This can change at the drop of a dime…I understand that. All I’m saying is, that ain’t what Bangladesh said. So I guess we’ll see. The below excerpt was taken from Kim’s interview with Wet Paint:
Wetpaint Entertainment: Kim, your upcoming album is perhaps the most-anticipated album in hip-hop right now! Bangladesh [who’s produced Missy Elliott and Rihanna] is producing your album, correct?
Lil’ Kim: Yes, he’s executive-producing it. And we do have other producers working on the album, as well; but the first single that’s coming out in late June/first week of July is produced by Bangladesh, for sure.
I really thought this was going to be more gruesome than it was (it wasn’t). The whole reason why I created the post. From Fox News:
An Indian stuntman attempting to break a world record by crossing a river on a zip-line — while hanging by his ponytail — died while performing the feat Sunday.
Police officer Sailendra Nath Roy, 49, apparently had a heart attack as a result of zip-lining on a wire suspended nearly 600 feet in the air across the River Teesta in West Bengal, India, according to a Sky News report.
Roy holds the Guinness World Record for covering the longest distance on a zip-line while hanging by his hair.
Roy’s shoulder-length hair was attached to a pulley on a wire, and he had completed about half the distance when he suddenly stopped. As a crowd looked on in horror, Roy became entangled and could no longer propel himself forward.
This Spring issue of FADER Magazine will probably house two of the most entertainment feature write-ups/interview in Print this year. You can read all about it come May 7th.
Miley Cyrus is definitely coming into her own as a woman….Elle UK got a dope feature of her (you can check out more over there) and you can check out both some behind the scenes footage above as well as pics below. We will post a quick excerpt where she speaks on staying (relatively) conservative with her image:
‘A star is someone who doesn’t have to take her clothes off to be sexy because you naturally have star power,’ she told ELLE writer Janice Turner. ‘Sex does sell, but you have to find a way that’s not just showing your tits. I don’t want to be a glorified model. They just walk on stage and it’s all about their clothes – or lack of clothes.’
Michael Diamond (a k a Mike D) and Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock), the surviving members of the hip-hop group, have signed a deal with Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, for a book celebrating their history and aesthetic. A title has not been chosen, but it is planned to come out in fall 2015, the publisher is expected to announce this week.
The Beastie Boys are “interested in challenging the form and making the book a multidimensional experience…..There is a kaleidoscopic frame of reference, and it asks a reader to keep up.”
The book, to be edited by the hip-hop journalist Sacha Jenkins, will be loosely structured as an oral history. It will also have contributions by other writers, as well as a strong visual component. Ms. Grau and Luke Janklow, the group’s agent, both compared it to Grand Royal, the Beastie Boys’ acclaimed but short-lived magazine in the 1990s, which explored some of its wide-ranging pop-culture interests with curiosity and snark.
Peter Rosenberg recently let the cat out the bag that Def Jam had a listening session for Ye’s new album, and was said by reps at the label that the sixth solo effort is dark and gritty. Let’s hope we get an release date very soon.
Jason Collins released this letter, according to SI:
I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.
I didn’t set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I’m happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn’t the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, “I’m different.” If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I’m raising my hand.
My journey of self-discovery and self-acknowledgement began in my hometown of Los Angeles and has taken me through two state high school championships, the NCAA Final Four and the Elite Eight, and nine playoffs in 12 NBA seasons.
I’ve played for six pro teams and have appeared in two NBA Finals. Ever heard of a parlor game called Three Degrees of Jason Collins? If you’re in the league, and I haven’t been your teammate, I surely have been one of your teammates’ teammates. Or one of your teammates’ teammates’ teammates.
Now I’m a free agent, literally and figuratively. I’ve reached that enviable state in life in which I can do pretty much what I want. And what I want is to continue to play basketball. I still love the game, and I still have something to offer. My coaches and teammates recognize that. At the same time, I want to be genuine and authentic and truthful.
According to Chicago Tribune, Lil Reese was arrested earlier this morning because of a warrant issued in Champaign county, IL.
The arrest warrant was issued Friday in Champaign county for Lil Reese, 20, whose birth name is Tavares Taylor.
He was arrested at about 4 a.m. Sunday on the 4400 block of South Wells Street in the city’s Fuller Park neighborhood after a police officer on patrol saw him sleeping in a vehicle, according to Cook County court documents.
