Wyclef Jean has been receiving death threats over his proposed candidacy for the Haitian presidential election, according to a report by The Associated Press. The hip-hop star said Tuesday (Aug. 17) that he has gone into hiding in an undisclosed location in the Caribbean after revealing the threats in a series of e-mails to the AP.

Jean is also facing the possibility of not being allowed to run in the November presidential race due to the election's residency requirements. Although Haiti's Constitution requires candidates to have lived in the country for five consecutive years, Jean believes his 2007 appointment as a roving ambassador exempts him from the rule. 

Haiti's electoral commission postponed a ruling on who will be allowed to run in the election on Tuesday night, leaving the status of Jean's candidacy unknown.

The former Fugees member registered as a Haitian presidential candidate earlier this month. In a video filmed for CNN last week, Jean explained the goals of his candidacy and what he sees for the future of Haiti.

The ultimate boy band tour could be coming soon to an arena near you. New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys are close to signing a deal with Live Nation Entertainment which could lead to a joint tour as early as March 2011, E! News reports.

The members of NKOTB and BSB may be recording a single together before the proposed tour. While Live Nation has not commented on the tour, the company is also said to be looking for a third group to round out the tour, with Boyz II Men at the top of the wish list.

 
"The idea is to recreate the boy band phenomenon," says a source close to the negotiations. "It will be the ultimate ladies' night out."

The boy bands first teamed up last June during a Radio City Music Hall performance. At the concert, New Kids on the Block joined the Backstreet Boys (sans Kevin Richardson, who left the band in 2006) for a rendition of the latter's smash hit "I Want It That Way." 

"Speak Now," Taylor Swift's highly anticipated third album, is still over two months away, but fans can now check out the disc's cover art. The country superstar released the artwork today (Aug. 18) for the album, due out Oct. 25 on Big Machine Records, and the photo features Swift twirling in a lush purple gown.

In other Swift news, MTV Networks announced today that the music video to "Mine," the album's first single, will premiere on CMT, MTV, VH1 and MTV International in a global cross-platform event on Aug. 27. CMT and CMT.com will first unveil the video during a half-hour live special, "CMT Premieres: Taylor Swift 'Mine,'" at 8:00 PM EST, with Swift introducing the clip in front of a live audience. 

The video will then be presented on CMT.com, MTV.com and VH1.com in an online premiere at 8:30 PM EST before debuting on MTV's Friday line-up at 9 PM EST. The clip, expected to reach more than 160 countries, was co-directed by Swift and Roman White.

"Mine" debuted on last week's Hot 100 in the No. 3 slot, making Swift the second female artist in the history of the chart to debut multiple tracks in the top five during a calendar year, along with Mariah Carey.

"Recovery" also earns its eighth consecutive week of selling at least 100,000 copies -- its entire chart life. The last time a set sold 100,000 or more in each of its first eight frames was back in November and December of last year, when Andrea Bocelli's "My Christmas" managed the achievement. Previous to that, the last album with a greater initial start was the "Now 20" compilation, which began with nine consecutive weeks of 100,000 or more in November and December of 2005.

The total sales of "Recovery" also drive past the two million threshold this week (2.1 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan) -- marking just the second album to do so this year. It's currently 2010's second-best seller behind Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" (2.5 million).


At this point last year, no albums had surpassed more than two million in sales -- though seven had shifted at least a million. This year, six have hit the million mark, with Usher's "Raymond v Raymond" the latest to cross the line. It sells another 15,000 this week, bring its to-date sum to just over one million.


Last week's No. 1 album, Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs," drops to No. 2 in its second week with 52,000 (down 66%). With its debut frame perhaps overly weighted with download sales generated from sale pricing via Amazon's MP3 store, its second-week decline isn't a shocker. (It's down 74% in download sales.)


Eminem also moves back to No. 1 on the Digital Songs chart, where his "Love the Way You Lie" (featuring Rihanna) moves up one spot with 254,000 (down 9%). It replaces last week's No. 1-debuting "Mine" fromTaylor Swift, which started with 297,000. This week, "Mine" drops to No. 4 with 176,000 (down 41%).

