AllHipHop Reports
Houston rapper Paul Wall took time to speak to AllHipHop.com today (August 21) about his motivations to participate in his third USO tour, as he prepared to embark on a nearly day-long journey.
Paul Wall, and Florida-based DJ Smallz, departed Washington, DC on a mission to show their support for US troops deployed in Southwest Asia.
The trip, which was announced earlier this week, has been a year in the making, revealed Paul Wall, who previously visited Kuwait and Iraq on separate USO tours.
“This was actually something that Smallz has been wanting to do,” Paul Wall told AllHipHop.com. “We’ve been going back and forth, trying to find the right time to go. But you know, we’ll get last minute shows and things like that. We finally decided to just pick a date.”
The decision to return to the Middle East region was also personal for Wall.
“My grandfather was a Lieutenant Colonel in the military and I grew up in a very small family,” shared the 28-year-old father of two. “He was all I knew for a long time. And then I have a lot of friends who were in the military, I lost a couple friends in Iraq. And then I heard a statistic that 80% of the military in the Middle East is either from Texas or stationed in Texas.
“So, going over there, it was just an amazing feeling,” he continued, “[To see] 5,000 troops with their assault riffles on their backs, they got their bulletproof vests on and everything, and their just going crazy, holding up Texas flags.”
During his visit to Iraq, Wall was accompanied by two friends, a far cryfrom the group of 12 he travelled with to Kuwait, as part of a Hip-Hop comedy tour organized by actor/comedian Jamie Kennedy. The smaller entourage allowed for the opportunity to explore Iraq and to forge a much more personal bond with the troops.
During the visit, Wall befriended two soldiers deployed from Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, about three hours from Houston; both about his age and had been married for approximately the same amount of time.
While he was in Iraq, Wall saw one of his new friends, who happens to have a son about the same age as Wall’s own son. His friend received news that, despite having served his full deployment, he would be remaining in Iraq for an additional six months due to a stop loss.
“I was there a week and I was already going crazy missing my son,” Paul Wall recalled. “I could only imagine what he was going through. Feeling that and seeing it just made me wanna do my duty and go over there even more to perform.”
Once he makes it back to the States, Paul Wall will be back to work, continuing his recent recording schedule, which finds him in the studio working on several collaborations and laying the foundation for his third major label release.
But his primary focus, he says, will be on the continued success of Expensive Taste, the clothing line he launched with close friends Travis Barker and Skinhead Rob. The clothing label was born almost out of frustration, after Paul Wall’s contractual obligations to Atlantic Recordsprevented the trio from pursuing a recording contract as a group also named Expensive Taste.
“We actually started the line as t-shirt to sell as merchandise to our fans,” explained Paul Wall. “We took the logo Mr. Cartoon had created for our group, and put them on shirts to promote the music. And it got real popular. So we took it one step further and said, “F**k it, since Atlantic won’t let us do the group, we’ll just make it a clothing line.”
Immediately following Wall’s return to the States, Expensive Taste will launch its latest collection at the Magic Fashion Tradeshow in Las Vegas August 31 – September 2.
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MTVNEWS Reports
Omarion released an official statement on Friday (August 21) regarding his parting of ways with Lil Wayne's Young Money label earlier this week. The statement reiterates the singer's Twitter post on Wednesday, dispelling rumors that he'd been dropped.
"I have a lot of respect and admiration for the genius of Lil Wayne and the entire Young Money family," he said. "I asked to be released from the label to pursue other opportunities that were recently presented to me. Because of our relationship, Lil Wayne had no issue with us ending our business relationship and released me from the label. Lil Wayne and I have nothing but love for each other, there is no beef. I also wanted to make it clear that my company nor did I, leak the song, 'I Get It In,' and I want to dispel any rumors that have surfaced. I appreciate my relationship with Young Money/ Cash Money and look forward to doing business in the future.
"There will be a major announcement regarding my career and my new album, Ollusion, coming next week," the statement promises.
