Eamon (file)
Photo: John Shearer

While Britney Spears has been getting racier and more provocative with each step, she's not yet ready to go blue. She'll leave that to Eamon, who will open the first two weeks of her next North American tour, which starts June 22 in Hartford, Connecticut.

The author of "F--- It (I Don't Want You Back)" and other profanity-laced R&B swooners will hop onboard for such markets as Mansfield, Massachusetts (June 23), Darien Center, New York (June 26) and Milwaukee (July 1).

"This is big," enthused Eamon of the opportunity to play with Spears. "She really packs out places. I'm really excited and I just wanna get out there."

Clearly, Eamon is thrilled to be booked in arenas, yet he's fully aware that singing about hoes and bitches might not endear him to Britney's followers.

"Me and Britney aren't really the same type of artist, but I'm a fan of hers," he said. "I think she's cool and really talented. But she does her thing and I do mine, and I'm excited to do it for people, and I hope they like it."

Spears has 11 North American shows left to perform with Kelis and Skye Sweetnam, running from Monday night in Orlando, Florida, through April 14 in Auburn Hills, Michigan. On April 24 she'll head to Europe, where she'll play with Justin Timberlake's 'NSYNC bandmate JC Chasez, who is plugging his debut solo album, Schizophrenic (see "JC Chasez Opening For Britney In U.K., Lines Up Solo Dates"). Her European dates run through June 6 in Dublin, Ireland, and include a stop at Rock in Rio - Lisbon.

For a feature on Eamon, check out "Eamon: Ho-Wop Sinsation."

• Eamon
• Britney Spears

Eamon (file)
Photo: Jive

The back-and-forth about Eamon's "F--- It (I Don't Want You Back)" and Frankee's response song, "FU Right Back," stopped for a minute, but now both songwriters are back at it.

The latest development comes from Eamon, who last week revealed that he was in on Frankee's dis track from the start and that his creative team was actually involved in auditioning girls to create the song (see "That Eamon Dis Track? Ho-Wopper Now Claims He Was Behind It"). Now the pop/R&B singer is clarifying his position.

"I was not involved with 'FU Right Back,' " he said in a statement. "I have never met Frankee and she is definitely not my girlfriend or ex-girlfriend."

Written from the perspective of an ex-girlfriend, Frankee's "FU Right Back" calls Eamon out for being lousy in bed and nearly giving her crabs (see "Eamon's Alleged Old Flame Burns Him With Dis Track"). Eamon said last week that he was amused by the Frankee song, but the more people ask him about it, the less entertained he becomes. At this point, he seems interested only in distancing himself even further from her song.

"The only way I was associated with ['FU Right Back'] was when I was asked for licensing permission by Frankee's representatives, which makes me a writer on her song by copyright law," he said. "But I really didn't expect all this to come out of it. They are having fun with it, it's cool, but in the end they are paying me for their 15 minutes of fame and I welcome her to my world of ho-wop!"

Eamon's new assertion comes closer to Frankee's claim that she and a friend conceived and wrote "FU Right Back," which combines "F--- It (I Don't Want You Back)" with new lyrics. "I don't know where he got that story from [that girls were auditioned to create a dis track,]" Frankee said. "After hearing the record, I started thinking that maybe it was about me and I actually have a friend at a record label, and I presented the idea to her, so we wrote the song together."

For a feature on Eamon, check out "Eamon: Ho-Wop Sinsation."

• Eamon

Eamon
Photo: MTV News

The beef between R&B singer Eamon and his so-called ex-girlfriend, Frankee, continues to heat up on radio, as stations across the country follow up his hit "F--- It (I Don't Want You Back)" with her dis track, "FU Right Back." Frankee's song, which uses the exact same music as "F--- It (I Don't Want You Back)," calls Eamon out as being lousy in bed, having pubic lice and generally sucking as a boyfriend. And Eamon loves every word. In fact, he claims he approved the song before the public even heard it.

Not only does he say Frankee was never his girl, he said she was handpicked by his staff to record a response to "F--- It  (I Don't Want You Back)" in order to create the illusion of a feud (see "Eamon's Alleged Old Flame Burns Him With Dis Track"). "There was a big tryout, and I actually know some of the girls who wanted to do the song, but I never met Frankee in my life," Eamon said. "I think it's corny to death, but it's funny."

New York radio station Z100, which was the first to play "FU Right Back," said it received the track anonymously in the mail and was never told the rivalry was staged.

Eamon says that after Frankee was chosen to sing the track, she and a songwriter penned the lyrics, then sent an MP3 of the finished cut on to Eamon when he was on the road. He loved what he heard and gave them permission to release it to radio. However, he was a bit surprised when Frankee started doing interviews.

