HEY DIDDY DIDDY: "THE SAGA CONTINUES" SELLS

Break out the champagne. Wait a minute… check that. Lock up the champagne. And the telephones. And the chairs. And the guns. For God’s sake, somebody lock up the guns!!!

According to reports from national retail accounts, Bad Boy/Arista artist P. Diddy and the Family (which comprises Bad Boy ruler/headline maker Sean "Puffy" Combs and crew) is poised to vie for #1 on next week’s album chart with this week’s #1 and #2, Interscope’s D12 and J Records’ Alicia Keys. All three are expected to sell on the order of 160k units.

The prospect of the Diddy and the new Arista going head to head with Alicia and Clive Davis’ J is particularly interesting, but with D12 holding up so well on the strength of Eminem’s populist views and courtly manner, it’s really a three-legged horserace, or three race leghorse, er… you get the idea.

What we’re really trying to say is for the third week in a row, it’s anybody’s guess who’ll end up on top next week. Aren’t you glad you read this far to find that out?

Also making their debuts on next week’s chart will Island/IDJ’s Melissa Etheridge, whose "Skin" should land in the Top 10 by quite a bit more than the "skin" of her teeth; Loud’s Tha Liks, whose "X.O. Experience" should do about 40k on the strength of west coast street action; and KBNHA/The Label/Interscope’s Krystal, whose "Me and My Piano" will likely net a surprisingly solid 15-20k, helped out by Radio Disney play and Backstreet Boys tour dates, but little-to-no Top 40 airplay.