We all remember Vibe magazine growing up. It grew with us as adults and now its time has come. Yes Vibe readers, the recession has taken down one of the most respected Magazine Hip Hop had to offer Vibe magazine.

Danyel Smith, Vibe’s former Editor-in-chief released this statement, further confirming reports of the mag’s closing: “On behalf the Vibe content staff (the best in this business), it is with great sadness, and with heads held high, that we leave the building today. We were assigning and editing a Michael Jackson tribute issue when we got the news. It’s a tragic week in overall, but as the doors of Vibe Media Group close, on the eve of the magazine’s sixteenth anniversary, it’s a sad day for music, for hip hop in particular, and for the millions of readers and users who have loved and who continue to love the Vibe brand. We thank you, we have served you with joy, pride and excellence, and we will miss you.”

The BET Awards ceremony last night gave awards to the best in urban music artist of today, but you could have mistaken the whole ceremony for a tribute show dedicated to pop star Michael Jackson. Jammie Foxx, Beyonce, Neyo, and more made special dedications to the pop icon. I totally understand how Michael contributed to the whole music industry. I do feel that BET might have over done it a tad bit.
During red carpet arrivals, Michael’s father Joe Jackson had a few words about his son as well: “I wish the world had recognized him when he were living. Right now he’s bigger than ever. But I wish he was here to see all this, to hear all this.”

Janet Jackson made her appearance after a Jackson tribute by singers Ne-Yo and host Jamie Foxx, who performed a somber version of the Jackson 5 classic “I’ll Be There,” as photos of Jackson flashed across the screen to close out the show.

The entire show was overall nice. If you didn’t get a chance to see it, I’m pretty sure it will be running all week.

The highly anticipated sequel to 2007’s summer blockbuster Transformers, has hit this week. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has a lot to live up to, as the prequel was the 5th most successful film of 2007 and set a lot of standards. The first movie was extremely popular for it’s never ending action and astounding special effects. This is the second movie out of a proposed trilogy. Reviews on various sites stated the movie was far, far too long; the film also proves that when it came to Michael Bay blockbuster movies, you can have too much of a good thing.

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I grew up a Transformer addict and I still want to see this movie for myself. Check out the video below and tell us what you think?

Chris Brown has pleaded guilty to one count of felony assault on his former girlfriend Rihanna, as a part of a plea deal to keep himself out of jail.

For his guilty plea, Brown will serve five years of probation and must serve about 1,400 hours of “labor-oriented service” to avoid jail time, Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, told CNN.com.

Is Shaquille O’Neal getting ready for another sports career once he retires from the NBA? MMA? UFC? Maybe. The 7′1″ NBA center, fresh off a training session, issues a challenge to any would-be opponents in the world of MMA, specifically calling out one fighter.

“We don’t care about nobody. We’ll fight anybody. I’ll even fight him (pointing to a stand-up figure of Chuck Liddell), after I fight the big boy that knocked out Jose Canseco — Hong Man Choi,” Shaq says with a smile.

“I’m coming for you. Don’t worry about it. I’m retiring the next year, two years. I’m coming for you. I look like Jose to you? No,” Big Shaq continued.

Hong Man Choi is a Korean kickboxer and former ssireum wrestler, who currently competes in K-1, an MMA style sport combining an array of martial arts. He fought retired baseball player Jose Canseco in an MMA match on May 26th for the promotion Dream, as part of its Super Hulk Tournament. He beat Canseco in 1 minute 15 seconds.

Hammer pants are the newest craze. Mc Hammer has been a hip hop icon since his famous single “Can’t Touch This”. Now it seems that this song has inspired a group of fans to let it be known that Hammer is not dead.

All I can say is check out the video.

EA Sports announced last week that the Orlando Magic’s center, Dwight Howard, will be the cover athlete for the upcoming NBA Live 10 title. Just days before the Magic would lose to the Lakers in the NBA Finals.

“It’s an honor to be named as the cover athlete for NBA LIVE 10,” said Howard. “This year has been a crazy ride and this is a cool way to cap it off. Of course — there is one more thing I’m on the hunt for that would complete it.”

The news comes on the heels of 2K Sports’ title, “NBA 2K10,” which named Kobe Bryant their cover athlete the previous week.

Check out the video below to see the sick preview.

After just two years of marriage, it looks as though Usher’s marriage to Tameka Foster-Raymond is on the rocks, and they’re ready to call it quits. The singer and wife have been living separately for nearly a year now, and as of Thursday morning (June 11), Usher filed divorce papers. Right now, a source close to the family confirmed the split, and says Usher’s main concern is his children.

Just two weeks after a tragic home accident took the life of his 4-year-old daughter, Mike Tyson tied the knot with his girlfriend Lakiha Spicer during a ceremony in Las Vegas over the weekend.The couple exchanged vows at the La Bella Wedding Chapel at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel on Saturday night (June 6).

The Toronto Raptors’ Chris Bosh is hoping to parlay his NBA stardom from the hardwood to the studio, after inking a deal with Warner Music Canada, where he plans to release a CD and DVD.

The CD is said to be a mix of the basketball player’s favourite songs, alongside tracks from new,and unsigned artists. Hopeful artists can submit tracks through Bosh’s website (Chris-Bosh.com) with a chance to appear on the CD. According to a press release, the DVD will feature “the original comedic characters Bosh has developed over the past two years in a series of hilarious video clips posted on the Internet.”

Universal Motown label-mates, Kid Cudi and Asher Roth, will be leading the charge for the future of hip-hop this summer, as they embark on their first headlining tour. The Great Hangover Tour” will take the budding superstars to 19 cities across the US, supported by eccentric Atlanta rapper B.O.B. for the entirety of the trip.

full list of tour dates is as follows:

07/14 - Boston, MA @ House of Blues +
07/15 - New York, NY @Nokia Theater +
07/16 - Mariaville, NY @ Indian Lookout +
07/17 - Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues +
07/18 - Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak +
07/20 - Kansas City, MO @ Voodoo Lounge *
07/21 - Denver, CO @ Ogden *
07/22 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Harry O’s *
07/23 - Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues *
07/24 - San Francisco, CA @ Regency Theatre *
07/26 - Los Angeles, CA @ House of Blues *
07/27 - Phoenix, AZ @ Marquee *
07/29 - Dallas, TX @ House of Blues *
07/30 - Austin, TX @ Stubbs *
07/31 - Houston, TX @ House of Blues *
08/02 - Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle *
08/03 - Norfolk, VA @ Norva +
08/04 - Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head +
08/05 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club +

This weekend was fantastic for some and embarrassing for others on the MTV movie awards. Jim Carrey accepted his award for Best Comedic Performance in the movie “Yes Man”. Heath Ledger was awarded Best Villain in the movie “Dark Knight”. Eminem …..Yes Eminem didn’t receive an award, but a prank that’s too explicit for us to mention on this site. All I can say, is that it had him storming out of the awards with his whole entourage behind him. Besides that incident, The MTV Movie Awards was a success.

Kavya Shivashankar, a 13 year old girl from Kansas won the 82nd annual Scripps National Spelling Bee last night. The seventh grade spelling prodigy took home the crown spelling the word Laodicean correctly. Words she spelled correctly in previous rounds were “hydrargyrum,” “blancmange” and “baignoire”, and she did it with ease. She took home over $40,000 in cash and prizes, for a 7th grader that’s not too bad.

By: Mike Murray

Rapper T.I. gave a farewell concert on May 24, 2009, less than two days before he must turn himself in to serve a sentence of one year and a day. He performed in front of 16,000 people in his hometown of Atlanta. He was reported saying that he hopes all of his fans learn from his mistakes and that he everyone will pray for him while he serves his time. He was also reported saying “I’m going to stand tall, head up high. Thank you for all your support.”

After a four years break, Eminem has jumped back on the hip-hop scene with his latest release, “Relapse”. The album has been met with mostly positive reviews, but it wouldn’t be a true Eminem album if it didn’t bring along it’s fair share of controversy; and it has plenty of that. Dr. Dre and 50 Cent both make appearances on the album, but for the most part this is album is all Slim Shady. Everyone will have a different opinion about the album, what is yours? Is it a success? Will you be counting down the days until Relapse 2 drops?

 Busta Rhymes is back on his game and due to release his much anticipated album Back On My B.S. which drops tomorrow May, 19th 2009. He is already hitting the airwaves with his infectious single “Arab Money” and has everyone doing his dance. I guess what everyone wants to know if Busta still has what it takes? This will be his 8th album and some have already said that this is his hottest album yet. I can’t wait till tomorrow to purchase this CD to add to my collection.

Looks like The Game’s talk of retirement was all talk. He is apparently talking about his new album, The R.E.D. Album. This would be his fourth studio album to released as a major artist. Some may think that the title of the album may be gang-related, but Game says to MTV that it is a rededication to hip-hop and his hood, Compton. Game wants to elevate his rap game and this new album will be his chance to do so. No word on release is set, but look out for tracks.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

So Rick Ross was on the cover of the May 2009 XXL Magazine sporting some hot Louis Vuitton sunglasses. Well, little did anyone know that according to the people at LV, that pair of glasses was counterfeit. According to Michael D. Pantalony from Louis Vuitton the glasses were fake and Ross did not have permission wear them for the cover of the magazine. Pantalony wrote a letter to the editor of XXL explaining the situation:

Dear Editor:

We were dismayed to see the cover of the May 2009 issue of XXL Magazine, which features a photo of Rick Ross wearing a pair of sunglasses prominently featuring counterfeit Louis Vuitton trademarks. Because the photo has generated considerable confusion among your readers and Louis Vuitton customers among others, we feel it is important to clarify several points.

The first is that the sunglasses Mr. Ross is wearing were not made by Louis Vuitton, and in fact, are counterfeit. Louis Vuitton did not grant permission to Mr. Ross or to whoever did make the sunglasses to use our trademarks. The second is that no affiliation, sponsorship or association exists between Rick Ross or XXL and Louis Vuitton. The third is that counterfeiting is illegal.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to correct the confusion.

Sincerely,

Michael D. Pantalony, Esq.
Louis Vuitton Malletier

Now Rick Ross’ camp is saying that they were customized by a jeweler in Miami, and is probably why the people from Louis Vuitton did not recognize the pair of sunglasses.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

  Jadakiss was at VILLA’s 40th and Lancaster locations this past Friday for an in-store appearance. He was signing autographs and in town for an event with Power 99 that night. The fans came and lined up for their once in a lifetime opportunity to meet Jadakiss. Many people came out and he did not leave until he signed an autograph for every that came to see him that day. Special thanks to Jadakiss, his team, and the crew at 40th and Lancaster holding it down.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

For those that don’t know, Alfamega is one of the artists on T.I.’s label, Grand Hustle. Withe whole situation T.I. is in, word broke out earlier this week that Alfamega was an informant to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) when T.I. was actually caught. This was just a bad look for T.I.’s camp, especially that someone within the camp was the one who informed the DEA of what T.I. was doing. Fianlly, rapper T.I. broke out the silence and made his comments on the situation. T.I.’s biggest statement made was “There Is No Place At Grand Hustle For Dishonest Behavior.” This is crazy especially how rapper preach loyalty in their camps. T.I. is taking responsibility for his actions, but everyone was waiting for his comments.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

A recent concert held at Arizona’s Last Smash Platinum Bash made promoters lose close to $l million. Jay-Z was paid a $750,000 advance for the concert, but according to Sohh.com, ticket sales and merchandise only accounted for $503,502. The concert also featured Kelly Clarkson and Third Eye Blind (an odd line-up). The Associated Students of The University of Arizona helped put the event together through fund raising and other sources and the total cost of the event was $1.42 million, which turned out to be about a $917,000 loss. This is a great example of how the economy is hurting. Another part was due to the choice of line-up. Maybe some people just didn’t want to see all three acts together and it was not worth the money.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

I remember talking about Nas and Kelis expecting their baby and how happy the couple was turning out to become. Now I am writing an article about a divorce from the celebrity hip-hop couple. Rumors are that Kelis filed for divorce from husband Nas sometime late last week. This came from an argument between the two, says former XXL editor-in-chief Elliott Wilson on Angela Yee’s Shade 45 satellite radio show. This argument was concerning Nas cheating on Kelis with another woman, while Kelis is still pregnant with the couple’s baby. Wilson also mentioned that Kelis was tired of the physical and verbal abuse from Nas. No official word on how true this is, but it is a serious matter for the couple.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

With Eminem’s highly anticipated new album, Relapse, set to release on May 19, the album tracklist has been leaked on the internet. Now, it is not official, but looks official. There are rumored to be 20 tracks on Eminem’s new album including tracks with Dr. Dre and 50 Cent.

Check out the tracklist below:

01 Dr. West (Skit) 01:29
02 3am 05:20
03 My Mom 05:20
04 Insane 03:01
05 Bagpipes From Baghdad 04:43
06 Hello 04:08
07 Tonya (Skit) 00:43
08 Same Song & Dance 04:08
09 We Made You 04:30
10 Medicine Ball 03:57
11 Paul (Skit) 00:19
12 Stay Wide Awake 05:20
13 Old Time’s Sake f. Dr. Dre 04:35
14 Must Be The G**** 04:03
15 Mr. Mathers 00:42
16 Deja Vu 04:43
17 Beautiful 06:32
18 Crack A Bottle f. Dr. Dre & 50 Cent 04:58
19 Steve Berman (Skit) 01:29
20 Underground/Ken Kaniff 06:19

What do you think about Eminem’s new album? Do you think it will be a hot seller or will it flop?

By: Adrian Gonzalez

If you were not there, you missed out in the opportunity to meet and greet Jim Jones. Mr. Ballin’ himself was at VILLA’s Camden location this past Friday, April 24, signing autographs and greeting his fans. There were people waiting in line for a couple hours just to see Jim Jones. The event was a great success, so if you want to meet your favorite celebrity, stay current with VILLA.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Nike is making a special collaboration with influential hip-hop group De La Soul. To commemorate 20 years since the group’s debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, “ARE YOU IN?: Nike+ Original Run” will release. This album will have all new original material from the group, which hasn’t released an album with new material in about 5 years. It will also be the 5th release under the Nike+ Original Run series. The album will consist of tracks geared towards runners, but still appealing to the average hip-hop fan. This album is available exclusively through the Nike iTunes store.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

It can be a very painful process, but producer/rapper Pharrell recently went through laser surgery to remove all the tattoos on his arms. According to AllHipHop.com, “he was going to attempt to cultivate new skin cells and graft the new tissue over his tattoos.” The surgery was done at Wake Forest Institute in North Carolina for Regenerative Skin Treatment. It’s going to be different not seeing all the tattoos, but now he is really going to be on his grown man tip. I wonder if he will go after the won on the side of his neck next.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Wow! Has anyone seen that new show on MTV called “The Phone.” It is produced by Justin Timberlake and it’s bananas. It is a competition between 2 teams (guy and girl on each) where different tasks have to be completed and as soon as the specific tasks is dubbed the “elimination” task, the first team not to succeed gets eliminated. Then the other team has to finish the rest of the tasks in order to win the accumulated money. The catch is that all the tasks and clues are given through a Verizon wireless phone from the host. It’s like watching a movie! It is exciting and well worth the time watching. Can’t wait for the rest of the season.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Rick Ross’ new album, “Deeper Than Rap” officially dropped yesterday in what was well awaited. This is so because of his current, but on-going beef with rapper 50 Cent. After the beginning of the beef, 50 Cent said he was trying to ruin Ross’ career. 50 Cent is definitely trying hard, if anyone is keeping up with the beef, you know what I am talking about. The new album has many features including: Lil Wayne, Kanye West, T-Pain, John Legend, and more. Ja Rule, who had beef with 50 cent before, is on the remix of Mafia Music, a diss track for 50 Cent. Time will tell how sales of this album will be impacted due to the beef with 50 Cent. What do you think?

