XXL Reports
Jay-Z has confirmed his hopes to release a series of books, with one book describing the meaning behind some of his most disputed songs on track to hit shelves first.
During an interview on Atlanta radio station V-103, Jay told radio personality Ryan Cameron all about his literary plans. “Well it’s not done, the other two books, it hasn’t kicked in yet, I haven’t signed that deal,” he said about the rumored three book contract. “But I’ve done a deal to do a book and the name of it is called Decoded. It’s called Decoded because I’m going to decode all the lyrics from my records. I’m gonna pick the select ones, you know all the double entendres and things that people may have missed or may have gotten and want confirmation on it. That’s what the book is about.” [Listen here]
Last week The New York Observer reported that Jay was close to inking a deal with the Spiegel & Grau imprint of Random House for three books: one memoir, one business book and the other one about the meanings behind his lyrics that he revealed to Cameron.
This will be the first book written by Hov, who came close to releasing a memoir back in ’03 with MTV. Titled The Black Book, Jay famously backed out at the last minute due to privacy issues.
As of press time there is no release date for Decoded
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XXL Reports
Since being arrested last month on attempted murder charges, fans have yet to hear from Tru Life. XXLMag.com recently reached out to his attorney to find out how the former Roc La Familia rapper is holding up and to gain more insight into the case.
As previously reported Tru, born Roberto Guzman Rosado, was arrested on second degree murder and gang related charges on June 22, for allegedly fatally stabbing a man and leaving another man in critical condition. Tru’s brother Marcus Rosado, was also picked up for the supposed incident that authorities believe occurred on June 15 in a Midtown Manhattan lobby, as part of an ongoing dispute between both parties.
“At this point [Tru Life’s] still incarcerated and he’s awaiting arraignment in Supreme Court,” Tru’s lawyer, Alan Abramson, told XXL, after declining to answer how his client’s spirits are behind bars.
Although Tru has already entered a not guilty plea, Abramson explained to XXL that the rapper has not officially been charged for the crime. “This is just the initial court appearance so we can find out exactly what he’s being charged with.”
Once charged, Abramson is completely confident that his client will be cleared of any wrongdoing. “He is an extraordinarily talented young artist and we believe that he will be vindicated of any charge they throw against him.”
According to Abramson, Tru is scheduled to appear in Manhattan Supreme Court on July 27.
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XXL Reports
The divorce case between Nas and Kelis continues to get super ugly. Nas claims Kelis over-reported his income by more than two times his actual earnings in their bitter breakup.
According to tmz.com, the Queens rapper claimed in legal documents his album deal earned him $4 million, not the $11 million that Kelis suggests.
“I did not receive even half that amount,” Nas’s papers read.
Kelis says Nas hasn’t provided any child or spousal support since they couple split in April. Meanwhile, Nas claims he’s agreed to drop $350 for a stroller, $450 for a baby sling and $1,598 for two baby cribs.
Kelis, who is pregnant with Nas’s child, unsuccessfully attempted to move the hearing date forward last month, as not to conflict with her impending delivery. The judge was on vacation, so the date remains set for July 21.
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Mike Tyson may or may not be one of the best heavyweights ever, that's debatable. What's not debatable is that he is the funniest man to ever get in a boxing ring.
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New York Daily News Reports
A made-for-tv gun battle erupted outside a Brooklyn baby shower for the wife of a star of the HBO crime series "The Wire" Sunday, killing one teen and wounding two men, cops said.
Gunmen unloaded nearly 50 bullets outside the party for the wife of actor Jamie Hector - who played violent druglord Marlo Stanfield on the hit series - then tried to finish off one of the wounded men outside a hospital.
"What a gun battle," a police source told the Daily News. "They have been watching too much TV."
Police and paramedics raced to E. 93rd St. in East Flatbush about 1:20 a.m.
Cops found evidence of a running gun battle with at least 46 shell casings dotting about half the block beginning at Avenue B.
Two guns were recovered, but no suspects were arrested after the violence that spilled out from the party.
Linton Williams, 17, of Brooklyn, died at the scene.
As the smoke cleared, someone helped 32-year-old Andrew Filson into a car and raced him to Downstate Medical Center.
When the shooting victim got out of the car at the hospital, another vehicle rolled up and someone inside started firing.
Police sources said Filson was hit at least once at the hospital.
Emergency workers put him into an ambulance and rushed him to Kings County Hospital, a trauma center where he was listed in critical condition yesterday.
Walter Parker, 22, was shot in the leg outside the party. He flagged down an ambulance and was taken to Brookdale University Hospital, where he was in stable condition.
