Happy Happy 2009!

Hello, I'd like to wish everyone a happy New Year's eve and day! Also please be very safe.

Diddy Offering $1 Million To Alter Times Square Ball

Diddy is yet again using his money and fame for another publicity stunt. This time Diddy along with Ciroc Vodka is offering a $1 million dollars, for the city of New York to redesign the annual New Year's Eve ball that drops in Times Square. What does Diddy want the ball to look like?? Of course Diddy and Ciroc would alter the ball to resemble the blue stone emblem of Ciroc Vodka. The $1 million will go to needy charities around the city.

E-40 Concert Leaves Five Injured and One in Critical Condition

There was a shootout in Denver following a sold out concert for rapper E-40. The shootout left five people injured and one person in critical condition, according to local reports. Denver police said they responded to a report of shots fired outside of Vinyl nightclub, where witnesses said gunfire erupted for several minutes. According to police bullets struck a nearby hotel and hair salon. The hotel locked itself down to avoid having suspects enter it. At press time, authorities were still searching for suspects and asking anyone with information to contact the Denver Police Department.

Tragedy Hits Lil Boosie

The father of rapper LiL Boosie played part of a horrible accident. According to news reports Boosie's father backed his car over his own little girl, Unknowingly. It happened last Tuesday, the little girl was rushed to the hospital. Where she died an hour later at a local hospital.

t.I's 4th Annual Christmas Holiday for Kids Affair in Atlanta

T.I. brought out his family while attending his 4th Annual Christmas Holiday for Kids Affair in Atlanta. This year T.I. teamed up with AG Entertainment owner Alex Gidewon and The Gidewon Foundation. A lot of people came out to support him.

PHILANT JOHNSON'S KILLER SENTENCED!!

The man who was convicted of killing Philant Johnson, who's the friend and assistant of rapper T.I. was sentenced to 66 years to life in prison,according to the Associated Press. Last month a Cincinnati jury convicted 34-year-old Hosea Thomas of the murder, along with felonious assault and illegally having a gun after a felony conviction. Philant Johnson was shot and killed in May 2006 during a running gun battle on Interstate 75 that followed a T.I. concert in Cincinnati. Three others were injured. T.I testified during Thomas' trial however he was not was not hurt, in the shooting.

DMX is Back In Jail

DMX is back in an Arizona jail, after he was extradited from Miami to Phoenix Friday to face a number of charges.

Rush Card Reaches 2 Billion Dollar Milestone

Congrats to Russell Simmons, who's five year venture the prepaid Visa RushCard has reached the two billion dollar mark in deposits.The RushCard, which allows members to track their transactions online while including debt reducing strategies and restrictions to prevent overdrafting or over use. It allows people with bad credit to build up good credit.
"I'm personally very happy that RushCard is benefiting and empowering people exactly as it was intended," said Simmons in a statement. "In America today, no one should be left out or kept out of having access to the American Dream and financial services which a bank account or credit card provides to others. The fact that we have already helped our members manage $2 billion in transactions proves that RushCard is instrumental in providing access to those services that hundreds of thousands of people may not otherwise have.”

Joe Budden New Album On The Way

Joe Budden will soon drop his sophomore album after years of set backs. The new album is titled Padded Room, will give fans 13-tracks and also a collaboration with former rival The Game, titled “The Future.” Which will also be the first single. Joe Budden’s Padded Room is slated to be released on Feb. 24, 2009.

T.I Cover Double Issue Of Rap-Up Magazine With Chirstina Milan

Will.I.AM will appear on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest

Will.i.am has been added to the list of performers for Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest. Will.i.am will perform his Barack Obama-inspired song "It's A New Day." He joins a lineup that includes the Jonas Brothers, Taylor Swift and Lionel Richie. Will.i.am will also join the Pussycat Dolls, Fall Out Boy and Ne-Yo in segments from Los Angeles.

70 year Old Man Shoots During Rap Concert Due to Lyrics

According to several reports a 70-year-old man shot his rifle at a rap group over the weekend, while they were perfroming because he thought their song lyrics were intended to insult him personally. According to Reuters, the man told the rappers to stop when they began singing about a "cranky old man," and when they failed to do so, he opened fire with his rifle, a local police officer said. Five young people were wounded in the shooting at Lobali village, in the Matam region on Senegal's border with Mauritania.

