Rapper Rick Ross, Studio Gangsta

By Jayar Jackson

Drug kingpin turned rapper Rick Ross is taking some serious heat for his “shaky” past. No, the police are not after him for “making a couple million dollars last year dealin weight.”

They’re not even looking into the hundred favors that “the real Noriega” owes Ross. Rick Ross, aka William Roberts is under fire from hip hop fans that are upset or laughing that his connection to drug kingpins was only while locking them up.

After pictures of a young, clean shaven Ross surfaced last week of him shaking hands as a newly crowned corrections officer, many hip hop fans were in disbelief that this virtual Tony Montana lied to them. “The Boss” proceeded to vehemently deny the accusations, saying that the picture was photoshopped by haters trying to bring him down from the top of the game.

“If this s**t was real don't you think they would have more specifics, like dates and everything? Fake pictures are created by the fake, meant to entertain the fake.”

Mr. Roberts failed to remember what many of our politicians let slip their minds: we keep records of everything; we videotape and take pictures of everything else. So, with his desperate denials out there, the Smoking Gun produced the specifics he was asking for. The dates, salary, and length of time he worked for Florida’s Department of Corrections. Whoops!

Now, let’s keep it gangsta. (I won’t say that anymore.) Does it really matter that William Leonard Roberts was a 19 year old corrections officer for 18 months back in ’95? Does it matter that he talks about knowing the real Noriega? Actually, if you ever really believed that this performer that graced stages and recorded albums was stupid enough to be out on the streets “pushin weight” for a couple million dollars last year, then you should be upset with yourself. Maybe he was talking about pushing your weight to the record store to buy his “street life” music you envied him for.

Hip hop started as a way for the artists to talk about their lives and where they come from. Sometimes the stories spoke of the horrors of the streets, drugs, and crime. This used to educate the people that didn’t live that life about the things that happened outside of their little bubble. Somehow, this ugly street life that no one desires to live turned into a desirable goal by the kids that never lived it. Somewhere along the way, these kids changed their dreams from wanting to go to pharmacy school to just being a street pharmacist. Since some real “Gs” made fame and fortune rapping about their past, everyone else saw the benefits of gangsta rap. If you didn’t live it, just make it up!


We’re so wrapped up in the soap opera that many performers write for us, we’ve been missing how ridiculous the storyline has gotten. Now that one of the script writers has been exposed as a legitimate, law abiding citizen, some are upset?? Trust me, Hulk Hogan didn’t actually get stronger every time The Ultimate Warrior hit him with the chair at Wrestlemania. And what’s so wrong with never being locked up, never getting shot 5 times, and never helping turn your neighborhood into a war zone?

We need to make up our minds about hip hop and our community. One minute, we blame the rappers for writing misogynistic, profanity-laden lyrics about selling drugs and shooting people. We want them to stop glorifying a murderous street life and stop setting negative examples for our kids. Then we call them suckers when it’s discovered that they’re married to their high school sweetheart that they lost their virginity to, they have 2 kids that live in the suburbs, and every time little Ricky swears, he has to put his allowance in the Swear Jar.

Gay Subculture In Black Hollywood??? NAH!

Okay, so here’s the synopsis:

Everyone wants to know the truth about their favorite celebrities’ heart’s desire. Within the masculine culture of Hip Hop and Hollywood, there is a well-known gay subculture that industry insiders are keenly aware of but choose to hide.

It gets better under the hood.

Terrance Dean worked his way up for more than ten years in the entertainment industry from intern to executive, and has lived the life of glitz and bling along with Hollywood and Hip Hop’s most glamorous. With a family full of secrets and working in an industry founded on maleness — where one’s job, friendships, and reputation all depend on remaining on the down low and in hiding — Dean writes a revealing account of the journey of coming out from hiding.

Full of startling anecdotes and incredible true stories, Hiding in Hip Hop is not a traditional tell-all. A personal and poignant memoir, it is also one of the most provocative and honest looks at stardom and sexuality."

