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R&B Awaits Big Week On Billboard 200 submitted by: Lisa D. source: Billboard Date: December 13, 2002 By GEOFF MAYFIELD LOS ANGELES–Three R&B albums—from sirens Aaliyah and Whitney Houston and youth-driven act B2K—will lead new entries on next week's Billboard 200. Based on first-day sales from key music merchants, the first posthumous collection from Aaliyah will be the best-seller among new titles. I Care for You (Blackground/Universal), consisting mostly of hits, will tally 280,000-285,000, one rival label estimates. If the album hits that range, it will top the artist's best start—187,000 units—set last summer by her third album, Aaliyah. It might also displace Shania Twain's Mercury title Up!, which leads the chart for a third week, this time with 317,000 units. Houston and B2K are also on track for their best-ever Nielsen SoundScan starts, in the range of 200,000-250,000 units. That would be Houston's largest SoundScan week for anything other than a soundtrack. Her best opener since SoundScan started in 1991 was 177,000, for the multi-act Waiting to Exhale soundtrack in 1995. Her best week for a solo album is 166,000, for My Love Is Your Love in 1999. B2K's best week was 109,000 units, set in March when its first of three charting sets bowed at No. 2. Nas' God's Son (Columbia) is a wild card, with a mid-week release Dec. 13 making predictions for first-week sales difficult. Next week's sales charts will also test the sales oomph of Fox's Dec. 9 Billboard Music Awards. Site design by: Dolphin Webpage Designs © 1996-2002