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Twitter has become the latest trend in social media that is available on the internet. It is a site where members can leave messages and other members who follow, get messages of what the person is doing. As a friendly competition, mass media giant CNN and celebrity Aston Kutcher battled to see who would be the first member to have 1 million followers. Early Friday morning, Kutcher reached the million, a half an hour before CNN did. As part of the contest, Kutcher decided to donate $100,000 to the “Malaria No More” fund (Kutcher and CNN would have donated 10,000 mosquito bed nets for charity if they would have won). This just shows the craze over Twitter and the many creative ways one can get with social media.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Well it is official! Diddy has let Aubrey, D. Woods, and Shannon out their contracts from Danity Kane. They went from having two No. 1 albums to a dismantled group. The most shocking move was when he let Dawn and Aundrea the fate of Danity Kane. Diddy ended up letting Aundrea out her contract as well, leaving Dawn as the only member of Danity Kane, if he decides to keep on with the group. It is sad but it is a business. Diddy, I’m not mad at you. This is a business and when you invest so much money into something, you do not want people messing with your money.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

The popular movie about the Notorious B.I.G, that released back in January of this year, will finally be available for purchase on Blue Ray and DVD on Tuesday, April 21. The biopic about arguably the best rapper ever, follows the life of Biggy Smalls up to the point in his life when he was murdered. A lot of fans came out to see the movies its first weekend as the movie racked up $21.5 million the three day weekend. If you were not able to see it when it released now is your chance to do so.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

These four hip-hop and r&b artists are all investing in similar, but new business ventures…….fragrances. Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kanye all got fragrance deals when Iconic Fragrances, LLC signed the deal with Parlux. In rough economic times like the current, Parlux CEO Neil J. Katz says that having celebrity appeals to its fragrances will definitely help boost sales. Common partnered with Diesel clothing brand to launch his new cologne. It is mentioned that the title of Common’s cologne will be called “Only The Brave.” This is great and I wonder if some type of friendly competition will arise from these artists in a new industry.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

It seems like reality TV shows are not getting hurt that bad that one network is even making a show about laying off employees. Fox network has come up with a reality show called “Someone’s Gotta Go.” The basis of the show is that each week a different small company (15 to 20 employees) will be featured in an episode where an employee will ultimately be laid off. The catch though is that it is not the boss choosing who gets laid off, it is the employees of the company. Other television networks, such as ABC, are opposing this idea because of the severity of the type of situation, since it has affected many already due to economic times. Fox is saying that the laid off employee will receive some type of severance. The show is currently in production and Fox has not yet revealed when Someone’s Gotta Go will air.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Well, the day came and went pretty fast. There were two guys that waited in line from Thursday night at VILLA on 52nd Street just to get their hands on this exclusive Nike x Kanye West collabo. It was raining one day and very windy on the actual release day, but there were people that did not care. If you missed out on getting a pair, the next release in the Nike Air Yeezy series releases early May. Keep checking the website for the latest info. on the next Yeezy to release.

Well I think it is alright to say that Eminem is officially back. He has had a single on the radio for a some time now, “Crack A Bottle”, but now has a new single and video. Eminem’s newest single is called “We Made You” and it just shows the old Eminem at his best again. In the video, he takes several jabs at different celebrities such as Jessica Simpson, Tony Romo, Kim Kardashian, Lindsay Lohan, Star Trek, Ellen DeGeneres and even Sarah Palin. The video is hilarious so you should definitely YouTube the video. His album, “Relapse”, will be very interesting being that Eminem has been away from the game for several years.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

This has been an interesting topic to discuss ever since rapper Nas came out with his track “Hip-Hop Is Dead.” Soulja Boy even made some remarks about it, trying to diss Nas. Well if you look at the actual fresh and good talent that is out now like Wale, Kid Cudi, Charles Hamilton, Curren$y, and B.o.B, a lot of people may have a legitimate reason to argue. All of these new artists have mixtapes out, videos produced, and hot tracks that have been on the radio. Even though there are some artists that feel that they can just put a quick track together and say it is real hip-hop, other artists are true and do what it takes to prove they are legit. As far as Soulja Boy goes, he has about three tracks on the radio now and is making money even if some might hate. Well it is just a topic for discussion and really has two legit arguments to go by.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

For those that may not know, rapper Kanye West has his own personal blog titled “Kanye University.” Thousands of people follow the blog daily, in which furniture, music, women, and architecture, and fashion are the main topics of the blog. When it first started Kanye denied having “Ghost Bloggers”, others blogging for him. Apparently, he has now come out to say that he has hired 2 employees to clog about whatever he tells them to blog about. Kanye does blog himself, but not as much as his ghost bloggers do. He says the success to blogging lies behind having a camera, email access, and two staffers at all times.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

It has been a while since Mike Jones has been really hitting the rap scene. A lot of people may be wondering what happen to him. Well, he was losing a lot of weight! A lot of people are skeptical if the so called “Subway” diet actually works, and in an interview with Baller Status, he mentions that it was a big part of him losing weight. Jones was weighing almost 300 pounds at one point and with the help of eating Subway, watching what he ate, and running on a treadmill, he was able to lose about 100 pounds and is currently weighing 190 pounds. This is just a testimonial of what hard work and determination can do for people.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Well, T.I.’s 45 days of redemption are over as he was finally sentenced in his case of trying to purchase illegal firearms. Originally, Clifford Harrison aka T.I., was suppose to do 20 years, but in a plea agreement, in which he would serve 1,500 hours of community service, the judge allowed to reduce the sentence. Also, with good behavior, 15% of his sentence now may be taken away. This case really turned T.I. into a more mature young man and more of a leader in the hip-hop world. This past year was probably one if not the most effective year for the rapper, as he dropped a great album (Paper Trail) and his clothing line Akoo. It is going to be weird without him around but he has to face the consequences. Now he is due 1 year and 1 day in prison.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Shame on you if you missed the in-store appearance of Bow Wow at VILLA this past Monday! VILLA’s Chelten store was the secret location and you would have known if you were a member the VIP sign-up list. The line started early as hundreds of fans came to see Bow Wow in person during his promo tour. As you can see in the pictures, the store was filled with screaming fans. Pooch, IZZO, and DJ Touchtone from 100.3 The Beat were on site helping to host the event as well. Bow Wow had a question and answer session and he even performed a couple tracks. Even leaving his tour bus was almost mobbed with his fans. Overall, it was a great event and just shows how VILLA does it for YOU, our customers.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

The King of Auto-Tune is being sued and for a lot of money. Apparently, T-Pain had cancelled a major concert he was supposed to be at last month in Guayana. The promoters of the event (Hits and Jams) said that Pain was being a pain and making crazy demands such as a private jet, FBI protection, and a phone call with the country’s president. This all came from a supposed kidnap and death threat that T-Pain’s camp said was received. The promoters of the events paid a $75,000 advance on top of paying for 10 airline tickets and hotel accommodations for T-Pain’s camp. They are now seeking approximately $5 million due to the advance money and libel and defamations counts. T-Pain’s people are stating that they wanted to do the event but did not want to put their artists in harm’s way. This case is legit on both ends so it will be interesting to see what side wins.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

April 4 will be a very special day for the legendary pioneers of hip-hop and rock to an extent, RUN DMC. On that day the group will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the Public Auditorium in Cleveland. Eligibility was just met as entrance into the hall requires the artists to wait 25 years after their first recording and Run DMC’s first recording came in 1984. To add to the situation, rapper Eminem will be the one inducting the legendary group during the ceremony in to the hall of fame which is just a huge honor for Eminem and his career. Congrats go out to the group who has just made such an inspiring impact on the hip-hop scene.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

The Dream’s latest album is now in stores and is titled Lover vs. Money. I actually have it and like it better than his first album. He has features on his albums from Mariah Carey, Kanye West, Fabolous, Ludacris and more. His track “Walking on the Moon” is probably one of my favorites, which features Kanye West. Last week, The Dream had an album release party sponsored by the popular social networking site, MySpace in Los Angeles. The Dream performed and even brought out Kanye West and Fabolous on stage as well. There were a lot of stars out for his event. Check out the special iTunes edition of Love vs. Money, for a few bonus tracks.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Any Day 26 fans that have been watching the latest season of Making the Band 4 know that the guys are grinding it out on their sophomore album. It has just been announced that the title for their new album will be “Forever In A Day.” There are a few singles that have been heard throughout the show, especially, the theme song for the first three episodes which was “Stadium Music.” Day 26’s newest single is “I’m A Put it On” which features fellow Bad Boy affiliates Yung Joc and boss man Diddy. The album sounds like it will be another hot one! The group will also be on a promo tour titled “26 Days of Day 26.” Forever In A Day is set to release April 14.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

For those that missed the music and Entertainment Conference yesterday, lucky it will be back…..next year. There were quite of few interesting workshops throughout the day. I was able to attend the hip-hop workshop, R&B workshop, and the Black Hollywood workshop. Each one was so packed, which showed how much people are involved or interested in these fields. The hip-hop workshop had Jadakiss, Ron Browz, Common, Maino, and Red Café to name a few. The R&B workshop had Bobby Valentino, Keri Hilson, and Jasmine Sullivan. The artists were open to all questions and giving helpful feedback. Look out for next year’s event. Oh course, VILLA was a sponsor for this event.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

It sounds weird but actress Meagan Good is actually recording a music album. During long sets, she has been hitting the recording studio. She recently appeared in the Love Guru and Saw V and says her debut album is in the experimental stage. Meagan Good has been working with producer/artist The Dream, to work on her vocals for about 2 months, Good says. The 27-year old actress is looking for a pop feel to her album, not the typical R&B touch. Even though she is not signed with a record label Meagan Good does plan to talk to a few labels and pitch her album so that it may release. This will be interesting especially with a pop album. Maybe it is a hidden talent.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

There are rumors that Russell Simmons baby momma is supposedly married with her actor boyfriend Djimon Hounsou. The crazy part of this story is that they are rumored to be married since last summer. The New York Daily News says that the wedding occurred in Hounsou’s hometown of Benin, Africa and was a traditional style wedding as the couple both wore dashikis. The marriage is technically not legal because because of when it occurred, the divorce between Russell and Kimora was not finalized (finalized in Jan. 2009.). Not that the divorce is finalized, can go and make it legal. They are expecting their first child together as well. I wonder what’s Russell thinking about the situation?

By: Adrian Gonzalez

I ran into this video and thought it was hilarious. The one and only Diddy had a head-to-head battle between………chicken. He compared KFC’s original chicken to Popeyes chicken. Diddy actually had chicken from both fast-food locations and compared them. The video says 6:00am, but is hard to comprehend because the chicken spots are not open that early unless he was like the Verizon guy and “had people.” Besides the chicken, Diddy said that KFC’s mashed potatoes and gravy beat Popeyes mashed potatoes and gravy without a doubt. Then, on the beans side, he like Popeyes beans better than KFC. Diddy thought the chicken battle was too tight to give and answer so he invited viewers to Twitter page to give their opinions. I say Popeyes has the better chicken Diddy.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

It is official! R&B recording artist, Chris Brown, has been charged with the February incident with his girlfriend Rihanna. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office has charged Brown with assault and making criminal threats. Police confirmed that the altercation began when Rihanna saw a text message on Chris brown’s phone that was from another woman. Brown pulled over and his renter Lamborghini and tried to push her out the car. Since Rihanna had her seat beat on, he started hitting her and even punched her with his right hand. He caused her mouth to get filled with blood. If convicted, Brown could face either probation or up to 4 years and 8 months in state prison.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Breaking News: Prince is back! Well, temporarily I guess. The artist formerly known as Prince has announced a partnership with the huge retail chain Target. This partnership details that a special 3-disc set will be produced and exclusively available only at Target. Two disc will be original studio albums called LOtUSFLOW3R and MPLSoUND, and the third disc titled Elixer by his latest protege, singer Bria Valente. The 3-disc set will retail for $11.98 at Target, which is a huge bargain. Well if you like Prince at least. This album will not be backed by a major record label. There was no recent word of a release date.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

These pictures are from a graffiti art show that was directly inside of VILLA’s Bethlehem store this past December. Local artist were inside the store showcasing their amazing art work and even doing some personalized graffiti for customers what were interested. the turn out was amazing and the people were enjoyed the time. There were some special guest appearances from underground talent such at DJ Frenchie, NERD(WSK), and EO Kills (TDV). Special thanks to everyone that came out and was a part of the event.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

When the rumors of a divorce between Russell Simmons and Kimora Lee first came out and then when it occurred, a lot of people in the hip-hop scene and fashion world were very surprised to see it happen. The couple looked perfect together and has beautiful children, but sometimes good things come to an end. It has been some time since the divorce and this past weekend a judge ordered Russell Simmons to pay $480,000 in child support per year to his ex-wife Kimora Lee. This is going to suck in these economic times, but he is the father and makes tons of money.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

If you have not heard the latest Jamie Foxx album, “Intuition” you do not know what you are missing! Having three hot singles on the radio plus a lot of hot tracks on the albums has made this one probably one of the better albums in hip-hop/r&b currently. One of the hottest tracks on the albums is Blame It featuring T-Pain. In the video, Jamie Foxx brought out a lot of stars from the world of Hollywood. Some guest appearances in the video include: Samuel L. Jackson, Forest Whitaker, Jake Gyllenhaal and Morris Chesnut, Cedric The Entertainer, Tatyana Ali, Bill Bellamy, Ron Howard, Quincy Jones. Here is the video for Blame It.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

So a coworker of mine shows me something real funny on This Is 50.com that I had to put up on here. The site is a social networking site besides having the latest news all about 50 Cent. I clicked on one of the members pages whose name is “Officer Ricky.” This page was created by 50 Cent on everything he put out coming at Rick Ross aka Officer Ricky. The profile picture is the one of Rick Ross when he was a correctional officer. Also, on the page there are a series of cartoon clips that 50 created coming at Rick Ross. One of the funniest videos on the page is the “Everyday I’m Hungry” video. It has a Rick Ross impersonator rapping on the “Hustlin” track but is all about eating McDonalds and food period. Check out the Officer Ricky page here.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

The latest installment in the Tyler Perry movies is “Madea Goes to Jail.” The movie released this past Friday and was able to reach the no. 1 position for weekend. It made approximately $41.1 million during its debut weekend. This popular stage play that hit the movie theaters had one of the most successful opening weekends for the Tyler Perry series and even Lionsgate film studio. I personally went to see the movie yesterday and can say that it was pretty good, but it was not as good as some of the previous Tyler Perry films. Madea was funny during several parts of the movie but the movie as a whole just did not do it for me completely as other have. Overall, it was still a good film to go out and watch.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

About a week or two ago a photo of what was though to have been Rihanna when Chris Brown beat were surfaced the web but it was done through Photoshop. Just yesterday, a photo of what appears to be the actual image of Rihanna’s beaten face surfaced the web through TMZ.com. The picture shows her eyes closed and bruises on her forehead, cheeks, and mouth. Chris Brown’s career is in jeopardy and he might need to do a lot to restore his image amongst his fans and music fans in general. What he did to Rihanna was unacceptable and he deserves to be either given jail time or a lot of hours of community service.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Diddy is one person that does not like to play around with money and he makes it very clear. This hip-hop mogul has recently dropped some details about his forthcoming LP that will be titled “Last Train To Paris.” Diddy has said that this new album is described as being “electro-hip-hop soul funk.” With this album, Diddy is trying to bring in a new genre of musoc he names Train Music. It will be deeper than any other type of music he has worked on before and is a deep love story. Some guest features on the album will be The Dream, Tricky, The Neptunes, Mario Winans, T-Pain, and Rodney Jerkins.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Last night was the premier of Snoop Dogg’s show Dogg After Dark on MTV. The show is basically a weekly variety talk show where Snoop hangs around hop spots in Hollywood doing impromptu interviews with celebrities, comedy segments, musical performances, and performance from his in-house band the Snoopadelics. Just by watching the show it made me think how long will it actually last on MTV. He had an interview with Paris Hilton and he did a quick rap for him which was very bad. Overall, this seems as Snoop needed something to make quick money and it really is sad that possibly another good show was turned down for Dogg After Dark.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

About a week after the surprising Chris Brown incident with girlfriend Rihanna, the young emerging R&B superstar has broken his ever so silence. Even though it was nothing too specific on the situation Christ Brown did mention some key points to his side of the issue. “Words cannot begin to express how sorry and saddened I am over what transpired,” was part of what Chris Brown said in his statement. Also, he said “I am seeking the counseling of my pastor, my mother and other loved ones and I am committed, with God’s help, to emerging a better person. Much of what has been speculated or reported on blogs and/or reported in the media is wrong.” Due to the legal issue Brown could not make too specific comments but seems to be remorseful. Regardless, he struck a woman and that is not acceptable from a man, especially a celebrity that many fans adore and look up to.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Finally, the first episode that all Making the Band fans have been waiting for. It is the first episode since the probably dismantle of Danity Kane. All the previous have just shown Andrea and Dawn and no other member of the group. Signs are showing that the group could really go completely downhill. The most part of the show was between Diddy having a one on one conversation with Danity Kane’s Dawn. He was trying to get a feel for her feelings of the situation from the group’s future. Diddy was trying to get answers that Dawn really did not know or could not povide, according to Dawn. Day 26 was getting ready for a performance in London which they did great. After, Robert and Q were discusing the future of Day 26 and looking at how the history of Making the Band group’s has turned out. The previous for this season look good so stay tuned Thursday night’s on MTV at 9pm.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Last night was the first episode of T.I.’s new series Road to Redemption that aired on MTV. The show is about T.I. performing 1,000 hours of community service and helping the lives of 7 individuals that are doing wrong in their lives. T.I. is doing all of this to make an impact on the lives of those 7 strangers and to work out a deal with the government that will not make his possible sentence as harsh as it may get. Last night’s episode featured an 18 year-old by the name of Pee Wee that was hustling in Atlanta. T.I. goes to visit him and tries to teach him that what he is doing is wrong. He took Pee Week to a jail to show him how it feels to be incarcerated and then to a funeral home to show him that those are the two outcomes of selling drugs. At the end, Pee Wee said he wanted to go into acting and that he would stop hustling. T.I. helped him out by getting him an acting coach to help develop the talent. The series is interesting to watch so stay tuned Tuesdays at 9pm on MTV to watch T.I.’s Road to Redemption.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

