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(CNN) -- A teenager is being held on 19 counts of animal cruelty linked to a month-long killing spree of pet cats in the Miami area, police said. Tyler Hayes Weinman, 18, was charged with 19 counts of animal cruelty in Miami, Florida, on Monday. Tyler Hayes Weinman, 18, also is charged with 19 counts of improper disposal of dead animals and four counts of burglary, police said. Weinman lives in Cutler Bay and has lived with his parents in Palmetto Bay, the two towns where police said 19 cats were mutilated and killed. Pet owners and police began discovering disfigured cats May 13. One pet owner, Donna Gleason, said her family cat, Tommy, was "partially skinned" and left dead in her yard. Police said 34 cats have been found dead in the towns, but only 19 mutilated cats could be linked to a serial killer. Police confirmed that some of the cats were killed by dogs, said Maj. Julie Miller of Cutler Bay police. Weinman, who works odd jobs but spends most of his time at home and unemployed, had been a person of interest for several weeks, Miller said. He was arrested Saturday. Watch the teen suspect's first court appearance » The police are looking into whether any people Weinman associates with might have been accomplices in the killings. Weinman's sealed juvenile record includes two prior offenses, Miller said. He could face a maximum of 158 years in state prison if convicted on all counts, said Terry Shavez, spokeswoman for the state attorney's office. The mayor of Cutler Bay referred to the string of feline attacks as a "plague in South Miami-Dade." "The cruelty of these crimes were horrific for the animal victims, but there were many human victims as well," Mayor Paul Vrooman said. "Let's not forget the children and the families who found their pets mutilated. These awful scenes inflicted a human toll." Source : CNN
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Kelis Wants Nas To Ante Up Plenty Money

Kelis claims estranged hubby Nas has left her high and dry ... not offering her a penny in the wake of her impending birth ... and she says she's broke -- "I have run out of money." Kelis filed legal papers claiming Nas isn't paying her support, pre-natal expenses -- nothing, even though she claims he is filthy rich. Kelis is asking the judge to order Nas to pay spousal support, child support, all pregnancy-related expenses, and one-half of all medical expenses after the child is born. She also wants $3,500 for the baby nurse after the child's birth, and $20,000 for strollers, cribs and other baby supplies. Kelis says, "My survival is based on [Nas'] will at this time. If he does not want to pay for an expense, it does not get paid." The couple was married in 2003. The baby is due this month. Kelis says she's entitled to maintain the lifestyle to which she became accustomed during their marriage -- they have five homes, fly first class, go to fancy restaurants, and on and on. Most interesting -- "There were many expensive pieces [of jewelry] such as a princess-cut diamond tennis bracelet that was recently appraised for $190,000. My engagement ring is an approximately nine-carat cushion-cut diamond solitaire. I have numerous watches...such as Cartier, Rolex, Frank Muller and Chopard." Her lawyer, disso-queen Laura Wasser, says in a separate declaration she's asked Nas to ante up some $$$ for Kelis and the unborn baby but he hasn't responded. Source : TMZ
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It's not a tour, it's a "music festival"! As we reported earlier this month, Lil Wayne is going back on the road this summer, and he'll be joined by Young Jeezy, Soulja Boy Tell'em and Drake. The outing was officially announced on Monday morning (June 15) and dubbed Young Money Presents: America's Most Wanted Music Festival. The tour starts July 27 at the Toyota Pavilion at Scranton, Pennsylvania, and ends on August 23 in Dallas. According to the tour's reps, Weezy will headline, after Jeezy, Soulja Boy and Drake go on in front of him. All parties are currently working on new LPs. Lil Wayne's Rebirth is due in August, while Jeezy's Thug Motivation 