The Big Hurt: Billboard Top Hip-Hop and R and B songs

By DAVID THORPE | January 26, 2010

8. MAXWELL | "BAD HABITS" | What's a real song doing on this chart? You lost, little buddy? Let's get you back over to Adult Contemporary where you belong. Seriously, though, in a perfect world, the Hip-Hop and R&B Top 10 would just alternate between this dude and Ludacris and we'd never get bored.

9. ALICIA KEYS | "TRY SLEEPING WITH A BROKEN HEART" | Billboard's Web site cut this off at "Try Sleeping with a Broken H . . . ," so I was left to guess. Hand? Hod? Horse? Any of those songs would have kept me awake longer.

10. MARY J. BLIGE | "I AM" | Why am I hearing Mary J. Blige, bearer of a pretty cool voice, glossed up with light, tasteful Auto-Tune? Do I detect the greasy fingerprints of Norwegian production powerhouse Stargate? What are they gonna do next — sneak up on Whitney Houston and pop a kazoo in her mouth?

DAVID THORPE | dthorpe@phx.com

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