Diddy Throws Kim A Party

Diddy threw his baby momma Kim Porter a lavish birthday party Monday in West Hollywood.
Word is that Nearly 30 guests arrived, including "Grey's Anatomy" star Ellen Pompeo and husband Chris Ivery, co-star Sara Ramirez and reality TV's Lisa Gastineau. They party of course Diddy style took place at Murano Restaurant & Lounge to celebrating Porter's 38th birthday.The dj spinned nothing but old school 70s R&B and Kim was also serenaded by Stevie Wonder's singing his version of "Happy Birthday." Of course, guests drank a specialty lemon drop martini made with Ciroc vodka designed for the occasion, People.com reports. A four course tasting menu created by Executive Chef Luciano Sautto was served.

Mike Jones's New Line Of Cognac liquor

According to Allhiphop.com, Mike Jones has a new venture with ProConcept Marketing Group, Inc to endorse an exclusive new line of Cognac liquor from the “House of Dobbe’.” According to the CEO of Dobbe’, Joel Stohlman, Jones will give them visibility in markets they normally wouldn’t reach. Both parties will also work together and strategize on good promotional events and concert tours in major markets to promote the product as well as, they are working together for a special Super Bowl event to dually promote Mike Jones’ new album and the Cognac line.

Lil Kim Shoots New Video In LA

Kim recently shot a video in LA with an artist by the name of SE7EN. The song is titled “Them Girls”. I hear it's kind of HOT!!

-photos by: brown Sista

Pharrell WIll Team Up With Brain Grazer For New FIlm

Pharrell has been hired to produce the music for the upcoming Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment movie "Zoom." The movie is a music-themed film, that will be written and directed by Preston Whitmore. "8 Mile" producer Brian Grazer will also work along side Pharrell with the music.

Kanye West Plans on Doing a Fashion Internship

There are a lot of rumors going around but this one has me kind of believing it to be possible. Mr. Kanye West apparently has decided that he will move to London and put his music career on hold to study fashion design in Europe. Kanye is already as we known working on his own line called Pastelle, sources say "He's applying at Louis Vuitton, Raf Simmons and others. Everyone is surprised at just how seriously Kanye is taking his fashion dream. He is always in the front rows during the Paris and Milan fashion weeks. He absolutely loves London and wants to absorb the fashion over here."If you remember a while ago Kanye did make this comment: "I'm going to go and take an internship and just do something that's like completely normal and just rap on the weekends or something. "

Mos Def Being sued by his own Lawyers

Mos Def is being sued by his own divorce lawyers according to reports. They say that Mos Def did not pay them for their services and that he owes them about $60,000 in unpaid fees and retainers after they helped him in his divorce in 2006

Akon Launches His New Watch Line

Akon recently launched his own line of watches called Maranello. I think their kind of HOTT!

RZA Tour 2009

December 2008

- Chicago, IL - House of Blues 15

- Minneapolis, MN First Avenue17

- Cleveland, OH House of Blues 18

- Rochester, NY Main Street Armory19

- Philadelphia, PA Trocadero20

- New Haven, CT Toad's Place21

- Sayreville, NJ Starland Ballroom23

- New York, NY, Hammerstein Ballroom26

- Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Smalls27

Lancaster, PA - Chameleon Club31

- Baltimore, MD - Sonar 1

January 2009

- Washington, DC - 9:30 Club2 -

Providence, RI - Lupo's3 -

Worcester, MA - Palladium4 -

Burlington, VT - Higher Ground7 -

Norfolk, VA - The Norva8 -

Richmond, VA - National9 -

Greensboro, NC - N Club10 -

Charleston, SC - Music Farm11 -

Charlotte, NC - Amos' Southend12 -

Raleigh, NC - Lincoln Theatre13 -

Columbia, SC - LEVEL15 -

Jacksonville, FL - Plush16 -

Tampa, FL - Jannus Landing

Plies for Black Men’s Magazine

New Jackie-O PIctures By Derek Blanks

Blanks knows how to make people look GREAT! Word is Jackie-O is in the studio working on her next LP

Soulja Boy Covers Billboard

Almost didn't know who this was.

Yahoo! Music Releases Their #1 Songs Of 2008 List!

1. Low - Flo Rida

2. Love In This Club - Usher

3. Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis

4. Touch My Body - Mariah Carey

5. Lollipop - Lil Wayne

6. Take A Bow - Rihanna

7. Viva La Vida - Coldplay

8. I Kissed A Girl - Katy Perry

9. Disturbia - Rihanna

10. Whatever You Like - T.I.

11. So What - Pink

12. Live Your Life - T.I.

13. Womanizer - Britney Spears

14. Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) - Beyonce

RIP: D'Angelo Wilson

Condolences go out to the family of D'Angelo Wilson who was found dead of an apparent suicide hanging. No details have been given yet. A lot of you remember D'Angelo played DJ Iz in the 8 Mile movie. He also had small roles in The Salon, CSI: NY, Outside Man and others.