This was one couple that was supposed to be at last night’s Grammy Award show. Chris Brown and girlfriend Rihanna were suppose to be at the Grammy’s last night and perform but an incident that occurred Saturday night into Sunday early morning kept the couple from being at the award show. There is rumored to be an argument between the couple on Saturday night that took place in Chris Brown’s car, which escalated to the outside of the car. From there, there was a 911 call to Los Angeles police around 12:30am Sunday morning about an assault on a woman by Chris Brown, who fled the scene when it supposedly took place. Chris Brown then turned himself in to Los Angeles police for investigation. He is now being investigated for a felony assault with a deadly weapon. Even though it is not made clear if the woman in the car was Rihanna because the police cannot release the victim’s name, rumors say that it was her. Also, the victim has some visible injuries to the arms. The publicists for Rihanna said that she had go into a traffic mishap, but is fine.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Last night was the 51st Annual Grammy Awards. The trend throughout the whole show was collaborations that usually do not occur. Coldplay performed and Jay-Z came out to do a rendition of their song “Lost.” The Jonas Brothers also performed with Stevie Wonder last night. Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift performed together for the first time on stage. Jennifer Hudson put on an emotional performance last night as well. T.I. performed with Justin Timberlake and Lil Wayne performed with Robin Thicke. The biggest moment in hip-hop last night was when T.I., Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, and Kanye West, alongside a pregnant M.I.A., performed “Swagger Like Us” for the fist time anywhere. Lil Wayne won 4 Grammy Awards, including Best Rap Album. Overall it was a good night. Below is a list of last night’s winners:

Best New Artist - Adele (beat out Jazmine Sullivan and Jonas Brothers)
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance - “Chasing Pavements” - Adele
Best Female R&B Vocal - “Superwoman” - Alicia Keys
Best Male R&B Vocal Performance - “Miss Independent” - Ne-Yo (beat out Chris Brown, Usher, Trey Songz and Eric Benet)
Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals - “Stay With Me (By The Sea)” - Al Green ft. John Legend
Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance - “You’ve Got The Love I Need” - Al Green ft. Anthony Hamilton
Best Urban/Alternative Performance - “Be OK” - Chrisette Michele ft. Will.i.am
Best R&B Song - “Miss Independent” - Ne-Yo
Best R&B Album - Jennifer Hudson - Jennifer Hudson
Best Contemporary R&B Album - Growing Pains - Mary J. Blige
Best Rap Solo Performance - “A Milli” - Lil Wayne
Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group - “Swagger Like Us” - Jay-Z & T.I. ft. Kanye West & Lil Wayne
Best Rap/Sung Collaboration - “American Boy” - Estelle ft. Kanye West
Best Rap Song - “Lollipop” - Lil Wayne
Best Rap Album - Tha Carter III - Lil Wayne
Best Gospel Song - “Help Me Believe” - Kirk Franklin
Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album - The Fight Of My Life - Kirk Franklin
Best Traditional Blues Album - One Kind Favor - B.B. King
Producer Of The Year - Rick Rubin

By: Adrian Gonzalez

In an interview with Seattle radio station KUBE 93, rapper Game, commented on the new beef that has raised between 50 Cent and Rick Ross. We all know about the beef between 50 and Game, so this interview was even more interesting. Unexpectedly, Game is actually siding with 50 Cent right now because all the tactics that 50 has been a part of in the last week. First, showing documents of Rick Ross’ employment as a correctional officer, than getting an interview with Ross’ baby mom, Tia, who went on to put Rick Ross on blast (it’s not proven what she said though as far as Ross leasing his cars and renting his jewelry). Game did say in the interview, for Rick Ross to give him a call to help him get out the current beef. I guess Game is in the mood to get at 50 too! Rick Ross is a grown man, so needing help from another to get out of beef that he supposedly started, would not look too good. Let’s see where this goes.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

After a few months away from the rap scene, Dipset’s Cam’ron returns to the scene, but it does not seem like a good one. He came back with a single called “I Hate My Job” and it is just a real low budget video that seems to be “real” but the way it is portrayed just looks bad. While fellow Dipset members, Juelz Santana and Jim Jones have been hitting up singles and mixtapes, Cam’ron was working on this track and his up-coming album that will be titled “Crime Pays.” This new single is expected to be on his new album. This was not the return most were expecting from Cam’ron so hopefully he comes out with something better real soon.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

The new season of Diddy’s ever so popular TV series “Making the Band” returns to MTV on February 12th. The return is coming after one of the most shocking endings to the “Making the Band” series. Diddy ended up kicking out Aubrey and D. Woods of Danity Kane and has since created a lot of uncertainty about the future for the group. There are rumors online that Shannon does not appear in this season’s episodes and that the only two members from the group to appear are Dawn and Andrea. Also, it’s rumored that the season for their group shows how the two girls try to make things work with what is left but are unable. You will just have to wait to when the new season starts to actually find out what actually goes down.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Well it seems like 50 Cent cannot get away from the diss game. From beefing with Fat Joe, Jadakiss, Ja Rule, and Lil Wayne (not as much), 50 Cent has now responded to a diss made by Rick Ross and even calls out Lil Wayne at the end of the track. Rick Ross first dissed 50 on a track called “Mafia Music” and goes into the whole ordeal between 50 Cent and his baby mom (who is trying to sue 50 Cent). One of Ross’ lines is “can’t wait to pay your rent/ Curtis Jackson baby mamma ain’t for a cent.” 50 Cent, released a track today titled “Try Me” and he goes on to diss Ross on the fact about him being a correctional officer and lying about it. At the end of the track 50 goes on and calls out Lil Wayne. I really cannot wait to see where this new beef goes to but it kind of seems a little weak, unless Wayne really comes at 50 Cent hard.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

With rumors of releasing a rock album all over the internet and in the radio, it has been confirmed that rapper Lil Wayne will be releasing a rock album this year. It is not too rare for artists to records a few tracks of music of a different genre than theirs, but it is rare that an artist record a whole album of a different genre. After recently being featured on a hit single by rocker Kevin Rudolph called “Let it Rock”, it seems that Wayne enjoyed the success of the track and wants to be different and unique this time around. This might be a good look for Wayne because he will be able to earn a whole new fan base with his upcoming album that will be titled “Rebirth.” He has already released a track called “Prom Queen” that will be on his album. Rebirth is slated to release April 7.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Fulfilling his dream from as early as fourth grade, Kanye West was able to debut his well awaited Louis Vuitton sneaker this past week in Paris, France. The event was the Louis Vuitton menswear showcase in Paris and Kanye West says it was a “dream come true” to see a pair of sneakers that he designed actually be worn on the runways of the fashion show. Wanting to be a fashion designer, I wonder what the next project that he will work on will be released? Also, what happen to his “Pastelle” brand that he was working on?

By: Adrian Gonzalez

After being a full week after the release of one of the most anticipated soundtracks for a movie, the Notorious soundtrack has landed in the number 4 position on the Billboard Top 200 list this week. In its first week in stores, the album sold 43,000 copies. Here is the track listing for the soundtrack:

1. “Notorious Thugs” (featuring Bone Thugs-N-Harmony)
2. “Hypnotize”
3. “Notorious”
4. “Juicy”
5. “Party & Bull****”
6. “Warning”
7. “One More Chance” remix (featuring Faith Evans)
8. “Brooklyn Go Hard” (Jay-Z featuring Santogold)
9. “Letter to B.I.G.” (Jadakiss featuring Faith Evans)
10. “Kick in the Door”
11. “What’s Beef”
12. “World Is Filled”
13. “One More Chance” (featuring CJ Wallace)
14. “The Notorious Theme” (composed by Danny Elfman)
15. “Microphone Murderer” (previously unreleased demo)
16. “Guaranteed Raw” (previously unreleased demo)
17. “Love No H*” (previously unreleased demo)

If you notice number 13, Biggy’s son is actually rapping his dad’s lyrics on “One More Chance.” The album is great and worth purchasing.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Rapper/producer Swizz Beats and former wife, singer Mashonda, officially divorced early 2008. Just recently, Mashonda came out on Sirius’ Shade 45 show in an interview to reveal that Alicia Keys had some part of the reason the couple divorced. There were rumors that Alicia Keys and Swizz Beats were messing around and Mashonda said that she had found credit card statements for Swizz Beats with purchases that matched dates and cities in which Alicia Keys was on tour. She even goes on to say that there were points where she would ask what was wrong with Swizzy and he would not answer. All this piled up and was most of the reason why the couple split up.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

The inaugural celebration for President-elect Barack Obama officially began yesterday in Washington D.C with a concert at the Lincoln Memorial with thousands of individuals in attendance and anxious to participate in the historical event. The concert featured performances by Stevie Wonder, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Mary J Blige, Beyonce, John Legend, James Taylor among others, as the crowd braced for the freezing temperatures in coats and gloves to watch the performances. As usual President Obama wowed the crowd with another inspirational speech as he stated “Directly in front of us is a pool that still reflects the dream of a King, and the glory of a people who marched and bled so that their children might be judged by their character’s content. The president continued, “And behind me, watching over the union he saved, sits the man who in so many ways made this day possible”[and] “is not the stone and marble that surrounds us today, but what fills the spaces in between. Also present at the event Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden who later addressed the crowd and his wife Jill Biden. The crowd also watched celebrities Tom Hanks, Jamie Foxx, Denzel Washington and Jack Black read historical passages in honor of the Civil Right president Abraham Lincoln and listened to choirs sing gospel songs.

By: Piayon Lassanah

Even though we really do not hear much about this celebrity couple in entertainment news, the current inside scoop on the couple is that they are expecting their first child. Ballerstatus.com reports that Kelis is in her first trimester and is already showing some belly. The source reports that the couple is very excited about their first child together. They have been marries since 2005 and this will be Kelis’ first child and Nas’ second child. Congrats go out to the couple as they have a new star in the making.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Last night was the beginning of the 8th chapter in the American Idol series. This season the crew traveled to many places as usual, including: Phoenix, Kansas City, Jacksonville, Louisville, East Rutherford, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and San Juan. Last night’s show showed all the contestants that showed up at the Phoenix auditions. It was tagged the biggest Idol season ever, including a 4th judge, Kara DioGuardi, for the first time ever. The show started with a usual person making a fool of themselves. The guy has a huge Afro and did some Michael Jackson moves in his routine which were too funny. The highlight of the show was the girl tagged “bikini girl” who actually had some words for the new judge after being criticized by Paula and Kara. The words the bikini girl said were along the line of “your rendition was not any better” referring to the song performed. Tonight’s episode will feature Idol auditions in Kansas City.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

For those that may not know, a “Vegan” is someone who basically does not eat meat, dairy products, and only vegetables (at least for my understanding). It appears that New York rapper N.O.R.E. has become a vegan and reportedly has lost 65 pounds during the last year. It’s not only through healthy eating, but also exercise which helped the rapper become somewhat slim. He admits that a competition with fellow rapper Busta Rhymes and a New Years resolution is what motivated him to become dedicated to lose the weight. To add on to this, N.O.R.E has even given up drinking which does have an effect of gaining weight for some. This is amazing and just shows others what hard work and determination can do.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

A lot of people were skeptical about Beyonce’s change of stage name and how it would effect her style on the new album and possibly sales. Well, this week was her second week at the number 2 spot on the billboard charts. Her album released November 18, 2008 and has been doing phenomenal. This week alone we racked up an additional 77,000 album sales, tallying the current total sales amount to approximately 1.5 million. Despite harsh economic time and a significant decrease in record sales, Beyonce is doing fairly well and is expected to continue having success with her current album.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Growing up on MTV’s Real World series, it seems like the best seasons are way behind us. I remember the days of the Real World Seattle when the infamous Stephen slapped Irene as she was going home. Also, I remember the Real World Hawaii and New Orleans with Ruthie, David, and Melissa. As soon as the Real World San Diego started, it seemed like the series just took a huge downfall. Every season after has been just plain-old boring, with the exception of Real World Philadelphia (because I’m from Philly). I really stop being a fan of the show, until I notice that the newest installment of the series begins tomorrow, Real World: Brooklyn. I think just being in this city is what draws me to actually watching the show, I just hope there is enough reason to keep watching after the show begins. Tomorrow at 10pm on MTV is when the new season begins, so check it out!

By: Adrian Gonzalez

The most anticipated movie during current times in the world of hip-hop is close to its official release. The movie is about the life and death of legendary rapper Christopher Wallace aka the Notorious B.I.G. The movie has most of the Bad Boy Record label original members in the movie including: Diddy, Lil Kim, Lil Cease, and Faith Evans, but their roles are played by actors/actresses. The movie goes through real life experiences that Biggy experienced and even has moments that only members in his camp and the record label knew actually occurred. The movie is set to release Friday, Jan. 16, 2009. If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, here it is!

By: Adrian Gonzalez

After a terrible first week performance for his sophomore album, Soulja Boy is putting the blame on legendary New York rapper, Nas, for killing hip-hop. After only selling 46,000 copies of “Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em” and landing in the number 43 spot on the Billboard Charts, Soulja Boy put a video on YouTube explaining why he feels his album did so poorly. He goes on to say that after Nas made the track “Hip-Hop is Dead” that everyone started really saying it was and talked so much about the topic. Then, he goes on and says that Nas messed up everyone’s money and if it were not for the track, that the current situation with hip-hop albums sales would not be as bad. Soulja Boy also goes on to mention that Nas is dissing something he still has to do. Whatever the beef may be, it seems like Soulja Boy has issues with hip-hop legends, first Ice-T and now Nas. I just can’t believe this guy is actually serious with what he is saying. My words to Soulja Boy are “Why don’t yuuuulllleeee go and make a real album?”

Happy New Year everyone!

By: Adrian Gonzalez

A former BET producer nicknamed “Choke” will be exploring the infamous break-up of the Roc-A-Fella Dynasty in an up-coming documentary titled “I Am Choke No Joke.” Choke was a producer for BET’s Rap City and a former employee of Roc-A-Fella and will be offering his take on the record label’s fall out. In the documentary he hints on what brought tension between Jay-Z and Dame Dash. One reason mentioned by Choke was that Dame was a camera freak, “he loved people to tape him because he started thinking he was a star.” Another reason mentioned was that when Dame Dash proclaimed that Cam’Ron would be vice president of the ROC and when Dame signed Ol’ Dirty to the label. Choke says that Jay was not feeling these moves. The documentary will also have parts discussing moments at a legendary hip-hop spot, Tunnel. For the most part, this movie will be about Choke’s view on these topics and is currently scheduled to release in Summer of 2009.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

In a time where it is very hard to sell cars, car collectors might be interested in this bad boy! NBA player Tracy McGrady is selling his custom 2001 Mercedez CL600, but he is selling it on EBAY. His Benz is baby blue and has a retail value of $148,000 but T-Mac has put a lot of money into customizing the car, reportedly over $180,000. The famous Southern California company West Coast Customs were the ones who hooked-up T-Mac’s Benz. Currently, the car is on EBAY with a “buy it now” price of $150,000. Winning bidder will have the opportunity to meet and greet Tracy McGrady and be there as he signs off his title. If interested, he will also autograph the car. There has been about 20 offer so far and the auction ends December 29, so congrats to whoever wins!

By: Adrian Gonzalez

23 pairs. 1 night. Dozens of people lined up on one of the coldest nights of the year for their chance to get a piece of history. 23 very happy people went home last night holding their new kicks, and more than double that went home upset they couldn’t get their own. On display was every shoe from the number 1’s to the titanium 23’s. a good crowd came together to celebrate this exclusive event, and they were fed with some snacks and of course, Gatorade. Each person came in with a toy to donate to the toy drive, making a lot of less fortunate kids happy this Holiday season. DJ Truuf was spinnin’ and kept the crowd nervous with each announcement. And once they were all gone, the winners got their pictures taken with the final pair of J’s in this historical collection.

In a show of peace, Kanye West is vowing to make peace in the coming new year, but with you you may ask? Kanye West’s new year’s resolution for 2009 is to make peace with the paparazzi! It is a little hard to believe with all his run-ins with the paparazzi this year but Kanye West has reportedly told TMZ that he want to make peace with the paparazzi. West even said “I love you guys”, talking about the paparazzi. His last stint with them was in November in Newcastle, England when he allegedly pushed a camera into a snapper’s face. Kanye was arrested, then released without charge. Then two months prior, at LAX, he was arrested for grabbing a photographer’s camera an throwing it on the grownd and breaking the camera. So, it is possible, but will Kanye really make peace with the paparazzi in the new year?

