November 18, 2009

By By Silvio Pietroluongo, N.Y.

Jay-Z will earn his fourth Hot 100 No. 1, but his first as a lead or co-billed performer, as his collaboration with Alicia Keys, "Empire State of Mind," will top the chart to be released tomorrow.

The rapper's prior chart-topping entries came as a featured vocalist on Mariah Carey's "Heartbreaker" (1999), his now-wife's "Crazy In Love" (2003) and Rihanna's "Umbrella" (2007). "Empire" is also Keys' fourth overall No. 1, as she previously scaled the list with her debut single "Fallin'" (2001), her duet with Usher, "My Boo," (2004) and "No One" (2007).

"Empire" takes Hot 100 Airplay Gainer honors as it rises 6-1 on the Radio Songs chart (up 15 million listener impressions to 109.5 million), the largest climb to No. 1 on that chart since Kanye West's "Stronger" jumped 7-1 on the chart dated Oct. 6, 2007.

Also noteworthy in the Hot 100 top 10 is the 22-5 jump of Lady Antebellum's "Need You Know." The act, which won Vocal Group of the Year and Single of the Year (for "I Run To You") on ABC's "Country Music Awards" Nov. 11, performed "Need" on the highly rated broadcast. As a result, digital downloads soared 162% to 157,000, the highest one-week sum for a song by a country group since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking digital sales in 2003. Among all country acts, only Taylor Swift has moved more downloads for a track in a single week.

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