Young Money member Mack Maine broke the news of Omarion's departure on his Twitter page Wednesday night, writing, "ATTN: Omarion is no longer Young Money ... the song they leaked featuring Wayne is not official ... Good luck to him in his future endeavors."
Omarion has not released an album since 2007's Face Off duet with Bow Wow. The former B2K member was released from his contract with Sony music, and in 2008, there was talk of him signing to Timbaland's Mosely Music Group. Except for a few songs that leaked to the Internet, nothing transpired from that collaboration.
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HipHopWired Reports
Big Boi, one-half of the legendary OutKast, rocked Heineken's Red Star Soul concert last night at the Velvet Room in Atlanta. Spitting venom from his 16-year career, Big went through his laundry list of hits setting the packed house a blaze with cuts like “Player's Ball,” “Elevators,” “Rosa Parks,” “So Fresh, So Clean” and “Ms. Jackson.”
Speaking with Hip-Hop Wired exclusively before the show, Big talked about his upcoming second solo album Sir Luscious Left Foot… Son Of Chico Dusty.
“The album is done, the solo album. We just getting the right set up for it. I'm about to put out the next single with Andre 3000 called “Looking For Ya” and it was produced by Erick Sermon. It'll be out in a couple of weeks. The album is in the can, done. Bringing Atlanta lyricism to the top has always been one of our missions and I'm still coming with them rhymes and saying something too. Believe me, it's straight dope. I take pride in the lyrics as well as the beats and stuff so when ya'll hear it, ya'll gone love it, believe that. Dre is in the studio working on his and we also have started working on the new OutKast album."
Big Boi also revealed that he will be in the house on Saturday, September 19th at the Masquerade in Atlanta when fellow Dungeon Family members, the Goodie Mob reunite. The historic event will bring Khujo, Big Gipp, T-Mo and Cee-Lo back together to perform their classics as well as some new stuff they have in the can. He added,
“The Goodie Mob reunion show will be taking place at the Masquerade in a couple of weeks and I will be there. It's just a great thing to see all the boys back together on stage and it's gonna be an incredible show. Atlanta, ya'll know what time it is and we fitting to do it all over again.”
No stranger to the Hollywood screen, Big Boi also made it clear to check for him next year on the small and big screens.
“As far as the acting stuff goes, I got a couple of scripts that I'm reading now and I got a couple of TV projects I'm working on but I'ma put the album out first. The people want the album and they thirsty for it so I'm fitting to give them some of the new-new, straight up.”
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HipHopWired Reports
Atlanta Hip-Hop duo Playaz Circle has fans buzzing with anticipation over their second installment into the rap hemisphere, Flight 360. The DTP tag team revealed exclusively to HipHopWired that they're keyed up about the timing of this album, saying that the “climate” is right and it's time for them to take off.
“Everything is about timing,” said Dolla. “Like one of the DJs told me, if we would've come out about five or six years ago, we probably would've gone gold with a song as big as “Duffle Bag Boy.” I think it just goes to show that the climate of the game is changing but the great part about that is we're able to adapt.”
They then continued on to speak about the success of their landmark hit, “Duffle Bag Boy,” which ironically turned out to be both a gift and a curse. According to Dolla Boy it helped them gain fame on the Billboard charts but confused fans that were unsure whether the song was Playaz Circle's or the property of Young Money CEO, Lil Wanye.
“I think fans will be able to identify with us more this go around. The first go around there was confusion over “Duffle Bag Boy.” Is it Lil Wayne? Playaz Circle? Who's who? I think the time between Flight 360 and Supply in Demand has allowed the fans to identify the artist, get to know us a little bit better and become familiar with our music.”
Despite their previous issues, Tity Boi and Dolla Boy are promising to release a conceptual album. Dolla added that they plan on incorporating photo shoots, video shoots and songs that tie together to form a story line.
