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GLOBAL SALES BY YEAR
TOP SELLING BLACK ALBUMS
1976 - 2006

Data Source:  https://bestsellingalbums.org/

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  • Shout out to my man Peter Tosh who also sold a million copies of his debut "Legalize It".  

  • Heatwave only had one white member, but what a member he was.  I'm talking about songwriter extraordinaire Rod Temperton who wrote all of Heatwave's biggest hits plus a ton for Michael Jackson, Brothers Johnson, George Benson and many, many more.

  • "Songs in the Key of Life" is certified 10X platinum because it contains 2 discs (2.5 disc, really).

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  • Without a Stevie album to keep things afloat, Black album sales sunk from 1976 to 1977.  Earth, Wind & Fire did their part, but otherwise, sales were pretty flat.

  • Sooooooo happy to see my girls the Emotions making the list, purely for having a name that comes early on in the alphabet. Thank god they didn’t name themselves the the Yo-Yos or the Zookeepers or they wouldn't have made it onto the list.

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  • Sales for the top 10 black artist crept up thanks to the disco explosion; with the exception of Bob Marley and George Benson, all of the artists had disco songs riding high on the charts in the U.S. and around the world.

  • I was surprised at what big sellers the Village People were back in their day.  Did the moms from Des Moines realize that the "YMCA" these guys were referring to was not a place to get ahead but rather to get some head?

  • Black music sales still lagged behind their white counterparts in the most un-delightful way. Comparison:  album sales for all top 10 Black artists combined stand at 18.5 million.  Steve Miller's "Greatest Hits, 1974 - 1978" was released that same year and has sold 17 million copies alone.

1976

1977

1978

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  • "Off the Wall" did not sell 20 million copies in 1979, but it was an unqualified blockbuster, especially for Black artists. As impressive as "Off the Wall" was, there was a more popular "Wall" that came out that same year and continues to be one of the best-selling albums of all time, Pink Floyd's iconic "The Wall". 

  • These are global sales, so Boney M. will show up on these lists from time to time.  Though they made minimal impact on U.S, audiences, they were monsters of dance music throughout the rest of the world. 

  • I also paused when including Spyro Gyra since most of their members are white; at certain points in their existence, there were between 1 and 3 Black members, so I let them slide.

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  • It's uncanny the power of publicity.  Once war was declared on disco, its power on the charts completely disappeared.  The Bee Gees eventually sold 20 million copies of their "Sprits Have Flown" album that was released at the beginning of 1979, but by 1980, only records they produced on others sold well.  And with the disco blacklash, we instantly saw a drop in Black music sales.  Even if you exclude the monster sales of "Off the Wall", the top 10 Black artists still sold 3.5 million fewer albums in 1980 compared to 1979.

  • It's noteworthy to add that Bob Marley and the Wailers have always played the long game.  "Uprising" wasn't certified gold in the U.S. (500,000 in sales) until 1996.  

  • I am not sure the Stevie Wonder and Diana Ross numbers are accurate as Motown did not invest in outside auditing services at the time.  I get the feeling that the sales for both  "Hotter Than July" and "diana"  were under-reported. 

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  • I'm a bit surprised that "Street Songs" wasn't a bigger seller because that cassette was in everybody's boom box back in 1981.

  • Even as their popularity began to cool down, Earth, Wind & Fire and the Commodores continued to be strong sellers, for the moment at least.  Soon, Lionel would strike out on his own and Maurice would focus more on producing outside acts even though EWF continued releasing popular albums throughout the 80s.

  • Diana Ross had just signed the the industry's biggest recording contract at the time with MCA Records.  This was a risky move because MCA could not have known that Ross' best-selling days were already behind her.

1979

1980

1981

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  • Even without "Thriller" in the total, Black album sales for 1982 would sit at 18,268,159, quite an improvement over the previous year.

  • This expansion in sales was industry-wide, as a comedy album by Eddie Murphy went platinum.  In fact, kooky exercise guru Richard Simmons sold 1.1M copies of his novelty album "Reach", which helped make Simmons very riche. 

  • Donna Summer put herself on the road towards a major comeback beginning with her Quincy Jones-produced self-titled album.

1982

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  • A year earlier, Marvin Gaye took home his first Grammy award, a full-circle moment after mounting an amazing and improbable comeback.  This compilation album was released in 1983, but the sales surely reflect fans snapping up his music after his untimely death on April 1, 1984. 

  • The Isley Brothers saw a major career resurgence after immersing themselves wholeheartedly into the champagne-flute clicking subgenre of R&B.

