DAY ONE: THE BEATLES' BEST-SELLER

THE BEATLES couldn’t break the iTunes Top 10 singles charts or the Top 5 albums charts – suggesting that for most people under 25, yesterday was actually business as usual on the ol' mp3-downloading front. Meaning the country continued to download club bangers at an astounding rate.

It's shaping up as the biggest who-dat local-music story since, well, Godsmack. Unsigned white Boston rapper SAM ADAMS -- unheralded by land and by sea, by British or by American press -- shocked the industry last week by debuting at the top of the national iTunes download charts. Record-label execs went bananas, rumors spread that the kid had somehow gamed the system, and flame wars broke out on the blogs.

Just two days ago I delivered my usual Boston hip-hop spiel to an intern at the Phoenix. She wants to collaborate on a Web package highlighting young promising Hub rap talent, and asked for my thoughts on why so few area MCs had really blown the fuck up, or something like that.