R & B singers and rappers are musical codependents. The former sing the hooks that stick in your head, the latter serve up the urban street cred that’s an essential hip-hop selling point.And Mary J. Blige and Jay-Z have needed each other from the get-go. As far back as 1996, she sang the chorus on “Can’t Knock The Hustle,” the very first song on his now-revered first album, Reasonable Doubt.

So it’s a wonder that the two leaders in their respective fields have taken this long to embark on the collaborative “Heart of the City” tour that brought them to the Wachovia Center on Sunday for a seamless two and a half hour show packed with hits from both sides of the hip-hop soul coin.

Britney Spears got the thumbs up from former duet partner Madonna on Thursday.

In an interview on New York’s Z100, Madonna told host JJ that she is a fan of Spears’ “Blackout.”

“I actually love Britney Spears’ new album. I listen to that a lot,” Madonna said.

 In fact, she does more than just listen. “I usually work out to her record,” Madonna said. “I do a combination of Pilates and dance aerobics.”

Madonna also got candid about Britney’s ex, Justin Timberlake, who contributed to her new album “Hard Candy,” which comes out April 29.

Earlier this month it was revealed that Madonna had given Timberlake a Vitamin B shot. It wasn’t so she could see his bottom, as Z100’s JJ suggested.

“I mean, I’ve seen enough butt so that’s OK,” she sighed. “The reason I gave him a B12 shot is cause we only had a certain amount of days in the studio and I didn’t want him using that as a lame a– excuse not to come to work, OK? It’s got nothing to do with butt, I promise you. Listen, I don’t need to give him a shot to see his butt.”

Madonna also revealed that she has no plans to sing some of her classic songs ever again.

“I’m not sure I can sing ‘Holiday’ or ‘Like A Virgin’ ever again. I just can’t,” she said. “Unless somebody paid me like $30 million or something.”

Leona Lewis is set to become the first British woman to top the hard-to-crack US charts for 20 years.

Not since Kim Wilde had everyone rocking to You Keep Me Hangin’ On has a Brit woman enjoyed such commercial success Stateside.

Lewis has risen from a receptionist role in Hackney, via winning talent show The X Factor, to become one of the hottest musical properties around today.

Industry sources say that Lewis’s first US single Bleeding Love, has stopped Madonna in her tracks and bumped R&B singer Usher off the top of the Billboard Hot 100 after a surge in download sales. Of course, it didn’t hurt when TV Queen ? and one of America’s most powerful women ? Oprah Winfrey endorsed the song on nationwide television.

The new Hot 100 will be revealed today ? and Lewis is hotly-tipped to be at the top of it.

Many of Leona’s new download-buying fans are unaware that she shot to fame after winning The X Factor in 2006, and she has Simon Cowell, her savvy manager, to thank for that.

Tough-talking Simon whisked her off to America and negotiated a $5 million album contract with the music mogul Clive Davis, who signed Whitney Houston. She was sent to record with top US producers and a slick video designed for MTV was filmed for Bleeding Love.

The 22-year-old was soon appearing in US entertainment ‘ones to watch’ lists, and her breakthrough came this month with television appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Winfrey?s nationwide chatshow.

After earning a standing ovation, Oprah turned to Lewis and said: ‘You?re the real-deal girl. Talk about a star is born.’ And cue an instant surge in download and mobile phone track sales.

Amy Winehouse has sold 1.5 million copies of her Back to Black album in the states but, despite her five recent Grammy award wins, has not yet topped the singles chart.