The book drops May 13th.

Source

Folks Who Get It: Black Breakdancer Wayne Frost Had All The Moves Back In The Day!

Now Frosty Is Doing His Thing For The Big Man

Wayne Frost, whose acrobatic breakdancing performance with the legendary Rock Steady Crew in the insanely popular 1983 hit movie "Flashdance" set off a worldwide dance phenonmena, has died. He was 44.

The hip-hop pioneer known as "Frosty Freeze" died Thursday after a long illness, said Jorge "Fabel" Pabon, a senior vice president of the crew where Frost and other so-called b-boys (for beat or break boys) made their name performing complicated and daring dance routines.

Breakdancing emerged and florished from the Bronx and Harlem in the early 1970s, part of celebrated African American culture that spread across the globe and remains a stable in the influences of today's artists irrespective of race. It included old-school hip-hop, MCing or rapping, and disc jockeys crazy scratching and mixing vinyls on two turntables. If you've been feeling MTV's America's Best Dance Crew, you know what I'm talking about!

Frost was known for his energetic style, intricate choreography and fearless moves including back flips and head spins. One was even dubbed the "Suicide."

Frost got his start in 1978 with the Bronx-based Rock City Crew. In 1981, he became part of the Rock Steady Crew, joining such acclaimed breakdancers as Ken Swift and Lil Crazy Legs.

Frost toured the world with the Rock Steady Crew and other hip-hop artists, including Fab 5 Freddy, Futura 2000 and Kool Lady Blue.

As a member of the Rock Steady Crew, Frost also appeared in several movies on hip-hop culture, including "Wild Style," "Beat Street" and "Style Wars." He also appeared on the cover of the Village Voice in 1981.

You've been promoted Black man. Job well done!

Turns Out Diddy's Involvement In Tupac's Murder Was A Big Phat Lie!

White Prison Inmate James Sabatino
Dupes L.A. Times

News reports last week claiming that the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur in the lobby of a Manhattan recording studio was carried out by associates of Sean "Diddy" Combs and that the rap impresario knew of the plot beforehand was based largely on fabricated FBI reports.

Per The Smoking Gun, it appears the Los Angeles Times has been hoaxed by an imprisoned White con man and accomplished document forger, an audacious swindler who has created a fantasy world in which he managed hip-hop luminaries, conducted business with Combs, Shakur, Busta Rhymes, and The Notorious B.I.G., and even served as Combs's trusted emissary to Death Row Records boss Marion "Suge" Knight during the outset of hostilities in the bloody East Coast-West Coast rap feud.

James Sabatino, 31, has long sought to insinuate himself, after the fact, in a series of important hip-hop events, from Shakur's shooting to the murder of The Notorious B.I.G.. In fact, however, this cat was little more than a rap devotee, a wildly impulsive, overweight kid from Florida.

The Times relied on "FBI records recently obtained by The Times" and interviews with several unnamed sources in its reexamination of the November 30, 1994 shooting of Shakur at Quad Studios near Times Square. Included in the paper's online package was a PDF of two key FBI interview reports cited in the 2800-word story, which was six months in the making and written by veteran reporter Chuck Philips, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for his coverage of corruption in the entertainment industry.

In addition to the documents posted on the Times site, a third purported FBI interview report was included by Sabatino in court papers he filed four months ago in U.S. District Court in Miami. In that civil case, Sabatino is suing Combs for $16 million over an alleged soured business deal from nearly a decade ago. According to Sabatino's complaint, which he prepared and filed himself from the Allenwood federal penitentiary in White Deer, Pennsylvania, Combs stiffed him on a $175,000 payment for audio and video recordings Sabatino made in 1994 of The Notorious B.I.G. (real name: Christopher Wallace).