"I never knew she was going to say she was my ex-girlfriend," Eamon said, then laughed. "It's the funniest thing because even my aunt called me and said, 'Is this really your ex-girlfriend?' It's all good, though. Every time it gets played, I get paid."

Frankee, who is currently working on her own album, continues to insist that she once dated Eamon. She said the two went out five years ago, when she was 15, and that they were together for about two months. "Sometimes we met at the park, and once or twice he came to my house," she said. "It wasn't that serious."

She said she decided to write the song with a friend after hearing from various people in Staten Island that Eamon wrote "F--- It (I Don't Want You Back)" about her, though she admits she's not absolutely sure the track is, in fact, about her. "After hearing the lyrics, it sounds like it was about me, so that's why I wrote the response," she said. "And even if he wasn't talking about me, I'm answering it back for whoever he is talking about."

Even after all the scuttlebutt, Eamon says he still loves "FU Right Back," though some of his friends are surprised he can remain so good-natured about a song that claims his "sex was wack." But the self-proclaimed ho-wopper said that the disses are what make the track entertaining. "When I hear it on the radio, I laugh hysterically," he said. "It's funny 'cause it's not about me. It's all just fun and jokes."

The success of "FU Right Back" has prompted other female singers from across the country to create their own versions of "F--- It (I Don't Want You Back)." "There's one from this girl in Philadelphia, and I'm getting comebacks in the mail every single day," Eamon said. "I must have really pinched a nerve for all these people to write something about me. I guess that means I've made it. People are writing songs about me."

For more on Eamon, check out the Q&A "Ho-Wop Sinsation."

• Eamon

Eamon (file)
Photo: Jive

Eamon has rocketed up the charts with a song about his ex-girlfriend called "F--- It (I Don't Want You Back)," and now a woman who claims to be the subject of the track has retaliated with her own song: "FU Right Back."

The song adds new lyrics to the beats and melody of the Staten Island, New York, singer's hit, dissing the "ho-wop" crooner with lines like "You thought you could really make me moan/ I had better sex all alone" and "Now you want me to come back/ You must be smoking crack/ I'm going elsewhere, and that's a fact."

Eamon's chorus of "F--- you, you ho/ I don't want you back" is alternately replaced with "Well, guess what, yo?/ F--- you right back" and "Well, guess what, yo?/ Your sex was wack."

New York radio station Z100 received the track anonymously in the mail and began playing it on February 24. Almost immediately, the request lines started lighting up, and the station has been playing the cut almost as much as Eamon's original.

A woman named Frankee (and people claiming to be her aunt and her cousins) called the station to say that she recorded the track and is, indeed, Eamon's ex, but Eamon himself said there's no truth to the claim. "I don't know who that girl is. I don't know who she is. I never met this girl in my life. The song is wack. The sh-- is mad wack," he told the radio station. Uglier comments followed.

Frankee, who is also from Staten Island, said she co-wrote the song with a friend and that other anti-Eamon songs will appear on her upcoming album, The Good, the Bad & the Ugly, due in April. She added that she wrote the track to defend herself against Eamon's attacks because, as she says in the song's intro, "You know, there are two sides to every story." And she claimed that his response to her track strengthens her position.

"If he never met me, why is he getting so mad?" Frankee said on the radio. "Would a stranger get you that mad?

"It shouldn't even be about me being Eamon's ex-girlfriend," she added. "The [reworked] song is more about empowering women to fight back when people try to smear your name."

Although Eamon hasn't taken any legal action against Frankee, he has threatened to do so — or to write another dis track so venomous it would be her undoing.

"She doesn't really want me to write something else about her," he told Z100. "She should stop where she is. If she doesn't want me to ruin her career, she should stop singing."

(Editor’s note: Eamon later claimed that he had approved the Frankee track and that the beef between the two was staged (see “That Eamon Dis Track? Ho-Wopper Now Claims He Was Behind It”), a claim that Frankee denies.)

For more on Eamon, check out the Q&A "Ho-Wop Sinsation."

• Eamon

• Eamon

Eamon
Photo: Jive

Though Norah Jones and Kayne West sold enough albums last week to hold onto their #1 and #2 positions on the Billboard 200 albums chart, a little room must be made in the top 10 for embittered soul singer Eamon.

The crude crooner's debut album, I Don't Want You Back, sold more than 105,000 copies last week, qualifying him for the #7 spot, according to SoundScan figures released Wednesday (February 25). Its hit single, "F--- It (I Don't Want You Back)," has been the #1 single for nine straight weeks on the Billboard singles sales chart, and the seriously censored cut continues to gain spins at radio and video outlets.

Though Eamon's chart debut is impressive, he doesn't come close to approaching Norah Jones, whose Feels Like Home sold nearly four times as many copies in what was its second week on shelves. Jones' second LP racked up another 395,000 in sales for a total of more than 1.4 million.