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Oprah Winfrey has just made another big move in her successful career. She has just inked a deal with HBO to make movies for the channel. Oprah has her own production company which is called Harpo Films. The deal is a three year deal for both sides. Also, this deal was done just at the end of the 15-year deal with ABC. One reason that the deal was done, on Oprah’s end, was that network television has many limitations. HBO was very welcome to have Oprah on their team because of all her accumulated success in her years on television. Included in the deal will be mini-series, movies, documentaries, and series. Oprah’s first piece of work will be released in 2009, hopefully early 2009.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Well it was bound to happen and with the ever so pace of things going digital, two popular magazines have made the transition. Ebony and Jet magazines have made the leap to the digital world! In a partnership with Google, the publishing company of these magazines, Johnson Publishing Company, has recently revealed the details of the partnership. The deal will give customers the opportunity to search for past issues of these magazines and seven other titles as well online. They will also have access to photographs from 63 years of the magazines history. Before this deal issues in archives were available on microfilm and in bound volumes. Trust me, microfilm is not the best either because I had a personally experience with microfilm. The online version of the magazines can be found at EbonyJet.com. Now that these magazines have an online presence, it will not be too long for other magazines to make the leak. This is all according to ballerstatus.com

By: Adrian Gonzalez

The Philly Brotherly Love Concert was last night and only one word can describe it….bananas. I’m not going to lie, I thought that Gillie Da Kid should have been there since he is the so called “King of Philly” and I felt that Cassidy could have been there too, but the artists and surprises in the concert made up for this. Beanie Sigel was the host of the concert put on by Nike ACG and Villa. The performers at the TLA included Vodka, E Ness, Freeway, Reed Dollaz, Joey Jihad, and Beanie Sigel. What most people did not know was that Meek Mills was going to perform and that Jadakiss and Styles P were also in the building to perform. The TLA was off the hook and the special guest surprises topped the night as well. Special thanks to Nike ACG and Villa for putting the concert together. P.S…….if you did not know, all you had to do to get a free ticket was try on a pair of Nike ACG boots at the Villa this past Tuesday……that’s it. So if you missed out, stay current with the villa because they are known for doing nice things like this.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Just about everyone is being affected by the current state of the economy, which is officially a recession now. American Idol winner Fantasia is just one of the many celebrities that the recession is having some type serious toll on. The home of Fantasia which is located in North Carolina has apparently gone into the process of foreclosure. The home was purchased at $1.3 million dollars last year by Fantasia. Now, for reasons that were undisclosed, she has not been making her mortgage payments and could have her home auctioned as early as next month (Jan 12, 2009) if a payment is not received. Luckily for Fantasia, she owns another home in North Carolina which was purchased for $740,000 and is not in danger of going into foreclosure. The moral of this story is that even if you are a big time celebrity making lots of money, you should spend your money the right way because you never know when a recession will hit and affect you.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Next month is an important month in history. Not only does Martin Luther King Day fall in this month, but January is also the month for the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama. With two important days that fall back to back, rappers Ludacris and Big Boi (from Outkast) will be hosting the “Urban Ball” in Washington, DC. The Urban Ball is an event that will take place on January 20, 2009 (the same day as the inauguration) in which many celebrities will attend to celebrate the entrance of a new administration into the U.S. Government. Some celebrities that will be attending include: David Banner, Jalen Rose, T-Pain, Fantasia, Lil Jon, Monica, Alonzo Mourning, Bobby Valentino, and the Cheetah Girls. One key note is that there will be a dress code in effect: no jeans, no hoodies, no sneakers or ball caps. Tickets are on sale for this event at http://www.americanmusicinauguralballs.com./Tickets.html.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Well what do you know; Mr. Wayne himself leads the pack with 8 Grammy nominations. While no one can deny that this year was all about Lil Wayne in the hip-hop game, the nominations for the 51st annual Grammy Awards, to be held on Feb 8, 2009, just made this statement true. After selling over one million records in his first week, it was obvious that this was expected. Besides Lil Wayne, three other hip-hop artists came up big with 6 Grammy nominations, who were Ne-Yo, Jay-Z, and Kanye West. I would like to congradulate Philly’s own Jazmine Sullivan who received 5 Grammy nominations. Other notable hip-hop artists with Grammy nominations were Lupe Fiasco and Ludacris who both received 4 nominations.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

What could such a sweet and innocent teen couple possible have done to get sued by someone? Well, they apparently did not do anything, but their body guards were the ones that did the damage. According to TMZ, photographer Luis Santana, during Chris Brown’s 19th birthday party in May, he was beaten and robbed by the couple’s body guards in St. Petersburg. Santana was taking a picture of the couple through an open window of their limousine was he says he was attacked and robbed. The lawsuit is going to be for $1,000,000. Santana apparently lost his camera which had a value of $3,000, but is suing for the million because he says the photo he took was of the couple when they were not officially dating and the photo itself could have been worth a whole lot more.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

The time was going to come eventually, but no one knew exactly when digital music sales were going to pass the sale of physical CD’s. For one records label it has actually occurred already. Atlantic Records are reporting that more than half of their sales are from digital music albums sales and mp3 purchases online with approximately 51% of the sales, which also includes ringtone purchases. Though this has occurred for Atlantic Records, experts are saying that the sales of music online is not growing at a fast enough rate to succumb the overall losses labels have taken because of the decline in music sales. One fact in sales is that eight years ago, they were at close to $15 billion and this year there will be at a little over $10 billion. This was bound to come because of the increase in technology, when will the time come when there will be no physical CD’s being sold?

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Well, Well, Well. After a few months of talking about an Eminem comeback, it sounds like he is really coming back, soon and stronger than ever. Swizz Beatz is one of the few producers on Eminem’s new album and is talking very highly of the return album. In an interview with MTV News, Swizz says that Eminem is coming back to “take the game over.” Swizz describes Eminem as sounding different, having a different mindset, but still like the original Eminem. So far, Swizz has works on five tracks with Eminem and says the hottest track is one that features Dr. Dre and 50 Cent. Also, there will be a Stan Pt. 2 on the new album. One major difference that fans will notice is that there will not be as much political tracks on the album, which Eminem has been known for. The new album, which has no title yet, is slated to come out during the first quarter of 2009.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

I’m guessing that Soulja Boy has a lot of fans in Wilmington, DE, by the turn out of his in-store appearance at the Villa last Tuesday (11/18/08). The line of fans to see him was outside the doors and around the corner. There was even a point in which it started snowing and the fans that were outside only cared about meeting Soulja Boy. He was actually there with his partner Arab and the girls were going crazy for both of them. The radio station Kiss 101.7 fm was also in the building. Overall, it was a great event and if you want to meet a celebrity just stay current with the Villa’s website to find out who might be coming to a store near you.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Last night was the 36st annual American Music Awards in Los Angeles, California. The award show was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. There were many performance from artists such as; Christina Aguilera, Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Ne-Yo, Miley Cyrus, Pink, and Kanye West, just to name a few. The biggest winner of the night had to be R&B sensation Mr. Chris Brown. The 19 year-old left L.A. with three AMA awards which were: Artist of the Year, Favorite Male Artist for R&B/Soul and Favorite Male Artist for Pop/Rock. His girlfriend Rihanna won two awards which were for Favorite Female Artist in the same categories as Chris Brown. Kanye West won an award for best Rap/Hip-Hop album for his album Graduation and for favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Male Artist, which he decided to offer to Lil Wayne because he left that this year was Weezy’s and last year was his. It was good that Kanye won because I did not want to hear about another temper tantrum on stage from Kanye. Other notable winners were Alicia Keys for favorite Pop/Rock and Soul/R&B album, Three 6 Mafia who won Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Band, Duo or Group, and Mariah Carey was recognized for having the most #1 hits of all time.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Who would have guessed that the top earning celebrity couple in Hollywood, according to Forbes Magazine, would be Jay-Z and Beyonce? Well, apparently they are worth a whopping $162 million dollars. This is a huge part from Jay’s deal with Live Nation in which he banked $82. Also, Beyonce brought home about $50 million in concert ticket sales and endorsements. This must be happy and wealthy marriage the two are a part of. Second on Forbes’ list are Will and Jada Pickett Smith, who are worth $85 million dollars together. Will Smith banked in big with the movies “I Am Legend” and “Hancock.” Other recognized couples that banked in the most include: Tony Parker and Eva Longoria with $22.5 million, singer Seal and super model Heidi Klum with $15 million, Fergie and actor Josh Duhamel with $13 million, and Marc Anthony and JLO with $11 million. Just looking at the amount of money made by these celebrities makes me wonder where exactly all that money at???? To see a complete list of the top earning couples, you can go to forbes.com.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Now-a-days it is not rare to see Diddy just about anywhere. The man: had two shows on television during this fall, has a clothing line, a record label, is in charge of several groups and artists, is involved with a brand of vodka (Ciroc), has a line of cologne, starred in a primetime movie and even made a guest appearance on the MTV “TRL Finale” this past Sunday, just to name a few. Well, Diddy is in line for another guest appearance on TV and this time it will be on CSI: Miami. Rumors have it that he will play the role of a federal prosecutor and supposedly will have great dislike for the show’s main character “Lt. Horatio Caine”, played by David Caruso. Diddy is slated to appear on two episodes of CSI: Miami that will air early 2009. Earlier this year, rapper Nelly made a guest appearance on the CSI: New York.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Just a week after being arrested in New York on weapons charges, Katt Williams has been admitted into a mental hospital for psychiatric treatment. Williams was at a hotel in Sumter, South Carolina when an employee noticed him walking around during late hours just wearing a robe and a towel over his head. When the police showed up, Williams reportedly asked for a hospital, but instead head to a lawyer’s office. Later two family members showed up to persuade him to go to a mental facility, but Williams refused. Then they came back during the day with officers who demanded they take Williams to the facility and with no resistance Katt Williams was escorted out. The whole process will end Monday or Tuesday where a judge will determine if he will need to be hospitalized. Katt Williams is rumored to retire as a stand-up comedian at the end of the year due to mental and physical strain from his road life and the desire to strengthen his family. Hopefully everything is straightened out soon and good luck towards your future Mr. Williams.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

No, he did not sell another million copies of Tha Carter III, but Lil Wayne did make history this past Wednesday. He was the first “real” rapper in the 42 year history of the County Music Awards (CMA) to make an appearance at the award show. The show, which took place in Nashville, Tennessee, took a very odd turn. Not only did Lil Wayne appear, but he actually performed alongside Kid Rock. They both wore NFL Tennessee Titans jerseys. Wayne stood in the back a little as Kid Rock performed his track “All Summer Long.” Wayne was also holding a guitar and mimicking the instrumental of the song on the guitar. In other Wayne news, the Dedication 3 Mix Tape is coming out soon and some tour date for Lil Wayne have been posted online including the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, NJ on December, 28th 2009. I just home his tour dates do not get cancelled as some previous shows did about a month ago.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Does anyone remember the original Karate Kid movie from 1984? Well, I wasn’t even born yet but I do remember seeing the movie as I have seen it plenty of times. It looks like a remake for the original movie is in the works. It also looks like the person to replace the original karate kid, Ralph Macchio, will be actor Will Smith’s son, Jaden Smith. While the first movie was filmed in California, the remake will be filmed starting next year in Beijing, China and other foreign cities as well. The production team for the movie will include Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment and Jerry Weintraub (who worked on the original film). The plot for the movie will be very similar to the original as well, about a bullied youth
who learns how to defend himself. The role for Jaden Smith will be big and participating in martial arts already will give him an advantage in the filming process. Filling the footsteps of his father will be difficult, but this movie might be a great start for Jaden Smith.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Imagine having the number one pick overall in a draft and you could only pick one person, who would it be? Well, this is sort of like making this type of decision because there are a lot of number ones involved, but who will be chosen. The person that is standing out in front of the pack to sing at Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration is Beyonce. Beyonce has voiced her feeling about singing at the event, but did mention that overall she will be at the event and will do whatever is asked of her, included singing. She has accompanied her hubby Jay-Z on his trail in helping campaign for Obama and feels a part of the change. Other candidates for the position include Mary J. Blige, Jennifer Hudson, Usher, Wyclef Jean, and even Kanye West. Mary J. Blige has been an avid Barack supporter as she even joined Diddy, Jay-Z, Russell Simmons, and Kevin Liles and they had a “Last Chance for Change” rally the past 2 weeks. Whoever is chosen will have a lot of bragging right and will enjoy a big moment in their career.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes, & Common all have hit the record booth to make new tracks in celebration of Barack Obama becoming the 44th President of the United States of America. Jay-Z’s track, titled History, was debuted on the Angie Martinez Show in New York City on Hot 97. This track comes after months of personally endorsing Obama in the presidential race. Here is one line from his track: “Now that all the smoke is gone/And the battles finally won/Victory is finally ours/History, so long, so long/So long, so long.” Busta Rhymes’s track, titled Pop Champagne - Barack Campaign, is a politically themed remake of a Ron Browz track. Busta was so excited about voting that in a line from his track he mentions it: “We celebrating this Barack win,” Busta raps. “And I heard a voice calling/While everybody was yawning/ I was up and I was roaring/ I voted seven this morning.” Finally, Chicago native Common created a track titled Changes. His track basically is meant to express the powerful force of change. In one line of his track Common express this: “Change is inevitable. You can’t stop it. Change is happening in everybody’s life. Change is like a furious hurricane that you can’t stop.” If you haven’t heard the tracks, than you should search for them because they are a part of our history.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Black Eyed Peas group leader Will.I.Am will be releasing a new music video today, but why an article about his new music video? Than answer is that the video will be a tribute to this historic presidential election. The theme behind the new video and song that is titled “It’s A New Day” will have testimonies from fellow celebrities, paying tribute to the people that made the historic election what it was. Also, this idea stems back to Will.I.Am’s confidence that Barack Obama would be the next president of the United States. Earlier this year, he came out with the song/video titled “Yes We Can” in which Will.I.Am went through his feelings about the presidential race and the importance of world issues. I just have to say that I am proud of all the celebrities in some way or another made an impact in voicing their opinions and getting others out to the polls on the historic day of Nov. 4th, 2008. The songs/videos on the election can be found at http://dipdive.com/.

With the presidential election only a day away, hip-hop icons; Diddy, Mary J. Blige, Jay-Z, Kevin Liles, and Russell Simmons will be campaigning in (Philadelphia, PA – Cincinnati, OH – Columbus, OH) today. They are going to be on N. Broad St., between Susquehanna Ave. and Dauphin St. today from 11:30am-12:30pm. Together, these hip-hop icons will be talking about the importance of this historical presidential election. They will also try to urge voters to cast their votes for Barack Obama. This is one last effort to bring change to our country. The real importance besides which candidate that you will vote for is the actual action of coming out to vote because everyone’s vote counts. I’m iterating the importance of this year’s presidential election because of the bad conditions our country is currently experiencing. So if you are in Philly, Cincinnati, or Columbus today try and come out to the Last Chance for Change Rallies and hear how these hip-hop icons feel about the election and urgency for change.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

The date is set. MTV’s TRL grand finale is set for Sunday, November 16th at 8pm. After 10 years and over 200 shows, the end is almost here. If you read my article about a month or two ago, you would have known the news about the finally, but at the time there was not a date set. Now that it is official, MTV wants to send TRL out with a bang so much that its final episode will air on a Sunday night, instead of a regular week day. So far they have booked 50 Cent, Beyonce, Fall Out Boy, and even the Backstreet Boys to perform at the event. Beyonce is actually set to lead the way for the celebration. To host the finally, MTV will have the current host, Damien Fahey, and the original host, Carson Daly. Besides the performances, there will be special guest appearances by; Diddy, Mariah Carey, Hilary Duff, Ludacris, Nelly, Snoop Dogg, Benji and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte, Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst, and Korn’s Jonathan Davis. This will be a show of the ages, so do not miss out on this MTV historic event.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Well Beyonce did not change her government name to Sasha Fierce, but she did change her stage name to it. This will officially be in place for her newest double album, I Am….Sasha Fierce, dropping November 18th. There were rumors about this happening and I guess its official now. The reasoning behind the name change is that Beyonce felt that when she is on stage that she become a whole other person….Sasha Fierce. Apparently, Sasha Fierce is a more fun, sensual, aggressive, outspoken, and glamorous individual. Two noticeable celebrities that have gone through name changes while at a peak of success in their careers are Prince and P Diddy. This subject is something that really came out of nowhere. Beyonce is enjoying a lot of success at this point of her career, but was changing her name a good or bad marketing strategy? It seems like a good one because she is at a high point of her career, but what will happen later on in the line? Let’s see how good of a strategy this is and if it will or will not pay off.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Last night was the 2008 BET Hip-Hop Music Awards hosted by T-Pain, for all of you who were not watching the World Series. There were many hot performances, tributes, and awards that were showcased. There was a tribute to female emcees as Salt-N-Peppa, MC Lyte, Yo-Yo, and Lady Rage came out and put on a performance to remember representing all the female mc’s. Besides this, there were also performances by; T.I., Ludacris, Swizz Beatz, Rakim, Nas. Rick Ross, Plies, Nelly, Young Jeezy, Common, N.E.R.D., ICE Cube, Soulja Boy, Bow Wow, T-Pain, and Lil Wayne. The big winner of the night was the one and only Lil Wayne who took home 6 BET awards \ including; CD of the Year, MVP of the Year, Lyricist of the Year, Ringtone of the Year, Track of the Year, and the People’s Choice Award. One memorable awards handed out was the “I Am Hip-Hop” Icon award presented to Russell Simmons. If you are not at Powerhouse tonight then check out the BET Awards tonight as there will be another airing of them at 8pm on BET.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

T.I.’s next single of his latest album, Paper Trail, was suppose to be the banger “Swing Ya Rag” that features Swizz Beatz on it. Anybody that has heard the albums or just heard the track knows what I am talking about. Well, apparently it was not even allowed to be released to television markets. Why? Both Louis Vuitton and Gucci were “trippin” about the video, according to T.I. in an interview with MTV. T.I. mentioned that both companies were mentioning infringement within the video and overall were not happy with it, since its rags were the ones used in the video.

