Houston (file)
Photo: Getty

Depending on who you talk to, R&B singer Houston's eye injury is the result of either mental illness, spiritual crisis or just an accident.

"Houston is going through spiritual warfare right now," Houston's bodyguard Marco Powell said. "It's like good versus evil. He grew up in a Christian family, and since he's signed his record deal he's been subjected to, in his own words, 'sins and devils in the business' like drugs, alcohol and all this stuff that he's not used to. He didn't want to be around that. He just wasn't happy with management — he just wasn't happy. He didn't know which way to turn."

Powell was in London with the 21-year-old singer the night Houston gouged his eye out and insists it was not a suicide attempt (see "R&B Singer Houston Gouges Eye Out After Apparent Suicide Attempt").

"The night of the incident, we had dinner at the hotel," Powell recalled. "After dinner, he went to his room to read the Bible. He is an avid reader of the Bible. After I finished eating, I went upstairs to check on him and I noticed blood on the floor. Houston usually has really bad nose bleeds. So I asked him, 'Are you OK? Is your nose bleeding?' He said, 'Yeah, my nose is bleeding but I'm cool. I will see you in the morning. I can't wait to get back to L.A. with my family.' He was lying on the bed with a towel over his face, so something told me it was more than [just a nose bleed]. So I walked into the room to talk to him, I pulled the towel off of his face, and that's when I saw that he had gouged his eye out.

"He showed no pain and he had no remorse," Powell added. "He said he had to do it. He said that that had freed him from everything. He was happy after that. He said he was changed and was ready to go. That symbolic statement basically freed him from all the pain he was in. He feels like he is closer to God now."

Billie Summers, Houston's sister, also says the suicide rumors are untrue.

"Houston is a Christian and he does know that if he attempted anything like that he'd be doomed," Summers said. "His managers, Reno Rankin and Andrew Rowe of On Point Productions, are no longer his managers, so they are trying to slander his name. While Houston was on the road, their contract [with him] ended and there were rumors that they were going to try and slander my brother's name. I believe they're the ones calling up the radio stations, MTV and BET and giving false info."

However, On Point's Rankin and Rowe offer a different portrait of the singer.

"Houston has a sickness," Rowe said. "There's nothing to hide. He needs to be treated so he doesn't harm himself worse than he did, or someone else."

According to Rankin, he, Rowe and a Capitol Records representative took Houston to a psychiatrist themselves while the family remained in denial. They say the singer was even treated at UCLA Medical Center prior to his trip overseas.

"In September Houston was hospitalized," Rowe said. "We had to cancel everything from October to the end of the year. He was diagnosed as schizophrenic. He was supposed to be in treatment and on medication, but we had clearance by the family and doctors to work half the time.

"He was out of control, just doing things that were off the wall — things that normal people don't do," Rowe added. "So when he went to London, we were told he blew it on the Choice FM Awards and that he was starting to regress. He was carry a Bible around and just doing things that just weren't normal."

The On Point duo said Houston's actions made them worried about sending him overseas. "Houston wanted to work like any other artist because there was money on the table," Rowe recalled, "but there was concern, and that's why I requested a doctor's note."

"Capitol was requesting him on the road to do promo over in London," Rankin said. "So Houston's family sent us a doctor's note, stating that Houston was able to work, and we took the note and faxed it over to Capitol."

While Rankin and Rowe are not sure if a lack of medication is what caused the incident, they say things quickly took a turn for the worse.

"They finally got to Dubai [in the United Arab Emirates], barely, and that's where he got real bad," Rowe said. "[Houston] wanted to hurt himself bad and he was on the brink. When he got back to England was when I finally got the call that he stabbed himself in the eye. He was so off guard that he was trying to kill himself."

Summers acknowledged that her brother was injured while overseas but called it "an accident." "He is all right and in good spirits," she said. "He's not depressed, on any medications or under any psychiatric care. He was just in surgery and he will be coming home soon, in a day or two. Everything is well."

She said he's in Los Angeles now and that she doesn't know the details of the accident.