103, Soulja Boy's The DeAndre Way and Drake's Thank Me Later do not have dates yet; Drake has not even signed with a label yet. Over the weekend, Drake talked with MTV News about the tour. "It's definitely moving along well," he said. "I think it will be an exciting night for each city that we go to. You got two young guys [and] two guys that have been killing the game for a minute, so I think it will be a dope tour." »7/27 Scranton, PA @ Toyota Pavilion »7/29 Saratoga, NY @ Performing Arts Center »7/30 Pittsburgh, PA @ Post Gazette Pavilion »7/31 Philadelphia @ Susquehanna Bank Center »8/1 Wantagh, NY @ Jones Beach Theater »8/2 Virginia Beach @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheater »8/4 Toronto @ Molson Amphitheater »8/5 Montreal @ Bell Centre »8/6 Cleveland @ Blossom Pavilion »8/7 Washington, D.C. @ Nissan Pavilion »8/8 Raleigh, NC @ Walnut Creek Amphitheater »8/9 Atlanta @ Lakewood Amphitheater »8/8 Raleigh, NC @ Walnut Creek Amphitheater »8/12 Phoenix @ Cricket Wireless Amphitheater »8/13 Los Angeles @ TBD »8/14 Irvine, CA @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheater »8/15 Concord, CA @ Sleep Train Pavilion »8/17 Vancouver @ GM Place »8/18 Edmonton, AB @ Rexall Place »8/20 Denver @ Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre »8/22 Houston @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion »8/23 Dallas @ Superpages.com Center Source : MTV NEWS
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COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — Rich Franklin won a unanimous decision over Wanderlei Silva at UFC 99 on Saturday in the sport's first show in its newest territory. Franklin (27-4), a former UFC middleweight champion, rebounded from a split-decision loss to Dan Henderson in January. "After my last fight in Dublin, it was a disappointment going to a decision," Franklin said. "I didn't want to go to a decision again, but Wanderlei's way too strong of a fighter." Silva (32-10-1), a former Pride titleholder and among MMA's most exciting fighters for most of the past decade, lost for the fifth time in his last six fights. FIND MORE STORIES IN: Rich Franklin | Wanderlei Silva | Dan Henderson | Marcus Davis | Cheick Kongo The fight, contested at catchweight of 195 pounds, got off to a cautious start, with almost nothing happening in the first minute. Silva just missed with a head kick midway through the round. Then he caught Franklin's kick and took him down by tripping the other leg. Franklin's movement dictated the pace in the second round. Silva finally connected and wobbled Franklin, bullrushing him at the fence. Franklin survived and the fight returned to the middle of the cage. The two fighters traded attacks in the third round. Franklin kept moving for the most part, darting in to attack at time times, while Silva mostly looked for the knockout. The Brazilian attacked Franklin at the fence in the final seconds but paid for it by being taken down. In the co-main event, unbeaten heavyweight Cain Velasquez won a unanimous decision over Cheick Kongo. Velasquez (6-0) was staggered twice right from the start but took Kongo (24-5-1) down immediately. There was more of the same in the second, Velasquez was rocked but took Kongo down and hurt him. When Kongo fought his way to his feet, he was taken down again and the 6-1, 240-pound Velasquez punished him with knees to the body. Kongo managed a takedown of his own in the third round before bloodying Velasquez with some accurate strikes. Velasquez escaped with another takedown, battering Kongo until the fight ended. The card also featured the return of Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, the internationally beloved kickboxing star who struggled in his first three UFC fights in 2007. Filipovic (25-6-2) knocked out England's Mostapha Al-Turk (6-5). "I feel good, I am satisfied with my performance," Filipovic said. Al-Turk was poked in the eye and was trying to cover up when he was put away at 3:06 of the first round. "I'm sorry," Filipovic said of the eye poke. "I didn't want it to be this way." Also, Dan Hardy won a split decision against Marcus Davis in a welterweight bout.