Kanye West's debut album, The College Dropout, sold more than 196,000 copies on the heels of the omnipresent singles "Through the Wire" and "Slow Jamz." Six spots down at #8 is Twista's Kamikaze, a West co-production that also features the latter hit.

Evanescence sold about 30 percent fewer copies last week compared to the week following their Grammy wins for Best New Artist and Best Hard Rock Performance, but they still managed to make the most progress in the top 10. Their Fallen moves from #7 to #3 after selling more than 127,000 copies.

The rest of the top 10 finds Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below holding onto its #4 spot (with more than 122,000 copies sold); Kenny Chesney's When the Sun Goes Down continuing to set, dropping two to #5 (115,000); Josh Groban's Closer slipping one to #6 (113,000); The Very Best of Sheryl Crow moving up two to #9 (72,000); and Incubus' A Crow Left of the Murder down one to #10 (65,000).

Two weeks ago, stores saw their biggest non-holiday-season week since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991, so figures from this past week mostly represented a decline. Maroon 5's Songs About Jane, however, was the only top 20 album to sell more copies last week than in the days leading up to Valentine's Day. The quintet's debut, which has been steadily rising thanks to second single "This Love," jumps 18 places to #14, having sold more than 58,000 copies.

The soundtrack to "50 First Dates" leads a crop of albums making significant gains further down the chart. The reggae-flavored album, featuring contributions from Seal, Wyclef Jean and 311, leapt 50 spots to #30. The Lostprophets take a 32-spot vault to #41 with Start Something; St. Louis emo band Story of the Year's Page Avenue advances 55 spots to #61; teenage soul singer Joss Stone's Soul Sessions similarly steps up to #71; and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Fever to Tell climbs 58 to #93.

Other notable debuts include the Indigo Girls' All That We Let In, at #35; the soundtrack to "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen," peppered with tracks by the film's star, Lindsay Lohan, at #56; and the Latin-pop soundtrack to "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights" at #176.

• Eamon
• Norah Jones
• Kanye West

Eamon (file)
Photo: Jive

As much as he loves knowing fans want to hear his hit song "F--- It (I Don't Want You Back)" again and again, singer Eamon is even more excited when people hear the track for the very first time.

"People smile at first and they're like, 'Yeah, it's got a nice melody,' " he said. "But when it comes to the chorus, everybody's like, 'Whoa! What the f---?' I f---in' love that."

"F--- It (I Don't Want You Back)" begins as a swaying R&B ballad about a failed relationship. Then, as strings and gospel-style background vocals cut through the refrain, Eamon flings the "f" word at the former object of his affection and ends with the line "F--- you, you ho, I don't want you back."

Eamon and producer DJ Milk (who has also produced for his sister MC Lyte) wrote the song in 2000 and played it for various record labels. Even those that liked it found its language too objectionable for radio.

"The only people really down for it were my producers, my manager and my pops," Eamon recalled. "People were like, 'Yo, that will never get played. You're playing yourself. You're a fool. Why don't you start writing some nice, clean songs?' I was like, 'Yo, this is what I do!' "

Eamon got tired of hearing the same thing over and over. So a few years later he sent the song to a DJ at New York's Hot 97, who started spinning "F--- It" on the air. Suddenly, Jive Records took an interest and signed the profanity-spewing singer.

"F--- It (I Don't Want You Back)" is blowing up for several reasons. The tune is catchy, the contrast between mellifluous music and scathing language is novel and, just as importantly, the song addresses universal themes of betrayal, hurt and anger.

"I never wrote 'F--- It' thinking, 'Oh wow, this is gonna shock people,' " the singer, hailing from Staten Island, New York, explained. "I sat down at the keyboard and came out with these lyrics because I was pissed. I had been with this chick for a few months, and my boys were telling me she was cheating on me. I wasn't believing it. Then some sources close to her said she was really doing this stuff. I was like, 'F--- you, you ho!' So I went home and wrote the song."

• Eamon

Lindsay Lohan (file)
Photo: Jason Squires

There's nothing too dramatic about this week's new releases, unless you count the soundtrack to Lindsay Lohan's new movie, "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen." The album features songs by Lohan herself, mostly, with additional tracks by A Simple Plan and Lillix.

In other soundtrack news, the music on the "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights" album comes courtesy of Christina Aguilera, Wyclef Jean featuring Claudette Ortiz, Mya and Cuban rappers Orishas.

The Indigo Girls let out All That We Let In this week alongside Lambchop's internal argument played out on two albums — Aw, C'mon and No, You C'mon — and singer/songwriter Eamon's debut album, I Don't Want You Back, featuring the track "F--- It (I Don't Want You Back)." Why doesn't this guy just tell us how he really feels?