“We basically do conceptual albums, we try and tie it all in from the photo shoots to the videos, all the way down to the actual arrangements of the songs, to the skits. We think that's what Hip-Hop's been missing, the substance. We've recorded over 70 or 80 songs and we've picked the right 14 or 15 songs that compliment the title of the album and where we were going with our career.”
Not only can fans expect a conceptual album, they can expect features ranging from the group's DTP family to the legendary Raekwon The Chef from Wu-Tang.
“We fuck with people who fuck with us. Raekwon, the Twins formerly of Jagged Edge, Bobby V, of course Ludacris, of course Lil Wayne…shout out to Young Money.”
Flight 360 drops September 29th, and just before takeoff Playaz Circle is leaving fans with one promise:
“We ain't gonna stop, we're gonna continue making good music for everybody and all our listeners.”
Check out their second single "Gettin' Rich" featuring Ludacris from Flight 360: The Take Off below
New York Daily News Reports
It's another first for this First Lady. Michelle Obama made her debut Wednesday on Forbes magazine's annual list of the world's 100 most powerful women, taking the 40th spot.
"Not only is she a First Lady, she's the first African-American First Lady and that accords her a certain amount of power," said Heidi Brown, a ForbesWoman staffer who helped compile the list.
When ranking the women, Brown said they take into consideration how much attention a candidate gathers - and Michele Obama is a media magnet.
"She's done a lot to get her message out," Brown said. "She's been effective at reaching out not only to the media, but to regular people as well."
Two years ago, then-First Lady Laura Bush was 60th on the Forbes list.
Joining Michelle Obama on the Forbes list for the first time are other members of the still new Obama administration like Homeland Security honcho Janet Napolitano (51), SEC chief Mary Schapiro (55) and Health and Human Services head Kathleen Sebelius (56).
Newly sworn-in Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor also debuted on list, in 54th place. Her fellow justice and New Yorker, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, was 48th.
Sotomayor and Ginsberg may be the pride of New York, but Forbes deemed Indra Nooyi the city's most powerful woman.
The chief executive officer of PepsiCo was ranked third - the same spot she occupied last year.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was 36th - down from the 28th spot she occupied on the list last year when she was a presidential candidate.
Brown said another woman to watch for is Sallie Krawcheck (87), who after being forced out of Citigroup bounced back as Chief Executive for Global Wealth Management for Bank of America.
Another high-powered New York executive, Mary Erdoes of J.P. Morgan, was ranked 100.
This year's list does not include New York based media molls such as "Today" show host Meredith Viera, "CBS Evening News" anchor Katie Couric or "Good Morning America" co-host Diane Sawyer.
Forbes included them on a separate list of media movers and shakers last month.
"They wield a different a different kind of influence," Brown said.
For the fourth straight year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel took the top spot, edging out Sheila Bair, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and last year's runner-up.
The cover girl this year was Internet queen Carol Bartz of Yahoo!, who was No. 12 on the list.
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MTVNEWS
You can never say never, but the chances of the Beatles of hip-hop getting back together are looking very slim. Last month, Game apologized for the friction he stirred while being a member of the G-Unit, and just recently Young Buck went the same route. But could 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo ever find it in their hearts to embrace their lyrically potent onetime crew members?
"Shout to Young Buck," Yayo said standing in the G-Unit offices earlier this week. "I wish you was with us, getting some money, living the life."
Has Yayo's stance actually softened towards Buck after all this time? His response to the Cashville rapper's recent words on cyberspace was, "When I see it, I feel a little sorry for him, because he could be taking the same advantages I'm taking.