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A crowd has gathered in front of the Las Vegas Convention Center, where a security guard is about to unlock the main entrance. It's less than a minute before 9 am, the official opening of the 2008 National Association of Broadcasters Show—typically a sleepy sales and marketing event known more for schmoozing than buzz. But as the glass doors open on this April morning, a hundred people race toward a large crimson tent in the center of the hall. The tent is home to Red Digital Cinema and its revolutionary motion picture camera, the Red One. Standing nearby is the man who developed it—a handsome guy with a neatly trimmed goatee and a pair of sunglasses perched atop his clean-shaven head. He clutches a can of Diet Coke in his left hand, an unlit Montecristo jutting from between his fingers. Jim Jannard, 59, is the billionaire founder of Red. In 1975 he spent $300 to make a batch of custom motocross handlebar grips, which he sold from the back of a van. He named his company Oakley, after his English setter, and eventually expanded into sci-fi-style sunglasses, bags, and shoes. In November of last year he sold the business to Luxottica, the owner of Ray-Ban, for a reported $2.1 billion. Jannard won't say how much money he has poured into Red, but his target market clearly appreciates the investment. Supplicants swarm the tent, many of them with offerings—fine wine, gourmet coffee, single-malt whiskey—all to thank Jannard for building the Red One. "I guess they just like me," he says with a wry smile. An example of video shot on the Red One. For a better look, watch it in HD.

skate - shot on red #1347 - 120 fps from Opus Magnum Production on Vimeo.

Video by opus magnum prod. More Red One video at Vimeo. It's more than that: His team of engineers and scientists have created the first digital movie camera that matches the detail and richness of analog film. The Red One records motion in a whopping 4,096 lines of horizontal resolution—"4K" in filmmaker lingo—and 2,304 of vertical. For comparison, hi-def digital movies like Sin City and the Star Wars prequels top out at 1,920 by 1,080, just like your HDTV. (There's also a slightly higher-resolution option called 2K that reaches 2,048 lines by 1,080.) Film doesn't have pixels, but the industry-standard 35-millimeter stock has a visual resolution roughly equivalent to 4K. And that's what makes the Red so exciting: It delivers all the dazzle of analog, but it's easier to use and cheaper—by orders of magnitude—than a film camera. In other words, Jannard's creation threatens to make 35-mm movie film obsolete. Two years ago, Jannard brought a spec sheet and a mock-up of a camera—not much more than an aluminum box about the size of a loaf of bread—to NAB 2006. Even though it wasn't a working product, more than 500 people plunked down a $1,000 deposit to get their names on a waiting list. For months, industry watchers wondered if the company was for real. Today, there's no question. The Red One is being used on at least 40 features. Steven Soderbergh, the Oscar-winning director, borrowed two prototypes to shoot his Che Guevara biopics, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and later purchased three for his film The Informant. Peter Jackson, the Lord of the Rings himself, bought four. Director Doug Liman used a Red on Jumper. Peter Hyams used one on his upcoming Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. Digital cinema that's all but indistinguishable from film is finally coming to a theater near you. The Red headquarters is in Lake Forest, California, a sprawling Orange County exurb consisting mainly of strip malls and office parks. The 32,000-square-foot facility, which Jannard recently bought for a reported $7.7 million, has a stark white exterior unbroken by windows except at the entrance, where a winged human skull is painted on the glass. Jannard, wearing blue jeans, black slip-on sandals, and a lime-green short-sleeve shirt, greets me in the lobby and ushers me through a set of gray metal doors. On the way into the workspace, there is a sign: 1) Please knock. 