As if being stuck in jail isn’t bad enough, rapper DMX has gotten more bad news. He has just been ordered to pay nearly a quarter of a million dollars to a man he assaulted at JFK airport. 5 years ago, Port Authority officers arrested the rapper for posing as an FBI agent and using a fake police siren to pull Sergei Priporin and his family over at the airport. DMX, who claims that he pulled them over for making him late for a flight, was in possession of crack, Oxycodone, Diazepam and a billy club at the time. The plaintiffs, who originally sued for $4 million each, are getting a total of $240,000 in damages. DMX isn’t letting go of his pride though as he spoke through his lawyer saying “Mr. Simmons still feels justified in pulling them over when they didn’t get out of his way… he’s not apologizing for that. He still believes the gentleman driving should have gotten out of his way. At the same time, he plead guilty to the charges and therefore paid for his behavior.”
Hip hop power couple Kelis and Nas are going through a divorce. The saddest part of this story is that Kelis is actually seven months pregnant. The couple met at a 2002 MTV VMA’s after party which was thrown by Diddy. They then tied the knot in 2003. Reps for Kelis have confirmed the split, stating “I can confirm that she has filed for divorce… We request the media to respect her privacy during this very difficult time.” The singer is asking for both spousal and child support from the rapper. I wonder what brought this on. They’ve been pretty quiet up until now.
Snoop Dogg is one of the biggest rappers of all time so you would think that it would mean that he’s making a lot of money. But no. Snoop actually finds himself in a deep hole when it comes to the state of California coming after him for his taxes. The state actually filed a tax lien on the rapper which shows that Snoop owes California a whopping $284,053.59. By my calculations, that should come up to around 190,000 joints, give or take a few. I wonder why he’s late in paying taxes. Maybe he was too stoned to remember having to pay them.
Xzibit reportedly owes at least $21,403.98 in back mortgage payments and he’s officially been warned by the bank that he’s so close to foreclosure. But judging from the way the rapper/actor flashed his ridiculously expensive diamonds in a recent trip to Las Vegas, someone forgot to tell him about his house trouble and the more than $500,000 he also owes in back taxes. In addition to nearly losing his home in Woodland Hills, California, it was also reported that the IRS filed a $205,485 lien on X in LA County for non payment of his 2007 taxes and another one for an additional $296,355 for 2006.
It seems that everyone in the world is suffering because of the recession. Everyone except Kanye West that is. The rapper’s upcoming sneaker line, Kanye West for Louis Vuitton, will start retailing at the very expensive cost of $840! And some of the pairs will even retail to a over $1000! He cannot have those prices and seriously think that people will pay the price of $1140 for a pair of sneakers like the one pictured. And who would want to pay that much money for some ugly ass sneakers anyway? You can get so many more pairs over the more sporty and more durable Nike, Adidas or what have you.
Eminem is at the head of a lawsuit that could bring artists a big payday in the near future. The rapper slammed Universal Music Group with a lawsuit two years ago regarding the royalties of digital downloads and it’s finally in court. The debate is whether song downloads should fall under the category of a licensing deal or a distribution deal. A licensing deal would split profits 50/50 between the label and artist while the current distribution deal only gives artists with less than 20 cents per download. If Eminem and company win the lawsuit, some giant checks are going to be made out to the artists under Universal, including Jay-Z, Kanye West and U2.
How convenient Clifford Harris (his real name). Do these guys ever think of these same things before committing such crimes? Means this chap keeps not 1 but 3 machine guns and two silencers. After being arrested he now fears what impact his impending prison spell will have on his young sons.
He says, “My oldest is 12 – she understands. She’s strong and smart. The three weeks I was in, before I got to come home, she said to me, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll hold things down ’til you get back.’”
If ever man thought about the consequences of crimes such as these then the world would have been a safer place to live. I am not vouching for world peace or anything right now but we all must give this a thought.
Neither am I happy that his daughter and sons would have through a lot of pain and agony when he his taken away for his sentence. But it is really very hard for the kids to have to go to school were some ass holes would inevitably drag this issue.
Hopefully this man has learnt his lesson think 10 times before doing anything illegal here onwards.
Rapper 50 Cent was in a terrible situation when he found out the he had locked himself out of his Rolls Royce, the incident took place on Friday last week when the rapper was on a visit to London where he was filming a new movie with actress Brenda Blethyn.
And this got worse thereon as his car was ticketed by a parking attendant. The only thing that saved him for the day that a member of his entourage was able to break into the car using a wire coat hanger.
Nothing to funny here as such things could happen to any one of us and who said just cause your a “big star” that human things like locking yourself out your own car and getting tickets wasn’t gonna happen.
But it would have been great fun if the hanger did not work and they had to bust his pretty Rolls Royce window out so that could go along with his ticket.
Bad news for all you Dr. Dre fans. The master rapper’s long awaited new album is not going to come out by the end of this year so he can produce for friend and long-time partner Eminem. Apparently, Slim Shady is on fire and Dre and a bunch of other music execs want to strike while the younger rapper’s flow is still hot. However, the chairman of the rappers’ label didn’t give exact release dates for the two stars’ albums in 2009. We’ve been waiting for Dr. Dre’s album since 2004, I think we can wait for a couple more months.
It looks like 50 Cent’s new album ‘Before I Self Destruct’ has lived up to its title. The record has went off only to self destruct. The CD has now been pushed back to 2009 without a specific release date being set. The record was originally set to come out in early December to hopefully capitalize on holiday buying but after the kickoff single tanked, it’s now getting kicked to the curb. I say we should blame Scott Storch for producing the embarrassment of a first single ‘Get Up’. The official reason being given for the album’s delay is that the rapper was rushing to meet the December date but that he opted to wait until next year to fully secure advertising and retail placement.
T-Pain is proving to be too much of a diva for a rapper. The singer’s management has thrown down the gauntlet to anyone who wished to interview the guy last week saying “Please let interviewers know that Pain will only be discussing his album release on 11/11 and any other topics surrounding what he is currently doing. He will only answer one question on Wayne and upcoming projects they have. No questions on picking favorite artists, who he would like to work with or any other kind of lists. If you are fun with it that’s fine, and shoot out 5 cool questions relevant to what’s going on in his life cool [sic], otherwise he may he may [sic] get mad.”
Australia has had a changed of heart. Last year, Snoop Dogg was set to co-host the MTV Australia Video Music Awards, however, the rapper was denied entry into the country due to his extensive criminal records. But things have changed as the rapper is actually in Australia. Luckily for him, the Aussies granted him a visa this past summer to enter their country at the end of October. Snoop was spotted arriving at the Emirates Melbourne Cup Carnival 2008 at the Flemington Race Course last week. Let’s hope he doesn’t get into any problems while he’s down under. He might get permanently banned if that happens.
Eminem says that he has no desire for fame even though he’s making a new album called ‘Relapse’. The rapper says he doesn’t really want a comeback but that he just wants to remind people of how he raps. He says that he feels content with what he has accomplished thus far but he also admits that he like the attention, just not too much of it. Eminem says he’s excited to get back out there after collaborating with Dr. Dre for the past 5 months on brand new material.
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.