"Thisis50.com is the biggest hip-hop network out there — as well as the Web sites that come after it," Yayo continued. "He could be taking advantage of it, but you don't hear his mixtapes; you don't see nothing from nowhere. I just wish that the guy thought better or was a better businessman, instead of just being a good rapper. You being disgruntled towards 50, now what do you have? You could have been with us in Peru. We went to Switzerland, Istanbul, we went everywhere man. I'm too real for the industry. Even if I was disgruntled about anything, I wouldn't care, because I'm still getting money. Still got houses, still got cars, sprinklers still come out the ground. I think people get jealous of 50 of how big he is. You wake up, Mayor Bloomberg is talking about 50. Then in the New York Post, he had two pages. Then he was on Fox 5 [New York] news because we're doing an event for the kids and grown-ups — August 30, come nice, in good behavior.
"But the thing is, a lot of artists don't hit that plateau where they're on CNN, on Fox 5," Yayo said. "But what happens, when we're around 50 and dudes is in the circles, dudes start to get mad jealous. They want 50's money. That's what happened with Game and Buck, there was no way they were supposed to mess up the money. That's what they did, they started messing up the money."
Yayo said the Unit could never take Game seriously because "Game is bipolar." As for Buck, whom they knew a lot longer and were closer friends with, it doesn't look like Yayo will be slapping him five anytime soon.
"Buck, I think he's at a point where financially, I don't think he got it, homie," Tony explained. "What are you doing? I don't see him anywhere. Even when you don't see me, Yayo's in Peru getting a nice check with 50. You can call it whatever you wanna call it; I'm still buying cars, Louis glasses, Porches. If Buck was around, he would still have these outlets available to him. Why apologize now?"
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Family photo of Destiny Antonio, 8, who fell from her 7th floor apartment window and survived.
New York Daily News Reports
It was her destiny to survive.
An 8-year-old Bronx girl aptly named Destiny survived a seven-floor plunge from her bedroom window early Thursday.
Destiny Antonio landed on a 10-foot swath of grass in front of the Castle Hill Houses, narrowly missing a paved roadway when she fell around 1:30 a.m.
"When somebody after that stays alive, it's a gift from God," said neighbor Juanita Candelare, 64.
"I'm gonna' thank God all day that she's alive." Friends said the family was sleeping when Destiny somehow tumbled out of the window in the bedroom she shares with some of her 11 siblings.
The little girl is undergoing surgery at Jacobi Medical Center, said longtime family friend Paul Miller. She suffered a broken hip, shattered pelvis, broken leg and trauma to her intestines and liver.
"Doctors are saying the first six hours are the most important," Miller said.
Authorities are still trying to determine how the child got out of the window, which has a visible window guard.
Miller said the window also opens from the top and believes the child squeezed herself through that.
He said Destiny's mom had complained to building management recently about the gap and that it had been fixed. A NYCHA employee said the top of the window should only open four inches.
Scene at 2140 Seward Avenue, Destiny Antonio, fell.
"She might have lifted the window up and climbed over the window guards?" neighbor Cecilia Colon, 52, speculated.
"It's a mystery. I can't figure it out."
Luis Guzman was hanging out with friends when he heard the girl hit ground and said she was "moving around, like when you're having a nightmare."
"It sounded like you threw something very heavy," he said. "When we looked it was a little girl right there."
Guzman sat by the girl, dressed in her pajamas, and told her, "Mama, don't move."
The girl's mom ran outside immediately.
"Oh, my baby!" the mother cried.
Guzman said the woman almost fainted.
Relatives were keeping vigil Thursday at the hospital as Destiny underwent surgery. "A miraculous kid," Miller said of Destiny. "God had his hands on her," he added.
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The Hollywood Reporter Reports
TORONTO -- Newly resurrected rap label Death Row Records is expanding into film production.
Death Row Records CEO Lara Lavi said her new Death Row Films division is set to shoot "Sons 2 the Grave" in Toronto in October, with Tonya Lee Williams, Dorian Harewood, K.C. Collins ("Flashpoint") and child actor Cameron Miles Jones on board.
The indie hood drama, written and produced by Lynn Stoltz and near to signing a director, features Collins as a young basketball phenom returning to an embattled inner-city ghetto after two gunshots cut short his dream of an NBA career.