Hector, a Brooklyn native who has also starred in TV shows "Heroes," "Jericho" and "The Game," was said to be at the baby shower for some time.
It was unclear whether the actor was still there when the bullets started flying - or why the gunmen targeted the three victims. Hector's spokesman didn't respond to calls for comment.
Margaret Joseph, who lives near where the shooting started, said she had gone to sleep about 1 a.m., but was awakened by the gunshots.
"I jump out of bed and I hear, 'Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop,'" she said.
Another neighbor, who was also in bed when she heard the shots, said, "I was so scared. I rolled out of bed onto the ground to protect myself. Bullets penetrate windows, you know."
Lisa Bruce, 35, who lives on the corner of E. 94th St. and Avenue B, said she was watching a movie at 1:30 a.m. when she heard gunshots "exploding like firecrackers."
She peered out of her window and saw a bloodied victim hiding in the bushes.
"He was shouting, trying to tell somebody that he needed help," she said.
"Then the ambulance came, and the man limped out of the bushes and said, 'I'm shot, I'm shot,' and pointed to his leg."
"Then they took him away," she said.
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New York Post Reports
Boxing champ Arturo Gatti's wife was arrested yesterday by Brazilian cops who suspect she strangled him with her purse strap, as people close to the slain fighter said they had long feared that either "he was going to kill her or she was going to kill him."
Gatti's wife, Amanda Carina Barbosa Rodrigues, 23, was being held yesterday because the Brazilian native can't explain how she didn't realize for nearly 10 hours that he was dead in a beach-resort apartment where they were staying with their 1-year-old son.
She is expected to be charged with his murder. A police spokeswoman told Reuters: "She [Rodrigues] is the only suspect."
Police said they believe that Gatti - who was found dead early Saturday - was strangled with a handbag strap, and that the granite-jawed boxer also suffered a head injury.
The bloody strap was found in the apartment at the Porto de Galinhas resort.
Gatti, 37, reportedly was drunk and arguing with his wife Friday night at a resort bar.
Gatti's friends yesterday were mourning his murder - and were not surprised to hear that Rodrigues might be involved. The former junior-welterweight champ and his wife were extremely jealous and often squabbled when out socially and drinking in New York, Montreal and Brazil, sources told The Post.
From the beginning of their relationship, his friends, family and boxing advisers warned that she was young, immature and gunning for the millions he had earned in the ring, sources said.
One source said that their disputes were sometimes violent and that she did not hesitate to physically attack him. He told people close to him that she threw a lamp at him last month in Montreal, where they moved after living in Weehawken, NJ.
"The feeling was that either he was going to kill her or she was going to kill him," the source said.
Gatti's family, who sources said were not the least bit shocked by Rodrigues' arrest, learned of the murder while attending his sister Anna's wedding in Florida.
"A lot of people in his inner circle felt that this wasn't the right girl for him," said Carl Moretti, VP of the boxing promotional company Top Rank Inc.
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New York Post Reports
City jail officials are investigating a rap concert at Rikers Island -- approved by a hip-hop-loving warden -- that triggered months of bloody gang violence there, The Post has learned.
Correction officials are looking into why supervisors -- including jail warden and fan Emmanuel Bailey -- allowed Brooklyn rapper Papoose to do a nearly two-hour show at the lockup on May 30, 2006, sources said.
There were eight slashings and stabbings at the George Motchan Detention Center in the months after the show, when Papoose's jailed rival ordered attacks on the rapper's imprisoned pals.
Papoose, 30, whose real name is Shamele Mackie, has a longstanding feud with Dough Boy, 28, an ex-Bloods gang leader whose real name is Miguel Jeffrey.
The two had worked together but had a falling out after Dough Boy accused Papoose of marginalizing him in the studio. He told The Post he retaliated by shooting at the rapper's entourage and stealing a $40,000 gold chain from a Papoose relative.
The Rikers concert "was like throwing a match on gasoline -- boom!" Dough Boy said in a jailhouse interview.
Fueled by the mayhem, the 2,978-inmate GMDC racked up 13 assaults for the year -- the most among all 14 city jails.
Many of the clashes at the jail, mostly filled with "low-risk" inmates, involved Bloods members, records indicate.
Bailey had discussed a possible concert after he noticed Papoose at Rikers visiting an imprisoned pal, Pooh Nitty, a jail insider said.
The warden approached Nitty, a rapper whose real name is Devendra Singh and who is doing time on weapons charges, and said, "Papoose is my favorite rapper. Can you get him to come do a show for us?" according to the insider.
Following the concert, Bailey invited Papoose and his band into his office and had photos taken of him with the performers, the source said.
Bailey is a rap fan who hangs out with people in the music business, said a Correction colleague.