Out Tuesday, February 17:

• All Night Radio - Spirit Stereo Frequency (Sub Pop)
• Amps for Christ - The People at Large (5 Rue Christine)
• Bagheera - Twelves (Asian Man)
• Bark Psychosis - Replay (United States Dist.)
• Bruisers - Singles Collection (Taang)
• Casual Dots - Casual Dots (Kill Rock Stars)
• The Casualties - On the Front Lines (SideOneDummy)
• Challenger - Give People What They Want in Lethal Doses (Jade Tree)
• Chromatics - Plaster Hounds (Gold Standard Laboratories)
• Chromeo - She's In Control (Vice/Atlantic)
• Cinderella - In Concert (Cleopatra)
• Chris Difford - I Didn't Get Where I Am (Navarre)
• Eamon - I Don't Want You Back (Jive)
  Buy Now: I Don't Want You Back (Jive)
  
• Evergreen Terrace - Writer's Block (Eulogy)
• External Menace - The Process of Elimination (Dr. Strange)
• The Fall-Outs - Summertime (Estrus)
• The Faraway Places - Unfocus on It (Eenie Meenie)
• Get F---ed - Get F---ed (Level-Plane)
• John Wesley Harding - Adam's Apple (Navarre)
• Peter Himmelman - Unstoppable Forces (Navarre)
• Indigo Girls - All That We Let In (Epic)
  Buy Now: All That We Let In (Epic)
  
• Lambchop - Aw C'mon (Merge)
• Lambchop - No, You C'mon (Merge)
• Masterplan - Colossus of Destiny (Total Energy)
• Monster Magnet - Monolithic Baby (SPV)
• Noxagt - The Iron Point (Load)
• OOIOO - Kila Kila Kila (Thrill Jockey)
• Pilot to Gunner - Get Saved (Arena Rock)
• Preston School of Industry - Monsoon (Matador)
• The Proclaimers - Born Innocent (Persevere)
• Rag Men - Rag Men (Eulogy)
• Stan Ridgway and Pietra Wexstun - Blood (Sympathy for the Record Industry)
• Scarling - Sweet Heart Dealer (Sympathy for the Record Industry)
• Peter Searcy - Couch Songs (Initial)
• Ben Sidran - Nick's Bump (Nardis/Liquid 8)
• Garrison Starr - Airstreams and Satellites (Vanguard)
• The Swan Silvertones - I'll Keep Loving Him (Liquid 8)
• Trans Am - Liberation (Thrill Jockey)
• Trapist - Ballroom (Thrill Jockey)
• Willard Grant Conspiracy - Regard the End (Kimchee)
• Wolfe - Delaware Crossing (Valley Entertainment)
• Xiu Xiu - Fabulous Muscles (5 Rue Christine)
• Various artists – "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" soundtrack (Hollywood)
• Various artists – "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights" soundtrack (J)
• Various artists - A Guitar Tribute to Sting (Tribute Sounds)
• Various artists - Pickin' on Toby Keith, Vol. II (CMH)
• Various artists - The String Quartet Tribute to Incubus, Volume 2 (Vitamin)
• Various artists - A Tribute to Beastie Boys (Tribute Sounds)
• Various artists - A Tribute to Seal (Tribute Sounds)
• DVD: "War on Wax: Rivalries in Hip-Hop" (Image Entertainment)

• JC Chasez - Schizophrenic (Jive)
  Read: "JC Chasez Learns To 'Shake It' Like A Polaroid Picture On Schizophrenic"
  Buy Now: Schizophrenic (Jive)
  
• John Frusciante - Shadows Collide With People (Warner Bros.)
  Buy Now: Shadows Collide With People (Warner Bros.)
  
• Orgy - Punk Statik Paranoia (D1)
  Buy Now: Punk Statik Paranoia (D1)
  
• Rick Springfield - Shock Denial Anger Acceptance (Red Ink)

• Black Sabbath - Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath 1970-78 (Rhino)
• Cee-Lo - Cee-Lo Green Is the Soul Machine (Arista)
• The Get Up Kids - Guilt Show (Vagrant)
  Buy Now: Guilt Show (Vagrant)
  
• Hootie and the Blowfish - The Best of Hootie and the Blowfish 1993-2003 (Atlantic)

• BT - Music From and Inspired by the Film "Monster" (Digital Sound)

• Janet Jackson - Damita Jo (Virgin)
  Read: "Janet Jackson Making Sexiest Album Yet, Producer Says"
  Buy Now: Damita Jo (Virgin)
  

April 6:

• Rahzel - Rahzel's Greatest Knockouts (Readyrock)
  Buy Now: Rahzel's Greatest Knockouts (Readyrock)
  

• Eamon
• Monster Magnet
• Lambchop
• The Indigo Girls
• Cinderella

46th Annual Grammy Awards Green Carpet

• Beyoncé
• Christina Aguilera
• 50 Cent
• G-Unit
• Justin Timberlake