Rick Ross' <I>Port of Miami</I>
Photo: Def Jam

Fans have waited years for Rick Ross' inaugural offering, Port of Miami, to finally make its way onto record store shelves — and it would appear that those same fans couldn't wait another minute to get themselves a copy of the rapper's debut.

With first-week sales reported at more than 187,000, Ross' Port of Miami replaces the latest entrant in the imposing Now That's What I Call Music! compilation series at the top of Billboard's albums chart. According to the latest SoundScan figures, Ross' path to #1 was direct and virtually unimpeded, outselling Breaking Benjamin's second-place finishing Phobia by more than 62,000 units.

Ross and the Breaking boys were among the five newest releases to open in the chart's top 10, pushing Now to #3. With sales clocked at 104,000 and change, the compilation — featuring contributions from Kelly Clarkson, Ne-Yo, Sean Paul and Bubba Sparxxx — ends its four-week run in the top two.

The self-titled debut LP from Diddy-backed R&B songstress and "You Hear It First" alumna Cassie racked up sales of 100,000, to bow at #4 on the chart. Cassie is followed by another new entry, Slayer's Christ Illusion, which sold more than 62,000 copies during its first week out to take #5. While Christ Illusion earned the devilish metal icons the highest debut showing of their illustrious career, it's far from Slayer's best-selling debut: That distinction belongs to 1994's Divine Intervention, which opened at #8 with 93,000 scans.

The soundtrack to the film "Step Up" — which boasts material from Yung Joc, Chamillionaire and Chris Brown — occupies the #6 spot with week-one sales coming in at just over 59,000. The remainder of the top 10 is filled with familiar faces: The 10th release from the Kidz Bop Kids takes #7 with 56,000 units sold; Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere slips one to #8 with close to 54,000 copies snatched up; DMX's Year of the Dog, Again falls from #2 to #9, selling 47,000-plus units; and Nickelback's All The Right Reasons rounds things out at #10, with sales of close to 47,000.

In all, 19 fresh releases crack Billboard's top 200, including Hellogoodbye's Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!, which opens at #18 with nearly 38,000 in week-one scans. Ozzfest vets Unearth take #35, selling 22,000 copies of their latest outing, III: In the Eyes of Fire, while Ani DiFranco's Reprieve pops up at #46 with sales of about 18,000.

The Jonas Brothers' It's About Time lays claim to Billboard's #91 position, selling 10,000 units, while the self-titled debut from Under the Influence of Giants claims the #134 slot with more than 6,000 copies sold. Gin Blossoms return to the chart at #159 after selling more than 5,000 copies of their latest, Major Lodge Victory. Todd Snider's The Devil You Know checks in at #173 with nearly 5,000 scans, just 100 copies ahead of Masta Killa's Made in Brooklyn, which scores #176. B.G.'s Play It How It Go debuts at #191 after selling more than 4,000 copies. And just making the chart cut at #200 is Waterloo to Anywhere, the debut LP from "You Hear It First" artists Dirty Pretty Things, which came up one disc short of 4,000 sold.

• Rick Ross (Hip-Hop)
• Breaking Benjamin
• Cassie
• Slayer
• Gnarls Barkley

3 Doors Down's Brad Arnold (file)
Photo: Getty Images/Ralph Notaro

It's been awhile (pardon the pun) since New England nü-metalers Staind have been around, but the band is all set to make its triumphant return to the rock forefront this summer — and in a big way.

Staind's new album, Chapter V, will be hitting stores on August 9 (see "Staind Guitarist Has That Old Familiar Feeling About Chapter V"). The band will also be joining forces with Southern rock purveyors 3 Doors Down and hard rockers Breaking Benjamin in late June for a 44-date North American road trip. But before Staind take to the blacktop, frontman Aaron Lewis and guitarist Mike Mushok will be giving their fans a little taste of what's to come.

Monday in Cleveland, Lewis and Mushok hopped on a tour bus for what could only be described as a listening party on wheels. Last night marked the first of 14 stops on their promotional listening tour. In a posting on the band's Web site, Staind invited their fans to e-mail them if they wanted to win a chance to listen to Chapter V in its entirety.

The party will continue Tuesday (May 3) in Detroit and hit cities in Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut before wrapping up in New York on May 18.

The Staind, 3 Doors Down and Breaking Benjamin tour kicks off in Manchester, New Hampshire, on June 30, and should wrap up sometime in mid-September. Only 20 of the trek's 44 dates have been announced thus far, and tour organizers plan to add a fourth band to the lineup. MTV News will bring you those additional details once they've been firmed up.