But those FBI reports, dubbed "302s" due to the numbered government form on which they are prepared, are nowhere to be found in the bureau's computerized Automated Case Support database, TSG has learned. The ACS system allows investigators to search various bureau indices to determine whether particular individuals, groups, or topics have been referred to in FBI "302" reports or various other bureau documents.

The suspect documents contain information supposedly provided to agents in the FBI's New York office by an unnamed "confidential source." The records, which Sabatino himself has distributed, conveniently contain black redaction marks covering up the name of the agent (or agents) who prepared the "302s" as well as the corresponding FBI case number. However, since the documents are filled with the names of individuals and corporations, they can be tracked within the FBI system by working backwards (by subjects as opposed to case number or agent name).

And while Sabatino claims to have been provided the FBI reports during the discovery phase of a 2002 criminal case, a federal law enforcement official involved in that successful prosecution told TSG that the probe was headed by Secret Service representatives and that the FBI had no role whatsoever in the case. The official added that, at the time, investigators "had no inkling" of Sabatino's supposed role in the rap music world and never saw investigative reports detailing his purported involvement with hip-hop's leading figures or its assorted bloody disputes.

Additionally, an examination of the three documents revealed that the bodies of the respective "302s" were actually created on a typewriter (the "frame" of the reports is consistent with an authentic "302" template). In some instances, you can see where one letter was typed on top of an existing character, a so-called overstrike. In an interview, Bruce Mouw, a former FBI supervisor who headed the bureau's pursuit of John Gotti, estimated that agents ceased using typewriters about 30 years ago.

Most telling, though, are the obvious similarities (type size, font, line spacing, individual character renderings) between the purported "302s" and certain court filings created by Sabatino while he has been incarcerated at Allenwood (he was transferred last May from a Florida prison to the high-security penitentiary in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains). As with all other Bureau of Prisons (BoP) facilities, Allenwood provides inmates with access to photocopying machines, office supplies, and typewriters, according to the BoP's 2008 Legal Resource Guide. Inmates, the guide states, are "permitted a reasonable amount of time...to conduct their own legal research and to prepare legal documents."

A comparison of the "302s" and Sabatino's own court filings shows that the authors of each set of documents share remarkably similar spelling deficiencies. For instance, the word "making" appears as "makeing" in both the "302s" and Sabatino's pro se court pleadings. Similarly, the authors also have difficulty with the word "during." It appears as "durring" in both sets of documents.

After a reporter provided Philips and Marc Duvoisin, the deputy managing editor who edited the Times story, an account of TSG's findings, Duvoisin said that the newspaper would launch its own investigation to determine if the FBI documents cited in its story are real.

The first mention of the existence of the purported "302s" came in filings Sabatino made late last year in a civil lawsuit against Combs. According to the convict, he received the explosive "302s" during "discovery, trial, and other proceedings" in a federal fraud prosecution brought against him in New York in August 2002. That case, though, never went to trial. Sabatino pleaded guilty to two felonies in August 2003 and was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison.

While he described the contents of four separate "302s" in his court papers, Sabatino attached only two of those reports to a November court motion. One of those documents was posted on the Times web site, along with another report that was referred to in Sabatino's filings, but not included as an exhibit. So, between Sabatino and the Times, three of the four purported FBI reports have been made public (those documents can be found here, here, and here). Details from the fourth supposed "302," dated July 1, 2002, are included in recent Sabatino court filings.

Notably, the convicted felon publicly filed the two "confidential" FBI records as exhibits to a motion seeking a court order barring Combs from distributing the documents to journalists. The bizarre motion surfaced six weeks after Sabatino filed his original October 4 complaint, which made no mention of "302s," Shakur, or any confidential FBI source. But that document does contain some of Sabatino's traditional flights from reality.

Along with claiming that he had been promised a "creative consultant" credit on Wallace's posthumous album "Born Again," Sabatino charged that Combs had delayed paying off his outstanding $175,000 debt because, in late-1998, "it was reported that the Los Angeles police had named [Sabatino] a 'person of interest' in the murder of Christopher Wallace," according to a December 6 court filing.

