Belt-challenged Nelly teams up with fellow comeback kid Chris Brown and Plies for “Long Gone,” a new jam off the “Just A Dream” rapper’s upcoming album 5.0. And not only does the song play on our biggest weakness—handclaps—it also employs a smooth early-’90s-R&B melody. We just might be hooked! Listen below.

Nelly seems to have pulled out all the stops for his upcoming fifth album. He work with Midas-touch hitmaker Dr. Luke on the infectious “Move That Body,” and he also explained recently that he’s happy to dealing with more “relatable” subject matter like l-o-v-e on tunes like “Just A Dream” (which is currently lodged at a respectable #3 on the Billboard Hot 100).

Nelly feat. Chris Brown & Plies - Long Gone

Of course, this collab with Breezy and Plies finds Nell resorting to the cliched topic of buying a hottie at the club a drink then taking her back to the crib. But really, the music thankfully trumps the tired lyrics.

Still, all that said, we could have done without Plies’ pointless (and kind of grating) rap.

Journey To Regionals, the soundtrack to Glee‘s final episode of Season 1, proved to be a vampire slayer when it came to beating the Twilight Saga: Eclipse soundtrack to #1 on the Billboard Top 200. The trade publication reports today that the Glee EP ended up selling 152,000 copies—enough to send Jack Johnson from the top to #4 and hold Eclipse (144,000 copies) at #2. So where did that leave Christina Aguilera?

Despite a media blitz last week that had her appearing on the MTV Movie Awards, the Today Show, the Late Show With David Letterman, Fuse TV, Live! With Regis And Kelly and CBS’ Early Show, Xtina only managed to sell 110,000 copies of Bionic. It debuts at #3 this week. By comparison, her previous studio album, Back To Basics, debuted at #1 in 2006 with 346,000 copies sold in its first week.

So what do we chalk Bionic‘s lackluster debut up to? Public indifference to first single “Not Myself Tonight”? Illegal downloading being more prevalent now than ever? Aguilera canceling her tour? Christina being past her prime?

Maybe, in the end, it’s a little of all of the above. Should Britney Spears be worried?

At any rate, the Top 10 also sees three other debuts as mainstays like Lady Gaga’s The Fame and Usher’s Raymond v. Raymond finally drop out of the upper tier—Plies’ Goon Affiliated comes in at #5 (56,000 copies), Dierks Bentley’s Up On The Ridge enters at #9 (38,000) and Jewel’s latest country affair, Sweet And Wild, debuts at #10 (31,000).

The Top 10 of Billboard’s Top 200 Albums:

1. Glee Cast, Glee: The Music—Journey To Regionals *new*
2. Various Artists, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse *new*
3. Christina Aguilera, Bionic *new*
4. Jack Johnson, To The Sea
5. Plies, Goon Affiliated *new*
6. Justin Bieber, My World 2.0
7. Glee Cast, Glee: The Music—Vol. 3, Showstoppers
8. Lady Antebellum, Need You Now
9. Dierks Bentley, Up On The Ridge *new*
10. Jewel, Sweet And Wild *new*

Director TAJ has been on a roll turning out the videos lately, but perhaps none have creeped us out so effectively as Jeezy’s new one for “Lose My Mind.” The Atlanta-based rapper, whose album Thug Motivation 103 is due out later this year, spends a night at the club with his pal plies in the clip, but by the end the whole evening spirals into a nightmarish vision of someone on a gurney with a sheet over their head in a restroom sitting up as the spooky track abruptly ends. If that’s just the kind of freaky stuff you’re into, then head below to go nuts with “Lose My Mind.”

This morning while doing my YouTube rounds, I found a clip claiming to have as its audio bed a high-quality version of Kanye West’s Tears For Fears homage “Coldest Winter,” so I–hoping to hear the song without all that peaking and radio static that nearly ruined last week’s leak somewhere around listen No. 10–clicked. But instead of “Coldest Winter, however, we’re treated to a video that fuses together a photo of Steve Jobs holding a pitcher of Kool-Aid, paparazzo shots of The Game and Snoop Dogg, and gunshot sounds in a way that’s seemingly inspired by both Paperrad and ransom notes.

Plies is in there, too. This will prove to be important later.