2) Take two steps back. 3) Kneel. Since I'm getting a tour from the wizard himself, I'm apparently excused from genuflecting. Behind the doors, the walls are festooned with camouflage netting—a nod, perhaps, to the postapocalyptic design of the steel-clad Oakley headquarters half a mile away. "I had been thinking about this project for a long time," Jannard says. "As a camera fanatic and a product builder, this was something I seemed destined to do." When businesspeople talk destiny, it can sound like bullshit. But at Oakley, Jannard not only ran the company, he personally shot one of its two TV spots and all of its print ads from 1975 to 1995. He owns more than 1,000 cameras, both still and motion picture, several dating back almost a century. "I have a Bolex, Aaton, Arriflex, Eyemo, Filmo, Mitchell, Photosonic, Beaulieu, Keystone—just about every movie camera you can think of." The Red One camera gives moviemakers the best of both worlds. It delivers the ease of use and editing flexibility provided by digital cinema cameras. At the same time, the Red's resolution and color fidelity rival that of 35-millimeter film, and it allows the same kind of control over focus. Bonus: Like HD and 2K digital, it's cheap. In 2004, Jannard bought a Sony HDR-FX1—the first hi-def videocam for consumers. When he found he couldn't use the files it produced without translation software from a company called Lumiere, he telephoned Lumiere's owner, filmmaker Frederic Haubrich. "I told Frederic that I couldn't even view my footage on a Mac and that this had pissed me off enough that I wanted to build my own camera. And he said, 'Jim, I know guys in the industry who can help.'" Haubrich introduced Jannard to interface designer Ted Schilowitz. Schilowitz, Haubrich, and Jannard spent a year trying to design that dream camera, one that would combine the practical advantages of digital moviemaking with the image quality of analog film. They recruited mathematicians, programmers, digital imaging experts, hardware engineers, and physicists. "We needed a bunch of guys who were inventors to come up with entirely new ways of getting to the finish line," Jannard says. He kept the project quiet until his team could determine whether building the device was even feasible, but rumors swirled through Hollywood about some kind of mysterious supercamera in the works. "I didn't know who Jim was," Soderbergh says. "But I heard about Red because they were canvassing filmmakers and cinematographers, asking, 'If you could wave a magic wand, what camera would you design?'" Most of the work took place in what employees call Jim's garage, a 20,000-square-foot warehouse across the street from Red's massive headquarters. The team quickly concluded that existing technology was inadequate. The guts of the camera—the image sensor and all the accompanying circuitry—would have to be created from scratch. It was a daunting challenge, but the fact that Jannard's management style falls somewhere between Mr. T and Steve Jobs on the autocracy scale helped. "What separates us from other camera companies is that the vision guy is the decisionmaker," he says. "That was one of my biggest advantages at Oakley, and it's the same at Red—I'm in the trenches, in the product development, and I make the final call. Red is a benevolent dictatorship." The video revolution has been on pause in Hollywood. Just as digital still cameras now rule the photography market, hi-def digital movie cameras were supposed to replace film. But moviemakers never fully bought in. Typical digital videocams use prisms to split incoming light by color and send it to three separate sensors, which tends to soften images. Onboard software sharpens the footage but also introduces halos and exaggerated edges. Worse, the small sensors put too much of the picture in focus, giving it a canned look. Cinematographers hate that; the ability to guide the viewer's eye by selectively blurring focal planes is one of their favorite techniques. "That's a storytelling tool," says Pierre de Lespinois, a producer and director who spent three weeks in April filming a feature in the Mojave Desert with two Red Ones. "In HD, what's right in front of the lens and what's 20 feet away are both sharp, so the image looks flat." To compete with celluloid, a digital cine-camera would need an image sensor identical in size and shape to a single frame of 35-mm motion picture film. Without that, the Red couldn't give filmmakers the control over depth of field, color saturation, tonality, and a half dozen other factors that 35-mm film provides. You'll find that kind of full-frame sensor at the core of any high-end digital single-lens reflex camera. But they're designed to shoot no more than 10 frames per second. That's warp speed for still photographers but barely first gear for filmmakers. Movies are shot at a minimum of 24 frames per second, with some scenes topping out at 120 fps for slow-motion effects. The Red's sensor would have to do everything a DSLR sensor does—and do it significantly faster. The camera