Of course, no news reports back this claim.

And then there's the small matter of Sabatino's whereabouts on March 9, 1997, when Wallace was gunned down while seated in a GMC Suburban outside the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. While he enjoys repeating the "theory" that he mysteriously bailed on a planned meeting with the rapper that fateful night, Sabatino was actually 2400 miles away from the crime scene. He was imprisoned in Miami's Federal Detention Center, where he still had six months to serve on a two-year sentence for separate felony convictions.

It is not Bureau of Prisons policy to allow cross-country furloughs. Even to attend the Soul Train Music Awards.

In his lawsuit against Combs, Sabatino denied prior knowledge of the plot to ambush Shakur, but added that he "does not contest that he was present at Quad Studios" on the night of the shooting. However, in the reams of copy about the 1994 attack, Sabatino's name has never appeared anywhere. The first time a publication linked him to the Shakur ambush came last week in the Times, thanks to one of the FBI "302s" obtained by the country's fourth-largest newspaper.

The New York Police Department probe of the Quad Studios incident was headed by Detective Joseph Babnik, who worked robbery cases out of the Midtown North precinct. In an interview, Babnik, now retired, told TSG that Sabatino's name "does not ring a bell" and that he could not recall anyone with that surname being connected to the Shakur case. Asked if he would have recalled a rotund white teenager being present at Quad Studios that night, Babnik said yes, adding that the only white witnesses he recalled interviewing were employed in technical capacities at the recording studio.

Shakur, who never hesitated to point fingers at those he suspected of setting up the Quad Studios shooting, never once mentioned Sabatino's supposed role in the attack.

In a three-page "302" dated December 30, 2002, the FBI's supposed confidential source reported first meeting Shakur through Sabatino in late-1993. Sabatino, born October 24, 1976, would have been 16 or 17 at the time of the Shakur introduction. The source went on to report that in February 1994, the 17-year-old Sabatino was rebuffed by Shakur when the teenager spoke to the performer about a "business offer." In short order, Sabatino and an associate devised a plan to "set up" the disrespectful Shakur, whom they decided needed to be "dealt with."

The "302" purportedly describing the behind-the-scenes machinations leading up to Shakur's assault also includes a narrative flourish that somehow escaped prior investigative or journalistic excavation. As has been widely reported, after Shakur was shot in the lobby of the Seventh Avenue building, he stumbled into an elevator and headed upstairs. When the elevator doors opened on a floor where members of the Combs entourage were milling about, a bleeding Shakur exited. Sabatino, the FBI source claimed, responded by yelling, "Get that piece of shit out of here!" Though the agent who authored the report (you know, the one whose name was conveniently redacted) actually spelled the third word in that sentence "peice."

Coincidentally, an examination of Sabatino's court filings shows that he, too, has a pronounced difficulty spelling words with the i-e and e-i couplings. He and the unnamed FBI agent apparently never memorized the old "i before e except after c" mnemonic device.

Court records show that the teenage Sabatino was living with his father in Boynton Beach, Florida around the time of the November 1994 Shakur shooting. In fact, a 1999 profile ("Con Kid") of Sabatino in Miami New Times opens with a scene from early-November 1994 in Florida. Sabatino, then 18, is masquerading as a Sony Music executive and palling around backstage with Julio Iglesias at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

Another "302," which Sabatino included as a motion exhibit in his Combs lawsuit, quotes the FBI's confidential source as saying that they met Combs through Sabatino in late-1991. At the time, Sabatino would have been only 14 or 15. Amazingly, such precociousness on his part went unremarked upon (or unnoticed) by the entertainment press. And to think, just years earlier, music journalists were falling all over themselves to chronicle how Rick Rubin, a relative graybeard at 21, was co-founding Def Jam from his room at NYU's Weinstein dormitory.