  • Luther quietly ruled over baby-making music with a string of #1 platinum albums to start out his career, though he would (smartly) not make any babies of his own.

1983

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  • As of this writing in 2026, Bob Marley & the Wailers' "Legend" has never really left the Billboard charts, racking up nearly 30 million album sales over the course of four decades.  

  • Prince did two things with "Purple Rain" that had frenemy Michael Jackson fuming:  he starred in a successful movie and picked up an Oscar for the title track.

  • "I Just Called to Say I Love You" helped push Stevie Wonder's "Lady in Red" soundtrack beyond double platinum.  It also signalled the official end to his creative dominance over popular music, though he still had one more decent album under his sleeve.

1984

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  • No Lionel.  No Michael. No problem.  Whitney stepped in to do her part in pulling the temporarily sagging sales out of the trash bin with her mega-selling debut. 

  • 1985 marks the first time we see a rap artist make the list as Queens mega-cutie LL Cool J broke down barriers and left many a panty a-drippin'.

  • Aretha Franklin's long overdue comeback was in full swing as Arista's president and certified wicked witch Clive Davis helped give Aretha one of the biggest albums of her career at 43 years of age.

  • Nice to see the 1980s career resurgence of the Pointer Sisters, who were finally moving big numbers.

1985

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  • Both Lionel and Prince were back, but with dramatically decreased sales compared to their heyday.  But never fear because Michael's little sister sassed her way to the industry's fourth biggest album of the year with "Control".

  • Speaking of the Jackson brood, Britain's answer to Rebbie, Tito and Jermaine came in the form of Five Star, a family outfit with an overbearing father who, for a minute there, gave us some of Britain's best black pop.

  • Run-D.M.C. used their Adidas to kick in the door and grab the mainstream success that rap deserved.  "Raising Hell" is one of the best albums by anyone in any genre, period.

  • Auntie Anita completes her comeback with "Rapture," an album that effectively changed the trajectory of 1980s R&B.

1986

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  • Michael, Prince and Whitney dropped albums in 1987, but their careers were on different paths.  While Whitney was on he rise, Michael was in what could be called a holding pattern, releasing music that was popular and not much else.  Prince's popularity had waned considerable in the U.S., but he fired the Revolution and published his career statement with "Sign O' the Times."

  • Rap continued its rise with LL and the Fat Boys releasing albums that thankfully did not represent the direction in which the genre was headed.

  • Manhattan-born Terence Trent D'Arby's fantastic debut finally arrives on U.S. shores, giving both Michael and Prince a (very temporary) scare.

  • No one would catch Michael, but Madonna had already blown past Prince and Whitney and established herself as the most consistent seller on the planet, including selling 6 million copies of one of the stupidest albums and movies ("Who's That Girl") and 5 million of a dance remix album with a single "Spotlight" that had only been released in Japan after being initially rejected for her "True Blue" album, which has sold 25 million globally.  

  • The late 80s saw more outlets for black music, like video channels, radio stations, meaning more dollars were finally being put towards the promotion of our artists.  

1987

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  • Released in 1987, "Don't Be Cruel" was the top album of 1989, doing most of it's work that year.

  • Did Robert Cray (see 1986) till the earth for Tracy Chapman's shocking success?  She had the second biggest-selling album of the year.  What a wonderful surprise!

  • #6:  "He's the DJ, I'm the Slapper, I mean Rapper"

  • Some say that 1988 and 1994 are the Golden Years of Classic Rap, NWA's album makes part of that seismic shift in sales.  Record companies had to have been shocked (and giddy) about this turn of events.  It was much cheaper to make rap records, many of the rappers were not business savvy so they could be more easily taken advantage of, and this created serious winfalls for labels.  This would go on for about the next 30 years as rap's popularity soared, eventually becoming the most popular and profitable music genre, despite political efforts to kill it off (like they did jazz and disco).

  • The next three albums were on the sales charts are Guy (#51), New Edition (#52) and Too $hort's "Life Is...Too Short" (#53).  

  • Following MCA's Jheryl Busby's lead, other record companies had started having something similar to a Black Music Division, initiated by the success of New Edition's eponymous album.  

  • We thankfully started to see some diversity for Black artists (folk, New Jack Swing, Quiet Storm, rap and hard rock).  Stellar!

1988

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  • Prince finally sees an upsurge in record sales with the flavorless "Batman" soundtrack.  The movie tie-in was pretty much unprecedented and the album became more of a piece of merchandise for Batman fanatics than a piece of music for Prince fans.  