also had to be able to record in the same bulky file format that DSLRs use—called raw. The format preserves picture data in essentially unprocessed form, which gives photographers more latitude to tweak images with software the way they once did in a darkroom. (Cinematographers do the same thing with 35-mm film, but it's a complicated, expensive process: The film must be scanned into digital to be manipulated, then converted back to analog for projection.) Since a movie is just a long sequence of still pictures, using the raw format presented bandwidth and data-storage problems. A two-hour feature could run up to 7 terabytes. The Red engineers built a workaround, a lossless compression codec they call Redcode Raw. Finally, in August 2006, Jannard's team flipped the switch on Red's first prototype, codenamed Frankie. It wasn't really a camera at all, just a mechanical test bed containing the new sensor. "Our whole business was predicated on this sensor," Jannard says. "If it didn't work, we'd be cooked. When it did, it was like giving birth and counting all the fingers and toes to make sure everything was there. It was phenomenal. Everybody went nuts." Schilowitz remembers that moment, which camera makers call first light, as mind-blowing: "Everyone started screaming like little kids, 'First light! First light! It's alive!' The thing actually worked." Two weeks later, at an industry event in Amsterdam, Jannard showed test footage taken with Frankie—a clip of two perky women in '50s garb chugging milk from glass bottles—on a 60-foot screen. "People were stunned," Schilowitz says. "They were standing around scratching their heads. That moment made a lot of people into believers." Filmmakers didn't care how the Red One worked, but they liked what they saw. "The Red camera is the closest thing to film I've seen," says Tristan Whitman, a cinematography lecturer at USC. The Analog Advantage Typical 2K and HD digital movie cameras keep everything in focus. The 4K Red One is more like an analog camera, allowing depth of field control, which blurs the foreground or background. Analog film lets moviemakers control the depth of field.

Photo: Lisa Wiseman 2K and HD cameras force everything into focus.

Photo: Lisa Wiseman By March 2007, Red had assembled two additional prototypes, named Boris and Natasha. But now, with three weeks to go before NAB 2007, Jannard wanted new footage to show what the camera could do. He emailed Jackson, asking if the director could recommend a good cinematographer in Los Angeles to help create a Red promo spot. Not long after, Jackson telephoned. "Jim, why don't you fly down here to New Zealand, and I'll shoot the footage for you," he said. "Don't tease me," Jannard replied. "No, I'm serious," Jackson said. "Bring the cameras down." Jannard packed up Boris and Natasha, still crude machines with no features other than a run/stop button and a shutter, and headed south. When he got to Wellington, Jackson was ready. "Peter had put together an army," Jannard says. "He was going to shoot a mini-movie to put the cameras through their paces, using them on helicopters and Steadicams, crawling on the ground with them—and I'm thinking, 'Oh my gosh, I just hope they keep working through the weekend.'" Boris and Natasha performed flawlessly. "We stayed at Peter's house, and he was just beaming because he was having so much fun." Jackson delivered his 12-minute featurette, titled Crossing the Line, the night before the NAB Show opened. Jannard shows me the film at Red headquarters. His desk is in an open workspace that he shares with six staffers and his puppy. Next to his computer there's a box of the Montecristos he favors and a pinewood crate from Napa Valley Reserve, the world's most exclusive wine club. Members reportedly pay up to $145,000 to join, in exchange for which they can partake in grape harvests and create their own blends. There's something oddly honorable about a billionaire with insanely expensive taste in wine but no office. I watch Crossing the Line on Jannard's 30-inch HD display while he stands behind me. The film, set on the front lines of World War I, alternates between aerial dogfights and bloody ground combat. The screen resolution is about half what it would be in a theater. Nevertheless, it's like looking through a window onto a battlefield. I can barely discern a single pixel. The detail is stupefying; the colors are rich and sensual. After NAB 2007, Jannard showed Crossing the Line at the Directors Guild in LA. "I rearranged my travel plans to be there," Soderbergh says. After he saw the film, he