ONE-DAY SALES: NOW 13 BATTLES BAD BOYS FOR #1, AS 311 ERUPTS

If you're UTV, which yesterday released the Now 13 compilation, you're gonna give the hot soundtrack album a run for its money on next week’s HITS Top 50 chart, that’s what.

The best-selling series is looking to topple P. Diddy’s Bad Boy/Universal soundtrack to the box office smash after a single week, with first-day sales figures from retailers around the country pointing to an opening salvo "just shy of 200k." That total would make it a contender for the top spot, though Bad Boys II looks like it should hold on.

The real surprise of the week is Volcano’s rap-metal-rockers 311, whose new album Evolver looks headed for a first-week mark of 125k or better, a considerable improvement over their last album, From Chaos, which bowed with 80k in first-week sales back in June 2001. Like that record, promotion and distribution will once again be done by Jive Records.

Two new titles should both hit the 100k mark or slightly better in Capitol’s Jane’s Addiction and Interscope’s Mya.

Meanwhile, Arista Nashville’s Brad Paisley, yet another dark horse from Joe Galante and Butch Waugh’s sizzling RCA Nashville Label Group, should come in just this side of 100k. Our 10-gallon hat’s off to 'em.

With Columbia’s Beyonce and Murder Inc./IDJ’s Ashanti also flirting with 100k, mas or menos, we have the healthiest Top 10 saleswise in a while, with up to six titles poised to top the six-figure mark. DTP/Capitol’s Chingy, even if it does drop 50%, should be in the 75-80k range, especially as "Right Thurr" continues to dominate the airwaves.

Now, you may return to your regularly scheduled Kobe Bryant programming.