  • Fine Young Cannibals represent some diversity with guitar-driven alternative dance pop, as interpreted by quirky frog-voiced lead singer Roland Gift, who's biracial (white mum, Black dad).

  • U.S audiences had quickly gone cold on Tina Turner, but Europeans and everybody else were buying more of her records and attending her record-breaking concerts like never before.  So she went ahead and declared that she would no longer be phuckin' wit' no Americans no mo', going so far as to name her 1989 album "A Foreign Affair". Can't blame her for adopting a British accent and moving next door to Björk in Iceland (or wherever she ended up).

  • Terence Trent D'Arby moved 2 million copies of this record, but it was also a foreign affair because I don't think anybody in the US bought this crap. (OK, I did. And I still haven't forgiven myself.)

  • Tone Loc was the only rapper represented in the top 10, but that would change because rap was moving units and seriously bubbling under, just waiting for skittish industry heads to catch up, who were convinced that the genre was a flash-in-the-pan.

  • Sales dipped from 1988 with Janet being the only real blockbuster for Black artists.  But, sales were still brisk and better distributed among different artists.

1989

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  • How does M.C. Hammer move 18 million copies and still only have the fourth biggest album of the year? Here's how:  Madonna's "Immaculate Collection":  30M; New Kids on the Block:  20M, Garth Brooks 18.7M.

  • Whitney took a huge gamble after a loudly booing Soul Train Music Awards audience showed her just how unappreciative they were with her musical choices.  She made the concerted decision to go more R&B with "I'm Your Baby Tonight" and the record sales represented the public's lukewarm response to this transition.  In 7 years, an almost identical transformation would take place with singing rival Mariah Carey.  Though Mariah's transitional album would not move as many copies as "I'm Your Baby Tonight", "Butterfly" proved to be the stronger and more convincing artistic statement of the two.  

  • Sales were quite strong for members of the N.E. Crew as New Jack Swing was taking form and club music topped the charts again.  

  • 1990 is the first time we see numbers this massive on a non-Michael Jackson  year (or 1984, which was a batshit, crazy landmark year for music sales across the board.)  If MJ had released "Dangerous" one year earlier, the Black Top 10 for 1990 would have surpassed the numbers in 1984.  

  • This is the first time that rap leads the pack, Black or white, with "Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em" far outselling "Licensed to Ill" (10M) and Vanilla Ice's "To The Extreme" which also came out this year and has racked up 8.1M in sales.  This record would hold for 10 years until Eminem's 2000 "Marshall Mathers LP" would surpass 32M and his 2002 "The Eminem Show' would move 20.8M.  "Please Hammer" is still the top-selling rap album among the Blacks, though.
     

1990

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  • Sorry, but I'm not including Color Me Badd's album here even though it sold 3.3M copies.  They're being excluded because the main singer wasn't Black and not because they suck.

  • Bubbling under: Lenny Kravitz, with his "Mama Said" selling 2.2M (62nd place) and Luther's "Power of Love" at 66 with 2.1M sold.  Vandross was tremendously consistent, always hanging in there no matter what.

  • Mariah suffered a temporary dip in sales and rap was feeling the backlash of MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice. Cypress Hill was the next rap act on the list with 2.1M sold of their fantastic debut album.

  • Again, this was a Michael Jackson year so we see a jump in sales again.  This year was the last time that a studio album of MJ's new music would have this kind of tremendous impact on the U.S. market.  He'd continue to move a substantial number of units on the global market.

  • Natalie Cole's amazing commercial comeback was complete with an album she had to fight tooth and nail to get made.

  • Seal cracks the top 10 with a splendid debut that was mostly ignored by Black U.S. audiences.

1991

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  • Rap and dance music both saw great gains in the 90s, but country music was the genre that moved astronomical numbers year in and year out.  Garth Brooks, whoa.  He's selling at least millions of everything he puts out.  "Double Live": 23M; "The Hits": 10M; "Fresh Horses": 8M; "In Pieces":  10M; "No Fences": 18M. There's also cowpokes Alan Jackson (6.3M), George Strait (6M) and Hannah's dad Billy Ray Cyrus (10M) mopping the floor with monster albums that year.

  • Whitney releases her biggest (and last) blockbuster album, a blockbuster among blockbusters.  Not since "Thriller" had the industry seen sales like this, bolstered by the cheese-doodle movie of the same name.  Who's booing now, Soul Train Music Awards niggazzz?

  • Still, Mariah continued to dominate the 90s with an album a year.  All selling at least 5M.