The arrest warrant issued Friday is connected to charges of criminal trespass to a residence with persons present, mob action and battery that allegedly took place in February 2012, according to the Champaign County Circuit Clerk’s Web site and Cook County court documents.
This apparently happened the night of the NFL draft, so we’re late…..plus, this is also coming from tabloid website Media Takeout:
The last time that Jeezy and Ross were in the building together was the BET HIP HOP AWARDS – and the two turn’t up and had to have police called.
So when BOTH Jeezy and his crew and Rick Ross and his crew hit up NY’s hottest club Greenhouse last week after the NFL Draft – everyone thought it was gonna be a PROBLEM!!!
Tells an MTO insider, “Rick Ross, Wale, Busta Rhymes and DJ Khaled (all came together) and their crews [were seated] in the VIP and Jeezy and his people were on the floor near the DJ booth.”
Luckily the club’s DJ Scram Jones had to be the “pacifier,” playing neutral music all night that kept both parties happy. The insider added, “BOTH parties were asking Scram to play different songs and Scram felt immense pressure to appease them both. So he played Jeezy tracks and Rick Ross tracks back and fourth since Khaled wanted to hear his records and then the second Jeezy left, he played BMF.”
Chris Brown’s dad would rather his relationship with Rihanna not last “Forever.”
Speaking exclusively to the Daily News, Clinton Brown said he would prefer his hotheaded son stay away from the Barbadian bombshell who he infamously assaulted in 2009.
“I personally really didn’t want him and Rihanna back together,” said Clinton Brown, 48.
“You have to have a balance in a relationship. You have to have someone who is spontaneous and whimsical but you also have to have someone who is grounded and logical.”
Jay-Z is working as if he was still broke….which is exactly why he and Beyonce are Pop music’s first billionaire couple. But the news on Jay-Z being the co-executive producer of the above movie (with equally important Hip-Hop figure Dream Hampton)….from Hip-Hop Wired:
Besides Jay-Z, the film’s other executive producers include author/director dream hampton and Wyatt Cenac. Directed by Terence Nance, who also has a starring role, the film is touted as blurring “the line between narrative, documentary, and experimental film as it explores the fantasies, emotions, and memories that race through Terence’s mind as he examines and re-examines a singular moment in time.”
Also worth noting is that the film will feature new music from renowned producer Flying Lotus. An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, an Official Selection at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, was released in limited theaters on April 26 and has received a 79% approval rating by film critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
By now, everyone who cares has seen the nauseating toe injury that Jon Jones suffered in his bout with Chael Sonnen, but for those who missed it, here it is thanks to Zombie Prophet.
He suffered an open fracture dislocation of the great toe, which appeared to involve the interphalangeal joint of the toe- the one at the middle of the toe. He was taken to a local hospital, where he had the dislocation repaired and the fracture wound closed. He posted this post-procedure picture on Twitter.
Last year, 19-year old Louisiana rapper Lil Phat, born Melvin Vernil III, was shot and killed in Atlanta. Signed to Trill Entertainment, he collaborated frequently with label mates like Lil Boosie, Webbie as well as artists like Young Scooter and OJ Da Juiceman. At the time of his death, he was sitting in his car in a hospital parking lot, about to become a father.
On Friday, news broke that Mani Chulpayev, a man identified by news sources as a “Mobster” with ties to the Russian Mob, is accused of putting a hit out on Lil Phat after the rapper told police that Chulpayev had sold him a stolen car. The alleged murderers are said to have used a GPS locator on Vernell’s car. More below, via XXL Magazine:
According to the report, Chulpayev is accused of dealing in stolen cars and Phat was one of his customers, having leased a BMW SUV and the high end Audi he was killed in from the dealer. According to police, Phat, born Melvin Vernell III, went to the authorities only two days prior to his murder and told them he got the cars from Chulpayev. The motive for his death may have been to silence the rapper. “I termed it an assassination,” said Fulton County district attorney, Paul Howard. “He was stalked by these hit men. It was planned.”
According to Chulpayev’s lawyer George Plumides his client is innocent and the prosecutors have no evidence against him. “Mani had nothing against this kid, and grieved when he found out he got killed,” he told reporters. “They put him out of business and they have nothing.”
