Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter was recently awarded with a Global Leadership Award by the United Nations at a gala in New York City. The rapper has done lots of work to bring clean water to Africa through the Water for Life campaign. Noticeably absent from the event was Beyonce. I wonder what prevented the singer from seeing her hubby pick up the award. Getting an award from the UN is a pretty big deal. You would think that she would have been there showing full support. I wonder where she was at. She better have a good excuse or we might start to think that they’re having trouble.
Talk about bad luck. Rapper Ludacris recently had his pool house destroyed by a fire. Fortunately, the rapper who owns the property just outside of Atlanta wasn’t home the night the fire broke out. According to a Fulton County Fire Department spokesman, a relative of the rapper was in the basement of the main home when the fire broke out. The fire consumed the pool house but was put out within 30 minutes. The cause of the fire is still being investigated though no cause was immediately sparked. I wonder what could have caused it. Thankfully, no one got hurt in the accident.
Old school rapper MC Breed has been taken off life support after being admitted to the hospital last week due to kidney failure. But before you go off arranging for any flowers to send to his family as condolences, he was taken off support for good reasons. The rapper, who’s been able to work with 2Pac and Too Short, collapsed while he was playing basketball in Atlanta. It’s being said that his kidneys are only 30% functional and that he’s likely to need a transplant. MC is still in the hospital where he’s recovering and will stay there for at least another week under observation. Let’s hope he gets better soon.
50 Cent is still going through a whole lot of baby mama drama to be able to spend less time with his kid. Say what? Sources close to the case reveal that the rapper wants visitation with his 11-year old son every other weekend and that’s it. That makes it 3 separate cases and a load of legal bills for very little time. 50’s lawyer Brett Kimmel also said that the rapper is looking for a month during the summer and access during school recesses. His lawyer says that the request “maximizes the time the child can spend with his father while remaining sensitive to the child’s own schedule.” Sure.
Over 200 mourners turned out last week for the funeral of Andre Young Jr. – the son of Grammy-winning rapper Dr. Dre. The funeral took place in Glendale, California at The Church of the Recessional. The late 20-year old was found dead a couple of weeks back by his mother at their home. There is still no word as to how he died but considering that he was out the night before his death and didn’t come home until early the next day suggests that his cause of death will be determined by a toxicology report. My condolences go out to Dr. Dre and his family at this time of mourning.
When The Game said goodbye to a relative at a funeral by punching out another relative, he may have also kissed his own butt goodbye. It’s being said that the Hawthorne City Attorney has charged the rapper with criminal battery for allegedly punching his cousin at a family funeral. The whole tiff was over money and the relative called the cops and made a citizen’s arrest before the late relative was even buried. It gets worse for The Game as he’s currently on probation for a firearms offense. If he’s convicted of battery, a judge could violate that probation and have his butt thrown in the pokey.
According to reports, Dr. Dre’s son passed away last weekend. The body of 20-year old Andre Young Jr. was allegedly found at his family’s Woodland Hills, California home last Saturday morning. The young man was unresponsive when his mother went to check on him around 10 AM and called 911 to alert paramedics. Andre was said to have been out the previous night and then returned early in the morning the next day. The cause of death is still unknown and officials are still waiting for the results of a post-mortem examination, including a toxicology report. My condolences go out to Dr. Dre and his family during this difficult time.
Rappers are known for living the baller lifestyle but that doesn’t mean they aren’t cheapskates. Yung Joc reportedly can’t pay up $2,000 to support his 7-year old son. The rapper’s baby mama, Fatimah Jester, says that Yung owes her the two grand and is suing the rapper to have him pay. She tells WSB-TV that he has all kinds of cars which include Bentleys, Benzes and Rovers but he still hasn’t provided anything for his boy. A judge will hear the case on September 11. If that isn’t enough trouble for the rapper, he is also facing weapons charges. What is it with rappers and weapons charges? Everyone seems to have one.
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.
Considering who he has for a boss, should we even be surprised that Yung Berg has been arrested? The rapper who was signed on to DMX’s label was busted last week in New York City after police investigated a complaint by a limo driver. Sources say a limo driver reported a dispute with five passengers, and when police investigated the complaint, they busted Berg and his buddies on a bundle of charges. The rapper whose real name is Christian Ward was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of marijuana and menacing. DMX must be so proud of him.
Rapper Rick Ross is allegedly the worst Baby daddy in the whole wide world. Tiallondra Nicole Kemp, the baby mama of 2-year old William Leonard Roberts III, is claiming that the kid’s dad, the rapper whose real name is William Leonard Roberts Jr., is a deadbeat dad. She also wants to establish that Rick Ross is the papa. Ross’ people say that he already pays support and foots the medical bills. The rapper’s lawyer Allan Zamren says “Mr. Roberts (Ross) is an excellent person and an outstanding member in his community. I’ve known him for quite some time and it’s a pleasure to represent him.”