  • Sade finally come back with perhaps their strongest effort yet in "Love Deluxe".

  • Bubbling under: En Vogue "Funky Divas" (#46) 3.2M; SWV "It's About Time" (#50) 3.1M; "Boomerang" soundtrack (#53) 3.1 M; Bobby Brown "Bobby" (#65) 2.4M.
     

1992

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  • Honorable mention: Cypress Hill "Black Sunday" at #44 with 3.5M copies sold.  (They're not really Black. Lead rapper B-Real is Messy Can.)

  • I also want to mention my all-time favorite compilation album, which also came out that year:  Crowded House "Recurring Dream The Very Best" (#49) with 3.1M copies sold, probably not a single copy sold in the U.S.  Even the copy I have was stolen.

  • Rap makes a strong showing yet again, led by debuts by Snoop and the Wu.

  • R.Kelly, Mr. I Wanna Feel on Yo' Booty...then Pee on Yo' Face, makes his first appearance with his debut album.

1993

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  • Those Hootie numbers got me shook.  I had no idea they were moving units like that, which also reflects how much I was tuning out what was on mainstream radio and MTV at the time.

  • Ya'll Boyz II Men fans need to scrape your pennies together and buy 20 more CDs to get this album to the 14M mark.

  • ​NY rap reclaimed its dominance with the release of Biggie's "Ready to Die" and other Puffy products.

  • Bubbling under:  Beastie Boys "Ill Communication" at #50 with 3.5M in sales; Warren G. "Regulate...G Funk Era" at #57 with 3.21M and Mary J. Blige's iconic "My Life" at #60 with 3.15M copies moved.

  • It only took 17 years to go from 14M to 96M albums sold for the top 10 Black artists.  Incredible.

1994

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  • The child molestation allegations seriously damaged Michael Jackson's sales potential in the U.S., but did not stop him from moving 20M of his "HIStory" double album globally.

  • Nice to see Tracy Chapman back and selling briskly.

  • Janet had signed the industry's most lucrative contract and delivered with 1993's "janet.", but this greatest hits collection was released on A&M, her previous record company.

  • Mariah was smack dab in the middle of her decade-long reign over music, one of the main reasons I sidestepped 90s R&B for the most part.

  • And then there was Ol' Dirty Bastard who was going double platinum and still cashing welfare checks.  That's what I call sticking it to the Man.  You go, ODB!

1995

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  • With no new albums by Mariah, Janet or Michael, 1996 saw a dip in record sales by Black artists.  Toni and the Fugees did what they could with their monster albums. 

  • 2Pac's murder that year created a tremendous amount of interest in his music and legacy.

  • Tina Turner continued to prove that she didn't need the U.S. to continue being one of the biggest stars on the planet.

  • British mushmouth Mark Morrison took the world by storm with "Return of the Mack", one of my favorite songs of the year.

  • With the exception of hip hop, things were not looking good artistically in 1996 with the some of the top albums being by Celine Dion (32M), the Spice Girls (23M) the Backstreet Boys (14M) and Dave Mathews Band (7.1M). Bleh.

1996

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  • 12 million albums sold!  OK, NOBODY saw Buena Vista Social Club hummin' comin' at cha with that one.

  • Now we see why Tommy Mottola was so concerned about Mariah's stylistic change after her last three studio albums moved 70M+ combined.   "Butterfly" turned out to be Mariah's best album, but, ironically it underperformed BECAUSE of Mottola's evil campaign against his biggest star and soon-to-be ex-wife.

  • Biggie was murdered in 1997 shortly before the release of 'Life After Death", which has been certified 11X platinum because it contains two discs.

  • Bubbling under: Erykah Badu's debut "Baduizm" sold 3.4M copies, coming in at #11 for Black artists, #55 overall.  Michael Jackson's "Blood on the Dance Floor - History in the Mix" followed with 3.25M and then K-Ci & JoJo came in at #13 with 3.1M sold of their "Love Always" set.

  • Gospel-esque music also got in the act with Kirk Franklin moving 3M of "God's Property".  Praise the Lard!

1997

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  • I guess I should have asked this way back when, but Mariah's Black, right? I hope so, because without her, these numbers would look very different.  Even her husband's attempts to kill her career couldn't keep her first greatest hits collection from moving nearly 12M copies.

  • Is Brandy really the "Vocal Bible"? I guess it depends on at which musical alter you worship. I prefer stronger, more robust voices, so for me, Brandy is more like the "Vocal IHOP Menu".  But that doesn't mean that her "Never Say Never" album isn't pretty damned good.