In fact, according to a suspect December 30, 2002 FBI report, the confidential source said that Combs even enlisted Sabatino, 18 at the time, to serve as his envoy to "broker a 'peace agreement'" between Combs's firm, Bad Boy Entertainment, and Suge Knight's Death Row Records. Sabatino, apparently the James Baker of b-boys, was sent West because, the FBI source noted, Combs felt he "would hold a little influence over Knight due to Sabatino's father, Peter Sabatino, a/k/a Fat Pete, a member of the Colombo crime family and his relationship with a individual in Las Vegas (NFI)."

After meeting with Knight in California, Sabatino reportedly told the source that the "situation" was resolved, apparently due to the teenager's efforts. But when problems resurfaced later, "the source stated that Sabatino told him that it was all Combs fault and that Combs did not do what he said he would." Here, the negligent FBI agent authoring the report made the mistake of identifying the confidential source's gender through the careless use of the pronoun "him," thus narrowing the field of informant possibilities by half.

While hip-hop chroniclers have never recorded Sabatino's 1995 shuttle diplomacy on Combs's behalf, The New York Times Magazine did report in January 1996 that Combs sent Mustafa Farrakhan to speak with Knight (who refused to meet with the Bad Boy agent). Perhaps Death Row's boss just preferred negotiating with a 5' 5", 220-pound Italian-American kid rather than Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan's son.

The Times reported that Sabatino told Combs and Wallace beforehand about the plot to ambush Shakur at Quad Studios, and that talent manager Jimmy Rosemond, working with Sabatino, was an architect of the assault. Shakur was shot several times during the 1994 attack and was robbed of his jewelry, which reportedly included a $40,000 gold medallion. After the Times story was published, Combs and Rosemond issued statements attacking the paper's reporting and vehemently denied orchestrating the attack on Shakur or knowing about it ahead of time.

It appears that the real purpose of the suspect "302s" is to portray Sabatino as a feared hip-hop figure who muscled and conned rappers into deals. The entertainers were drawn to him "because he is a member of La Cosa Nostra" and such Mafia ties were "glamorized in the Hip Hop world," reported the confidential source. The documents Sabatino supposedly did not want disseminated--but which he himself filed publicly--conferred upon him the kind of rap world status that he has long coveted.

Sabatino has frequently claimed to have managed a number of leading hip-hop acts, including Notorious B.I.G., Lords of the Underground, and Heavy D and the Boyz. Du Kelly, a member of Lords of the Underground, described Sabatino as a "scam artist" who briefly tried to befriend the group's manager. Kelly said that he recalled Sabatino as a "short, Caucasian, little chubby fat guy" whose "father was supposed to be Mafia or something." Sabatino was "just a con artist who tried to get close to artists, but he was a nobody," said Kelly. He added that Sabatino also tried to get near the Wu-Tang Clan, "but I heard they beat him up."

Sabatino's convoluted and bizarre motion to gag Combs, of course, was immediately denied. Judge Stephen T. Brown ruled that the federal inmate's request was moot since the "allegedly confidential documents...are attached to this motion as exhibits." While the prodigious jailhouse litigant surely expected this defeat, he succeeded in drawing attention to the Combs lawsuit, the "302s," and, of course, himself.

But unlike Sabatino's own prior outlandish and unsupported claims about his entertainment industry resume (he once said he regularly consulted with music industry legend Clive Davis and even co-produced Combs's 1997 album "No Way Out"), the information about him in the "302s" came with the shiny imprimatur of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its valuable confidential source, who, the documents noted, "is in a position to testify."

And now The Los Angeles Times has added to the myth, describing "promoter James Sabatino" as a Tupac Shakur antagonist who toured with The Notorious B.I.G. and "became a fixture in Combs's circle...helping him stage lavish parties and land corporate sponsorships."