Back on the Billboard 200 albums chart, the tally's top debut comes from the soundtrack to Disney Channel's "Camp Rock 2: the Final Jam" as it starts at No. 3 with 41,000. Unlike the first "Camp Rock" album, which was released the same week as its TV movie's premiere back in 2008, the sequel set arrives before the second film's bow on Sept. 3. The first "Camp Rock" album began with 188,000 at No. 3. Like the previous set, the new one sports new music from the show's stars, the Jonas Brothersand Demi Lovato.


The chart's second-highest entry comes from Black Label Society, as the band fronted by Zakk Wylde earns its highest charting album with the No. 4 bow of "Order of the Black" (33,000). The act's previous best chart rank came in 2005 when "Mafia" started at No. 15 with the band's highest sales week: 42,000.


Blake Shelton's second EP release of the year, "All About Tonight," starts at No. 6 with 33,000. The six-song set opens on the tally the same week its title track rises to No. 1 on our Hot Country Songs chart, marking the singer's seventh topper on that list. The new EP follows his earlier six-song "Hillbilly Bone," which bowed at No. 3 in March with 71,000 and has sold 234,000 to date.


The final bow in the top 10 this week comes from Mike Posner with his debut effort "31 Minutes to Takeoff" as it flies in at No. 8 with 29,000. The set was led by the single "Cooler Than Me," which has been in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the past seven weeks.


As for the rest of the top 10 this week, Justin Bieber's "My World 2.0" climbs two spots to No. 5 (33,000; down 11%), Rick Ross' "Teflon Don" falls two rungs to No. 7 (30,000; down 25%), the "Kidz Bop 18" set rises two to No. 9 (28,000; up 4%) and Avenged Sevenfold's "Nightmare" slides seven positions to No. 10 (27,000; down 41%).


Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Aug. 15) totaled 4.95 million units, down 6% compared to the sum last week (5.26 million) and down 16% compared to the comparable sales week of 2009 (5.88 million). Year to date album sales stand at 185.1 million, down 12% compared to the same total
at this point last year (211.1 million).


Digital track sales this past week totaled 20.17 million downloads, down 3% compared to last week (20.71 million) and down 3% stacked next to the comparable week of 2009 (20.74 million). Year to date track sales are at 722.1 million, down 1% compared to the same total at this point last year (726.7 million).

Jason Bonham knows better than to promise a Led Zeppelinreunion as part of his "Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience" show that goes on tour this fall. But he's certainly not opposed to the idea.

"I'm not going to hide it from them," Bonham, who filled his late father John "Bonzo" Bonham's spot and played with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones at the 2007 Zep reunion concert at London's O2 arena, tells Billboard.com. "I will invite them to every show I can, because my goal and dream is, 'Wouldn't it be cool if I did something that they thought was cool and they would get up and play with me?' That's what I'm doing [this] for. I'd love it."

Plant has, in fact, already given his public blessing to Bonham's multimedia show, which is due to hit the road this October in North America. Bonham says he has yet to hear from Page and Jones, whom he worked with on an unrealized project shortly after the O2 show. The shows, commemorating the 30th anniversary of John Bonham's death and the dissolution of Led Zeppelin, are co-produced by Annerin Productions, which also presents the Beatles tribute show "Rain" and "The Pink Floyd Experience."

"What I want to do is a personal story," explains Bonham, who will be accompanied by a five-piece band whose members he has yet to reveal. The show will incorporate archival video material and set changes, and Bonham plans to record narration that will precede some of the songs and "give a little background on them and the reason why I'm playing them, and stories about growing up with dad and how Zeppelin has been part of my life from the beginning. It's a good musical journey; it'll be sad at times...but it will really be a celebration."

Bonham hopes that his "Led Zeppelin Experience" will expand beyond the 30 shows he currently has planned, and he'd like to see the production grow to possibly include orchestrations -- which he may try out in certain cities during the fall tour. Dates and ticket sale information are expected to be announced next week.

The Led Zeppelin Experience isn't Bonham's only current musical endeavor. He's also a member of Black Country Communion, a group formed by producer Kevin Shirley that also includes Glenn Hughes, Joe Bonamassa and Derek Sherinian. The quartet's self-titled debut album comes out Sept. 21, and Bonham says it's talking about recording another one before starting to tour in 2011.