  • Bubbling under:  Monica's "The Boy is Mine" with 3.5M copies sold (#49) and DMX's "Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood" (3.1M sold, #55)

  • By this time, all lingering doubts about rap's ability to move big numbers were silenced.  And remember that Eminem, who co-ruled the 90s alongside Carey, is not included here because he's white whether he likes it or not.

  • Who's Juvenile and how did he move almost 5M albums behind my back? 

1998

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  • The 90s were ending and it was time for the new breed to take over, led by Beyoncé and whoever hadn't been fired from Destiny's Child by the time their album dropped.

  • A relatively slow year for Black artists, but a banner year for Cheese Pop:  Backstreet Boys "Millenium" (40M); Britney Spears "Baby One More Time" (27M); "All the Way…A Decade of Song Celine Dion" (18M) and "Ricky Martin" (17M).

  • Barry White had a major comeback in the 1990s, especially with 1994's "The Icon is Love".  In 1999, he released his last studio album, "Staying Power" before being sidelined by health problems until he death in 2003. But it was this 1999 two-CD greatest hits collection that was his biggest global seller. 

  • Speaking of staying power, or lack thereof, I don't think anyone was surprised when German cornball Lou Bega quickly disappeared after his novelty hit "Mambo No. 5" fell off the charts.  

  • DMX continued to be a sales behemoth with a slew of multi-platinum platters.  He is the U.S.'s fifth best-selling rap artist.

  • Bubbling under:  Brian McKnight (3.17M), Jay-Z "Vol. 3...Life and Times of S. Carter" (3.11M); Mary J. Blige "Mary" (2.35M)

  • Woman power!  Destiny's Child, TLC, Mariah, Macy Gray and Willma Smith all had strong showings in 1999.

1999

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  • Mariah's numbers were falling off, but the 90s homecoming king (Enimen) continued to move an insane number of albums with "The Marshall Mathers LP" (32M)

  • Crap Pop continued to stink up the place: Backstreet Boys "Black & Blue" (24M); Britney Spears "Oops! I Did It Again" (20M); *NSYNC "No Strings Attached" (14.2M).

  • Bubbling under:  Ja Rule "Rule 3:36" (3.16M); Ludacris "Back for the First Time" (3.05M); Toni Braxton "The Heat" (2.7M), a significant drop off for Braxton, whose days as a major seller were ushered out with the 90s.

  • After 8 years of waiting, Sade were back with another winner ("Lovers Rock").

  • At 74, B.B. King finally got that major crossover hit album that had eluded him for decades.  A shame that it was accomplished alongside British yeast infection Eric Clapton. 

  • 2000 was a breakout year for Outkast, the best thing out of the Dirty South since cheesy grits.

  • Craig David, Britain? Really? Is that the best you can do? Where was Mark Morrison when we needed him? In jail you say? Well, that explains it then.

2000

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  • The writing was on the wall for Janet, who for the first time since "Dream Street" did not move at least 10M worldwide of a studio album.  The 2004 Super Bowl fiasco would pretty much roll the credits on her stellar commercial success.

  • Things looked quite dire for brother Michael whose last full studio album, 1991's "Dangerous", had moved 27M worldwide.  (Even the "HIStory" double album had moved 20M).  Sales of "Invincible" quite possibly did not recoup what it had cost to make the album.  MJ blamed Tommy Mottola, a big ol' meanie who surely had it out for Michael.  But the lion's share of the fault lies in the record being long and tedious.  Rodney Jerkins' rigid and uninteresting productions left fans in the dark, child.

  • Prince returned to the top of the charts (posthumously) with a greatest hits collection meant o fulfill an obligation with Warner Bros.  When the record was released in 2001, it made nary a splash on the charts (#66), but flew off the shelves upon announcement of his sudden death in 2016.

  • Mary J. Blige  also bounced back sales-wise with "No More Drama" after 1999's "Mary" had underperformed.

  • With mega-sellers Mariah, Janet, Michael and Whitney slumping and the onset of music downloads, music sales for Black artists began its slow slide into the bog.

  • Clive "Cruella de Vil" Davis shoved Alicia Keys' debut down everyone's throats and his efforts paid off with "Songs in A Minor" being the year's third top seller overall.

2001

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  • The pivot away from anything resembling traditional R&B was virtually complete by 2002.  We had not seen numbers this low since 1983 and apart from "Nellyville", the year saw no blockbuster albums from Black artists. The advances in technology meant that Black artists were no longer hitting the 5M mark so easily.