"We haven't mentioned anything to Houston, but we're going to talk to him about what exactly happened," Summers said. "Houston would never inflict any harm on himself. He was under a lot of spiritual stress, and a lot of that pressure, I believe, came from the music industry.

"I just want everyone to pray for him. He is going through trying times. ... This is the last thing he needs," she added.

Meanwhile, Rankin and Rowe said they haven't had any direct contact with their former client since he returned to the States.

"We decided that we didn't want to continue," Rowe said. "We feel like our contract could have been extended, but that's not important. The kid needs help more than anything else. His health is our biggest concern."

The two said they're also concerned with how Houston's finances are being managed.

"We have a serious problem with the way the family is handling this kid's situation," Rowe said. "There's no reason for this kid to have no money. They passed on a publishing deal that could have helped him out right now. They got involved and we tried everything [we could], but at the end of the day, Houston was loyal to his mom. I don't have a problem with that, but they are not capable of handling a kid like that. The kid was a star. He had a great opportunity laid out, so he should have had proper housing and a nice car."

"The kid still lives where he lives when we met him — in a two-bedroom apartment with four other people," Rankin said. "They spent all the kid's money."

• Houston

Houston (file)
Photo: Capitol

After being thwarted in a suicide attempt in a London hotel room, R&B singer Houston gouged his own eye out.

On Thursday Houston attempted to jump out of a 13th-floor hotel window but was stopped by his security personnel, sources close to the singer said. He was moved to a lower floor and locked in his room, where he injured himself. Additional details are still coming to light, and photographs of his injury are circulating online.

The Los Angeles native, born Houston Summers IV, was overseas for a series of performances when the incident occurred. He scored a hit last year with "I Like That," which featured Chingy and Nate Dogg and was used in a McDonald's commercial (see "Houston Scores Club Hit With Help From Chingy, Nate Dogg"). His debut album, It's Already Written, was certified gold a month after its release in August.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with Houston during this tragic time," a Capitol Records spokesperson said.

Los Angeles radio station KKBT-FM's K-Sly, who appeared in the "I Like That" video and is close to Houston's camp, said the singer had been under psychiatric care last year for manic depression. Another source corroborated that claim, adding that Houston had also struggled with PCP.

"I was told he wanted to commit suicide and stabbed his eye out," K-Sly said. "He was telling people he was Jesus and wanted to go home to his Father" (see "Bodyguard: Houston 'Happy,' Closer To God After Gouging Eye").

The singer is now back in Los Angeles.

Upon hearing about Houston, Bushwick Bill of rap group the Geto Boys felt compelled to speak out. In 1991, Bill forced his girlfriend to assist him in a suicide attempt, and she shot him in the eye. "Fame will make you crazy," Bill said in a statement. "Fame isn't for everybody. There are people who have a fear of fame, those who want fame, and those who don't understand fame. It drives them crazy, because it is a lot of responsibility to be all things to all people, and you can lose yourself in the shuffle, where there are no longer 52 cards in the deck."

• Houston

Ashlee Simpson (file)
Photo: Geffen

Despite the arrival of three new albums in the top 10, the top two LPs on next week's Billboard albums chart won't budge, allowing Ashlee Simpson's Autobiography to retain the #1 spot for the second straight week.

In its four weeks on sale, Simpson's debut, which moved another 263,000 copies last week, according to SoundScan, has been on top for three of them, selling more than 1.2 million along the way. It slipped to #2 two weeks ago to let Now That's What I Call Music! 16 assume the position.

Now will now slip to #2, having sold more than 247,000 copies. In its three-week shelf life, the hits compilation — with contributions from Outkast, D12 and Beyoncé — has sold more than 1 million copies.

Shyne's Godfather Buried Alive leads the pack of new albums by selling more than 157,000 to come in at #3. The album was recorded while the rapper was incarcerated at New York's Clinton Correctional Facility, where he continues to serve a 10-year-sentence for his role in a 1999 shooting that involved P. Diddy. Though Shyne said that the album's quality transcends its prison cachet, he did admit it's a bit of a curiosity when an MC spits behind bars.