The NYPD made a major breakthrough as they have arrested an employee of the karaoke club, Spotlight Live, that hosted Lil Kim’s birthday bash in connection to the death of a young woman whose body was found in a utility closet of the establishment. The victim’s mother sobbed to the media “My only daughter. I have no more daughter. I was a single mother for all my life. I work hard for her.” My condolences go out to the victim’s family and friends. As for Lil Kim’s involvement, a spokesman for the rapper said in an emailed statement that she had no idea on the matter until it broke the news.
Diddy is no longer going to be the only hip hop mogul with his own line of drinks. Diddy may have his Ciroc vodka but Dr. Dre is about to catch up to him. Drinks America Holdings Ltd. is partnering up with Dre to produce his own line of liquor. The company has done the same with the likes of Willie Nelson’s Old Whiskey River Bourbon and Trump Super Premium Vodka. Dr. Dre is coming out with 2 items, Aftermath Cognac will be released first which will then be followed by a line of 80-proof flavored and unflavored sparkling vodka. Now that is something that will seriously knock your block off. It’s being said that his liquors will be hitting the shelves in the next 60 days.
The divas of hip hop are reuniting as reports say that Jay-Z is set to work with both Kanye West and Timbaland on sessions for his new album. And here you thought he was retiring already. Early reports say that Jay-Z’s new stuff was going to be produced solely by Timbo but the hip hop star has revealed that the sessions are more of a musical competition between his peers. Jay says “I’m a person that works off music. If Timbaland makes 10 great tracks then he produces the album, if Kanye West makes 10 great tracks then he produces the album; if he makes three, I’ll take three. I let the music dictate the direction. You know I love Timbaland, he is like a brother to me, but until the music is done it’s premature.”
Rapper 50 Cent recently had a sit down with Sister 2 Sister magazine about his ongoing feud with his baby momma Shaniqua Tompkins. He told the mag that the war broke out when he insisted on finding his son a better home and improving his education. He says “It wasn’t important before the beginning of last year because he was being home schooled… I was paying a teacher $60,000 just to teach him by himself. He was learning slower because it was just him and the teacher. So he needed to go to where he had the best possible schooling district and I found a house in the area that was, like, $1.5 million.” But he claims that Shaniqua started receiving bad advice, insisting on more child support. Things escalated when she got evicted from the home he’d bought. Shaniqua has reportedly fled with his son and continues to battle him for custody and child support.
It turns out that Dr. Dre is a heavy influence on the USA Olympic basketball team just as much as Dr. J is. The dream team travelled to China in style over the weekend thanks to the rap mogul and LeBron James. The Cleveland Cavaliers star bought the entire team ‘Beats by Dr. Dre’ headphones for the long flight. Here’s to hoping that the basketball star gets paid back in gold as those crazy music accessories are worth $350 each. Talk about breaking your bank account. Hey, if it gets his teammates to pass him the ball more often than they’d really like to then it has made its point.
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.
Rap star Darryl McDaniels has been admitted to a New Jersey hospital, where he is expected to undergo surgery to remove two major blood clots later today.
The rapper had recently been suffering from pain and swelling in his left arm. The pain became so intense he went to the hospital, where doctors discovered the blockages.
It’s unclear how long the 44-year-old will remain in the hospital, but the unexpected sick-bay stay forced him out of a planned appearance at the AVP Beach Vollyeball Tournament scheduled to take place in Brooklyn tomorrow and air live on NBC.
Rapper Yung Joc is being sued by an Atlanta company that claims he took off with almost $25,000 worth of stereo gear. The rapper was due in court in Fulton County yesterday to fight it out with the owners of Stereotypes, a high-end stereo outfit, who claim that they put in a bunch of equipment in his car last year but they ended up getting stiffed out of their fee.
The members of the rap group Mobb Deep recently filed a lawsuit against their ex-manager who they claim jacked their music without their permission. Prodigy and Havoc, whose real names are Albert Johnson and Kejuan Muchita respectively, say that their former manager Norman Bell used their recordings on ‘best of’ albums that were never authorized by group members. Albums, they allege, they didn’t get any payments or royalties for. They say that Bell, who calls himself ‘Purfek Storm’ owes them over a million dollars in back royalties. Did anyone even buy those albums that they’re talking about? Bell could just have no money since no one cared about the ‘best of’ albums.
The Game is pissing off people left and right and he doesn’t seem to care just who he’s running over. The latest group to join in on the ‘Hate The Game’ movement is his own family. They claim that the rapper promised to finance part of his cousin’s funeral but when it came to paying up, they ended up getting stiffed. A family member claims that the rapper volunteered to pay half of the funeral costs but then went underground before they could get the money. The rapper then unexpectedly showed up at the funeral last weekend where things got heated when the issue of cash came up. Apparently, a brawl went down. Have you no respect for the dead?