Ludacris and Big Boi will co-host The Urban Ball

According to reports, Ludacris and Big Boi will co-host one of the numerous inauguration-night galas celebrating the election of Barack Obama. The vent which is will be called the Urban Ball, with have appearances by David Banner, Bobby Valentino, Lil Jon, T-Pain, Cedric the Entertainer, the Cheetah Girls, Jalen Rose, Kenny Smith and Alonzo Mourning Fantasia and Monica. THe event will take place on Jan. 20 at D.C.'s Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. Word is tickets are $350.

TI talks Shawty Lo, Dirty Awards, Signing Killer Mike and More

Another Warrant has been issued for DMX

DMX was issued yet another bench warrant, after he failed to show up for a hearing Friday morning. However according to DMX's attorney, DMX wasn't present because he is currently in a rehab facility. The Judge raised DMX's bond to $120,000 cash.

Judge May Drop Charges Against SUGE!

A Las Vegas judge has dismissed the drug and battery charges filed against Suge Knight, who's accused of beating his girlfriend. According to reports, Court records show that the district attorney's office has filed a notice indicating they may try to revive the charges by seeking a grand jury indictment.

Hip-Hop... Hip-Hop... Who's To Blame? -- Dr. Boyce Watkins

Hip Hop Commercialized? Buffoonery or something more complicated?

By Dr. Boyce Watkins

www.BoyceWatkins.com

I am not a huge fan of Lil Wayne. I don’t hate him, I just don’t love him. His music doesn’t make me move, but it doesn’t make me sick. The thing that challenges my ability to love Lil Wayne is the environment within which he is operating.

Lil Wayne can be considered, by some, to be a modern day minstrel show: gold chains, diamond grills, 10,000 tattoos on parts of his body that have no business being tattooed, you name it. He engages in the stereotypical rock’n roll/hip hop lifestyle: guns, drugs, alcohol and random women. I fear for Lil Wayne, because at this pace, he might be dead before he turns 35. Lil Wayne makes Tupac Shakur and Eazy E look like conservative school kids.

Lil Wayne impacts the world in which he lives, sells records by the boat load and impacts far more young men than he probably should. It’s not that he chooses to be a role model, he just is one. But when we see Lil Wayne and express justifiable disdain for his behavior and persona, there is certainly more to be said.

You see, Lil Wayne is a product. The corporate executives pulling the strings and making the decision to sign deals with Lil Wayne also see him as a product. A product has to sell to its target audience, or it will not reach the sole objective of any capitalist venture: to make a profit. Not just any profit, but the highest possible profit within legal constraints. The corporate model doesn’t care about the community; it doesn’t care about health, workers, the environment or anything else. Like the financial machine that led to the breakdown of our global economic system, cogs in the wheel that pursue any objective other than pure profit maximization are quickly punished and replaced.

The target audience of hip hop is not black teenagers in the hood…..they don’t have any money, relatively speaking. The target audience for hip hop consists of middle and upper class kids in the suburbs, and those on college campuses. Those are the kids who line up at the record store and cause server outages at I-tunes when new albums are released. That is who the executives are trying to impress, and that is who Lil Wayne must impress in order to get a record deal.

The problem with Lil Wayne is that the transfer of commodities taking place between the recording industry and white America is one that lies over the economic heads of many African Americans. It doesn’t mean that those in the hood play no role in public consumption, but we are certainly not the biggest players in this game. Like a big bridge in the sky, we don’t impact the transactions, but we closely observe them. We don’t always buy the albums, but we watch the videos, read the articles, and hear the news stories about whose album sold the most copies during its first week. Due to the fact that there is a lack of diversity of images of black men in media, we have children who see the image of Lil Wayne and transform him into an involuntary role model. White kids don’t have to use Lil Wayne as a role model, since they see 50 new white men on TV every single day. Black youth don’t see doctors, lawyers and professors on TV: they see criminals, thugs, athletes and entertainers.

Lil Wayne’s environmental impact on the black community is what we in economics would call “a negative externality”. The fact that he makes it cool to use drugs, carry guns and engage in anti-social behavior does, in my opinion, cause irreparable harm to the black community. The problem is that the black community has little leverage to control these externalities, since we are neither the dominant consumers of hip hop, the controllers of media or the owners of record labels. Like the bridge in the sky I mentioned above. The presence of networks like BET or magazines like Essence and Ebony is relatively minor when compared to the dominance of CNN, Universal Records or Time Magazine. It’s like bringing a knife to a fight between nuclear superpowers.