called Jannard. "Jim, I'm all in. I have to shoot with this." "OK, great," Jannard said. "But what does that mean?" "I'm making two movies with Benicio del Toro. Come to my house, and we'll do a test. If it looks as good as what I saw in Peter's film, I want these cameras for my movies." Soderbergh took two prototypes into the Spanish wilderness. "It felt like someone crawled inside my head when they designed the Red," he says. What impressed him most was the cameras' sturdiness. Movie sets are often a flurry of crashes and explosions, which can vibrate sensitive electronics, introducing visual noise known as microphonics into images. "A lot of cameras with electronics in them, if you fired a 50-caliber automatic weapon a few inches away—which we did—you'd get microphonics all over the place," Soderbergh says. "We beat the shit out of the Reds on the Che films, and they never skipped a beat." Then there's the economics: The Red One sells for $17,500—almost 90 percent less than its nearest HD competitor. The savings are even greater relative to a conventional film camera. Not that anyone buys those; filmmakers rent them, usually from Panavision, an industry stalwart in Woodland Hills, California. Panavision doesn't publicize its rates, but a Panavision New Zealand rental catalog quotes $25,296 for a four-week shoot—more than the cost of purchasing a Red. "It's clearly the future of cinematography," Peter Hyams says. "You can buy this camera. You can own it. That's why people are excited." Even so, traditionalists cling to film's reliability. Film is tangible. Hard drives crash; files get corrupted. "You put film in a can and stick it on a shelf, and it costs $1,000 a year to store," says Stephen Lighthill, who teaches cinematography at the American Film Institute. "With a project that starts as data, you have it on a hard drive, which has to be nursed and upgraded. It's an electronic, mechanical device that can't be left unplugged." Preserving a 4K digital master of a feature film would cost $12,000 a year, according to a report by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. And that doesn't address the reliability of the camera itself. "In the slammin', jammin' world of production, you want a really tough machine that takes very simple approaches to problems," Lighthill says. "I'm not sure Red is the way to go. It's a supercomputer with a lens on it." Proponents dismiss such criticism as Luddite drivel. "Hollywood is just used to shooting on film," says Bengt Jan Jönsson, cinematographer on the Fox TV show Bones. "Honestly, if you proposed the film work-flow today, you'd be taken to the city square and hung. Imagine I told you we're going to shoot on superexpensive cameras, using rolls of celluloid made in China that are a one-time-use product susceptible to scratches and that can't be exposed to light. And you can't even be sure you got the image until they're developed. And you have to dip them in a special fluid that can ruin them if it's mixed wrong. People would think I was crazy." As Reds infiltrate Hollywood, the typical filmgoer might not notice much difference at first. After all, once they're projected onto a cineplex screen, movies shot with Jannard's camera will look like the analog movies audiences are used to. But the camera's ease of use and lower cost are sure to change the industry. "There's talent on the streets, kids with ideas who have stories to tell and never get a chance," Jannard says. "Up to now, they've been limited to tools that confine their stories to YouTube." Access to this kind of tech will make it easier for aspiring auteurs to break in and could ultimately expand the range and variety of films that get made. Of course, most theaters still show movies the old-fashioned way, running analog film in front of a bright light. For now, pictures shot with the Red must be transferred to celluloid for distribution. It's a cumbersome system: A full-length feature might take as many as five (heavy, expensive to print) reels. A major release goes to at least 3,500 theaters. Plus, the celluloid stock gets damaged and dirty and has to be sent in for cleaning and repair after every few dozen screenings. Luckily, analog projection seems to be on the way out. In March, four big Hollywood studios announced plans to retrofit 10,000 screens—about a quarter of the US total—for digital projection at 2K. Movies shot with Red's 4K camera will look every bit as good as those shot on film, and they'll all be ads for the company's next camera, the Epic, with more than 5,000 lines of resolution. That's a knockout