Diddy Settles Civil Suits From 1999 Club New York Shooting

From the NY Post:

Now it’s less money, less problems for Diddy — the hip-hop honcho has quietly settled all civil actions against him stemming from the infamous shoot-’em-up at Club New York more than a decade ago, The Post has learned.

Sean “Diddy” Combs, his former protégé Jamal “Shyne” Barrow and the now-defunct Times Square hot spot struck a deal earlier this year with three clubgoers shot by Barrow in the notorious 1999 melee, court records show.

The exact terms of the settlements were unknown because of confidentiality agreements between the parties, but former Club New York owner Michael Bergos, who did not sign the confidentiality deal, said the most seriously injured victim, Natania Reuben, was paid $1.8 million.

Read more after the jump.

Reuben, 40, was shot in the nose and suffered seizures because of seven bullet fragments still lodged in her face.

Two other victims were paid $500,000 and $50,000. Bergos said he was unsure who paid what amount in the deal, but Barrow’s and the club’s shares were picked up by insurance companies, while Diddy — who was acquitted in the criminal case related to the brawl — had to pay out of pocket because his insurance company had gone belly up.

A rep for Diddy declined comment.

Reuben’s lawyer, Debra Reiser, also declined comment, saying, “My client wanted the confidentiality agreement because she didn’t want any further publicity. She’s been victimized enough.”

Bergos said he refused to sign the confidentiality deal “because I did nothing wrong and I may need to talk about [the incident] sometime in the future.”

The shooting occurred Dec. 27, 1999, when Combs was still known as “Puff Daddy” and dating Jennifer Lopez. Bergos said Combs, Lopez, Barrow, Combs bodyguard Anthony “Wolf” Jones and others went to the then-hot spot to celebrate signing Barrow to a record deal.

The night turned ugly when Combs’ crew exchanged words with another clubgoer, Matthew “Scar” Allen.

Barrow pulled out a gun and started firing away. He was later convicted of shooting two bystanders.

“It felt like a flaming hot sledgehammer hit me in the face,” Reuben, a beautician and mother of two, testified during the criminal trial.

Barrow served nine years in prison and was deported to his native Belize after release.

Bergos said he’s considering an offer to write a book about his travails.

Chris Brown’s Cousins "Chase" Down Frank Ocean?

Update: If you give a shit, it’s this guy. Enjoy his twitter feed.


It’s really unclear what took place, but from what I understand, people are saying that Frank Ocean went to confront Chris Brown at the BET Rehearsal and then had a change of heart, which led to a slow speed chase of some sort? In any case, that’s definitely Odd Future’s crooner, Frank Ocean, but again it’s hard to tell what the fuck is going on. – D-Dot Omen

Mary J. Blige & Nicki Minaj Leak Not Real

Last night, a record titled “Feel Inside” leaked online as a MJB and Nicki collaboration. A source from Mary’s camp confirmed with Billboard that the track is unofficial and that the vocals and Wu-Tang “Triumph”-sampling track were mashed up from two separate sources.

In related news, MJB is currently peaparing her forthcoming LP, My Life 2: The Journey Continues.

David Guetta x Ludacris x Taio Cruz – Little Bad Girl

I’m admittedly trying to figure out more about this guy. To start off, he’s already four albums in, and his 5th, Nothing But The Beat, drops 8/30, which features the likes of Usher, will.i.am, Snoop Dogg, Akon, Jennifer Hudson, Sia, Timbaland, and Dev. You should also be seeing a video for his lead single, ‘Where Them Girls At’, with Flo Rida and Nicki Minaj sometime next week.

DMX – VIBE Interview; Speaks On Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Ja Rule & More

Whoa. Shoutout to Miss Info for posting notable parts of the interview up (which you can enjoy after the jump)…..you can also definitely check out the full interview over at VIBE.

