The UK Top 40, 19/10/03

the Jamelia is ok but i am liking the Rachel track a lot. 50 Cent = yawnerama this time. no way is 'Hole In The Head' better than 'Round Round' tho.....NO WAY

"2 Gunz Up" couldn't be a crossover hit, though. Not in the US, not here. Not anywhere, in fact. Non-specialist, non-grimy audiences - the sort of people you need to get a record in the pop charts - just aren't ready for that kind of thing. It's the same in the US, despite hip-hop's much greater primacy there - out of all the Dipset tracks, only Cam'ron's funkiest and "blackest" moments, "Oh Boy" and "Hey Ma", have made a meaningful impact on the Hot 100, and David Banner's completely arythmic "Like A Pimp" never became the sort of crossover hit that YoungBloodz' "Damn!" (which *does* have a residual funk pulse to it) is right now. You'll note that 50 Cent's mainstream hit singles have had some kind of sonic "blackness" about them, the sort of thing that pop audiences can relate to in hip-hop - his quasi-fascist-hop material hasn't crossed over, and I can't see the harpsichord-based "Stunt 101", even if it's released as a single off the soon-come G-Unit album, in the UK Top 10.

Just so you know - the scores for the prediction league have been updated here.

There is no league this week, but it will return next week.

Also - obvious factual error - last British UK #1 was Elton John.