Albums: Mariah Tops 50, Floetry, Mike Shinoda, Tupac, Memphis Bleek, Missy Elliott, Limp Bizkit, Wal T.

Mariah Carey's new album is now on top of the charts with 50's the Massacre at no. 3.

Floetry will release their second album in July.

The new album from Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda, Rising Tide, is being executive produced (whatever that means) by Jay-Z and will include appearances by Common, Black Thought, Kenna, John Legend and Styles of Beyond.

In addition to renovating the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation's Peace Memorial Garden and Visitors Center, Afeni Shakur states that there will be only two more albums from her stash of Tupac material, one will be a spoken word album and the other will be the last of the unreleased tracks. Apparently she's also working on a film and a "traveling Broadway play."

Memphis Bleek's 534, due in May, will be the first official release from Jay-Z's executive tenure at Roc-A-Fella.

Production credits on Missy Elliott's The Cookbook, to be released in June, are slated to include The Neptunes, Kwame, Rich Harrison and Timbaland.

Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst is apparently insisting that his label not do a traditional prerelease campaign. Instead, he's encouraging fans, via the Limp Bizkit blog, to get viral with an mp3 of the single The Truth.

South African artist Wal T. has released So Many Things, So Little Time featuring D.O.C., Fikile & Nondumiso.

Jay-Z Timepieces, Marketing Blogger David Kiley, Adidas Shell Toes, UrbanWorld Wireless

Jay-Z is partnering with Audemars Piguet to bring out a limited edition series of 100 watches to retail between $23,500 and $69,500. You know, that's just f*cking ridiculous.

David Kiley seems to be the only marketing blogger that understands hip hop. Perhaps that's because, as he notes in a riff on the 50 Cent/Reebok ad controversy, he actually interacts with rappers and hip hop business people as opposed to just reading about them. More specifically, in a recent email he mentioned Damon Dash and Jermaine Dupri as two folks with whom he's been spending time.

Mekeisha Madden Toby of the Detroit News takes a look at paid and unpaid product placements, though I'm not sure how she knows who got paid or not, and a history of the Adidas shell toe.

UrbanWorld Wireless details its activities with hip hop ringtones and wireless marketing.

Going Public: Warner Music Group, Halls of Hip Hop, Inc.

The Sunday NY Times had an extended piece on Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Warner Music Group as they prepare to go public.  Actually it's more about Bronfman, though a few harsh quotes near the beginning misled me into thinking it was going to really dig into his involvement with the weakening of the company.  Honestly, after they pay off their debts, there won't be that much left.  But Bronfman and pals will be sitting pretty having already recouped most, if not all, of their initial investments.

At the opposite end of the going public spectrum, Halls of Hip Hop, Inc. is entering the over-the-counter arena through either a merger with or an acquisition of FransAction, Inc. to become H3Enterprises, Inc.  FransAction was trading as FCTN but Yahoo! Finance has the FCTN symbol outdated and lists them as FCTN.PK.  To be perfectly frank, the OTC scene is mostly unknown to me but I look forward to finding out more.

As previously posted, H3 is expanding into Canada via its HipHopSodaShops franchise.