pixel punch. I ask Jannard if Red plans to develop a 4K projector or perhaps even a 5K that it would market to theater owners. He's cagey. "I will say that the future of motion-capture will be digital," he says, "and I think you can extend that to say the future of presentation will be digital." Jannard is doing his best to fulfill that prophecy. He spends nights on the company's Internet user forums sifting through customer feedback, answering technical questions, and addressing rumors about upcoming products. "I'm passionate about this because I'm building the camera I've always wanted to shoot with," he says. "When my grandkids and great-grandkids look back, they're going to say I was a camera builder. I did handgrips and then goggles and then sunglasses to prepare myself. But cameras are magic." Source: Wired Magazine
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Eight Los Angeles police offers suffered minor injuries and 21 people were arrested during Lakers victory celebrations that turned riotous outside the Staples Center, authorities said today. Following the Lakers’ 99-86 win over the Orlando Magic on Sunday night, officers faced small groups of revelers in downtown Los Angeles who shook passing cars, threw debris and sparked fires. Twelve city vehicles, including six MTA buses, were damaged, and one traffic light was knocked down, said LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman. Metro Blue Line trains were delayed because of debris on the tracks, and a gas station, a pharmacy and a shoe store were looted, she said. Shoe store owner Richard Torres arrived at his business Sunday night just after the alarm company called to tell him there was a break-in. What he discovered was disheartening: His vintage-style stock of sneakers had been ravaged and shoe boxes were strewn along the sidewalk. “I have the video camera, and it’s a flood of people running into the store and grabbing what they could,” he said today as he stood among the remnants of his inventory. “What’s really awful is they took the stuff and they started burning it. It’s just disappointing.” The LAPD did not have an estimate of the damage that included graffiti, broken windows, torched billboards and news boxes, a police official said. Six of the injured officers were taken to a hospital for treatment and released. Source : LA Times
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Trick Daddy is a Miami legend. Any of the cats from the city who dominate radio today — Pitbull, Flo Rida, DJ Khaled — they have to give it up to the man first known as Trick Daddy Dollars. He's been a permanent fixture on the MIA scene, and it looks like he's not going anywhere anytime soon. Trick recently started his own independent label Dunk Ryders, and his Finally Famous: Born a Thug Die a Thug LP should drop in late August or early September. There's also an autobiography and a film by the same name due soon. As we keep rocking with Miami Week, Trick gives us his list of homegrown artists who impacted their city the most. Also, be sure to check out our exclusive 'hood tour with Trick included below. Trick Daddy's Top 10 Most Influential Miami Artists Luke and the 2 Live Crew Influential Record: "Move Somethin' " Trick's Take: "Luke is the godfather. He introduced the country to the music that we had cultivated in Miami. They captured the whole Miami feel, everything it represents — beautiful women and an opulent lifestyle." Uncle Al and the Sugar Hill DJs Influential Record: They broke everything! Trick's Take: "Al represented the underground radio movement. He made the music say what he wanted it to say. Al stayed 'hood, lived in the 'hood and kept the tradition of the bass bins [big wooden speaker with tweeters] and the street jams." Le Juan Love Influential Record: "Everybody Say Yeah" Trick's Take: "He was a young dude at the time — he was hot. He was the sh--. He never came out on the pretty-boy tip. He was always 'hood. The kids loved him and the grown folks loved him." Disco Rick and the Dogs Influential Record: "Your Mama's on Crack Rock" Trick's Take: "Rick gave street commentary. He talked about how we lived, how we were growing up. His music removed the censorship and gave you a look inside the real ghetto." J.T. Money & the Poison Clan Influential Record: "Dance All Night" Trick's Take: "They were the first group from Miami that everybody rapped. Everyone had skills. They talked from the street hustler's perspective. J.T. was also one of the first to talk about the tension between the tourists and the locals. He talked about the smash-and-grab