VIBE: Damn. Have you even been able to have a conversation with Jay?
DMX: I’ve not talked to him yet, since. But I had a show November 18th, before I got locked up–No November 12th I had the show. And somebody in the crowd was like ‘What’s up with Jay-Z’ and I was like ‘Fuck Jay-Z’. And it ended up all over the place. So he called Swizz, Swizz called me, and he tells Swizz ‘Yoo, why your man dissin me? I was gonna do a song with him’—Coulda, woulda, shoulda. Fucking bullshit. I don’t wanna hear that shit. And like ‘Yo, can you just get him to say he ain’t mean it’—NO! I’m not saying that. What I did say is if he wanna talk to me, I’m man enough to let him know why it’s ‘Fuck You’, but it’s still ‘Fuck You’! That’s what it is. I’ll let you know why, I can do that. It ain’t like you gotta worry about me running up on you shooting you. It ain’t that serious. You don’t owe me nothing. But if you want an explanation as to why it’s ‘Fuck You’, I’ll be more than happy to tell you why.
I do like Nicki Minaj—how she getting at em. Haven’t heard the album, but the couple of singles I’ve heard—“Did It On Em,” you know what I’m saying? That “Boom boom boom.” Some shit, “Bang”—whatever. I like her style. And Kiss got a new joint too that I’m feeling.
VIBE: Speaking of Nicki, how are you feeling about Lil Wayne and Drake?
Hmmm…no comment. I don’t like Drake. It’s nothing that he did to me, He actually is talented. He’s very talented.
So what really went wrong there?
I have a few inside people who confirmed my suspicions that they were trying to make me leave. Like ‘Yeah they just wanna get you out of there. ‘ That way they can do what they wanna do and this , that, and the other. If you remember, Jay quit. He retired from rapping. But he became president of Def Jam. He gave me the call, he called me personally. So I’m like ‘yeah that’s wassup! My mans is in a position now, he’s the president of the label I’m on, we good! Next thing you know, he’s out of retirement and I’m off the label. What a coincidence.
So the riff between you and Jay is actually a personal matter? I know a lot fans over the years were really curious to know if you and Jay were actually real life friends.
We were real good friends. He came down and heard the album, was like ‘Yeah, that’s wassup. The album’s hot. When you shoot the video?’ Directly after that he started doing some funny shit. You know, that night we went out and shot pool together. He could call me anytime. He called me one time in New York like ‘Yo I want you to come hear this Beans joint.’ I jumped in my truck. I’m a free spirit. I’m not running around with 10 people all the time. I drove down there. I lived in Upstate New York, Mount Kisco and shit. So I jumped in the Suburban, flew down there, ‘What’s up nigga? I’m here for you. That’s how I get down. We played pool there, we hung out in the studio. We ain’t get no work done, but we had a good time. Our birthdays are like a few days apart. So we had a lot in common. And the thing that’s crazy about us is our relationship was a real relationship. Because initially, I didn’t like him and he didn’t like me, so we began to battle. And the battle was like maybe 91 or 92. When he was with Original Flavor.
On top of the pool tables and all of that.
Exactly. In the pool hall in the Bronx. So we had history So it took years for us to get to the point where we were cordial. And we owe that to Irv Gotti. Irv was his man and Irv was my man. I had to tell Irv ‘Yo let me know when he got a show, so I can battle him again.’ Cause I wasn’t trying to kill him or nothing. It wasn’t beef. But I wanted to let him know that you can’t fuck with me, no matter how nice you think you are. And that was only for a few years. We realized what it really was. It was just some battle shit. We realized when you’re young like that you sometimes mistake when you battle somebody for beef. But we realized, there’s no beef involved. I don’t even know you to not like you. We earned each other’s friendship. And we became good friends. We wasn’t hanging out all the time—we two different type of niggas. But you know, if I see him somewhere we hang out.
Yeah I saw there was a picture of you, Foxy, and Ja altogether.
Yeah. It was like, I was sitting in the front and his wife was behind me. And I looked back and I spoke to her. And when I turned around again—actually I was getting up to leave and he was sitting there. So people were already looking at us and knew that I didn’t know he was behind me. It was quiet. So when I turned around and seen him, I could feel all the eyes on me. And I was like ‘Yo watup man’ and gave him a pound and everybody started clapping.

Shaolin Park Central


Shaolin Park – Paranormal Activity

Enjoy their latest video above, then check out more (including a couple of their projects) after the jump.

Shark City’s own @Beanz_cuh, @Marley_San, and @YungGuapva bring all the style and creativity of music into one. Shaolin Park was made out of pure fun, after some recording everything became very serious very quickly. As underground hip hop underdogs we’re just trying to be the best we can and fit into the music world, make good music for the people, and rock out shows.


Shaolin Park – R&B