I guess both companies might have thought that its products were being used in a “gangster” related form and did not want anything to do with that. Instead, T.I.’s next single will “Live Your Life” which features Rihanna. Regardless, whatever track was the intended single; they are both hot enough to make a lot of noise in the music industry. The video for Live Your Life should be out soon, so everyone should be on the look-out.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

This Friday is the day a lot of fans have been waiting for…..especially me. It’s Power 99’s Powerhouse 2008 Concert! Anyone that knows me knows that I have been talking about this concert for weeks since the line-up was announced. Appearing on stage will be Keyshia Cole, Ne-Yo, T-Pain, T.I. and the one and only Jay-Z. Powerhouse is Philly’s biggest concert of the year so anyone not in attendance does not know what they will be missing. You never know what surprises the concert will have in store for fans because in Philly we have a big list of potential artists that may hit the stage as well. Whatever surprise it may be, the countdown to Powerhouse 2008 is getting closer to show time.

For those you may not know, tickets are officially sold-out but today starting at 10am, Power 99 will be making room for more seats at just $19.99. So anyone who does not have tickets, make sure you get yours. Finally, if you need help getting something fresh to wear for the concert, you already know where to go….The Villa!

By: Adrian Gonzalez

If this does not bring 50 Cent a lot of publicity, then I don’t know what will. 50 Cent and MTV have officially put together what will be 50’s own reality TV show. The name of the show is “The Money and The Power.” The idea behind the show is basically for 50 to discuss his struggles from being a hustler on the streets to showing the lessons that he learned and mastered to be where he is right now in his career. 50
Cent will give 14 contestants the chance at a $100,000 Grand Prize to be able to achieve their dreams and pave the way for future success to become a mogul. Of course, this will not be an easy task. The participants will compete in grueling challenges that were all helped to be created by 50 Cent. The goal to success is to learn the lessons 50 will be teaching them and apply them to the challenges. 50 Cent expects them to
learn everything he teaches them, while pushing them to their limits.

You know what……I actually like this concept of the show. I’m not a big 50 cent fan, but I like what he wants to do with the show. If you catch a trailer of the show or even a commercial for it, one might think it is going to be an interesting one. This might help 50 gain some more fan base because the “music” thing is not helping him too much. Good luck with the show! “The Money and The Power” airs on MTV starting Thursday November 6th at 10pm (EST.).

By: Adrian Gonzalez

Starting January 2009, Rev Run’s daughters will have their own TV show on MTV. With all the success of Run’s House, their own clothing and footwear line Pastry, and the influence they have placed on teen age girls to young adult females, MTV has decided to give the sisters their own TV show. The show will be called “Daddy’s Little Girls” and I may have to say it is the perfect title. MTV’s new show will be a spin-off of Run’s House. I just have two words for MTV…Thank You! I started feeling like the shows on MTV were getting worse and worse and besides Making the Band 4 and America’s Best Dance Crew, Run’s House is the only other show that I really enjoy. So, with a spin-off of the show, Daddy’s Little Girls should be an entertaining one. All fans should look out for the show! Congrats, as hard work pays off and with this great news, it is just a great example of what it may bring to everyone.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

It has been about a year since Alicia Keys’ album “As I Am” released and fans have been asking when the next albums is coming out. Well, it looks like fans might have to wait longer because Keys reported to the New York Daily News that she needs a break from music. No, this does not mean she is on the verge of retiring or anything; it’s that she wants to focus on movies for right now. She is currently working on the release of her next project titled “The Secret Life of Bees” which hits movie theaters October 17th, 2008. The movie is about a 14 year old who runs away from home with a caregiver and friend to South Carolina and ends up finding the secret of her mother’s past. Keys fell in love with the story and her role and it is why she took the role. The movie is based on a book and while filming Alicia Keys said that she “felt like she knew all the people in the book.” The movie looks pretty good and I might just have to check it out. Even if Alicia Keys is taking a break from music, it is not like she can’t bounce back and go platinum easily, so keep doing your thing and good luck with the movie.

By: Adrian Gonzalez

50 Cent has a new movie and album, both dropping on December 9th. He has been working on a movie titled “Before I Self Destruct” in which not only is he acting but also directing. The movie is supposed to be action packed and a trailer of it can be found on You Tube. Also starring in the movie is Clifton Powell and Treach from Naughty by Nature. The trailer also debuted 50’s new single “Get Up” which is produced by Scott Storch. The album and movie go together as the album will also be titled “Before I Self Destruct.”

Is it me or has 50’s career gone downhill. His last album could not sell more than Kanye’s and the G-Unit’s “Terminator on Site” album probably had better tracks than 50’s because it had Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo on the tracks. I give 50 Cent props for not stopping his grind to get what he wants to get done in the game even though a significant percentage of his fan base has probably diminished. Good luck with the new movie and album.

- AGE

So your boy Jay-Z received a prestigious honor of a humanitarian award last week, presented to him by the United Nations in New York , and no publicity behind it…..what’s up with that? Jay-Z has been working on raising money for some time now in order to help manage the world water crisis. Through a tour in 2006, he began raising awareness of the water epidemic. While in Africa, Jay-Z provided aid in struggling communities and even helped provide over 1,000 water pumps so that the death rates could be reduced, which is currently at 15 seconds before a child dies. This is due to lack of available water, let alone being adequate.

My point behind all of this is that Kanye West makes the 11 O’clock news for losing his cool at the LAX airport, but Jay-Z does not get any love for his hard work that earned him a humanitarian award presented to him by the United Nations. What is the media coming down to these days? What ever it is, people around the world appreciate what you are doing and your fans, and this is all that matters. Keep doing your thing Jay.

- AGE

By now most people that are into hip-hop music have heard T.I.’s “Swagger Like Us” track that features Kanye West, Jay-Z, and Lil Wayne. Just a few days back, a track was all over the internet titled “Jackin Swagger From Us” and the whole mastermind behind this was the Dipset’s own Jim Jones. He apparently feels that T.I. kept him out the track deliberately and has caught hard feelings for it. Jones mentioned in an article that he was the one that has set the precedent in the last few years as far as fashion goes and that people go to stores asking for that “Jim Jones” look. When asked about T.I.’s swag, Jones said that it is all “fake” and that he doesn’t possess any real swag. Jim Jones also mentioned that he changed the whole fashion scene from when Rocawear and Sean John was hot and brought in that “Rock and Roll” look to the urban communities. The track “Jackin Swagger
From Us” features Lil Wayne, Juelz Santana, and M.I.A.

I sense a hater in the building. Jim Jones could try and put a hotter track together, but now he wants to complain about not being on the track. If anything, if Jim Jones was on the track, it would not be as hot as it is, so it was a good thing he was not on “Swagger Like Us.” Just keep on “Ballin” and see where you get from there Jones.

- AGE

Don’t forget today is the last day to register to be able to vote for the 2008 Presidential Election! But in other news related……..I’m sure by now you have heard warnings of people being asked to leave polling stations on Election Day for wearing clothing articles which show support for their favorite candidate and being sent home to change before they can be allowed to vote. At first I thought this was just a joke since I’ve seen this go on for years without any problems but after some research, I realized it is actually a law called Passive Electioneering or Campaigning. This old law is common in all states with slight variations and interpretation and enforcement usually depends on location. Voting registration ends today and for many young adults this will be our first experience with exercising our voting rights in a residential election and therefore we wouldn’t want to be obstructed in any way possible. Most democrats believe this is a campaign by the republicans to prevent as many democrats from voting as possible since Barack Obama clothing articles are generally widespread and are more popular than those of his opponent John McCain and most likely would be worn on Election Day by many democrats who frequently wear Obama t-shirts, buttons, etc… in support of the popular candidate.

In Pennsylvania interpretation is unclear and is usually determined by the counties electoral offices. Republicans urged Governor Ed Rendell to enforce the law and officials from the Department of State trying to avoid confrontations, sent a letter to the 67 county boards of elections basically saying the state is allowing county boards to make the decision about what people can wear. Joseph Pasarella, director of voter services in majority republican Montgomery County explained “Campaign t-shirts and buttons won’t be allowed inside any of the 418 polling places in Montgomery County” a similar stance taken by Lawrence County, PA, while the deputy city commissioner of highly democratic City of Philadelphia explained ,“You can wear a button, wear a T-shirt, as long as you are in the act of voting”, to show how interpretation may vary across the country. To be on the safe side I suggest not wearing our Obama shirts at the polls but if you have to for good luck sake, wear it underneath an enclosed jacket and express your support after voting since this election is very crucial to our futures as evident with the current state of the economy and not participating would be unforgivable.

….Piayon

Blac Label has been popular for some years now and they are just coming up strong. They offer items for men, women, and even babies. I have to say I’m really feeling the whole Blac Label line because it is rather unique and its color combinations are serious! The last Blac Label item I purchased was a short sleeved shirt that was burgundy, with black and a light yellow in it and it is fire. It was purchased at the one and only Villa too. Besides t-shirts they also have jeans, hats, jackets, hoodies, and even sneakers. If you ever need a nice shirt that stands out to go to a club then Blac Label could be a winner! If you’re ever looking for anything BlacLabel don’t forget about The Villa because they carry the hottest Blac Label gear.

-AGE

This story is rather strange. As a big sports fan, one is always use to hearing about players getting cut, released, or signed, but not a mascot. Well here’s some background. The NBA’s Golden State Warriors mascot’s name is Thunder and first appeared during the team’s first season in 1997. Since the
former Seattle SuperSonics is now a new team in a new city (Oklahoma City Thunder), Golden State’s President Robert Rowell said we would be willing to accommodate to Oklahoma City and change its mascot’s name since the team name is the Thunder.

Sources are reporting a possible trade sending Golden State’s mascot to Oklahoma City for a mascot to be named later. Also, there are rumors of Thunder going to NBA China. Whatever the outcome is this story is too funny. I may have to say that Thunder the mascot is one of those mascots that was not really popular in the NBA. Robert Rowell also mentioned how he was considering a rebranding of the team so a new team and new mascot might just be a good look.

-AGE

Legendary rapper Jay-Z will be part of somewhat of a unique collaboration this weekend. No it’s not with Diddy, Lil Wayne, or Kanye West…..it’s with Barrack Obama! This weekend Jay – Z will be giving 2 free performances in order to show support for presidential candidate Barrack Obama. This Saturday he
will be performing in Detroit, Michigan and Sunday he will perform in Miami, Florida. This is perfect timing being that Monday is the deadline to new voters to register and vote to be edible to vote for this year’s presidential election. Anyone ages 18 and above can get their free tickets at several
campaign offices for Obama in the Michigan and the Florida areas.

This is another initiative in which a rapper is pushing for young and new voters to register and vote (T.I. & Young Jeezy are most known for it). Not only is this event a free concert, but it is also a voter registration rally for a great cause. There’s nothing to lose in this initiate at all. Registering to vote and seeing Jay – Z….It can’t get any better! It’s “Ba Roc!”

- AGE

This week in Foreign Fridays, The United Nations in a proposed-resolution seeks helps from all countries with interest in international shipping security to send military aid to help fight piracy off the coast of the Somalia. Somalia which is off the East African coast faces the problem of piracy on its waters primarily due to the Gulf of Eden which is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes with the most recent attacks being on a Ukrainian vessel transporting tanks and other heavy weaponry with pirates requesting a 20 million dollar ransom in order for the vessel to be released. The United Nations proposed resolution which is expected to be voted on next week, encourages Nations and Organizations to continue take necessary actions that will ensure the safety of the U.N World Food Program Maritime Convoys which is expected to assist over 3 million Somalis with food aid over the year.

In other foreign headlines, President Felipe Calderon of Mexico in an initiative submitted to lawmakers provided rehab as an alternative to going to jail for illegal drug users when caught. The initiative recommends rehab for people caught with less than 2 grams of marijuana, half a gram of cocaine, 40 milligrams of methamphetamine or other drugs and refusal of rehab could lead to imprisonment of up to three and half years. The initiative by President Calderon is to help identify drug dealers and users and administer proper punishment to these offenders. The president’s goal is to decrease murder and frequent shootout and decapitation rates associated with drug violence in the country and experts believe the increase in the country’s drug addicts is partly correlated to the crackdown on drug trafficking along the U.S-Mexican border which forced Mexican cartels to sell locally.

Who would have known LEVI’S would have just became so popular in urban communities the way that they have. With the “fitted” look getting more and more popular with both males and females, LEVI’S made a wise push to get those consumers in urban communities at the right time. Not only does it have hip-hop artists promoting its brand (DC Rapper WALE), but it made its way into many urban retail shops like The Villa. In an interview with one of my co-workers, Israel Perez said, “LEVI’S are definitely in! The jeans look hot and feel real comfortable. They are not baggy either.” LEVI’s offers many styles from the 501 Originals to the 550 Relaxed fit. I own about 5 pairs of LEVI’S jeans myself. The look of the jeans with sneakers and boots is incredible because it’s nothing too flashy it’s just “right.” To get a pair of your own LEVI’S jeans you can visit your nearest Villa location.

- AGE

Today is the day that the MLB playoffs begin! There are three games on today. The first game is at 3pm (EST.) in which my own Philadelphia Phillies will be hosting the Milwaukee Brewers. This should be an interesting series because this is the Brewers first playoff berth in some time and the Phillies
have the bats and starting pitching to win the series. Prediction: Phillies win series 3-1. The next game which is at 6:30pm (EST.) will include the Chicago Cubs hosting the LA Dodgers. The Cubs are the No. 1 seed in the National League and look like they won’t let anytime get in its way of getting to the World Series. Prediction: Chicago Cubs win series 3-1. The final game on tonight is the LA Angels hosting the Boston Red Sox at 10:30pm (EST.). The Angels were the best team in the league this year and with a strong pitching rotation it doesn’t look good for the Red Sox. Prediction: LA Angels win series 3-0.

The Tampa Bay Rays will host the Chicago White Sox tomorrow in its first ever playoff game. The White Sox actually won its division last night by beating the MIN. Twins in a one game playoff. This year’s baseball playoffs has several teams that have improved from previous years and with be a very interesting one.

- AGE

I myself am not too much of a Dancing with the Stars fan, but can’t help to mention it, because it’s one of those TV shows that whenever a new season starts, millions of viewers tune in every week to watch the episodes. This year’s season (Season7) has yet another start studded line-up that includes: N’SYNC’s Lance Bass, former NFL star Warren Sapp, and the one and only Kim Kardashian. The season started last Monday and I actually got a quick glimpse of some of the groups performing. Celebrity chef Rocco Di Spirito is this season’s favorite to win it all. Every season DWTS comes on I usually want either the sports athlete or my favorite celebrity that ends up being on the show to make it to the finals. Looking at the line-up, my favorites are Warren Sapp and Kim Kardashian…..until last night. In a shocking decision, Kim Kardashian was eliminated from the competition. I may say she was sort of stiff just by seeing her perform but I think the judges could have kept her for a few more weeks. Let’s just say there might be a possibility in ratings going down since she was eliminated and she was a favorite by guys and her fans. It doesn’t look like Warren Sapp will get too far, but you never know! Good Luck Warren and Kim Kardashian, we still love you.

- AGE

In response to numerous violent attacks on police officers in Philadelphia, Governor Ed Rendell asked the Department of Corrections to postpone the release of offenders currently recommended for parole until the entire process is completely reviewed. The most recent attack was by a paroled criminal on Officer Patrick McDonald which resulted in the unfortunate death of the officer and this led to Governor Rendell and the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police president John McNesby calls for immediate postponement on grants of paroles in the state. In addition to a complete review of the parole release process, Governor Rendell asked the state senate to amend a bill which would require criminals who fire gunshots at police officers to serve a minimum of 20 years in prison.

Governor Rendell also asked the chairman of Temple University’s Criminal Justice Department to review the “processes by which the Corrections Department prepares violent offenders for release. The Board of Probation and Parole determines whether to parole a violent offender and how both entities supervise parolees after release.” In an interview with Temple University Seniors Javaunna Brown and Muna Osman, they both believe that “holding current offenders who are being recommended for parole until the process is reviewed is unfair since they are being held accountable for the violent actions of others who should have changed their violent nature once on parole”.

