Charts: Hill Can't Stop the Musiq

Wed., May. 15, 2002 2:35 PM PDT by David Jenison

More proof you don't have to be a spelling-bee winner to top the charts.

Soul singer Musiq scored an astonishing number-one bow with his second album, Juslisen, trumping a new live album by Lauryn Hill. Apparently not a fan of letter "t" or, for that matter, the space bar, Musiq debuted in 2000 with the sleeper hit Aijuswanaseing, which slowly reached multiplatinum sales without ever cracking the Top 10. Back then the Philly crooner was known as Musiq Soulchild, but he decided to shorten his name for the second round.

Juslisen sold 260,000 copies for the week ended May 12, according to SoundScan figures.

Former Fugee member Hill had the second highest debut, selling 122,000 copies of MTV Unplugged 2.0 to open at number three. Hill has been MIA since her smashing 1998 solo debut, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which claimed a klutch of Grammys, including Best New Artist and Album of the Year honors, and sold a gazillion copies. Her new collection, a talk-heavy, two-disc set of old and new material, fell 20,000 copies short of Celine Dion's A New Day Has Come, which climbed to number two.

Last week's Top 10 bows, the Big Tymers and Vanessa Carlton, both made unhealthy drops. The Cash Money rappers, who opened at number one last week, took a big-time drop with Hood Rich falling to number eight in week two. Carlton's Be Not Nobody fell from five to 13.

The rest of the Top 10 were all holdovers: Ashanti's self-titled debut at four, country crooner Kenny Chesney's No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems at five, the Spider-Man soundtrack at six, Sheryl Crow's C'mon, C'mon at seven, Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 9 at nine and Josh Groban's self-titled album at 10.

Among the other notable debuts, the New Jersey rap trio Naughty by Nature proved they still have it by charting at 15 with their fifth release, Iicons. The group's first album in three years sold more than 48,000 copies.

Tom Waits scored back to back with his two new albums. Blood Money opened at 32 and Alice at 33, both selling about 32,000 copies, separated by only a few hundred copies. Metal rockers Coal Chamber followed at 34 with their third album, cheerfully titled Dark Days.

Other noteworthy debuts included the Family Values Tour 2001 compilation (featuring Staind, STP, Linkin Park) at 55, Kellie Coffey's When You Lie Next to Me at 54, Earshot's Letting Go at 82, Will Downing's naughty Sensual Journey at 90, the Atticus...Dragging the Lake comp (featuring Blink-182, New Found Glory, Midtown) at 105, and 98 Degrees getting a chilly reception with Collection surfacing at 153.

Leap of the week belonged to the talented Norah Jones, whose piano-pop signatures helped Come Away with Me jump 20 spots to number 17. And Foreigner got a big boost from its VH1 Behind the Music, as their Complete Greatest Hits re-entered the charts at 80.

Next week, watch for Moby's 18 and Weezer's Maladroit to battle it out for the highest debut.

Here's a recap of the Top 10 albums for the week ended May 12, according to SoundScan:

1. Juslisen, Musiq
2. A New Day Has Come, Celine Dion
3. MTV Unplugged 2.0, Lauryn Hill
4. Ashanti, Ashanti
5. No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems, Kenny Chesney
6. Spider-Man soundtrack, various
7. C'mon, C'mon, Sheryl Crow
8. Hood Rich, Big Tymers
9. Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 9, various
10. Josh Groban, Josh Groban