So I decided to click through to this guy’s channel page, and–surprise!–all of his videos have two stars or less. But he hasn’t let that get him down; video No. 2 was purporting to be a leak from Eminem’s new album. A song featuring Eminem, Dr. Dre, and 50 Cent? Well, no. What I got instead was a track that succeeded in bringing together Eminem’s first catchphrase, speeded-up Daft Punk, and a kid getting hit in the head with a soccer ball:

To be fair, it’s much more tolerable than anything 50 could do at this point.

This guy also tried to start the Plies-roll, in which a YouTube user looking for new Dr. Dre material was treated to a song by Plies:

Unfortunately, this prankish behavior didn’t take.

Sometimes I wonder what it’s like to be like ChangeStyle, living in hope of fooling people into hearing his message through the selective deployment of freeze-frames. It’s sort of like a spammer, but without the Viagra (unless that’s in later videos–I didn’t watch them all). Part prankster, part Plies fan, part “person with way too much time on their hands,” ChangeStyle feels like he can only communicate with the YouTube community by freaking/faking them out. But why? Is it the gratification one can only get from comments like “not only does it sound horrible its out of time dickhead!” and “i cant believe this is fo real, but for some reason im laughin my ass off”? Or is dude really, really bored? Because if he is, I think he should just stick to one thing–the Pliesroll–and run with it. He could be Internet famous by, like, tomorrow if he just focused.

ChangeStyle’s Channel [YouTube]

We love charts here at Idolator, but sometimes they can be so elitist. Who cares what critics think, or what the program directors of America feel like shoving down peoples’ throats? We want to know: What are the people demanding to hear? What songs inspire people to vote with their wallets, making them insert a dollar into a machine with one hand while holding a longneck in the other?

Turns out the answer is: Anything by Lil Wayne. Weezy took five of the ten spots on June’s edition of the “Ecast BarPulse” chart, which reflects purchases on jukeboxes operated by the Internet-juke company Ecast. (These are different than the ones operated by the Foreigner fans at TouchTunes. The Sugarland track is proving to be a real juggernaut, holding strong on the iTunes download charts as well. However, even Weezy can’t knock off Katy Perry, which proves that my decision to never go anywhere is proving to be a good one.

The chart for June:

1. “I Kissed A Girl,” Katy Perry
2. “A Milli,” Lil Wayne
3. “Lollipop,” Lil Wayne
4 “Viva La Vida,” Coldplay
5. “Bust It Baby Part 2 (ft. Ne-Yo),” Plies
6. “All I Want To Do,” Sugarland
7. “Mr. Carter,” Lil Wayne
8. “Got Money,” Lil Wayne
9. “Mercy,” Duffy
10. “Mrs. Officer,” Lil Wayne

Katy Perry Leads the Pack but Lil Wayne Comes Up Big on the June Ecast BarPulse [PR Newswire]

If a cheeky keyboard-driven outfit were to craft a peppy minor hit out of an 18-year-old soft-rock song, similar to the way the Canadian outfit Kon Kan transformed Lynn Anderson’s “I Never Promised You A Rose Garden” into their U.S. top 20 track “I Beg Your Pardon,” what song would you pick to be rescued from the pop history books? Feel free to ponder this question while noting the lyrical back-and-forth between the Kon Kan track and the Anderson song, which I’ve placed after the jump.

Come to think of it, the Plies/Ne-Yo song “Bust It Baby (Part 2)” samples Janet Jackson’s 1990 song “Come Back To Me”:

Even though my affection for Ne-Yo is well-documented around these parts, I’m looking for something a little… sassier, and more call-and-response (seriously, I thought the song was sampling an Anita Baker track for the first two months I knew about it). Like a remix of Kiss’ “Forever” in which the singer is getting irritable with Paul Stanley’s mealy-mouthed proclamations of fidelity. Or an answer song to the Glenn Medeiros/Bobby Brown duet “She Ain’t Worth It”:

Yes. Yes. Someone has to make my day and jump on “I’m Worth It ’08″ before it’s time to turn the pop-song calendar year to 2009. Just don’t let Bobby know, otherwise he might try to horn in on the recording sessions.