"If people didn't feel the music I made, they wouldn't be interested," he said. "But you see a lifestyle. You see what I do and then go back and listen to the record, then you see, 'OK, he really did that.' It brings a bit more reality and a bit more truth to it ... But if [the single 'Jimmy Choo'] wasn't a good song, it wouldn't matter."

Mobb Deep's sixth album, Amerikaz Night Mare, the Queensbridge duo's follow-up to 2001's Infamy, will trail Shyne at #4, having sold more than 108,000 copies. At #5, Mark Tremonti and Scott Phillips make their return to the chart's upper reaches with Alter Bridge's One Day Remains, the first post-Creed offering since the group broke up earlier this year. While a far cry from the Creed-size numbers the guitarist and drummer are used to, One Day Remains, fronted by the single, "Open Your Eyes," still moved a respectable 95,000 copies.

The rest of the top 10 finds Usher's Confessions falling two spots to #6 (with more than 88,000 copies sold); Jimmy Buffett's License to Chill slipping four spots to #7 (77,000); Gretchen Wilson's Here for the Party moving from #5 to #8 while cracking the 1.5 million mark in total sales with last week's 76,000-copy tally; Prince's Musicology dropping a pair of rungs to #9 (73,000); and Avril Lavigne's Under My Skin dropping four places to #10 (70,000).

Riding the wave of the single "I Like That," which features Chingy and Nate Dogg, smooth crooner Houston will debut at #14 with his first album, It's Already Written.

Elsewhere, Maroon 5's Songs About Jane lands at #12, while the soundtrack to "The Princess Diaries 2," driven by the Kelly Clarkson single "Breakaway," will take an 11-spot leap up to #16. And Jessica Simpson's In This Skin increased its weekly sales by 19 percent to re-enter the top 20 at #20, up from its previous spot at #26.

Other notable debuts on next week's chart include Kidz Bop Kids Vol. 6, the latest in the line of records featuring children covering pop songs, at #23; the compilation Rock Against Bush, Vol. 2, featuring Green Day, Foo Fighters and No Doubt, at #45; Sammy Hagar's Definitive Collection at #75; the "Garden State" soundtrack, featuring Coldplay, Nick Drake and the Shins, at #125; Rise Against's Siren Song of the Counter Culture at #136; and Mystikal's best-of set, Prince of the South ... The Hits, at #140.

• Ashlee Simpson
• Shyne
• Mobb Deep
• Alter Bridge
• Houston

Shyne's <I>Godfather Buried Alive</I>
Photo: Gangland Records Corp.

This week's battle of the cash registers involves a couple of heavyweight new releases.

In this corner is jailed rapper Shyne, who signed a record deal with Def Jam from behind bars to house his imprint, Gangland Records. His second album, Godfather Buried Alive, is his first in five years and features the much-talked-about "For the Record," in which he disses 50 Cent, who called him a punk on a New York radio station.

In the opposite corner is the heavy-hitter for the rock set, Alter Bridge, the band formed from the ashes of Creed. The new group releases its debut album this week, One Day Remains, on the heels of first single "Open Your Eyes."

Havoc and Prodigy, a.k.a. Mobb Deep, are back in action this week with their latest release, Amerikaz Nightmare. The album features the Kanye West-produced "Throw Your Hands."

Also out this week is the second volume of the Rock Against Bush compilation. This installment features previously unreleased tracks from bands including Green Day and Bouncing Souls, plus rare tracks from the Foo Fighters and a host of others.

Also out this week are albums from a Stills-less David Crosby and Graham Nash (Crosby-Nash), a cat-glasses-toting Lisa Loeb (The Way It Really Is), a right-here-waiting Richard Marx (My Own Best Enemy), Teedra Moses (Complex Simplicity), Kool Keith & Kutmasta Kurt (Diesel Truckers), Ari Hest (Someone to Tell) and Rise Against (Siren Song of the Counter-Culture).