3 Doors Down, Staind and Breaking Benjamin tour dates, according to 3 Doors Down's management:

• 6/30 - Manchester, NH @ Verizon Wireless Arena
• 7/2 - Charlottetown, PE @ Festival of Lights
• 7/4 - Atlantic City, NJ @ Borgata Events Center
• 7/8 - Mansfield, MA @ Tweeter Center
• 7/9 - Camden, NJ @ Tweeter Center at the Waterfront
• 7/10 - Portland, ME @ Cumberland County Civic Center
• 7/12 - Quebec City, QC @ The Agora
• 7/14 - Sarnia, ON @ Sarnia Bayfest
• 7/15 - Burgettstown, PA @ Post-Gazette Pavilion at Star Lake
• 7/16 - Hartford, CT @ Ctnow.com Meadows Music Theater
• 7/19 - Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion
• 7/20 - Hershey, PA @ Hersheypark Amphitheatre
• 7/22 - Tinley Park, IL @ Tweeter Center
• 7/23 - Columbus, OH @ Germain Amphitheater
• 7/24 - Moline, IL @ The Mark of the Quad Cities
• 7/31 - Charleston, WV @ Charleston Civic Center Coliseum
• 8/3 - Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center
• 8/25 - St. Paul, MN @ Minnesota State Fair
• 8/26 - Milwaukee, WI @ Marcus Amphitheatre
• 9/4 - Syracuse, NY @ New York State Fair

• Staind
• 3 Doors Down
• Breaking Benjamin

Breaking Benjamin (file)
Photo: Hollywood Records

In the video for Breaking Benjamin's single "So Cold," a convict is sentenced to have his arms chained to a slab of stone that he must carry through the woods and into a deep river. But he's not the only one who suffered.

"There were ticks and leeches all over the place," frontman Ben Burnley said of the daylong shoot directed by Smith n' Borin in April. "Fortunately, I was standing on the land, but [guitarist] Aaron [Fink] and [bassist] Markus [James] were in the bog, and I really thought they'd come out with leeches all over their legs because that water was disgusting."

OK, so the sacrifice wasn't exactly huge, but it illustrates the extent to which Breaking Benjamin are willing to go for their career. Two weeks before their sophomore disc, We Are Not Alone, came out, they began a tour to generate prerelease buzz, which may have helped them to debut at #20 on the Billboard albums chart.

"Playing live is so important," said Burnley, whose band hit the road with Evanescence on Tuesday. "It doesn't matter how good your record is, people, they want to see a band live, and if you win them over in concert, they'll love you even more and tell even more people about you."

When Breaking Benjamin break into "So Cold" at shows, fans sing along and cheer so loudly you can hardly hear the band. Even more thrilling for Burnley is that two months after its release, he can still play the tune every night without growing weary of it. "It's a really strong song, and I think that comes from everybody in the band writing it together," he said. "A lot of times I'll write the whole thing, but that one was split pretty evenly."

As much of a unifying force as "So Cold" has been for the band's fans, to Burnley the song is bleak and apocalyptic. "I always picture it as an end-of-the-world kind of thing," he said. "It's not about that, but I picture that because there's a line that goes, 'If you find your family/ Don't you cry,' and it makes me think it's because they're dead when you find them — like in the movie '28 Days Later.' I love that movie."

While "So Cold" was created completely by Breaking Benjamin, three songs on We Are Not Alone were co-written by ex-Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan: "Rain," "Follow" and "Forget It." The band hooked up with Corgan after finding out he had been working with other bands including Blindside and Taproot. The collaboration took place over six days in December and was one of the highlights of Burnley's career, he said.

"At first, I was so nervous," he admitted. "When I met him I was like, 'Oh sh--, that's Billy Corgan.' But after a while I got more comfortable, and then he just became Billy. I'd come in every day, we'd order soup, eat and then we'd get to work. It was great."

Despite such opportunities, not to mention their recent chart success, Burnley and his bandmates are still as humble as they were before they got signed. They see every act of good fortune as a gift, and they remain thankful to their fans for everything.

"We've actually seen a few fans with Breaking Benjamin tattoos, and that just blows us away," Burnley said. "That sh--'s permanent, which is such a compliment. I mean, I have no expectations for anything, and I know we're still nobodies. We're still a baby band, and we have a lot of work to do."

• Breaking Benjamin

Breaking Benjamin live at Buzzfest in Houston, TX 10.30.2004

• Breaking Benjamin