Music: One Name, Many Goals for a Driven R&B Star
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Even in high school, while her classmates were busy fretting about boys, Ciara was preoccupied with something more intangible Â mapping out her music career.
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NEW YORK (Billboard) - In her decade-plus career, R&amp;B artist Erykah Badu hasn't been afraid to wait long periods between projects.
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After adding to his growing collection of  top awards on Thursday night, R&B superstar Usher is justified  in being excited about his music career, but it is acting  that's got him dreaming.
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MIAMI (Billboard) - In a world where name recognition is everything, A.B. Quintanilla has flipped conventional wisdom by regularly tinkering with his group's moniker.
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LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Because of the way the calendar  breaks, album sales are trailing 2004 in the early weeks of the  new year, but a rapper named the Game could help even the  score.
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NEW YORK (Billboard) - Missy Elliot is giving her fans the opportunity to name her upcoming album.
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Read on to find out why this sound leader earns such devotion.
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With the launch of Justin Timberlake's   second solo album on Tuesday, the pop singer is seeking to be   taken seriously and cement his position as one of the few   boy-band members to carve out a successful career in his own   right.
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"Turning Point" is more than the title of Mario's sophomore CD. Now 18, the R&amp;B crooner is making the transition from boyhood to manhood.
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With the year's top album and single, Usher doesn't have to worry about getting left out when Grammy nominees are announced Tuesday. The question simply is how many nominations the R&amp;B crooner will get.
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MIAMI (Billboard) - He achieved crossover success long  before the music business coined that phrase.
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Given such song titles as "Baby Hold on to Me," "Can You Handle It," "The G Spot" and "U Got That Love," the general theme of Gerald Levert's music is easy to divine. His brand of sensuous R&B has provided romantic sustenance to a devoted fan base ever since his 1991 solo debut, "Private Line."
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When it came time to pick the songs that would be on her first greatest hits collection, Mary J. Blige had a lot of contenders. After all, the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul has reigned supreme for more than a decade.
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Mark Ronson, who for nearly a decade has been an It D.J. of the fashion and media world, is reaching for new heights as a producer and solo artist.
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So far 2008 has not been a good year for music sales. This week Alicia Keys, below, stays atop the Billboard chart with âAs I Amâ (J), but the number of copies that CD sold is barely above the historic low for a No. 1 album. Nielsen SoundScan reported that 61,000 copies of the album sold last week; the least number of weekly sales for No. 1 is 60,000, set by the âDreamgirlsâ soundtrack a year ago. (The numbers are rounded.) This week the âJunoâ soundtrack (Rhino) is at No. 2 with 58,000, Mary J. Bligeâs âGrowing Painsâ (Geffen) is No. 3 with 52,000, and Radioheadâs âIn Rainbowsâ (ATO) is next with 46,000. The R&B singer Raheem DeVaughn opens at No. 5 with 45,000 sales of âLove Behind the Melodyâ (J) and John Legendâs new âLive From Philadelphia,â available only through Target, reached No. 7 with 33,000.
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With the launch of Justin Timberlake's second solo album on Tuesday, the pop singer is seeking to be
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LOS ANGELES -- Grammy voters can&#39;t stop loving Ray Charles or, for that matter, the R&amp;B-rooted music of freshman rapper Kanye West, contemporary R&amp;B singer Usher and neo-soul singer-songwriter Alicia Keys, a formidable foursome who among them garnered 33