————-PIAYON

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one thinking what are these scarves called when I first saw them but with a little research I figured out that they are called kufiyas. These are fashion scarves that are hitting the urban communities by storm. They are so popular that people were even wearing them during the summer. It appears to be this end of the year’s trend because people all around are wearing them. With the influence of hip-hop, it drives more people to buy and where them when they see artists like Lil Wayne and Lupe Fiasco rocking these kufiyas.

I actually had one in my hand about a week ago and was thinking to myself “How do you tie it up to look the way it is suppose to?” I realized though after talking to my boy Keith, it’s based on one’s own personal style. So, do not be surprised when you see more and more people wearing kufuyas
during the fall and winter seasons because they are the newest trend and hot right now. You can find these at your nearest Villa location.

- AGE

This weekend was a big one for upsets in college football, a crazy one for Major League Baseball, and a great one for some surprise teams in the NFL.

MLB: Technically the MLB playoffs should be set in stone and ready to go starting this coming up Wednesday, but that’s not the case. In the National League, it looks like the New York Mets have a horrible month of September for the second year in a row because they ended up missing the playoffs by 1 game. With the Mets eliminated from the playoffs, it sets up the NLDS as the following; Chicago Cubs vs. L.A. Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies vs. Milwaukee Brewers. Yes the Phillies are in the playoffs and they even won the NL East Division for the second straight year. In the American League, the L.A. Angels will face the Boston Red Sox in the ALDS, while the Tampa Bay Rays are waiting for the results of today’s White Sox game to find out who they will face. Well good luck to the Phillies!

NFL: Well the Buffalo Bills and the Tennessee Titans are the only 2 teams left that have not lost a game yet. The Bills defeated the St. Louis Rams 34-17 and the Titans defeated the MIN. Vikings 30-17. The Redskins played a good game and defeated the Cowboys 26-24. The best performance of the
weekend goes out to Brett Favre who threw 6 touchdowns in one game for the first time in his career as the NY Jets defeated the AZ Cardinals 56-35. Unfortunately the Eagles lost a close one last night 24-20 versus the Chicago Bears and tonight’s game should be a defensive one as the Steelers face the Ravens.

ELSEWHERE: Well the Oklahoma Sooners took advantage of USC’s and Georgia’s loses and are currently ranked No. 1 in the BCS Top 25 Rankings for college football. Congrats go to the San Antonio Silver Stars of the WNBA who will be playing in its first WNBA Finals as they eliminated Candace Parker and the LA Sparks.

Check me out next Monday for the Weekend Sports Recap!
- AGE

Following up on developments from last week’s economic bailout story, Congress revealed the specifics of the 700 billion dollars bailout plan for Wall Street. The draft bill which was proposed by President Bush and sent to Congress for approval had some important provisions added before it can be
voted on by the House and the Senate. The new additions includes protection for taxpayers in which government will own stakes in these failing companies and achieve returns as soon as companies begin profiting, a funds disbursement plan beginning with 250 billion dollars available for immediate treasury use, and another provision is the creation of an oversight board to help regulate the industry. The goal of the bailout is to rescue failing lending institutions by stabilizing credit markets due to complications created by the ongoing mortgage crisis.
Although the impact of the bailout plan is unclear, many agree implementation would be a step in the right direction since government intervention is crucial as the danger of doing nothing is clearly evident in the failures of several major financial institutions prompting federal government takeover in many cases. Approval by the House and the Senate is expected to be completed by Wednesday with the hope of a bi-partisan effort from Republicans and Democrats. A copy of the bill can be seen on the House financial services committee website at http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/financialsvcs_dem/press092808.shtml.

- Piayon

How could $500,000 worth of jewelry just go missing in the mail? Well, apparently it has happened to hip-hop artist Sean Kingston. Kingston sent his sister to send his jewelry from Los Angeles to his jeweler in New York City via FedEx and that’s where it went missing. The jewelry was suppose to arrive a day before it actually did to his jeweler and when he opened the box it was missing. To make things even worse, Kingston’s sister only purchased insurance to cover $500 of his expensive jewelry. The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the case of Kingston’s missing jewelry.

This incident occurred just weeks after Sean Kingston put out a video online basically showing off his jewels. Well. One thing to learn from this situation is that even though you might have “it” you should be careful how you put “it” out here. By making a video and posting it online, with millions
of people searching the internet every minute, of course someone is going to see all his jewelry and think “I wish I had that.” Even though it is not certain what happened to his
jewels, besides going missing, there is no mention of situation having a link to the video he posted. Hopefully all goes well and Kingston can find his missing items.
- AGE

DeShawn Stevenson of the NBA’s Washington Wizards is working on releasing his own clothing line called 2Family. Over this past summer he has been working on his line which when released will include t-shirts and possibly hats. He has been doing some marketing himself in order to create buzz, by just wearing his shirts out in public so that people can see them and hopefully come up to him and say “Where did you get that?”. The vision behind the line is based on his jersey number which is the No. 2 and the people that have in some way helped him have the success he has made during his career. Stevenson does have a 2Family tattoo and also wears rubber wristbands that say it as well during his games. There is not a release date set for the 2Family clothing line yet.

- AGE

Oregon State proved to the nation last night that BCS Rankings are just numbers next to your team name. Going into last night’s PAC -10 showdown with the number 1 ranked school in the nation, USC, there was talk about being a close game and even talk about a possible upset. Well what do you know, upset alert! The Oregon State Beavers handed the USC Trojans its first loss of the season. Being a 25-point favorite just game the Beavers motivation to win the game. USC’s defense was no match for the Beaver’s offense and freshman running back Jacquizz Rodgers who rushed for 187 yards and scored two touchdowns. USC’s best chance to win the game came in the fourth quarter when they scored a touchdown to make the game 27-14. With the attempt of an
onside kick, Oregon State recovered the ball and basically sealed the victory.

So what does this loss mean to the rest of the teams in the BCS? Well, first of all, it shows where USC is vulnerable and gives hope to the rest of the teams on its schedule. Secondly, with a win this weekend, No. 2 Oklahoma or No. 3 Georgia can possibly move up to No. 1 in the rankings. Good luck this weekend to both teams and its official….USC is overrated!

- AGE

Kanye West and Comedy Central are teaming up for a special project. The vision of the project is hip-hop meets puppets. The idea is not set in stone yet, but is under consideration for 2009. The tentative idea of the show is to be a half-an-hour show with music done by Kanye West and his partner Rhymefest. There will also be a different celebrity host for each episode and a setup similar to the original “Muppet Show”. Kanye has shot a pilot for the project titled “Alligator Boots” that was produced by Jackhole Productions, a team that includes comedian Jimmy Kimmel.

This is just another great example of how celebrities are making wise decisions with all the money they make. Being a rapper and putting together a television show is huge and just an example of how to manage your finances and invest the right way. What Kanye West is doing with this project is something to show the hip-hop community that it’s not all about the jewels and the cars. The idea behind this project sounds great, but I’m not fully convinced that it will be a hit yet, only time can tell. Good Luck Yeezy!

- AGE

This week we begin a new segment called Foreign Fridays, which will feature a weekly summary of important news from the international community. Foreign Fridays news summaries will help familiarize us with current events on the international scene.

Chinese officials are dealing with issues of tainted foods as the government explained to the public that it found traces of melamine in baby foods and crackers made in china and according to the government the infected cereal is a baby vegetable formula made by Heinz and also melamine was evident in steamed wasabi potato salad. Numerous foreign countries have banned milk based products and warn citizens to be on the alert.

A program started by the world richest man Bill Gates and Howard Buffet the son of another one of the world’s richest man announced that they will begin a program to help Africa and Latin America solve their food problems. The program called “Purchase for Progress”, aims to assist 350,000 small farmers in 21 countries majority Africans to grow food for the United Nations World’s Food Program which happens to be the biggest food aid distributor in Africa . The program aims to teach farmers better farming and storage methods, while planting higher-yield seeds and helping them transport their products to customers which seem to be most problematic for these low-income farmers.

Finally, Yves Rossy a Swiss man crossed the English Channel on a homemade jet plane. Rossy flew the 22 mile trip across the channel from Calais in France and the trip was meant to trace the route of French aviator Louis Bleriot who first crossed the Channel 99 years ago in an airplane.

- Piayon

Young Jeezy and T.I. have been the 2 rappers who have been doing the most this year in trying to get the young people and new voters to register to vote for this year’s very important presidential election. This past Monday, T.I. and the Hip Hop Caucus, responsible for the “Respect My Vote” campaign, announced that starting September 30th, they are setting a goal of getting 50,000 new voters to register to vote in ONE day. The effort will be tried to be accomplished in several
cities, including Cleveland, Dallas, and Baltimore. T.I. and the Hip Hop Caucus will also try to get local radio stations to help in the efforts of getting new voters to register to vote. The drive will be an all day one, which begins at 6AM and does not end until 9PM.

Not only will this be a busy week for T.I. because of the campaign, but he also has a new album dropping 9/30/08 titled Paper Trail. I have sampled the album and let’s just say it’s FIRE. He has quite a few guest appearances including Rihanna, Ludacris, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Lil- Wayne, and Swizz Beatz. Keep doing your thing T.I. because you’re showing that even though some have their problems, there is always a way to bounce right back up!

- Age

Breaking News!!!! The New York Yankees will not compete in the 2008 MLB Playoffs. Yes it’s true. After making the playoffs for almost a record of 13 straight years (record is 14 by the Atlanta Braves), this season’s playoffs will not have the Yankees as a part of them. The team has been struggling almost all season and has not been in first place in its division since for the most part and winning 9 of its last 10 games could not even help the team either. The Boston Red Sox officially eliminated its arch rivals from playoff contention last night with a win over the Cleveland Indians.

Overall, one can say that the New York Yankees had a terrible season. First of all, with a franchise paying its players so much money it’s almost a requirement for the team to make the postseason year in and year out. Secondly, with this season being the last for Yankee Stadium, why not work harder to have some extra games in the stadium for the loyal fans to enjoy during the best time of the season, the postseason. Finally, how could such a prestigious team not make the playoffs and let one of the worst teams since its existence, the Tampa Bay Rays, clinch its first ever playoff berth. Well, hopefully
next season the Yankees can recover.
- Age

Today we begin the first of our weekly presentation of surprising or strange news occurring across the country. The segment on weird news will be done every Wednesday and will contain summaries of the most interesting and mind-boggling news stories from across the country which will have you wondering or laughing for a while.

In Augusta, Maine thieves stole the hood of a Hershey’s ice cream delivery truck. The hood of the truck was stolen by thieves whose motives were unknown. According to the truck driver Dave Tracy “nothing like this has ever happened “ and that the fiberglass hood which stood at 7 1/2 by 6 feet and 4 feet deep is not exactly small and wouldn’t be easy to carry
off even with a pickup truck.

In Portland, Oregon where nude bike rides are permitted, police received complaint calls about a naked skater skating past tourists and commuters from a number of construction
workers. The skater, Gennifer Moss, who was only cautioned by police who told her to slow it down, apparently had sought permission to skate naked in Ashland’s Fourth of July parade
but was denied.

Finally, investigators of the Fire department in Florida explained that a dog helped save an elderly couple from an early-morning blaze. According to investigators, 82 year old Alice Ferrari and her 83 year old friend Ted Kolanko slept until 4:00am when their dog began disturbing. Ferari who thought the dog only wanted to go outside realized the dog ran outside and came right back in and luckily in no time she was able to realize that there was a fire in the ceiling of her laundry room. Both occupants and the life-saving dog escaped injury-free but property damages to the property have been
assessed to be over $50,000.

Come back next Wednesday for some more weird news!

- Piayon

This pasted weekend was a very important and crazy weekend for several professional sports teams.

MLB: Last night was officially the last game in the historic Yankee Stadium. After 85 years of historic performances and many memories, the New York Yankees will welcome a brand new stadium for the 2009 season, which is literally across the street from its current one. The Yankees went out with style in a 7-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles. In other MLB news, congrats go to the Chicago Cubs for clinching the NL Central division title and to the Tampa Bay Rays who clinched its first playoff berth in franchise history this past weekend.

NFL: This weekend in the NFL there were a few upsets and very close games. Do I hear upset city? Yes! The Miami Dolphins ……..yup I said it; the Miami Dolphins manhandled the New England Patriots in a 38-13 win. Not only did the Dolphins win, but running back Ronnie Brown scored 5 rushing touchdowns on the Pats. I know whoever started him on their fantasy team this week must be very happy! The Broncos, Jaguars, Giants, Buccaneers, and Bills all won by 3 points or fewer. In the battle of the Keystone State, the Philadelphia Eagles come out over the Pittsburgh Steelers by a score of 15 – 6, which really was due to great defensive play by the Eagles who had 9 sacks on Ben Roethlisberger. The Dallas Cowboys also defeated the Green Bay Packers in the Sunday night game by a score of 27-16 to get its first ever win at Lambeau Field.

Elsewhere: In the world of golf, congrats go out to the Americans who earned their first victory at the Rider Cup since 1999, defeating the Europeans (without Tiger Woods). In college football, LSU’s big victory over Auburn pushed the Tigers into the top 5 of the AP Top 25. Also, my Temple Owls were dominated 45-3 by the hands of the Penn State Nittany Lions. On a higher note, the NBA 2008-2009 season is almost here!

Stay tuned for next Monday’s sports weekend recap!

- AGE

Well known drummer Travis Barker (formerly of the pop-rock group Blink 182) and DJ AM (Adam Michael Goldstein) are both currently slowly recovering from a plane crash that occurred late Friday night, into early Saturday morning, that resulted in the deaths of 4 others, including Barker’s assistant Chris “Little Chris” Baker (29) and security guard Charles Still (25). The crash occurred in Colombia , South Carolina after both Travis Barker and DJ AM performed for a crowd at a free concert for college students sponsored by T-Mobile. According to sources, the group of passengers was on its way back to Los Angeles , CA when the plane took off the runway but overran it, struck an antenna array and a few lights, then eventually went through a fence and crashed. Investigations of the plane crash are in process in determining the cause of the crash. Travis Barker who was burned from his waist down and DJ AM who was burned on his face, were the only survivors of the plane crash and are expected to fully recover.

According to family and friends, the reason they group were on the plane at the specific time was because Travis Barker’s assistant wanted to get home early enough to witness the birth of his child. Prayers go out to all the victims of the plane crash, their families, and to a speedy recovery for both Travis Barker and DJ AM.

- AGE

President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson after months of economic speculation and advice from top economic advisers recently proposed a $700 billion dollar economic bailout for the United States . The recovery plan requires funds from taxpayers to ease the pressure off several financial institutions by purchasing several bad mortgages and will have to be approved by congress. The economic bailout comes just weeks after the federal government announced an $85 billion dollar financial bailout of American International Group (AIG) and a $200 billion dollar temporary takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to shore up their debts.

The current sinking state of the economy has led many to question the sustainability of the American capitalist system which promotes free markets without government intervention but according to the President “our system of free enterprise rests on the conviction that the federal government should interfere in the market place only when necessary,”. Most citizens would like to see more done by the government and agree that if there was more regulation of the housing industry the current problem could have been avoided. Many new homeowners who were unable to afford housing were being given bad adjustable mortgage deals with low payments in the beginning and as the economy slowed down, the value of houses dropped and mortgage payments rose most people couldn’t keep up with payments and when some home values dropped below the amount taken out on mortgage many homeowners decided it was rational to allow bank foreclosures instead of being stuck with high mortgages that were more than the value of their houses. In the upcoming weeks we will continue to monitor the country’s economic developments and hope for the best.

Yes it’s true! Jay-Z has created another music label and it goes by the name of StarRoc. Teaming up with the hit producers Stargate (the Norwegian duo, consisting of Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel S. Eriken), Star Roc will be the next business venture for the legendary hip-hop mogul. Stargat(responsible for Ne-Yo’s “So Sick” and Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable”), confirmed the news of the new label and will now be based out of Jay’s Manhattan “Roc the Mic” studio.

So what does this mean for Jay –Z’s future? The answer to this is probably……..ummm…….more money! Yeah, you know millionaires just can’t stop making money; they have to invest it in business ventures to make more of course. It’s good to see that some rappers at least make some wise decisions and don’t just blow off all their money on jewels and cars. So I guess now instead of “It’s the Roc” saying, now everyone is going to be saying “It’s the StarRoc!”
Well……till next time Villa World.

Remember the days of good old Carson Daily??? Well he was the first Total Request Live (aka TRL) host, who paved the way for Damien Fahey, the current host. The rumors are true, after 10 years of being one of the most popular shows on MTV, the company has decided to pull TRL off the air. Many artists have performed on the show in front of screaming fans such as; Britney Spears, Diddy, N’SYNC, Eminem, Mariah Carey and many more. The show has paved the way for many new artists allowing the millions of viewers to watch and vote for their new videos to come on the countdown. Not only was it a countdown show, but TRL brought out many surprise guests, had many important celebrity announcements made on its show, held many contests so that audience members could win prizes, and even had its own photo booth where all the guests would come and take photos.

