Real Music People

Fool a concert promoter once, shame on you. Allegedly fool a concert promoter thrice, you’re getting sued. The guy who runs Cash Money records, Birdman, is being sued for allegedly taking $275,000 to put on a Lil Wayne concert in Miami and then backing out of the deal several times over. Since there’s still no concert, the promoter wants his money back. The best part of the suit though is that Birdman is accused of backing out of one of the shows because the weather was supposedly too cold. Do consider that this was in Miami. It never gets cold in Miami unless there’s a hurricane.

While most people are getting more and more desperate with the fall of economy, Lil Wayne has ice sculptures with money in them. To celebrate the Lil Wayne’s 26th birthday, rapper Birdman threw him a huge party in Miami hotspot Mansion nightclub. They really went all out for the event. There was a large Cash Money Records ice sculpture in the room which held 30 bottles of Cristal. Other ice sculptures had $100 bills frozen inside. Lil Wayne also got one heck of a gift from Birdman – a Luis Vuitton briefcase which was filled with a million dollars in cash. I hope they both have good accountants. I wonder if anyone stayed around and waited for the sculptures to melt.

Lil Wayne is turning out to be a cheapskate. Last week, the rapper was ordered by a Miami judge to pay New Orleans jeweller Jack Sutton $146,000. Lil Wayne reportedly purchased a $138,000 diamond ring and $32,000 gold and diamond necklace from the jeweller back in October 2006. The deal was done by phone with the rapper promising to make monthly payments. Lil Wayne sent one $24,000 installment which prompted Sutton to send him the jewellery but then the rapper stopped paying. A source says that Lil Wayne may return the $138,000 ring rather than pay the cash. If you don’t have the cash, don’t buy the bling.

Lil Wayne is getting into more trouble as he’s now being accused of ripping off the Rolling Stones. The rapper behind the lollipop song is being sued by a music publishing company that owns the rights to the Rolling Stones tune ‘Play With Fire’. Abkco Music Inc. is claiming that Lil Wayne released an alternate version of the song without their permission. The company is suit for copyright infringement and is seeking unspecified damages. The company is also calling his version “explicit, racist and offensive”. If it was a rip off, he wouldn’t have done too much to make it explicit. It’s a Rolling Stones tune. It was likely to have explicit undertones to begin with.

The prodigal son is set to return. Rush & Molloy is reporting that Usher is quietly talking with his mom about making her his manager once again. The singer is apparently livid that music big shot Benny Medina couldn’t deliver big sales for his latest album which only sold 433,000 on its first week. Shouldn’t he be blaming himself for controversially firing his mother in the first place or that his choice of tunes just didn’t cut it for today’s audience? He must have been ticked off that Lil Wayne pulled in bigger numbers than he did. He definitely didn’t see that one coming.

Most industry insiders are saying that Madonna or Mariah Carey would be the top-selling album of the year. However, some think that it’s not the case. Some people are saying that both divas will get beat for biggest sales of the year by rapper Lil Wayne. It turns out that his album was helped out by all the internet leaks of his songs. Industry experts are saying that it’s the most effective free publicity. Lil Wayne’s ‘Tha Carter III’ came out on Tuesday so exact numbers are yet to come in but his label estimates that the album will sell around 850,000 to 950,000 on its first week. If that is the case, he’s a shoe-in.

A lot of times, when a small time singer says a big time star copied their song and sues, they just want to score a big pay day. However, this isn’t one of those times. Karma Ann Swanepoel sings a folk song called ‘Once’ which is very prominently featured in rapper Lil Wayne’s hit song ‘I Feel Like Dying’. In a lawsuit, Karma says that the rapper’s label has actually been trying to make a deal to use her song but no agreements were made. However, Lil Wayne has been pimping out his song on MySpace, YouTube and even on his tour. Now, Karma is seeking for her dues.

Lil Wayne recently made smartass comments on doing drugs and now he’s back with his wit by talking about the end of the world in the new issue of Blender magazine. He says “The world is about to end in 2012… ’cause the Mayans made calendars, and they stop at 2012. I got encyclopedias on the bus. The world is about to end as we know it. You can see it already. A planet doesn’t exist – there’s no more Pluto. Planes are flying into buildings – and not just the Twin Towers. Mosquitoes bite you and you die. And a black man and a woman are running for president.”

It is being reported that rapper Lil’ Wayne is facing some big time charges after his most recent arrest. He’s now facing possession of cocaine, possession of ecstasy and possession of drug paraphernalia. The rapper, real name Dwayne Carter, was arrested with two others who have been charged with possession of marijuana. Cops found 105 grams of marijuana, 29 grams of cocaine and 41 grams of ecstasy pills when the rapper’s tour bus got stopped at a Border Patrol checkpoint. Police also found over $20,000 in cash and a 40-caliber pistol but Wayne says that he has a permit to carry it in Florida. They’re checking if it carries over to Arizona. If not, that’s another charge on him.

The last time that hip hop artist Lil Wayne was supposed to host an event, he failed to show. But this time, he actually made it. The problem is, it’s not really that much of a good thing.

The eyelid-tatted, blinged-out rapper showed up to perform his hosting duties at Pure Nightclub in Atlanta this past week but he was pretty much out of it. ATLpics.net put up several pictures of Lil Wayne spending most of the night struggling to keep his eyes open.

Whether that’s because of the glare from all his bling or that he’s way beyond drunk, I don’t know and I don’t really care.

Lil Wayne hasn’t released a major-label album in two years, an awful long time in today’s here-today, gone-tomorrow rap market, yet in that time he’s ascended to the top of his field, to the point where his next album, Tha Carter III, is among the industry’s most eagerly awaited. His stock has risen partly because of his innumerable guest features, but more so because of the steady stream of mixtapes he’s released — one after the other, month after month, none of them available at your local big-box retailer. In an age where the Internet is seen by some in the music industry as a threat to be contained with lawsuits and other forms of deterrence, Lil Wayne is one of an increasing number of artists who are using the Internet to their advantage, feeding his fan base all the music it can download and, in the process, inspiring a dedicated following.

Like recent mixtapes by Jay-Z, Kanye West, and 50 Cent, these Lil Wayne mixes circulate freely on the Internet and are promotional in nature, intended to drum up interest for forthcoming commercial releases.

Lil Wayne was a no show for a show at a high school in North Carolina a few nights ago. TMZ got an exclusive with Charles ‘Duke’ Lineberry Jr., the attorney for Mitchell Entertainment Group who promoted the concert in hopes to shed some light on why the rapper flaked.

The concert was promoted as a ‘Stop the Violence’ event and was set up because of 8 gang-related murders in the small community of Wilmington, North Carolina. Lil Wayne was the so-called headliner with ministers and local celebrities taking the stage to speak out against violence.

A crowd of around 3,000 was expected but only about 1,000 people showed up. There are multiple reasons for the small crowd which includes Lil Wayne’s recent legal troubles and that the rescheduling of the concert made people lose interest.

A lawyer for Lil Wayne says his client missed a court date, leading to his arrest last weekend, because the summons was sent to an old address and the hip-hop star didn’t get it. It got changed, the damn address got changed then it would have been mandatory for him to inform the court that his address has changed from that date onwards his new address was as follows and any further correspondence could be made here. He is plain and simple trying to fool the courts. Man, when I have a new mobile number I just text the new number to all my contacts asking them to note it and delete the previous one as I have discontinued it. I think it was his attorney’s responsibility to inform the courts of the change. The hurricane happened last year and then when ever he found a new address he should have taken the matter seriously as there is a court matter pending against him. No sorry but I do not give him the benefit of doubt.