While Sabatino's "302" gambit might seem inexplicable, especially for someone already in prison (he has a November 2012 release date), it appears fairly typical for a man who has spent most of his adult life behind bars and appears to have little impulse control.

The bizarre story continues...

The Shrinking Dollar Is Changing the Face of Hip-Hop And Black Folks Use To Getting Paid!

Nas Was Right: Hip Hop IS Dead!

UNTIL a few weeks ago it seemed like one of the few happy stories to emerge from an otherwise difficult year in hip-hop. UGK, the Port Arthur, Tex., duo that influenced a generation of Southern rappers, returned after a five-year hiatus. They came back bearing a sublime single, “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You).” And they came back bearing a great double album, “Underground Kingz”, which made its debut atop Billboard’s album chart.

Then, on Dec. 4, the news arrived: Pimp C — the duo’s flamboyant half, a slick drawler and an even slicker producer — had been found dead.

His bereaved musical partner, Bun B, gave a handful of eloquent interviews, trying to explain what he had lost, what fans had lost. “I appreciate the concern,” he told Vibe. “But I wouldn’t ask anyone to stop their life, because Pimp would’ve wanted us all to keep grinding.”

If you’re looking for a two-word motto for hip-hop in 2007, you could do worse than that: “Keep grinding.” This was the year when the gleaming hip-hop machine — the one that minted a long string of big-name stars, from Snoop Dogg to OutKast — finally broke down, leaving rappers no alternative but to work harder, and for fewer rewards. Newcomers arrived with big singles and bigger hopes, only to fall off the charts after selling a few hundred thousand copies, if that. Hip-pop hybrids dominated the radio, but rappers themselves seemed like underground figures, for the first time in nearly two decades.

Sales are down all over, but hip-hop has been hit particularly hard. Rap sales fell 21 percent from 2005 to 2006, and that trend is continuing to go south. The story continues...

"Nigger" Hits the Streets in December: Are You Really Trying To Rush Rapper Nas' Upcoming Album?

Don't Hate On This Brother Just Yet, He Just Might Surprise You

By Jayar Jackson

Hip Hop superstar, and respected lyricist Nas has quite a bit of steam behind the December 11th release of his new album “Nigger.” Fox reported that a source close to Def Jam chairman Antonio “LA” Reid said Nas wouldn’t be releasing an album this year, and it definitely wouldn’t be called “Nigger.”

Contrary to the always honest reporting of Fox News, Reid boldly stated that “We stand firmly behind and beside our artists with pride and with pleasure. Anything Nas wants to do, I completely stand beside him. Nas is prolific, he's prophetic, he's a genius, an amazing artist of respect. So, while I'm not sure exactly all that [the title] entails, I know it's smart, so I stand behind him. That's real.” Support for Nas’ controversial title included fellow well respected artists Common and Method Man.

Now before the detractors’ heads explode, and vow to never buy their another Nas, Def Jam, Common, or Method Man record ever again for the first time, let’s remember who we’re talking about and what he’s saying. Nas is the artist that has always brought some kind of meaning and purpose to most of his lyrics, somehow finding a way to still speak to hardcore hip hop fans that have been hypnotized enough to accept hip hop as a mindless genre, talking about hos, rims, shooting, and money. When many artists speak positive messages, they’re written off as corny, but his single, “I Can” still came across.

“I'm a street disciple,” Nas explained. “I'm talking to the streets. Stay out of our business. You ain't got no business worrying about what the word 'nigger' is or acting like you know what my album is about without talking to me.” For all the critics that look to jump to conclusions about how he’s trying to degrade his race and continue to bring the conversation down to calling himself and his brothers niggers, a good place to start is by asking, “What does the album “Nigger” mean?” When respected poets utilize the word to make a point, they are primarily seen as deep and thoughtful. Just because Nas curses and has done collaborations with the likes of Diddy, Ginuwine, and Timbaland, his perceived thoughtfulness that he’s always brought to his albums is quickly forgotten, all over this word.

