in the tough-as-nails country-bombshell sweepstakes of 2007 is Elizabeth Cook. Her Rodney Crowell-produced album Balls - short for "Sometimes It Takes Balls to Be a Woman," a tribute to Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn, among others - is a tart-and-twangy treasure. (Oct. 4, Sellersville Theater)
Loudon Wainwright III "Us boomers have been busted, man we're over the hill," sings 61-year-old folkie Loudon Wainwright III on his new album, Strange Weirdos: Music From and Inspired by the Film Knocked Up. In Wainwright's case, nothing could be further from the truth. Though his one pop hit, "Dead Skunk," is older than his son, Rufus, his songs remain as astute, unflinching and hilarious as ever. (Oct. 5, Sellersville Theater, and Dec. 1, Appel Farm)
Eve, Here I Am. Philadelphia rapper Eve Jihan Jeffers comes with her fourth album, looking to get back on the good foot after her UPN sitcom was canceled and she crashed her Maserati on Hollywood Boulevard this spring. (Don't you hate when that happens?) If "Tambourine," the album's first Swizz Beatz-produced single, is any indication, she'll be back in business. (Oct. 16, and Oct. 18 at World Cafe Live)
Spoon These deserving indie heroes from Austin, Texas (though leader Britt Daniel recently relocated to Portland, Ore.), are that rare, steadily improving rock band. Their less-is-more aesthetic and Daniel's John Lennon-ish vocals have made Spoon records ever-more rewarding. (Oct. 19, Electric Factory)
Justice The kickiest Euro dance-music duo of the moment are undoubtedly Justice, whose "D.A.N.C.E." is up against Beyoncé, Kanye and Justin, and their ilk in tonight's MTV Video Music Awards. On Cross, Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé expertly splice together techno, R&B, dancehall and whatever else works into a hyperkinetic aerobic exercise. (Oct. 21, Starlight Ballroom)
Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride. It came out in 2005 but so far, Some Hearts, the debut by American Idol winner Carrie Underwood, is the biggest-selling country album of 2007. A large part of that comes from the success of "Before He Cheats," the vengeful vixen song that crossed over to the pop charts. Hopefully, that's a harbinger of a toughened-up sound for the follow-up. (Oct. 23)
Robert Plant/Alison Krauss, Raising Sand. "The idea was to take them both out of their comfort zone," producer T-Bone Burnett said of this startling collaboration between the Led Zep screamer and the dulcet-voiced bluegrass fiddler. Spooky songs like "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us" stir blues, country and gospel into a luminous blend. Here's hoping they'll tour. (Oct. 23)
Alicia Keys, As I Am. The third album by the apple of Bob Dylan's eye features Alicia Keys collaborating with Pink's song-helper Linda Perry and guitarist John Mayer. Expect the piano-playing R&B/soul woman and Nanny Diaries actress to move in more of a funk-rock direction, as she does on the single "No One." (Nov. 6) Pop trivia
Most surprising supergroup? Alicia Keys, Eve and Kenny Chesney. Not really, but the singer, rapper and country star have sound-alike album titles that tell us what unique individuals they are: Eve's Here I Am, Key's As I Am, and Chesney's Poets & Pirates: Just Who I Am.
Missing in action: Gnarls Barkley, Radiohead, Guns N' Roses. Three of the biggest albums of '07 aren't coming until '08. Gnarls' new CD, touted on Billboard's fall-music cover, was pushed back till February. Radiohead's latest music, sampled at the Tower Theater in June '06, is off till next year. And GNR's "Chinese Democracy," their first since George H.W. Bush was president, has no release date.
What are those bearded white guys doing to Kanye West's song? Making it spread like wildfire on the Web. West may have his own video for "Can't Tell Me Nothin'," but the spoof by Zach Galifiakis/Will Oldham as tractor-riding farmhands is more memorable. On www.kanyewest.com
For a list of additional music events, go to http://go.philly.
com/fallarts07EndText