"This film embodies what we're trying to do with Death Row, to tell human stories that don't always have happy endings, and that allow us to learn from violence and disenfranchised lives, but not glorify it," Lavi said.
WIDEawake Entertainment Group, Lavi's Toronto-based shingle, acquired Death Row Records out of bankruptcy in January for $18 million.
Death Row Films will tap the rap label's catalog to score "Sons 2 the Grave," before moving on to other projects.
"We're looking at film properties that relate to "Boyz n the Hood"-type stories, and to power the films with Death Row music," Lavi said.
She added the Death Row library, which includes iconic songs and albums by Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Danny Boy, is barely exploited.
"We're sitting here with 10,000 masters, of which only 10%-15% have been released to the public," she said.
Death Row Records is licensing its songs to film, TV, video game and advertising producers, including to EA Games, and the "CSI" and "Cold Case" TV series.
Music publisher Evergreen Copyrights is providing worldwide administration for the rap label.
And Death Row Records is also to rerelease on Sept. 1 Dr. Dre's "The Chronic." "The Chronic Re-lit" collectors disc will feature 16 original songs and seven new tunes, and unreleased video of Dre and other artists.
Death Row is also readying boxed sets of unreleased master recordings for the holiday season.
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Daily Mail Online Reports
Emergency services had to use a crane to lift an overweight woman out of her house in Germany.
The woman, said to weigh 250kg, was stretchered out of her home and put into a waiting ambulance.
Firefighters called in the crane to extract the woman when all over ways to get the woman out of the house failed.
The crane, mounted on a lorry, lifted the stretcher out of the top window of the house in Bottrop.
She was later transported in an ambulance to hospital for treatment.
On the same day but on the other side of the world, emergency services in Australia had to use a crane to lift a man of 300kg from his flat.
The 57-year-old man called for an ambulance from his home in a tower block, situated at the end of a bridge in Brisbane, after he suffered an asthma attack.
An emergency services spokeswoman said he was successfully lifted out of the apartment by crane and taken to the Royal Brisbane Hospital.
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VladTV Reports
In a recent twitter war between Ozone founder Julia Beverly and Oakland rapper Mistah Fab, Fab accuses Julia of engaging in sexual activities with various rappers.
When VladTV coverd the story, Julia quickly demanded that we provide proof!
This is very interesting, because for the past few years Julia has been destroying the reputations of countless rappers in her popular 'Groupie Confessions' section of Ozone. Check out the attached image where a nameless groupie accuses Queens rapper Nore of trying to get his salad tossed.
Ozone's 'Groupie Confessions' leaves the identity of the 'groupie' as secret, and uses a flimsy 'disclaimer' as an excuse to print insane claims about various celebrities.
Check out the video below where Plies, who has been featured many times on Ozone covers, talks about his disdain for 'Groupie Confessions'. He goes on to discuss that these articles are based on no facts and how many of the artists have committed relationships that become strained after the magazine gets released.
So in closing, Julia - if you can't take it, don't dish it out.
*disclaimer - Mistah Fab's accusations about Julia are based on rumor. This is the same nonsense disclaimer that Ozone puts before throwing people under the bus.
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The Guardian Reports
The father of a women's world champion athlete today angrily denied accusations that the teenager was secretly born a man, insisting: "She is my little girl."
Caster Semenya, 18, is undergoing a gender test to prove she is female after beating her rivals by a huge margin to win the gold medal in the world championship 800 metres in Berlin.
Family, friends and teachers at her home in South Africa recalled how Semenya played football with boys, wore trousers instead of skirts and endured teasing by her peers. But all asserted that she is definitely a woman.
Jacob Semenya, her father, told the Sowetan newspaper: "She is my little girl. I raised her and I have never doubted her gender. She is a woman and I can repeat that a million times."
He attacked his daughter's critics, saying: "For the first time South Africans have someone to be proud of and detractors are already shouting wolf. It is unfair. I wish they would leave my daughter alone."