Are these blind critics assuming that Nas can’t carry a conversation about the words and inspiration that went into this title? Maybe they think he was falling asleep from all the weed those rap guys smoke all the time and when asked what the title should be, he said, “Aw…Nigger.” To be this ignorant is accepting and owning the term that too many hateful people harbor, thinking that this word can get the mildest mannered Black man to snap upon overhearing it. Maybe he’s trying to diffuse the “power” that many racists believe it has over us, which some of us continue to mentally bow down to. Perhaps he’s sick of an entire country afraid of saying, hearing, or writing the word without a couple of asterisks and squiggle lines to censor it. Or what if he just like the way it rolls off of his tongue?

What does Nas mean by the title on this new album? Until we stop haphazardly labeling him a nigger by refusing to ask the question, and instead choosing to ignore it until it miraculously disappears, we’ll miss his point and keep ours bottled up as well. Now remind me again, what would that accomplished?

Mogul Russell Simmons Believes That All Online Web Traffic Will Come To A Halt When Hip Hop Gets In On The Action

Hip-Hopping the Digital Divide With Russell
Arica Sees Benefits of Fast Economic Growth
Study: Black Pessimism at 20-Year High
Future Black CEOs Need Training
NY Teen with Hairbrush Shot by Police
From Sharecropper to Ivy League President
Girl Allowed to Return to School After Hair Flap
Rev. Jackson: Britain's Black Community is Still Enslaved
Hundreds of Buses to Converge on Justice Department
Just Between Us Girls: Nia, Sanaa and Gabrielle

African Americans And The Whole Halloween Thing: Are Black Children Less Likely To Trick Or Treat?

New Poll: Do Minorities Allow Their Kids To "Do Halloween?"

School Cop Fired Over 'Ghetto Handbook'

Eric Michael Dyson Feels that Hip-Hop Is 'Under Assault'

Farrakhan Says T.I. Set Up in Upcoming Speech

Michelle Obama Revels in Family Role
NAACP Demands Apology from Overstock.com Founder

Black Fraternities and Sororities: The Need to Haze

Heavy Fighting Shakes Somali Capital
Black Coaches Look to Break CFB Coaching Barrier
Slave Girl's Bravery Remembered
Affordable Caribbean: Barbados
Breakfast with the Real 'American Gangster'

White Supremacy Group Plans Jena Rally on MLK Day

Katt Williams Host Second Annual BET Hip Hop Awards 2007 Premiering Wednesday, October 17

"Game On!" As another group of volatile performers try to squeeze their over inflated egos into a small theater, to get praise and accolades for things they are already paid millions to do.

This event will be decidedly Black, but from the "goings on" at the Video Music Awards earlier this year, we now know front'n, cuss'n, fight'n and generally acting a fool is no longer limited to Black Performers. (Have Tommy Lee and Kid Rock made friends yet?)

So if celebs "mixing it up" is your thing and you are "ready to rumble" here are the performers so far who have RSVP'd and might show up on your fight score card that night.

ALL NEW: PICTURES FROM THE AWARDS

T.I. and Soulja Boy join previously announced performers Nelly, Lil' Wayne, Kanye West and Common, Wyclef Jean, Keyshia Cole, Cassidy, Dizzee Rascal, DJ Premiere, Joell Ortiz, Kardinal Offishall, Lil' Mama, Phonte, Ras Kass and Status Quo will make appearances at the event, which will tape at Atlanta's Civic Center on Saturday, October 13 and air on BET on Wednesday, October 17 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

This year's show will include an appearance by Soulja Boy, one of hip hop's up-and-coming stars, performing his #1 hit, "Crank Dat."
As part of his performance, Soulja Boy is inviting viewers to showcase their moves by submitting video renditions of themselves doing the "Crank Dat" dance. Lucky fans will have those videos aired at this year's BET HIP HOP AWARDS 2007 via a video wall to serve as the backdrop during Soulja Boy's performance. Fans can visit www.bet.com/contests for more information, and all entries must be submitted by Sunday, October 7.