Out Tuesday, August 10:

• Alter Bridge - One Day Remains (Wind-Up)
  Buy Now: One Day Remains (Wind-Up)
  Read: "Life After Creed: Alter Bridge Look To A Stapp-Free Future"
• Michelle Anthony - Stand Fall Repeat (Burn and Shiver)
• Ataxia - Automatic Writing (Record Collection)
• Athens Boys Choir - Rhapsody in T (Daemon)
• Burrito Deluxe - The Whole Enchilada (Luna Chica)
• Clouseaux - Lagoon (Dionysus)
• Codetalkers - Deluxe Edition (Deep South)
• David Crosby and Graham Nash - Crosby-Nash (Sanctuary)
• Das Ich - Lava (Metropolis)
• Death Threat Now - Now Here Fast (Triple Crown)
• Julia Fordham - That's Life (Vanguard)
• Jeffrey Foucault - Stripping Cane (Signature Sounds)
• Rachel Fuller - Cigarettes & Housework (Universal)
• Richie Furay - In My Father's House (Friday)
• GBH - Cruel & Unusual (Idol)
• A Girl Called Eddy - A Girl Called Eddy (Anti)
• The Good Life - Album of the Year (Saddle Creek)
• Owen Gray - Shook, Shimmy & Shake (Trojan/Sanctuary)
• Grendel - Prescription: Medicide (Metropolis)
• Andy Griggs - This I Gotta See (RCA Nashville)
• Ari Hest - Someone to Tell (Columbia)
• Houston - It's Already Written (Capitol)
  Buy Now: It's Already Written (Capitol)
  Read: "Houston Scores Club Hit With Help From Chingy, Nate Dogg"
• K's Choice - 10: 1993-2003 Ten Years Of (Vanguard)
• Robert Earl Keen - No. 2 Live Dinner (Koch)
• Emer Kenny - Parting Glass (Triloka/Artemis)
• Kidz Bop Kids - Kidz Bop 6 (Razor & Tie)
• Kool Keith & Kutmasta Kurt - Diesel Truckers (Oglio)
• Mark Lanegan Band - Bubblegum (Beggars Banquet)
• Lhasa - The Living Road (Nettwerk)
• Lisa Loeb - The Way It Really Is (Rounder)
• Malibu Storm - Malibu Storm (Rounder)
• Charlotte Martin - On Your Shore (RCA)
• Richard Marx - My Own Best Enemy (EMI/Capitol)
• The Mendoza Line - Fortune (Bar/None)
• Minor Times - Making Enemies (Level Plane)
• Mobb Deep - Amerikaz Nightmare (Violator/Jive)
  Buy Now: Amerikaz Nightmare (Violator/Jive)
  Read: "Mobb Deep Blinded With '80s Science For 'Twisted' Beat"
• Mono Chrome - Collapse and Sever (Metropolis)
• Teedra Moses - Complex Simplicity (TVT)
• Mourning September - A Man Can Change His Stars (Floodgate/WEA)
• Muffs - Really Really Happy (Five Foot Two/Oglio)
• Michael Powers - Onyx Root (Baryon)
• Rachel Proctor - Where I Belong (BNA)
• Rise Against - Siren Song of the Counter-Culture (DreamWorks)
• Rolling Blackouts - Black Is Beautiful (Record Collection/True Love)
• Shindig - The Beginning Is Your End (Undecided)
• Shyne - Godfather Buried Alive (Def Jam)
  Buy Now: Godfather Buried Alive (Def Jam)
  Read: "Shyne Album Inspired By Supermodel Shoes, Pacino Films"
• Slim Cessna's Auto Club - The Bloudy Tenent, Truth and Peace (Alternative Tentacles)
• Tracy Spuehler - It's the Sound (Tracymusic)
• Paul Thorn - Are You With Me? (Back Porch)
• Tin Hat Trio - Book of Silk (Ropeadeope/Artemis)
• Unbunny - Snow Tires (Hidden Agenda/Parasol)
• The Upsidedown - Trust Electricity (Reverb)
• Velvet Crush - Stereo Blues (Action Musik)
• Wailin' Jennys - 40 Days (Red House)
• Yellow Swans - Bring the Neon War Home (Narnack)
• James Zabiela - Alive (Renaissance/System)
• Various artists - A Trip in Lounge (Varèse Sarabande)
• Various artists - Crunkin' G Style (Dmaft/Oglio)
• Various artists - Is It Rolling Bob?: A Reggae Tribute to Bob Dylan (Sanctuary/Ras)
• Various artists - Rock Against Bush Vol. 2 (Fat Wreck Chords/Punkover)
  Read: "No Doubt, Foo Fighters, Yellowcard On Rock Against Bush Vol. 2"
• Various artists - Touch My Heart: A Tribute to Johnny Paycheck (Sugar Hill)
• Various artists: Soundtrack to "Code 46" (Koch)
• Various artists: Soundtrack to "Garden State" (Sony)
• DVD: Hilary Duff - "That Girl Can Rock: The Concert" (Buena Vista/Hollywood)
• DVD: Nana Mouskouri - "Nana Swings: Live at Jazzopen Festival" (Philips)
• DVD: Various artists - "Lords of the Underground" (Thump)