Growing up, TRL was one of the top countdown shows on TV. It played music videos from several genres of music, not just one. It made several changes over its time, but the only reason for being canceled is probably low rating. This may be the cause of many issues, but none reason mentioned for the exact reason of canceling the show. The good news is that the show will have its final live airing in November. Also, one of MTV’s newest shows, FNMTV, will return for a new season in November as well. MTV….thanks for all the great shows on TRL and hopefully there will be new show in the future to take its place!

This pasted weekend in sports was fairly interesting, but I may have to say the biggest news came out of Major League Baseball.

MLB: Last night, pitcher Carlos Zambrano of the Chicago Cubs pitched the first no-hitter in Cubs history since Milt Pappas did it against San Diego in 1972. Zambrano was coming off of a shoulder problem before last night’s no-hitter. In the American League, Anaheim Angel’s closer Francisco Rodriguez recorded his Major League Record 58th save of the season on Saturday against the Seattle Mariners. The previous record was 57 saves which was set Bobby Thigpen in 1990. Congratulations do out to both pitchers for their accomplishments.

NFL: The biggest news this weekend from the NFL was probably the Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens game being postponed until Nov. 9th because of Hurricane Ike. Besides that, props go out to Aaron Rogers of the Green Bay Packers who had a stellar performance in a 48-25 victory against the Detroit Lions. As far as Chad Ocho Cinco goes, he definitely needs to step up his game or the Cincinnati Bengals will be one of the worst in the league this season, as they lost 24-7 against the Tennessee Titans. Tonight is the most anticipated game of the week as the Philadelphia Eagles face the Dallas Cowboys in an important division game. Prediction for the game is 27-24 Eagles!

Elsewhere: USC destroyed Ohio State Saturday night (34 - 3), in which was suppose to be one of the best games in college football this season. Juan Manual Marquez defeated Joel Casamayor in an 11th round TKO which will probably lead to a rematch between Marquez and Manny Pacquiao.

Stay tuned for next week’s sports weekend recap!

Do not overestimate the power of a hurricane! Hurricane Ike can be the blame for at least 27 deaths and counting, following its movement throughout Texas and the Midwest this past weekend. Before the hurricane hit, several sporting events were either delayed or postponed to a further date, including the Houston Astros vs. Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball game which made the Astros play a home game in Chicago . The hurricane has left several cities in a state of emergency with such mass destruction. Nothing could stay out the way of this hurricane including high rise buildings, stadiums, homes, and vehicles. The storm was so strong that it even caused a tree to land on Interstate 71 in Louisville , Kentucky and left 2.6 million homes and businesses without power.

Even though a majority of the residents that were asked to evacuate before the hurricane hit, indeed did so, there were some 20,000 residents that decided not to evacuate, which is causing the recovery process to take even longer. Officials say that it may take weeks until residents may return to their homes and for them not to rush and try to come back home because the process is a long one. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected in any type of way due to Hurricane Ike!

What’s Up with Mr. West???

Who would think that after the tragic events of September 11th that another incident would occur at an airport, of all places, on the same date just 7 years later? Well there was an incident and it involved hip-hop artist Mr. Kanye West. Kanye was said to board a flight to Honolulu , Hawaii during the morning of Sept. 11th, 2008 through the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). West and his manager (Don Crowley) were at Terminal 4 about to go through the passenger screening when they were met by the paparazzi. One would think that Kanye would either let them take pictures or just cover himself, but this was not the case. Instead, they both grabbed cameras that belonged to two members of the paparazzi and started throwing them on the ground, causing damage to the cameras. The whole incident was caught on tape. Kanye and his manager were later met up by airport police, arrested, and later transferred to the LAPD.

I guess it was not such a “Good Morning” for Mr. West. This is really not like him to create such ruckus at a public location, at that an airport, on the 7 year anniversary of the tragic events of Sept.11th. So far Kanye has not made a public announcement of the events that occurred, but hopefully he will do it soon so that it will not have such as negative effect on his reputation.

To celebrate the release of his highly anticipated third album, The Recession, Young Jeezy recently put on for his city with a show stopping live band performance at The Tabernacle and a jam-packed party at the exclusive Velvet Room in Atlanta.

The multi-platinum star also held a voter registration at Justin’s restaurant where he registered and encouraged others from his home state to do the same. I wonder who he is going to vote for.

T.I and Rihanna perform “Live Your Life” at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, which took place last night in California. Other performers included Lil Wayne with T-Pain, Kanye West, and Rihanna performing her new hit “Disturba”.

The big talk of the night however, was Ms. Britney Spears - who left with three moonmen and looked like the same Britney we saw five years ago.

Ciara blesses the new 2008 October Vibe magazine cover naked! Words can not explain how we feel about the photo, cover and this piece of art. All we can do is hate on the photographer and show some major love to Vibe for this one!

Beyonce has worn her wedding ring in public for the first time ever. The $5 million, 18 carat flawless diamond by Lorraine Schwartz was photographed on the singer during the red carpet madness for Fashion Rocks at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.

The singer, who married rapper Jay-Z in April, took off the ring during a duet with Justin Timberlake, but slipped it back on when she donned a short, blonde wig to sing a tribute to blues singer Etta James, whom she portrays in the upcoming movie “Cadillac Records.”

One afternoon in late August, someone broke into one of Floyd Mayweather’s homes and made off with his personal jewelry. This week Mayweather issued a $100,000 cash reward for information leading to the return of his property.

Mayweather confirmed that the jewelry is estimated to be valued at $7 million and was taken from one of his Las Vegas homes. The offense occurred on August 17, between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. The thieves apparently broke his bedroom window and entered while he was out of the house.

US R&B star Ne-Yo is to receive $700,320 in damages from a concert promoter after he was removed from a tour with fellow musician R Kelly. At the time, the singer said it was because fans preferred him, an allegation that R Kelly publicly denied, but tour company Rowe Entertainment said it was because they could not obtain a full contract for the musician.

Singer Robin Thicke, who saw commercial success in 2006 with the release of The Evolution Of Robin Thicke, recently revealed some of the struggles he’s faced trying to make it in the music biz. Being that he’s more R&B than pop, Thicke said crossing the color line has been a lot harder than many think.
In a recent interview with Billboard magazine, the singer told a story about how he was denied the cover of Vibe because of his skin color.

When I did a recent interview with Vibe magazine I asked, ‘Why can’t I get the cover? This is a magazine I love. If there’s one magazine that I’d want to be on the cover of, it’s Vibe,’ ” the singer explained. “Their response was they don’t have white artists on the cover; that the only white artist they’ve had on the cover was Eminem. I guess if that’s what it is, it is what it is. And I respect that because I live in a house with a black woman.”

Although the denial may be a form of reverse racism, that’s not what Robin Thicke calls it. He simply says that obstacles like this makes him what he is today.

“I won’t use the word racism. I will say it’s a tough, but a rewarding fight,” he explained.

Currently, Robin Thicke is preparing the release of his third solo album, titled Something Else. It is said to feature no guest appearances, so fans can expect nothing but Robin by himself.

According to the Boston Herald, Stride Rite Corp. has taken back the rights to the 60-year-old shoe from Dash. However, the company insists that it had nothing to do with his rumored financial troubles and instead with rebranding.

“It was just a matter of timing,’ Stride Rite spokeswoman Debra Fernandes told the paper. “We just wanted a new direction.”

Last week, Dash and wife Rachel Roy made headlines when it was revealed that they owe $7.3 million on two Manhattan properties, and are in jeopardy of losing them due to non-payment.

Da Brat was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday (August 22), stemming from a nightclub assault in November of last year. In addition to the prison term, the judge sentenced the rapper to seven years probation and 200 hours of community service. She must also get substance abuse treatment, a mental evaluation, and attend anger management classes.

The 34-year-old rapper was arrested last November for aggravated assault after getting into a scuffle with Atlanta Falcons cheerleader Shayla Stevens at Lawrenceville Highway nightclub owned by rap mogul Jermaine Dupri.

That must had been a crazy beat down to get such crazy sentence.

Miss Info has gotten her hands on the ex-wife of Christopher Wallace’s upcoming autobiography titled Keep The Faith. In the book, The Notoious B.I.G’s widow reveals her relationship with the Biggie and Tupac Shakur during the beef that lead up to both rap legends deaths.

We’d love to show you an excerpt but all of the ones floating around online are way to graphic for yall! Sorry.

Kanye West’s highly anticipated clothing line Pastelle has finally surfaced with a preview in VMAN Magazine! The magazine did a photoshoot with Kanye and friends, Lupe Fiasco and Rihanna in Chicago.

Like his music, Pastelle is another extension of Kanye’s creativity; blending new-era designs with old school color ways into a collection of sheer class and genius.

Pastelle is rumored to hit stores in November… That’s a good look Mr. West!

The last we heard, Bow Wow and Angela Simmons were “dating.” How things have changed…

Bow Wow, formerly known as Lil’ Bow Wow, has a new girlfriend. He showed up to the 25th birthday party for Reverend Run’s daughter, Vanessa, Saturday night at Mansion in Miami and they were “all over each other,” a spy said. “We all did a double take because she was dating pro skater Terry Kennedy.” But insiders knew that relationship was over when Kennedy took all of Vanessa’s pictures off his MySpace page earlier last week. Not that Vanessa cared. “She only had eyes for Bow Wow all night,” our source said.
Source: PageSix

Hmm… what’s going on here Bow? Rev Run is gonna get you!

Last year it was Jay-Z who led the way on Forbes new list for Hip-Hop Cash Kings, but he was dethroned despite landing a huge deal with Live Nation, worth an estimated $150 million. Hov did land at number 2 on the 2008 list, but it was 50 Cent who is crowned the 2008 Hip-Hop Cash King by the magazine, who reportedly earned $150 million over the past 12 months. Jay-Z bought in $82 million, coming in at no. 2, thanks to his American Gangster album. Coming in at no. 3 for the second year in a row is Diddy. The music icon earned a reported $35 million last year from his many businesses and deals. Right behind the Big Three is Kanye West, taking the no. 4 spot with a cool $30 mill. At no. 5 we see Timbaland with $22 million, thanks to his endless list of producer credits. The rest of the list is as follows, see the entire list with photos at Forbes.com:

No. 6: Pharrell Williams - $20 mill
No. 7: Swizz Beats - $17 mill
No. 8: Snoop Dogg - $16 mill
No. 9: Dr. Dre - $15 mill
No. 10: Ludacris - $14 mill
No. 11: T.I. - $13 mill
No. 11: Lil Wayne - $13 mill
No. 12: Eminem - $12 mill
No. 12: Common - $10 mill
No. 12: Akon - $12 mill
No. 13: Jermaine Dupri - $11 mill
No. 13: Lil Jon - $11 mill
No. 14: Outkast - $10 mill
No. 14: Chamillionaire - $10 mill
No. 14: The Game - $10 mill

Kanye West is doing more than just producing music now days. He’s in progress of launching a chain of Fatburger fast-food restaurants in his hometown of Chicago. His company, KW Foods LLC, has bought the rights to develop ten Fatburger restaurants in the Chicago area. I guess now days, you not only can find him working with Jay-Z on his impending Blueprint 3 album, but also flipping burgers. That’s so original.

Cullen Jones became the third African-American swimmer to medal in the Olympic Games on Monday (August 11), and the second to win the gold. Along with his teammates: Michael Phelps, Garrett Weber Gale and anchor Jason Lezak…. the U.S. set a world record in the 400-meter freestyle relay at Monday’s Beijing Games. In the prelims, Jones had the fastest split at 47.61 seconds, despite failing to qualify for the 100-meter freestyle with a third-place finish at the U.S Olympic Team Trials. U.S. coach Eddie Reese confirmed that he’d be on the team in the finals, and he didn’t disappoint, and neither did his teammates. Jones just may go down in history.

Last week, when news surfaced that the actor had been hospitalized, Danica Smith (his publicist) said he was “responding well to treatment and will be released soon.” Then the news unraveled that the actor / comedian Bernie Mac died early Saturday (August 9) at the age of 50, a week after being hospitalized for pneumonia. The comedian suffered from an inflammatory lung disease known as sarcoidosis, but his publicist said the pneumonia was not related to that.

“I came from a place where there wasn’t a lot of joy,” he said back in 2001. “I decided to try to make other people laugh when there wasn’t a lot of things to laugh about.” So with that said I know for a fact that Mac wouldn’t want his fans to be sad and depressed, but to be happy to know that he is in a better place.

He was one of the original “Kings of Comedy,” alongside Cedric The Entertainer, which helped pushed him to a wider audience when it was released in 2000. Which then landed him “The Bernie Mac Show,” on Fox, where he played a man who takes in his drug-addicted sister’s three kids. The show ran for five seasons through 2006, winning Mac a Peabody award as well as several Golden Globe and Emmy nominations. His strong push for success landed him a movie deals with such flicks as: Ocean’s Eleven, Bad Santa, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, and Transformers.

Through this sad ordeal, Mac will be missed by Rhonda McCullough (his wife of 30 years), Je’Niece (his daughter), family, friends and most of all his fans.

Bethlehem Musikfest is a ten day festival that has the whole city full of energy. This is a event that brings musician and artist from all over to come together for a extraordinary experience. August 9th was the day Sneaker Villa came to Bethlehem’s Musikfest event to set it off with the community. The neighborhood really embraced our appearance. This event also brought special appearances from Earth, Wind, and Fire, Christian McBride, and Rosanne Cash. If you couldn’t make it to this years event, you must make a note in your calender for next year.

According to Billboard.com, the rapper made an appearance at Wednesday night’s (August 6) Glow In The Dark tour stop at New York’s Madison Square Garden. He used the appearance to showcase a few new tracks he recorded while in Hawaii recently. One track was titled “Jockin’ Jay-Z.”The rapper’s partner-in-crime, Memphis Bleek, revealed further info regarding the upcoming album. He told Billboard.com Kanye West gave him some beats, which he loved.

“I told Jay that I’m hating on him for having [those beats],” Bleek said. “The beats are like new rhythms with old drums. Just picture Jay-Z having four records like ‘Encore.’”

The Blueprint 3 will be Jay’s last album with Def Jam, which he will follow up by starting to record under his new deal with Live Nation. There is no date set for the album as of press time.

Rap legends Capone & Noreaga have reunited and are working on another album. For those fans out there all know that their last album was and still is crazy hot although it released over eight years ago. Their next album will be named ” Channel 10″ and is due to release October 21st. I’m proud to be working on a CNN album, a lot of people have been begging for this to come out,” N.O.R.E. explains. The first single is the Alchemist produced “Follow The Dollar,” and is expected to leak this month with a video appointed to begin filming toward the end of the month. I’m so excited to see these guys come together again.

Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman has been injured in car accident in Mississippi and is currently being treated at a hospital in Memphis. The accident took place at around 11:30 p.m Sunday night (August 3rd) in Tallahatchie County Mississippi, while Freeman was driving eastbound on Highway 32 near the town of Ruleville, Miss.. His car left the road and flipped several times reporters said. Freeman and a female passenger had to be removed from the vehicle and airlifted to a hospital in Memphis, Tenn.. There was no word on the condition of the passenger. We at Sneaker Villa hope that both driver and passenger make it through this horrific accident.

Sneaker Villa’s Free BBQ winner (Donald Whorton) was blessed with a feast this Saturday. For those that don’t know, Sneaker Villa held a raffle at all of it’s locations for one person to win a free BBQ that inquires a feast for the winner and fifty guest. Donald was surly surprised at his winning. Check out the pictures above to see the outcome.

Ray J came to Sneaker Villa July 31st to show love to all his fans here in Philly at Sneaker Villa’s 1231 N. Broad Street store. We had a line leading all the way out the door for the fans to see their favorite artist. Ray J not only took pictures and autographing sheets, but also took the time to shop around the store with his fans. This shocked a lot of fans, to see their favorite artist bond with them in this way. Stay posted for more Meet & Greets at Sneaker Villa.

Yes everyone, T.I. did a in store appearance at our 1231 N. Broad street store here in Philly on July 29th. This was more than just a meet and greet. This was a neighborhood fan conference. This event gave fans the opportunity to ask T.I. about his interactions with the law, past falls and future plans as a artist. We all know that people are entitled to make mistakes, but how they learn from them was the meaning of this conference. Check out the pictures above to see how it all went down.

Director Francis Lawrence confirmed rumors, during the San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend, that he’s working on a prequel to the 2006 I Am Legend. “Absolutely, we’re actually trying to crack that. We’re trying to figure out some ideas for it, but yes, it would be a prequel,” Lawrence said.The director says that the setting of the new film will be three years prior to what was seen the first time around. While a new “I Am Legend” is definitely in the works, there’s no word as to when it will be released, or to begin filming.

The AND1 basketball game at the Liacouras Center was truly an exciting event. These group of ballers are truly talented. The moves and tricks that were performed by the players were mind boggling. They are true crowd pleasers. The fans went crazy to see their best player show their moves. AND1 came with the heat and brought inventive moves that will go down in basketball history. And1 also gave a $2,500 donation to the Germantown Exclusive Drill Team of Philadelphia. Stay posted for more events like these.