Kon Kan – I Beg Your Pardon [YouTube]
Rose Garden (Lynn Anderson) [YouTube]
Plies – Bust It Baby Part 2 [featuring Neyo] [YouTube]
Glenn Medeiros and Bobby Brown – She Ain’t Worth It [YouTube]

Most people figured that Coldplay would have the top-selling album on next week’s charts, but would Viva La Vida reach Lil Wayne’s cool million in first-week sales? Looks like the answer is no, but the 700,000-sale tally that HITS is projecting brings back brief memories of when albums had impressive sales, and a week where 200,000 copies were sold wouldn’t necessarily result in a spot in the top ten. Weezy looks to add another 300,000 to his total, while the Jonas Brothers-accented Camp Rock soundtrack is set to begin its stay on the charts at No. 3, likely selling around 200,000 in its first week. After the top three, it’s back to reality: NOW 28 is on pace to just break the six-figure mark; Usher and Piles will likely sell in the 60,000-copy range; The Offspring continue to befuddle me with their continued popularity by selling a projected 55,000 albums; Judas Priest and Katy Perry fight over Nos. 8 and 9 spots, with each on track to move about 50,000 copies; and the Rihanna screw-the-consumer reissue and Disturbed fight it out for tenth place. Only 50,000 album sales for Katy Perry, after all we had to suffer through? I’m simultaneously disappointed and pleased. [HITS Daily Double]

As previously noted, Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III blew into the No. 1 spot on this week’s album charts thanks to a sales total that just broke the million mark–a feat that isn’t all surprising given last week’s early-bird chart debut, but is still probably causing some chilling-since-2005 Champagne corks to get popped in the offices of Universal Music Group.

Biggest Debuts: It wasn’t right behind Carter, but Plies’ Definition Of Real did tally some impressive numbers, selling 215,000 copies and entering the chart at No. 2. Perhaps most notable about this feat was that Plies accomplished it by wearing himself around his neck:

Is it as bad as his smoking book from last year? I honestly can’t decide.

In other debut news, N*E*R*D sold 80,000 copies of its new album Seeing Sounds and debuted at No. 7; Alanis Morrissette’s Flavors Of Entanglement sold 70,000 copies and came in at No. 8; and 49,000 people decided that My Morning Jacket’s recorded output was as worthy of their money as the band’s live show, as Evil Urges entered at No. 9.

Notable Jumps: He may be holding his albums back from iTunes, but Kid Rock’s Rock And Roll Jesus is still selling, with a 25% jump this week (No. 19, 28,000) that puts it just on the edge of reaching the million-sold mark.

Dropping Off: Weezer’s latest play for the geeks was down 64% (No. 10, 46,000 sold), and the album that beat it out for No. 1 last week, Disturbed’s Indestructible, took a 60% hit (No. 4, 102,000 sold).

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Speaking of albums that entered the charts a week ago, Journey’s Revelation took a mere 15% week-to-week hit, selling 89,000 copies and dipping from No. 5 to No. 6. Given that the Wal-Mart strategy worked even better for the Eagles and our Arnel Pineda/Steve Perry comparison posts have attracted more long tail traffic than pretty much anything else on the site (or I should say, anything that isn’t related to that Meg White impersonator who made her way around the Internet last fall), I shouldn’t be as surprised by this relatively small drop, but I guess “news that isn’t as bad as it should have been” is an anomaly for the music business these days.

Postscript: Alanis’ new album came in at No. 2 on the digital chart, selling just under 25,000 copies–or more than 35% of her overall sales total. The idea that Morrissette’s fans may be in the demographic sweet spot for ditching the physical and going for the digital copies of new releases was further borne out by another ’90s alt-rock star whose album hit physical and virtual shelves last week: Jakob Dylan, who came in at No. 24 on the big chart with 24,000 sales and entered the digital-albums chart at No. 9 with 8,500 copies sold. (By comparison, Tha Carter III topped the digital-albums chart with just about 100,000 sales (10% of its overall total), and Plies’ digital-album sales comprised just 2.8% of his overall sales total (6,100, No. 9).)