August 17:

• Ryan Cabrera - Take It All Away (Atlantic)
• Saliva - Survival of the Sickest (Island)
  Read: "Saliva: Foaming At The Mouth"
• Talking Heads - The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads (Rhino)
• Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous (Warner Bros.)

August 24:

• R. Kelly - Happy People/ U Saved Me (Jive)
  Read: "R. Kelly Giving Happy People Some Inspiration"
• Tim McGraw - Live Like You Were Dying (Curb)
• Jason Mraz - Tonight, Not Again — At the Eagles Ballroom (Elektra)

August 31:

• Björk - Medulla (Elektra/Asylum)
• Jill Scott - Beautifully Human: Words & Sounds 2 (Sony)
• Insane Clown Posse - Hell's Pit, Version 1 (Psychopathic)
• Insane Clown Posse - Hell's Pit, Version 2 (Psychopathic)
• Various artists - Passion of the Christ: Songs (Wind-Up)

• Shyne
• Alter Bridge
• Mobb Deep
• Lisa Loeb
• Kool Keith

Houston (file)
Photo: MTV News

HOLLYWOOD — Newcomer Houston attended Los Angeles' Hamilton High School Academy of Music, but his real education came from the city's nightlife.

"As a youngster, ever since I was 15, I used to sneak up in da clubs," Houston said. "I used to listen to Lil Jon, Missy, R. Kelly, DMX, whoever was reigning in the club at the time. It's definitely something I had to go do my homework on, to see what the girls were shaking it to."

Houston's homework is paying off, as he put his dancefloor knowledge into "I Like That," his introductory single and one of the summer's hottest club tracks. Produced by the Trak Starz, the team behind Chingy's 2003 smash "Right Thurr," the song features Chingy, along with Nate Dogg and I-20 from Ludacris' Disturbing Tha Peace crew.

The track's collaborators are a perfect fit, as Houston's unique style helps bring together Nate Dogg's smooth singing voice with Chingy's easygoing rapping and ladies' man demeanor. Houston likes to say he grew with hip-hop but has R&B in his blood.

"I Like That" is the first single from Houston's debut, It's Already Written, due August 10. Jermaine Dupri, Jazze Pha and the Underdogs also contributed production, but Houston is just as excited about the many up-and-comers he teamed with.

"There's a lot of hungry producers that's ready to put a next-generation album out for my youngsters out there, as well as for my 'hood cats," Houston said.

For the second single, Houston's contemplating the Pha cut "Alright" or a tune for the ladies called "Twizala." "I don't know, 'cause I definitely want the ladies to fall in love with Houston," he said.

Other highlights on the album include a cover of Ready for the World's 1986 funk favorite "Love You Down" and "Didn't Give a Damn," a poignant number about growing up without a father.

Houston will join Chingy as well as 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, J-Kwon, Lil' Flip, Mase, the Ying Yang Twins and Mario Winans at KKBT-FM's Summer Jam on August 7 at the Forum near Los Angeles.

• Chingy
• Nate Dogg
• Houston

MTV.com Exclusive: Houston Photos 08.12.2004

• Houston