Kanye West is off on another rant. This time, he’s after Harper’s Bazaar for assuming the painting on his ceiling is a winged version of the rapper. He says “To put it short as Kanye-ly possible (don’t mean to speak in third person)… Harper’s Bazaar came to my home, took pics, asked a lot of questions and then assumed the painting in my dining room was of me as an angel. This isn’t true and it bothered me greatly because people think I’m so so so cocky that I would have something like that. I’m sure it was an inside joke to everyone from the magazine in my home that day… I wanted people to see my home because I spent 2 years gutting it and was proud. I’m just a regular guy with cool stuff in his crib but instead I was made out to be Ben Stiller’s character in the movie Dodgeball with the huge pic of him wrestling a bull in his office…”
Do you remember a guy named Eminem? The rapper has been missing in action from the music scene for the last couple of years but he’s been keeping himself busy by frequenting strip clubs and getting himself into trouble. The has-been rapper was sued last week by a man that claims that Em punched him at Cheetah’s on the Strip Gentlemen’s Club in Detroit while both of them in the bathroom. The accuser is seeking $25,000 in damages. Why the heck did Eminem start a brawl in the bathroom? He should have just kept himself busy making some music instead of going to strip clubs.
Kanye West has recently gone to his blog to publicly announce that he’s on the side of the marginally talented and highly annoying Soulja Boy. Kanye wrote “Soulja boy is fresh ass hell and is actually the true meaning of what hip hop is supposed to be. He came from the hood, made his own beats, made up a new saying, new sound and a new dance with one song. He had all of America rapping this summer. If that ain’t Hip Hop then what is?” I’ll tell you why Kanye was in great support of Soulja Boy – it’s because they’re both just way too into themselves.
Kanye West got some fans pretty frustrated after the rapper showed up two hours late for a gig. The rapper was supposed to take the stage at Bonnaroo at 2:45AM last weekend but he showed up at 4:25AM. The crowd really tore into him chanting “Kanye sucks” and even threw glow sticks on stage. According to reports, the big delay was caused by his big stage set which took quite a while to put up after Pearl Jam’s appearance. It was a freaking festival gig. Why did he have to have a big stage set up? Those things have to be quick. I’m not surprised that the fans turned on him for being a big diva about his set.
50 Cent has been asked to change his name to 79 Cent by a US fast food chain. The ‘In Da Club’ rapper was challenged by Taco Bell to consider calling himself 79, 89 or 99 Cent to promote the restaurant’s new value menu.
Taco Bell have promised to donate $10,000 to a charity of the rapper’s choice if he also agrees to stop at one of their outlets and rap his order at the drive-thru. The eatery will also treat all the customers at the star’s chosen restaurant to free meals.
Taco Bell President and CEO Greg Creed said in a letter to the singer: “We know that you adopted the name 50 Cent years ago as a metaphor for change. We at Taco Bell are also huge advocates for change. We encourage you to ‘Think Outside the Bun’ and hope you accept our offer.”
50 - real name Curtis Jackson - previously showed his love for fast food during a tour of the UK last year. The hip-hop star reportedly gave a rider to each British concert venue he visited, requesting a KFC chicken bucket served to him on fine china.
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.
Jay Z has praised the rhyming skills of Kanye West.
Last month MTV bosses voted Chicago rapper Kanye top of a list of “Hottest MCs In The Game” and now New York man Jay has shown his love.
Jay, real-name Shawn Carter, told MTV: “He’s a complete package now, he’s working on his craft as an MC.” He explained: “In the beginning, his flow wasn’t as tight His flow was lacking in my opinion.”
Aside from his razor-sharp rhyming skills, Jay is keen to highlight West’s lyrical talent.
He said: “The hooks were incredible and the lyrics - he really takes a lot of pride in what he writes. That happiness is seeing his evolution from the first album to now.”
Snoop Dogg recently had a sit down interview for the new issue of Esquire magazine. Here’s something that stuck out for me: “A lot of people like to fool you and say that you’re not smart if you never went to college, but common sense rules over everything. That’s what I learned from selling crack.” There’s such a thing as book smart and street smart. I guess Snoop falls into the street smart category. And when I say street, I mean street. If you get the idea, you know there are a lot of really hard lessons there – like several charges and guns pointed at you.
Another musician is hanging up his coat on music in hopes of starting a serious career in acting. According to the Hollywood Reporter, rapper Bow Wow will be joining the cast of Entourage in season 5. He says that he’s going to focus on acting full time because he wants to be like Will Smith saying “After 16 years in the music industry and six successful albums, I’ve decided to shift my energy to something else I’m passionate about, acting. I’m going to try to be the next Will Smith.” Here’s to hoping that he’s not going to emulate Will to the highest level and turn into a Scientologist too.