ATL native T.I. leads the BET HIP HOP AWARDS 2007 nominees with nine nods, Lil' Wayne with seven, Kanye West with six, Common with five, Jay-Z with four, Ludacris and 50 Cent with three, and Diddy and UGK with two. Also, the legendary hip-hop artist KRS-One, known for his political and socially conscious raps, will be honored with the "I Am Hip Hop" Icon Award.

Last year's inaugural BET HIP HOP AWARDS 2006 drew an impressive 2.93 rating, which translated into 3.64 million viewers (2.44 million households) according to Nielsen Media Research. The show featured massive hip-hop stars Diddy, Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg, Nelly, Chamillionaire, Yung Joc, Keyshia Cole, Remy Ma, Rick Ross and the dirty south's own Jermaine Dupri, Ludacris, T.I. and Young Jeezy, among others. Additionally, it honored one of the hip-hop world's pioneering figures, Grandmaster Flash, with the "I Am Hip Hop" Icon Award.

THE BET HIP HOP AWARDS 2007 is sponsored by General Motors and Alltel Wireless.

For more info:

It's Sunday Morning, And Barack Obama Doesn't Have A Prayer Without Your Support

Obama's Plan to Restore New Orleans

Networks Plan Katrina Anniversary Coverage

1st African American Kentucky High-Court Justice

Obama attends church service in NOLA

Speaking to Sunday church congregants in New Orleans, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama invoked Jesus' Sermon on the Mount days before the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Barack Co-signs On Republicans He Likes

Atlanta Declares War on Hip-Hop-Style Trousers

First Black Woman to Lead a GM Plant
Video: Soul Legend Mavis Staples

Barack Obama Criticizes Cuban Policy

Diddy Boosts Burger King's Bottom Line

Kanye West Trumpets Education in TV Spot
Spelman, Women’s Soccer Pushes Beyond Expectation

WHITE BROADWAY SENSATION GWEN VERDON GETS HER FREAK ON - COURTESY OF UNK'S "WALK IT OUT!"

Hat-tip to Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious
and Undercover Black Man

JAY-Z EVEN HAS CHARLIE BROWN & SNOOPY BIG PIMPIN'

PARENTAL WARNING (not suitable for kids!)

Just another example of the far-reaching influence of hip-hop.

No wonder Don Imus may be coming back!

EVERYONE'S FAIR GAME POST IMUS: RIGHT AKON???

Folks have been blogging about this for a minute. While YouTube disabled the video of Singer Akon gettin' his freak on, you can still see it here.


VERIZON KICKS AKON TO THE CURB BECAUSE OF THIS TEEN GIRL - READ HERE




DON IMUS HAD TO GET SMACKED - PERIOD!!!
Now, What's Good For The Goose.....

I LOVE NEW YORK, AND I AIN'T TALKN' 'BOUT THE CITY

Start spreading the news.
I'm leaving today.
I'll make a brand new start of it ...

In old New York ...

no fool not the city!!

I'm talkn' 'bout ghetto fabulous, sassy from the lip, get out cha' kung fu booty grip, Flava Flav's leftovers, all you single mugs move ova', star of her own reality show on VH1, Miss New York, is back on the market.

Thats' right she's single and available again. Last we tuned in to her reality show, she picked some ug mug named Tango to be her man. Well, don't send a boy to do a mans job. Tango has been kicked to the curb.

And New York has started the casting call for a new crop of contendas' and pretendas' who wanna' get wit her. I LOVE NEW YORK " 2" on VH1 is starting production. New York is having a casting call and accepting tapes from all you contendas' and pretnedas who wanna' get wit' her. Send your tapes to ilovenewyork2.com. If you can make it there, you can make it ... (oh you know the rest)