Soulja Boy is definitely keeping his music in the rotation, isn’t he? He just dropped Foreign 2, and now we see that his next project — King Soulja — is dropping May 5th.
Some pics from Beyonce’s world tour have surfaced for the non-concert-goers to check out….I give it by Monday before we see and hear the illuminati accusations. Anyways, you can check out the ultra-stylish pics below.
One of the more highly-anticipated songs on the soundtrack is Andre 3000 and Beyoncé’s cover of Amy Winehouse’s hit Back to Black.
Today, DJ/producer Mark Ronson — who co-wrote the origninal song — premiered the track on his East Village Radio show, which you can hear below.
This remake has not been warmly received by all, though. The Huffington Post reported that earlier this week, Amy’s father Mitch told The Daily Mail that the new version “doesn’t bring anything” to his daughter’s song.
Now that the song is online, Mitch took to Twitter to react:
I just heard the Andre part of Back to Black. Terrible. He should have let Beyonce do it all. Mitch
Not only is the magazine that Quincy Jones built now a part of Spin Media, but all signs point to VIBE’s imminent end as a print publication….from New York Times:
SpinMedia announced the sale on Thursday, saying that it had bought the rights to Vibe’s print magazine and its related sites, Vibe.com and Vibevixen.com, from Vibe Media. The price was not disclosed.
The sale reunites the two publications, which more than a decade ago were part of the same company, Vibe/Spin Ventures, before each went through a series of sales.
Calling Vibe “an industry leader in the urban and hip-hop category for decades,” Steve Hansen, SpinMedia’s chief executive, added in an interview: “It’s really exciting to add this to SpinMedia’s collection of music properties and bring more digital DNA to the team and see what they can do.”
SpinMedia, until recently known as Buzz Media, owns or represents more than 40 sites, like Celebuzz, Idolator and JustJared, that cater to young pop-culture fans and compete with a range of sites like Gawker, TMZ, Pitchfork and BuzzFeed.
After it bought Spin last summer, Buzz Media promptly shut down the print magazine and laid off a third of its staff. It said it would concentrate on the Web site and consider eventually reviving the print version of Spin in some form.
Since then, Spin’s online traffic has doubled, but Mr. Hansen said that the company was no closer to reviving the magazine and that it planned to shut down Vibe’s print magazine later this year.
“We are still trying to find a print model that makes economic sense in the digital age,” he said.
I’m not sure where the results of these sessions (which happened on at least more than one occasion, judging by the clothes) are going to end up, but you can bet that they will make a serious mark on whoever’s album(s) that they appear on.
I guess Master P just really doesn’t like flash mobs….either that or the joke is on us. From TMZ:
P was enjoying a nice relaxing lunch with his son Romeo in Santa Monica … when a flash mob broke out right in front of Master P’s table.
But Mr. P clearly wasn’t amused … and right in the middle of the performance (during a Gangnam Style routine), the No Limit founder got out of his seat and beelined it for the exit, clearly upset.
As he left the restaurant, a woman connected to the event chased after P and begged him to come back … saying, “Don’t leave … it’s your birthday.”
The woman also told P the name of the person who organized the event in the hopes P would have a change of heart … but P didn’t care, and continued to storm off.
On his way out, we commented to P, “That didn’t go like they planned, huh?”
PR guru Max Clifford has been charged with 11 indecent assaults allegedly committed between 1966 and 1985.
The alleged offences relate to seven different women and girls ranging in age from 14 to 19 years old.
He was arrested in Operation Yewtree – set up following allegations about Jimmy Savile – although his arrest was unrelated to the former BBC DJ.
Operation Yewtree has three strands. One concerns Savile’s crimes exclusively, while another relates to allegations against Savile and others.
The third strand, under which Mr Clifford was arrested, concentrates on accusations unconnected to the Savile investigations but which emerged as a result of the publicity surrounding Savile.
Mr Clifford was not charged over three further allegations as there was “insufficient evidence to authorise charges”, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
Mr Clifford has since spoken out, denying the allegations against him:
“The allegations in respect of which I have been charged are completely false and I have made this clear to the police during many, many hours of interviews.
“Nevertheless a decision has been taken to charge me with 11 offences involving seven women, the most recent of which is 28 years ago and the oldest 47 years ago.
“I have never indecently assaulted anyone in my life and this will become clear during the course of the proceedings.”