This week’s top 20 albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (1,000,000)
2. Plies, Definition Of Real (215,000)
3. Now 28 (132,000)
4. Disturbed, Indestructible (102,000)
5. Usher, Here I Stand (101,000)
6. Journey, Revelation (89,000)
7. N*E*R*D, Seeing Sounds (80,000)
8. Alanis Morrissette, Flavors Of Entanglement (70,000)
9. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges (49,000)
10. Weezer (46,000)
11. 3 Doors Down (38,000)
12. Sex And The City soundtrack (35,000)
13. Ashanti, Declaration (34,000)
14. Leona Lewis, Spirit (33,000)
15. Duffy, Rockferry (30,000)
16. Taylor Swift (30,000)
17. Frank Sinatra, Nothing But The Best (29,000)
18. Toby Keith, 35 Biggest Hits (29,000)
19. Kid Rock, Rock N Roll Jesus (28,000)
20. Mongomery Gentry, Back When I Knew It All (27,000)

This week’s top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (100,000)
2. Alanis Morrissette, Flavors Of Entanglement (25,000)
3. N*E*R*D, Seeing Sounds (16,000)
4. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges (15,000)
5. Disturbed, Indestructible (12,000)
6. Sex And The City soundtrack (10,000)
7. Weezer (8,900)
8. Jakob Dylan, Seeing Things (8,500)
9. Plies, Definition Of Real (6,100)
10. Usher, Here I Stand (5,300)

At this point, we’ve all heard that Lil Wayne is going to dominate the charts next week, approaching the long-forgotten one week/one million sold mark last achieved by 50 Cent in 2005. However, Plies (who, to me, is sullying the once proud Slip-N-Slide name) is also having a pretty good week, as he’s on track to sell around 225,000 copies of Definition of Real. Chris Molanphy favorite Now 28 likely will jump past last week’s chart-topper Disturbed into third (140-150,000), with the bald guy and his anonymous band fighting it out with Usher for fourth (95-100,000). N.E.R.D. will likely debut in sixth with around 90,000 sold; Wal-Mart keeps the Journey wheel rolling, selling around 80,000 copies of their likely No. 7 Revelation; and 55,000 suckers will soon regret purchasing the new Alanis Morissette. My Morning Jacket, Weezer, and the unkillable Sex And The City soundtrack are battling for the last two spots in the top ten. Next week, some British dudes and the delightful Katy Perry hit stores. [HITS Daily Double]

As if rapper Plies wasn’t smarting already from being a first-round loser in our Worst Album Cover Of The Year Tournament, now he’s going to have to find new representation (along with a new art director), since his manager was arrested with 80 pounds of cocaine on Tuesday. [MTV]

As if rapper Plies wasn’t smarting already from being a first-round loser in our Worst Album Cover Of The Year Tournament, now he’s going to have to find new representation (along with a new art director), since his manager was arrested with 80 pounds of cocaine on Tuesday. [MTV]

As if rapper Plies wasn’t smarting already from being a first-round loser in our Worst Album Cover Of The Year Tournament, now he’s going to have to find new representation (along with a new art director), since his manager was arrested with 80 pounds of cocaine on Tuesday. [MTV]

The second battle in today’s Bad Photoshop bracket pits a typically Dungeonmaster’s Guide-esque entry from prog-emo-metallers Coheed And Cambria against Southern rapper Plies getting biblical with the dry ice, because whether you’re rolling with a shawty or rolling 12-sided dice, you should at least keep your shirt on. Vote for Plies’ full frontal or Coheed’s rear view after the jump!

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The hip-hop artist Plies–best known around these parts for his terrible album cover–is planning on seeding peer-to-peer services with files from his upcoming album, The New Testament. Sixteen million files, in fact, to be distributed over the next three months. But that move is actually being sanctioned by his label–because the files are sponsored by Sprint, who have paid a six-figure sum to have advertising embedded into each file that’s displayed when the files are played.

Here’s the plan, according to the New York Post:

Well, as business plans go, it’s more well-thought-out-than the underpants gnomes‘, although the idea of 16 million Plies files being unleashed on the world seems a little bit, well, excessive. Anyone want to bet on when the embedded-ad code will be cracked? The Idolator line is on one week, tops.

SPRINT TAKES LEAD AS 1ST SPONSOR OF FILE-SHARE SONG [NYP]
Earlier: Plies Ready To Close The Book On Ugly Album Covers

Plies didn’t want “Shawty,” featuring T-Pain, to get lost in the ever-expanding pile of joints–including Lloyd’s “Get It Shawty” and Pain’s own “Buy U A Drank (Shawty Snappin’)”–with the s-word in their titles. So he made a Hail Mary pass at staying on peoples’ lips: The cover of The Real Testament, which makes the Florida rapper look like he’s emerging from the smoke of a burning Bible. God bless!

Plies [MySpace]