Bailey, who makes $157,146 a year, was "reprimanded" at the time for failing to get the required approvals for the concert, said department spokesman Stephen Morello.
"A procedural step may have been missed," Morello said. "That doesn't mean the handling of this event involved venality, corruption or a lack of competence."
The Papoose concert spurred loud gang chants, jail sources said.
"I heard he gave a shout-out to me at the end," said Dough Boy, who had been barred from the show by jail officials aware of their feud.
In response to the onstage taunt, Dough Boy said he instructed his friends to "get at 'em."
That meant attack, Dough Boy said in at upstate Great Meadow prison, where he's serving 12 years for armed robbery and assault.
Morello said the department hosts sports and entertainment figures to speak or perform at jails.
"Inmate idleness is a factor in inmate violence," he explained
Papoose married rapper Remy Ma, who was convicted of shooting a female friend. Their Rikers wedding ceremony was canceled in 2008 after Papoose allegedly tried to slip her a handcuff key.
Sources said Correction's chief of department, Carolyn Thomas, initially ignored calls to investigate the concert and the violence, despite receiving reports of an increase in slashings.
The Post also reported that she did nothing to stop a lavish bar mitzvah party held at a lower-Manhattan jail for an inmate's son, and that she showed favoritism to jailed celebs, including rap star Foxy Brown.
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L. to R.: Paris Jackson, Katherine Jackson, Prince Michael Jackson II, Prince Michael Jackson, Joe Jackson attend Michael Jackson's Public Memorial Service held at Staples Center on July 7, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.
Time Reports
While his role as the driving force in the Jackson family success has never been in question, father Joe Jackson's parenting — especially with Michael — has long been a subject of scrutiny and controversy. So it's all the more surprising that the driven patriarch is now working to forge a larger role for himself in the lives of Michael's three children.
In a partial interview released on ABC on Friday, taken from a longer interview to be aired July 14, Joe says that both he and estranged wife Katherine should take on permanent guardianship duties now that Michael has died. "Their grandmother Katherine and I should raise them," Joe said. "Yes there's no one else who can do what we can do for them. We should keep them all together and make them happy. Feed them like they are supposed to be fed."
Previously there had not been a significant "we" in the children equation. As Michael requested in his will, Katherine has been granted legal temporary guardianship of Prince Michael I, 12, Paris Michael Katherine, 11, and Prince Michael II (also known as Blanket), 7. Deborah Rowe, the biological mother of Prince Michael I and Paris Michael Katherine, who had renounced her parental rights years ago, had stated an interest in taking custody of all three children in a recent interview and her lawyer is involved in the guardianship proceedings. A guardianship hearing set for Monday in Los Angeles was postponed until July 20. Katherine's lawyer said in a statement that the week delay would allow the opportunity to "privately and amicably" resolve the issue.
While still legally married, Katherine and Joe have long been separated, even residing in different states for the past few years. Michael was often vocal about his critique of Joe's parenting techniques, telling Oprah Winfrey in 1993 that there was "a lot of sadness" in his childhood. He revealed his father would tease him about his pimples and would even beat him. Jackson said his father was "very hard" and that he was "frightened" of him. In the same interview, he referred to his mother as "wonderful" and "perfection."
Jackson biographer and family friend Stacy Brown says Joe's re-emergence is not out of character. "No one can put reins on Joe," Stacy says. "With a potential custody battle and knowing that he would likely be among the negatives discussed [in any court battle], Joe does what Joe wants."
Mark Lester, godparent to Michael's children, says he is not concerned by Joe's statements. "In recent years, Michael and Joe had repaired a lot of the emotional trauma that had gone on before," Lester told TIME. He says that Joe has a different relationship with his grandchildren: "I've seen how Joe reacts with the kids, he's very loving with them."
In the ABC extract, Joe was asked if he felt the Jackson children could go into show business. "I don't know," Joe responded. "I keep watching Paris. She wants to do something." He added that Blanket can "really dance."
Joe more recently drew criticism when he plugged his fledgling recording company project at appearances following Michael's death. The circumstances behind his interview with ABC also raised eyebrows, as unconfirmed word leaked out that Jackson had received $200,000 for the use of family films, which critics have decried as profiteering.
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The Boss Don Biggavel teams up with that new nigga now French Montana for another banger.
Max is facing a tough bid but he might get out on appeal
Hold yo head Max !!!!!!
Free Wavy Crocket !!!!!!!!
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The Winner [Official Version] - Drake
Drake is the hottest mc in the game right now. Some people think it's all hype and he's way overrated.
But if this is any indication of what his album "Thank Me Later" will sound like then he will quiet the doubters.
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