  • Jamaican toaster Sean Paul broke through with his sophomore album "Dutty Rock".  (He's Black, right?)

  • Times they were a-changing.  Whitney, Mariah and even the huge-selling and long deceased 2Pac barely moved 2M copies worldwide.  I've never heard the albums by Mariah and 2Pac, but "Just Whitney" was just awful.

  • Here's what was happening elsewhere:  #1 album: Norah Jones "Come Away with Me" (27M):  #2: Eminen "The Eminem Show" (20.8M);  #3: Avril Lavigne "Let Go" (18M), whoever that is.

  • Even Elvis Presley, who had recorded no new music since 1977 on account of having died that year, outsold all Black artists with his "Elvis: 30 #1 Hits" (11.7M).

2002

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  • Beyoncé went ahead and slid those last two chicks their pink slips and finally release her first solo album, which sold very well, but did not reach sales of Destiny Child's "The Writing's on the Wall". 

  • Outkast reached their peak with an album certified 14X platinum as a double CD.

  • With listeners elbowing bubble gum pop aside (no *NSYNC, no Backstreet Boys, and Britney's album sales sagging), Black artists found their way back to the top again, including nostalgia artists Michael and Lionel.  The sales numbers for top 10 Black artists almost doubled from the previous year.

  • Alicia Keys was back with an album that had its moments, but ultimately was just as blah as her debut.

  • The top of the charts continued to be male dominated with 50 Cent's powehouse debut leading the way.  

2003

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  • How about that Ray-Ray?!  Released a few months after his death, this album became his first Top 10 in 40 years, won 8 Grammys and is his biggest seller.  Way to go out on top!

  • The other Ray (Raymond Usher) saved the day with a monster record, widely considered to be the last blockbuster album that moved astronomical numbers of physical media (mostly CDs).  Once the digital age took over, tracking sales because even more muddled, more difficult to measure and exponentially less interesting to follow.  What does "10 million streams" even mean? 

  • Beyoncé called her girls back for one more fat paycheck with the release of "Destiny Fulfilled."  Bey ended up ruling the universe, so the question remains:  Was the destiny fulfilled for those other two gals? 

  • Prince cheated the industry when he forced it to count as sales the copies of "Musicology" concert-goers received when buying tickets for his concerts.  Score:  Prince - 1, Music Industry - 0.

  • Akon, born Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam, puts Senegal on the map with his successful debut album.  "Akon" is a nice stage name and all, but I would have preferred "Puru Lu Lu Lu".

2004

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  • I was one of those who had long written Mariah off and certainly did not see "The Emancipation of Mimi" coming.  This global hit would be Carey's last before she dedicated herself full-time to being Christmas' spokeswoman.

  • 50 Cent continued to dominate the rap game, but he would eventually be overtaken by the blisteringly talented Kanye West.  The Game also debuted his fantastic The Documentary" (and later some highly entertaining and eye-popping bathroom selfies).

  • An army of producers (e.g. Scott Storch, Jermaine Dupri, Bryan-Michael Cox, the Underdogs, etc.) got together in the construction of an album for a lispy-tongued prodigy named Chris Brown. 

  • The Black Eyed Peas continued to move big numbers with their fourth studio album (the second with Fergie), though I have never been sure as to why they were such a bid deal.  To me, they were little more than R&B's answer to No Doubt, another popular but insipid outfit.  And if "My Humps" ain't the worst song ever, I really don't know what is. Oh snap, I spoke too soon. Fergie's "London Bridge (Oh Snap)" is even crappier.

2005

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  • Perhaps the best musical news of the year was that the #1 album of 2006 was Amy Winehouse's iconic "Back to Black" (16M).

  • The good news ends there as the #2 album was Nelly Furtado's "Loose" (10M) and Justin Timberlake's nonsensically titled "Futuresex/Lovesounds" clocked in at #3 (8.3M).

  • The Goodie Mob's resident loudmouth Cee-Lo paired with producer Danger Mouse to create Gnarls Barkley's "St Elsewhere", an album that's a fun mash-up of groovy psychedelic productions with southern soul sensibilities.

  • I had no idea so many people purchased Corrine Bailey Rae's brand of highly diluted, unseasoned Brit pop.  Good for her!

  • Rihanna makes an appearance and as the 2000s went on, she scored bigger and bigger hits.  Same with Beyoncé, whose career will only grow more iconic in the coming years.  But you'll have to read about that elsewhere as this ride ends at 2006. 

2006

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