When Travie McCoy released Lazarus last summer, he did so mainly to provide his fans with a soundtrack to their "good times." But then McCoy dropped "Billionaire," hit the road with Rihanna and Ke$ha, released a slew of additional singles and, suddenly, nearly a year after the fact, the "good times" still haven't stopped.While he's still happy to let Lazarus breathe, even McCoy knows that it's time to turn his focus back to his other project, Gym Class Heroes.

For more than a year, he's been talking about the band's next album, The Papercut Chronicles II, but now, it sounds like he's entered the homestretch, and he's happy to tell fans that they'll finally get to hear the record in 2011."We're about 30 to 35 demos deep now. We had a really awesome session right before this tour started, and we got a lot done. We're definitely in the stages now where we're definitely picking the cream of the crop.

The songs are starting to take shape and come together," he said. "We just wrapped a song with Adam Levine called 'Stereo Hearts' that came out amazing, so you guys might be hearing that song a lot sooner than you'd think. It's definitely that time, regardless of how far or how much longer the Lazarus cycle continues to bring out the sexy MILFs, we're definitely looking to get this record out this year."As the title implies, PCC II is a sequel to the band's second album, 2005'sThe Papercut Chronicles, and McCoy said the ties go much deeper than just the title alone.

Despite his headline-making outburst following an interview with "Good Morning America," for which he later apologized in an interview with BET's 106 & Park, it seems that Chris Brown's latest release, F.A.M.E., is slated to jump to the top of the charts next week.According to Billboard, the album will sell approximately 250,000 to 300,000 copies by the time the week ends. It marks the first time Brown has had one of his albums debut at #1.

His previous efforts, Chris Brown, Exclusive (2007) and 2009's Graffiti, debuted at #2, #4 and #7, respectively.Brown's overwhelming chart success may come as a surprise to experts, who believed that given all the negative headlines this week, Brown's behavior may have turned off potential fans. "I definitely think this is a huge step back for him," Ian Drew, senior music editor at Us Weekly, said. "It was a huge mistake. Check out Chris Brown Videos

You control how you react. He didn't react the right way."[But] there's always a way back ... My advice to him would be: Just don't do any interviews and put out a strong record and let it speak for itself," Drew continued. "Let the music do the talking. Let that be the statement."Brown isn't the only new release on the charts next week. Jennifer Hudson's I Remember Me will hit the charts at #2 with around 160,000 units projected to be sold. The Strokes, who released their first new album in a half a decade, may potentially debut at #3, selling around 90,000 units with Angles. Adele, who held the top spot with her album 21, will be bumped to #5, with Kirk Franklin's Hello Fear hitting #4.

In recent months, first with the chart-topping success of "Black and Yellow" and then with his underground hit "Taylor Gang," Wiz Khalifa seems to have gotten aggressive, a move that some see as a departure from his stony, laconic roots. But Wiz is not one of them. " 'Taylor Gang' is not a departure for me or my style.

Anybody who's been connected to my whole career, they know the variations of where I go and my beat selections," he told MTV News backstage at the Woodie Awards during South by Southwest. "Lex [Luger, who produced 'Taylor Gang'] has been a real big fan since back in the day, and I've been up on his music for a long time as well, so it's just been bound to happen.

He's a great guy and he's really talented, so it's just good to see him getting the shine he deserves." And to anyone who still doesn't agree with him, Wiz would like to point out that he's actually been working with Luger for a while now — he produced a handful of songs on Wiz's Cabin Fever mixtape — and that he wouldn't sign on to work with anyone if he doesn't feel like it would complement his music. "I just find that little pocket where it matches up. I don't feel like I do anything that's inappropriate for my style, and he's always going to stay consistent as well," he said. "So when we meet up, you know, that's when it makes that magic.

 Cabin Fever has, like, six songs from Lex Luger on there, and people love that tape." And with his hotly anticipated Rolling Papers album set to hit stores March 29, Khalifa said he's hoping fans won't bail on him just because he's gotten a bit aggro as of late. Though, if they do, he'll still continue doing what he does. "It's definitely aggressive, but I've got songs on the album like 'On My Level,' 'Black and Yellow' is not really a calm song, so ... they've got to keep listening," he smiled. "Or, you know, they can stick there, but at the end of the day I know what I'm doing."

Lady Gaga appears to have been born in black and white with some serious cheek bones and eye make up.The 24-year-old singer took to Twitter on Friday, the day she wrapped her new album, to repeat that "Born This Way" would drop on May 23, a date she initially announced in January."In Nebraska, finishing up record today," she tweeted. "I'm so proud of the album: I keep dancing+drinking: metal/techno rock journey of a woman on the run."About an hour later, Gaga posted a black-and-white photo of herself, complete with dramatic eye make up and the cheek and forehead ridges that she has been sporting since she first performed "Born This Way" at the Grammy Awards last month.On the photo were the words, "GAGA 5 + 23 + 11."Besides celebrating finishing her third album, Gaga is also basking in the album's title track being number one for the fifth week in a row on the Billboard charts."This is our biggest hit ever monsters!" she tweeted to her fans on Wednesday. "You are amazing!"

Big voices invite huge expectations. They always beg the question: What material, arrangements, and production can match the power of singing that soars so high?Even someone with an instrument as resounding as Aretha's has suffered by that hard measure. No wonder Jennifer Hudson's first CD, released in 2008, struggled to find the right setting for a voice that ranks as one of her generation's mightiest. The disk wobbled between songs that chased the charts (cynical duets with T-Pain and Ludacris) and those that piggybacked on her "Dreamgirls" Oscar grab (a recycle of "And I Am Telling You" and other theatrically-minded, answer-back songs).While the disk had its standout moments (like the smartly turned single "Spotlight"), it never showed off her talent.Hudson's oddly named new disk, "I Remember Me," does a far better job of it, even if it does so more often through a general upgrade in the material than by finding a coherent mood.

The CD can still seem like a grab bag, shuttling between a trendy R&B song ("No One's Gonna Love You"), a retro '60s ditty ("Why Is It So Hard") a near-gospel blowout ("Believe"), a lounge standard ("Feeling Good") and a Diane Warren sudser ("Still Here"). The smartest connecting point comes in a tilt towards tuneful pop, at the cost of rhythmically-attuned R&B. Alicia Keys penned one-fourth of the tracks, giving the disk its best shot at consistency.Tellingly, the album flinches from too many references to Hudson's hellish back story. "I Remember Me" is her first studio effort since the murder of her mother, brother and nephew in late '08.But only in "Still Here," "Believe" and the title track does Hudson address that horrific loss, in implicitly. And the first two songs sanitize it through the magical thinking of faith. Luckily, such sentiments only highlight the depth of Hudson's talents. Her vocals ring with enough feeling to fill in whatever nuances the lyrics lack.It's the focus of Hudson's singing that makes it ring so deep.

Unlike most modern vocalists blessed with great athletic skills, Hudson doesn't go for cheap physical stunts. She leans hard into each note, concentrating on the feeling behind it rather than highlighting the work it took to achieve it.That's why she can even risk blowing out a song like "Feeling Good," — associated with as great a character singer as Nina Simone — and not sound like she's showing off. Hudson's tone and style have plenty of character of their own.If the material at hand doesn't always provide that style with its ideal vehicle, Hudson's voice makes up for that with an ideal balance of feeling and force.