Semenya, who has a muscular build and deep voice, aroused suspicions recently with a dramatic improvement in performance. She went from a virtual unknown to the world's fastest woman over 800m this year when she clocked 1:56.72 at the African junior championships in Mauritius. She sliced more than a second off that with her winning time of 1:55.45 in Berlin on Wednesday.
Athletics' world governing body has asked South African officials to conduct a "gender verification test". The test, which takes weeks to complete, requires a physical medical evaluation, and includes reports from a gynaecologist, endocrinologist, psychologist, an internal medicine specialist and an expert on gender.
There is bewilderment and indignation over the controversy in Fairlie, the impoverished village in Limpopo province where Semenya practised her running on dirt roads and poorly kept playing fields. She lived with her grandmother while at secondary school and grew up without electricity or running water.
Her grandmother, Maphuthi Sekgala, said: "I know she's a woman – I raised her myself. She called me after [the heats] and told me that they think she's a man. What can I do when they call her a man, when she's really not a man? It is God who made her look that way."
The 80-year-old added that Semenya had been teased when growing up because of her boyish looks. "If the teasing hurt her, she kept the hurt to herself and didn't show what she was feeling," she told South Africa's Times newspaper.
The athlete's mother said doubts about her daughter's gender were motivated by jealousy. Dorcus Semenya told the Star: "If you go to my home village and ask any of my neighbours, they would tell you that Mokgadi [Caster] is a girl. They know because they helped raise her. People can say whatever they like but the truth will remain, which is that my child is a girl. I am not concerned about such things."
A picture emerged of Semenya as a tomboy who transgressed the rigid gender roles of South Africa's traditional rural communities. Her mother said Caster's first love was football.
"Often I would ask her why she kept playing soccer, and with boys. All she said was, 'It's because I like it.' With her, everything was about soccer, soccer." Semenya was the only girl in the football team in Fairlie. Her former teachers spoke with pride about her prowess but admitted they had not always been certain of her gender. Eric Modiba, head of the Nthema secondary school, where Semenya was a pupil from 2004 until last year, said: "She was a happy child – I never saw her angry. She had a lot of friends, both boys and girls. She excelled at sport, especially athletics and football, which she played very well.
"I have never seen her in a skirt or dress, always trousers. Initially we doubted her gender but eventually we realised she's a girl. We've seen her birth certificate and her file from primary school. At about the age of 16 she started to associate with other girls and try different hairstyles. But she never developed breasts."
Morris Gilbert, a spokesman for Pretoria University's sports department, where Semenya is now a sports science student, said the issue of her gender had not been raised. "We are all very proud of her and of what she's achieved," he said. "The university stands behind her all the way."
The runner's coach, Michael Seme, laughed off the allegations, saying that Semenya fielded constant questions about whether she was a boy from younger athletes when training. "Then she has to explain that she can't help the fact that her voice is so gruff and that she really is a girl. The remarkable thing is that Caster remains completely calm and never loses her dignity when she is questioned about her gender."
Semenya had been "crudely humiliated" a few times and the closest Seme said he had seen her to anger was earlier this year when some people wanted her barred from using a women's toilet. "Then Caster said, 'Do you want me to pull down my pants that you can see?' Those same people came to her later and said they were extremely sorry."
Semenya also received the backing of the governing African National Congress, which called on South Africans to rally around "our golden girl".
The ANC said: "We condemn the motives of those who have made it their business to question her gender due to her physique and running style. Such comments can only serve to portray women as being weak."
The ANC's youth league condemned the "racist agenda" of "imperialist countries", while the Young Communist League argued: "This smacks of racism of the highest order. It represents a mentality of conforming feminine outlook within the white race."
Semenya herself is said to be bemused by the speculation. Phiwe Mlangeni-Tsholetsane, the South African team manager in Berlin, said: "She said to me she doesn't see what the big deal is all about. She believes it is a God-given talent and she will exercise it."
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