This Hyperdunk Event was full of excitement and energy. Izzo from 103 the beat was there with a call out that had people rushing the doors to get in. One pair of the famous Nike Hyperdunks were apart of a giveaway that had the crowd on the tip of their seats. The basketball game between Philly & N.Y.C. made the crowd go wild. One side of the court screamed “Go Philly” and the other Go New York. This was really a close game, but Philly rose to the top. The slam dunk contest was insane. The moves these ballers were pulling off on the court were just electrifying. Stay posted on more Sneaker Villa Events like these.

After reigning supreme for two weeks in a row, Lil Wayne has been dethroned, and it’s by a hip-hop veteran, Nas. Nas’s new untitled album landed at number 1 this week, putting Weezy on the back burner at number 2. Nas’s album sold 187,000 copies, and earned him his fifth spot at the top slot.
However, Weezy is almost at the 2 million sold mark with just over 1.9 million sold to date.

A few weeks ago, a aged photo of Rick Ross as a correctional officer leaked on to the Internet. Ross denied the photo several times, by saying that the photo was doctored in Photoshop. Despite his allegations, it seems that the photos may just be real, and the life as a Miami drug trafficking gangster may just be a fairy tale. On TheSmokingGun.com postings of Rick’s payroll documents are proving that Ross did, in fact, work as a correctional officer for 18 months back in the mid-90s. Records show that Ross’s real name is William Leonard Roberts and he was appointed a prison guard in December of 1995 at a salary rate of $22,913.54, and left the department in 1997. The rapper wearing the correction officer uniform is of a 19-year-old Rick Ross before all the rap fame. The photo was taken at a Department of Corrections ceremony, honoring the department’s graduating class, which the rapper was a part of.

Over the years many pieces of hip hop history has hit the auction site Ebay. Tupac’s 1995 Jaguar is up for auction on eBay and has a starting bid for $40,000. The 1995 Jaguar XJS is the same vehicle 2Pac drove in his hip hop video ‘To Live and Die in L.A.’. The original paper work comes with the auto and that has Tupac’s name and signature on them. Now here is your chance to purchase a piece of hip hop history. Hurry, auction ends Jul-24-08.

This celebrity basketball event rocked Philly this weekend. Tyrese Gibson’s team Vs. Kobe Bryant’s squad in a basketball game that had Temple University’s Liacouras Center excited. Elton Brand, Tyrese, and Kenny Gamble were in the building– Brand and Tyrese both played in the game. During halftime, Charlie Mack’s R&b group “5PM” took the stage and control over the crowd. The ladies had exponentially more fun than the dudes. The final score was 131 to 127…Tyrese’s team won the game by four points. This event had people looking forward to next years event.

As part of the Charlie Mack Celebrity Weekend, Charlie brought the celebs to Sneaker Villa’s 1231 N. Broad street store for a phenomenal in-store meet and greet. We had guest appearances from J.D. Williams (”The Wire”), DMC (Hip Hop legend), and more. These guests created an awesome experience for the hundreds of people in attendance. There was a line leading out the door just for customers to see the celebrities. Stay tuned for the next Villa autograph signing.

This weekend, there have been speculations spreading over the Internet that Busta Rhymes has been dropped from Interscope Records. This rumor hasn’t been confirmed. Internet sources report that this dilemma grew from a heated debate with the label’s Chairman Jimmy Iovine over the delays with Busta’s eighth studio album, “Blessed”, which was originally set to release in July– but, it has since been pushed back. Interscope’s reps stated that they were not able to comment on the rumors, but said they plan to release a formal statement soon.

Young Jeezy recently confirmed his long-rumored relationship with R&B singer Keyshia Cole, and it was a lot more serious than most thought. In one of Vibe’s feature stories in their latest issue, Jeezy not only admits to a relationship with Keyshia, but also claims the singer once proposed to him.

“Keyshia asked me to marry her, bought me a ring and everything. She not gonna tell you different,” Jeezy told he mag. “I was grown enough to tell her, ‘Look baby, that isn’t what it is right now. I’m trying to get my s*#t together. I’m trying to get my money, take care of me and mine.’”

Talk about letting a girl down easy.

Rick Ross recently addressed the rumor about him and Foxy Brown on MTV Friday night. Rumor has it that they were supposedly getting married. It seem Rick isn’t marring anyone anytime soon. This rumor came about when an article in the Hip Hop Weekly stated that Foxy was moving with Rick Ross in Miami. When recently ask about this on MTV, Ross stated, “Nah, nah, nah…..the engagement is just speculation. I’m married to money.” Well I guess with that said, you can’t believe everything you hear.

From July 4th - 6th, Mayweather will come to his home town Grand Rapids, Michigan for several star events. There will be a concert, a 70’s themed roller skating party, Stars on the Grand (a general admission festival in downtown Grand Rapids) and Mayweather will be producing a film showing the world rare behind the scenes boxing footage. All of these events will be open to the public.

“I’m letting people know that I may be leaving the sport, but there’s so much more that I’m going to do with my career,” said the champ in a statement. The concert will include performances by Ray J, Tank, and Trey Songz, with more acts to be announced, while Lil Jon plays hosts. Tickets for the concert are $25.

B.E.T. took over L.A. last night with it’s Annual Award Ceremony. This event drew celebrities from all over to meet at the Shrine Auditorium. Unexpected winners brought shock to the crowd. UGK were the spotlight of the show, winning two awards, one for “Best Group” and the other for “Video Of The Year” with “International Player’s Anthem”. Kanye won “Best Male Hip Hop Artist Award”. Some weren’t expecting that outcome, especially when the other nominees included Lil Wayne & Jay Z. Some felt that Lil Wayne should have won that award, cause of his album sells and mixtape exposures. At least Wayne got the “Viewer’s Choice Award” for his latest single “Lollipop”. He stated,” I am nothing without God, Baby! I just want to say thank God, thank my family and thank Universal.” Dang Weezy what about your fans!

As the show went on another shocker, but a crowd pleaser….Raheem Devaugn finally got recognized for the “Best J Award”. This was a shocker, because his nominees happen to be jazz queens, such as Chaka Khan, Ledisi, Jill Scott and Angie Stone. Also a pleaser because Raheem has been an unrecognized artist for some time now, and it’s finally time that we see him get recognized for his efforts.

If you didn’t catch the show, you must make the time to check out the video above showing Ciera & Chris Brown’s performance. The choreography was just sick. That move that Chris Brown pulled off at the end was crazy. Yo, I have too say the way that they move together made me wonder a little. What you think?

Check below to see the other winners.

Female R&B artist: Alicia Keys

Male R&B artist: Chris Brown

Group: UGK

Gospel artist: Marvin Sapp

Female hip-hop artist: Missy Elliott

Male hip-hop artist: Kanye West

New artist: The-Dream

Collaboration: Kanye West ft. T-Pain, “Good Life”

Video director: Erykah Badu and Mr. Roboto

Video of the Year: UGK ft. Outkast, “International Player’s Anthem (I Choose You)”

Actress: Halle Berry

Actor: Denzel Washington

Female athlete: Candace Parker

Male athlete: Kobe Bryant

BET J Award: Raheem DeVaughn

Viewers’ choice: Lil Wayne, “Lollipop”

Lifetime Achievement Award: Al Green

Humanitarian Award: Quincy Jones

Last week on radio airwaves, Ice T made comments on Soulja Boy’s music. He basically said that it’s garbage and really had no relevance. Ice T’s comments prompted a self recorded response not just from Soulja boy, but also Kanye West. Kanye begins to explain how washed up rappers always talk about the golden era…not realizing that this is the golden era for today’s kids. Here you have a kid that came from the hood, produced his own beats, lyrics, and dance, and also went platinum. If that’s not hip hop, than what is…. Kanye states. He believes artist like Soulja Boy are creative and fresh, not redundant like some other artists.

Now everyone has heard the famous conversation with Young Buck crying. Now hear 50 cent’s side of things on why he leaked out the video. Check it out.

In one of the most dominant performances in professional sports history, the Celtics beat the Lakers 131-92 and won the NBA championship. Garnett, who said he played like “garbage” in Game 5 and promised to be a difference maker in Game 6, scored 26 points. Pierce, who was by far the best player in the series, scored 17 points. Highly criticized point guard Rajon Rondo had 21 points and 6 steals while Allen contributed 26 points.

It’s hard to believe how badly the Celtics dominated the Lakers. Kobe Bryant scored 11 points in the first quarter, but was a non-factor the rest of the night. Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom should have stayed in California for all the help (or lack of) they provided.

The free BBQ for our inner city customer at Market street was a complete success. We had a line full of people waiting for their free meal. Flavor Flav even came down to the event to show some love to our customers. We try to show our appreciation to our customer and also our community by hosting events like these. The free BBQ also gave some locals a positive new outlook on Sneaker Villa’s movement.

The richest entertainers alumni made a promise to the students back in September 2007 to return to the school if the students performed academically. To make the trip, P (real name: Percy Miller) had to stop production on a movie in California. P heard loud cheers when he made his appearance, but those cheers became loud screams when he brought out his son Romeo, who will be going to USC in the near future, majoring in film and business, and joining the Trojans basketball team.
It’s always good to see positive role models.

So Lil Wayne’s highly anticipated album, Tha Carter III, finally dropped in stores this past Tuesday. To no one’s surprise Wayne ’s album had a great first day in stores. Tha Carter III sold a whopping 423,000 copies just in one day! It’s projected that the album will sell between 850,000 – 950,000 copies during its first week. Lil Wayne also has a chance to break the record of last year’s first week top seller Kanye West, who sold 957,000 copies of his album Graduation. Will Wayne get to sell “A Millie” his first week? We’ll just have to wait and see.

The Detroit rapper recently called into Shade45 when he heard LL Cool J was there, and pranked him a little bit. Slim got on the line and pretended to be a fan from Miami who challenged LL to a game of “Name That Tune.” Check out this video.

Ashanti sparked protest in Los Angeles Tuesday (June 10) for the bloody video for her single “The Way That I Love You” that features a fake new report about a murder spree inspired by the clip. In the music video, a lover, played by Ashanti, acts revenge on her cheating boyfriend by stabbing him to death.

When people visit her controversial site, they are greeted by a fake news headline from the UCN (Universal Crime Network), which reports that, “police are investigating a recent wave of violence in New Jersey. The police commissioner has hinted that there may be a tie between the recent attacks and the music video for Universal/Motown recording artist Ashanti’s single ‘The Way That I Love You.’ ”
Outraged by the video, more than two dozen concerned parents and religious leaders gathered outside the Universal/Motown offices Tuesday afternoon in Los Angeles to mount a protest against the promotion, reports MTV. They condemned the video and its message of using violence to settle disputes.

I feel that the video is hot, but at the same time a little too influential for the weak minded.
What do you think?

Floyd Mayweather Jr. has announced his retirement again. He was supposed to meet Oscar De La Hoya in a rematch in September.

“This decision was not an easy one for me to make, as boxing is all I have done since I was a child,” said Mayweather, in an AP report. “However, these past few years have been extremely difficult for me to find the desire and joy to continue in the sport.”

Does anyone really think he going to take this retirement seriously?

Rapper T.I. recently signed a 3 picture deal with Screen Games with two roles already locked in. According to a Variety.com, the first movie, as a part of the deal, with be the crime drama “Bone Deep” in which the rapper will join Matt Dillon and Idris Elba. The deal shows that the company sees T.I as a long-term investment, despite his year long prison sentence which begins next spring. The second Screen Gems film is set to be “Boulevard,” a drama in development in which T.I. will star, while the third picture is still undetermined. T.I. is currently serving 1,000 hours of community service in which he speaks to the youth at schools, so the film work will be scheduled around those legal obligations.

So far, T.I.’s acting resume includes roles in “American Gangster” and “ATL.”

Singer-songwriter Ne-Yo pleaded guilty to driving without a license, and no contest to a reckless driving charge on Monday (June 2), stemming from an arrest in February. Back in February 2007, Ne-Yo was pulled over while driving his 2006 Range Rover at speeds “well over 100 mph,” said police. He was arrested at around 3:40 a.m. that morning, and changed with reckless driving and driving without a valid license.

The blazing fire broke out at 50’s baby mother’s home in Dix Hills, New York early Friday morning (May 30) at around 5:00 a.m., while Tompkins, their 10-year-old son Marquise and four other people were in the home. The local fire department reveals that “the fire is highly suspicious”. The Fire Chief of the Dix Hills Fire Department told TMZ that they have dogs searching the burned rumble looking for the evidence. A video surfaced showing the rapper and his ex Shaniqua Tompkins arguing on a Manhattan street caught by TMZ not too long ago. I know 50 cent may not be the easiest person to get along with, but do you think that he would take an argument this far?

“Suge” Marion Knight and Dr. Dre co-founders of Death Row Records, has been forced to go on auction due to Knight filing bankruptcy back in 2006. Judge Vincent P. Zurzolo has ordered Suge to place Death Row Records on auction on June 24, 2008 at a starting bid of $24 million dollars.The label which was founded in 1991 has reportedly since made an estimated $750 million in revenue releasing products from artists such as Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tha Dogg Pound (Kurupt and Daz Dillinger).

Rapper T.I. is turning his legal problems into an 8 episode reality show that will appear on MTV. This show will educate his peers on the consequences of his mistakes. T.I. will be shown completing many of his 1,000 hours of community service leading up to his prison sentence. The show will start shooting this summer. T.I. will begin his sentence (gun charges) in early 2009, the show will begin airing after that.

As Memorial Day passed, we’ve seen a climb in gas prices dramatically. We all feel that the gas companies are getting a little out of hand with these types of demands. It is predicted that gas may reach a record high of $5 a gallon by the end of the summer. With our economy plummeting, and jobs running scarce, this is seen as low blow to the public’s pockets.

“WASHINGTON (CAP) - Top executives from five major oil companies testified before Congress last week about the continued rise in gasoline prices. They told Congressional leaders that high prices at the gas pump are the result of the high price of gas.” Stephen Simon, executive vice president of Exxon Mobil Corp stated, “Of course we’re making astronomical profit, but it’s evident by the fortune we’re spending at the gas pumps.”

After so much controversy over the original album title for Nas’ upcoming albums (N*****), he officially made the decision to drop the title, on May 19, 2008. Nas received a lot of negative criticism from many including; fans, celebrities, leaders, and retailers (who were very hesitant to have the album in their stores). Rev. Al Sharpton was one of many people who were excited about the decision Nas made. He was also very thankful to the National Action Network’s ( NAN ) Decency Initiative group, which was one of several groups that put the pressure on Nas to change the album title. With this decision, Nas will probably receive a lot of criticism for letting the pressure help make the decision on changing the title. It’s almost a lose – lose situation for him, but maybe the benefits of changing the title outweighed the costs. As of now, Nas has decided to keep the album untitled.

LL Cool J is expected to release his first ever mixtape with DJ Kay Slay in a couple of weeks. Its obvious that he is trying to worm up for his next album “The Return Of The Goat”. On MTV last Friday Kay Slay made it very clear that Busta Rhymes and more are expected to be on the mix tape.

The sneaker documentary everyone should check out.

Rapper T.I. and his girlfriend Tameka “Tiny” Cottle welcome their second son into the world early Friday morning (May 16). He weighed in at 5 lbs., and 15 oz.. “God has blessed us with another miracle,” T.I. said. It’s the couple’s second child. They have a three-year-old son named King.

Atlanta rapper Ludacris recently returned to his old high school where he saw a mural painted in his likeness, in which he was very grateful. He stated the he always wanted a street named after him, but this was better.

He also participate in a crusade against violence, at his high school (where he graduated in 1996). He spoke in a ceremony on Monday (May 12) that honored a project by students who stuffed a box with more than 1,000 anonymous letters on the topics of gang violence and rape into a black coffin in early February.

Does color really matter? A man by the name of Joshua Packwood wouldn’t think so, but in this case, it makes history. Joshua is the first white valedictorian in Moorehouse history. He could have gone elsewhere, to a school like Columbia, Stanford or Yale, but his four-year journey through Morehouse has taught him a few things that they could not, and he makes it clear that he has no regrets.

Rapper LiL’ Wayne is set to star in the movie titled “Patriots” coming out November 2008. Patriots will also star actor Forest Whitaker and rapper Bow Wow. The movie will be based on a true story about a New Orleans high school basketball team, whose players attended five different schools. The reason the players ended up on the same team was that after Hurricane Katrina hit, they all had to go to the same school. After the players end up together, they make it to the state championship game. LiL’ Wayne will play the character of one of the ball players, named Lamont. Let’s see if the movie makes as much success as his current single “Lollipop”, which is currently No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100!

Mariah Carey has a new film out, and recently married Nick Cannon just over a week ago, but she’s planning for the future pretty quickly. 39-year-old Carey is already planning to start a family with her 27-year-old hubby, she tells the New York Daily News. The shotgun wedding was also surprising to Nick, who said he was at a loss for words when it was time to say “I do.”

Being a DJ is a career for many, but what can