Those of us upset about negative images in hip hop can protest all night at the next Lil Wayne concert and perhaps even have an intervention with Wayne to get him to see the err of his ways. The problem with this logic is that even if Lil Wayne does change his behavior, there is a long list of starving kids in the projects that the record label executives can find to replace Lil Wayne after he has been dropped from the brand. Also, getting Lil Wayne to invoke a more positive image will not change the fact that the consumers and producers of his product (gangster rap) are more willing to purchase albums made by black men when they feel that the performer has indulged their need to enjoy a stereotypical “thug-nificent” fantasy. Wayne may have some degree of industry power, but it is not as much as we might think. The in-studio recording of Lil Wayne’s product is not what creates the magic. The magic of a product is created through the marketing, distribution, financing and purchase of that product. That is done by the labels, and none of the large label owners are African American.

So, does Lil Wayne represent a modern day menstrual show? My answer is yes. He and others like him are told to behave more “thug like” and in more ridiculous and extravagant ways in order to get the attention necessary to sell records. It is, unfortunately, not smart business for a rapper to brag about being intelligent. Also, it is a lack of diversity of black male images in media that give black youth few alternatives for self-perception that go beyond that of Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, Flavor Flav and Juan Williams (the Fox News analyst who, along with Jessie Lee Peterson, enjoys bashing the black community). If any of these men chose to be forthright, insightful and firm in their support of the African American community, they would be fired immediately. But when we protest and challenge the system that is negatively impacting our communities, my argument is that we should look past the puppets and deal with the puppet masters.

Some would argue that by attacking rappers for the negative impacts of their lyrics, we are simply killing the messengers and going after the weaker scapegoat. While I am not one to judge whether the messenger should be killed, I am also an advocate for finding a way to get to the root of the message. Someone is controlling the messages of hip hop, and it’s not that poor kid from the projects who finally made it big.

Dr.Boyce Watkins is a Finance Professor at Syracuse University and author of “What if George Bush were a Black Man?” He makes regular appearances in national media, including CNN, ESPN, BET and CBS. For more information, please visit www.BoyceWatkins.com.

Radio DJ and Producer Fired For Playing Busta's "Arab Money"

A UK radio DJ and his producer were suspended last month according to reports, for playing Busta Rhymes "Arab Money." According to reports the songs received so many complaints about the lyrics being racist. Due to the fact that Busta boasting about being "oil well rich" and using various Arab references to describe his wealth. Sutherland was removed by Global Radio, the owners of Galaxy Radio, which beams his show into Manchester, Yorkshire, Birmingham, York Shire, the South Coast, the North East and Scotland, reports UK Web site Radio Today.

Vibe Magazine 2nd Annual Tabloid Issue for January 2009

Soulja Boy Will Take Part in Annual Toy Drive

Soulja Boy will host the 6th annual Toyz N Da Hood, with a toy drive at an Atlanta’s Walmart on Old National Highway, December 19th. The collected toys will be donated to underprivileged kids and low-income families. High school and middle Students will compete to collect the most toys for their school. The winning school will earn a free concert. Last year, the drive succeeded is disseminating over 20,000 toys. This year’s goal is 50,000.

50 Says that Nas is Finished

In 50 Cent's new interview with XXL Magazine, he says that Nas is finished!!

50 Cent: Man, Nas is cold as ice. Nas is the block of ice that sunk the Titanic… I didn’t even hear his record. I didn’t even hear what you talking about… I really don’t want to talk about Nas. I think he’s at one of those points to where his career’s finished, to be honest. He’s had some great moments and made good music in the past, but he no longer has the interest of the general public or myself.

50 Cent: The public will tell me that Curtis is a failure. And I sold 700,000 copies the first week. So what do I gotta do? Reach a million, at a minimum?!
That’s the bar you set. You’re the SoundScan Killer, remember?

50 Cent: Right, but if we’re gonna call that a failure, then somebody identify what a win is for me. All I need to know is what it is, and then I’ll go ’head and go. Musically, from my perspective, Curtis was exactly what I aimed for it to be. Or I wouldn’t have presented it to the public. I listen to my music before I put it out. I’m listening to it, and I’m hearing it, and I’m like, Yeah, this is what I wanna do now.

lil Wayne Leads Grammy Nominations

Congrats to Lil Wayne who, leads this year’s nominees with eight nominations. Among his nominations were Album of the year, Best rap album (for The Carter III), Best rap song for “Lollipop,” best rap solo performance and best rap/sung collaboration for “Got Money” featuring T-Pain.

Jay-Z & Kanye West both have 6 nominations

T.I. Cover Black Men