crime wave that was an epidemic at the time." Slip-N-Slide All Stars Influential Record: "Take It to the House" and "Shut Up" Trick's Take: "These were the first people I considered family outside of my real kin. Everyone was very talented. A time machine could have had all of us together and on the same page. With them, I've seen a lot, together we did a lot. Brawls, bras and Parle Thursdays — that sums up the time we spent together." Pitbull Influential Record: "Go Girl" Trick's Take: "Pit is the realist Chico (Cuban) I've ever met in my life. He's also the first to successfully introduce bilingual rapping. I have no other words to describe him. He's the realist I've seen in my life." Prince Raheim and Crazy Legs 59 Influential Record: "Lose My Money (Honey)" Trick's Take: "They epitomized the Miami bass sound. They helped shape that movement. A lot of their music was booty music. It was crazy in the clubs when their music came on." Clay D Influential Record: "Pull It All the Way Down" Trick's Take: "Clay is the original black, greasy and grill'd typical Miami dude. His music was disrespectful and full of bass." Half Pint Influential Record: "Stomp and Grind" Trick's Take: "Half Pint was also one of the pioneers of the Miami bass/club sound. Because he was also a DJ, he understood how to rock a party." Source:MTVNEWS
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How can Young Jeezy outdo himself this year? Well, Jeezy has just been announced as the headlining act for one of the biggest hip-hop concerts of the year: Atlanta radio station 107.9's 14th annual Birthday Bash. Jeezy has the task of closing the concert that also features Rick Ross, Gucci Mane, OJ Da Juiceman, Soulja Boy Tell'em, Yung L.A., Trey Songz, Young Dro, Hurricane Chris, Jeremih, Keri Hilson, F.L.Y., Lil' Will, Pleasure P and Plies. Birthday Bash 14 takes place June 20 at Philips Arena in Atlanta. At last year's Birthday Bash, Jeezy stole the show, bringing Kanye West and Usher onstage, among others. "I gave you a show," Jeezy told us backstage after last year's show. "[At the] Birthday Bash two years ago, I brought out Jay-Z. Shout-outs to Hov. It's about topping it. Making people step their game up. Relationships is everything. When you really know people, you tell them, 'Come through, we got Birthday Bash. Be there,' and they there? To me, that means everything. This year I called out Dream, Kanye, Usher, Blood Raw. ... I'm from Atlanta, so they pretty much see you every day. They know you gonna come out, but when you bring those special people out, it just gives it that extra umph. Me, personally, I take pride in Birthday Bash. Birthday Bash 13 was mine, by the way. "Shout-out to Kanye, he flew all the way in," Jeezy added about West, who had another concert the same night. "I had to throw him a private jet courtesy of Young." Usher flew in last year from Japan. Jeezy had a huge moment last week at Hot 97's Summer Jam in New Jersey when he brought Jay-Z and Drake onstage for his set. Source:MTVNEWS
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MIAMI — It almost seems impossible, but it's tragically true. Scott Storch squandered $30 million. Not only that, he did it in less than six months. "[It was] unlike anything I've ever seen in my entire life," the producer's manager, Derek Jackson, told MTV News of his friend of almost two decade's monumental fall. "Historical! It was historical without question." Storch's decline started in 2006, which was arguably his most successful year creatively and definitely his most fruitful year financially. He was one of the top producers in the business, having worked on hits by Beyoncé, 50 Cent, the Game, T.I., Chris Brown, Christina Aguilera, Dr. Dre, Nas, Snoop Dogg, Pink and many others. He had a long way to fall. "Honestly, about three years ago, he got really shady," said Jackson, sitting just a few feet away from Storch at Miami's Hit Factory studios. "And that's the best term I could use. He went from what his normal vices were to suddenly becoming a person who was infatuated with the drug, and I saw it constantly." Storch's drug was cocaine. The abuse of the narcotic almost cost him his career — and his life. Earlier this year, he was arrested for grand theft auto for allegedly failing to return a Bentley he'd leased in 2006. And last year, Storch hit legal trouble after reportedly falling behind on both his child-support payments and his property taxes. "A lot of the work that we would do and how much we would do of it, that started to scale back. I have to say the magic month was August of 2006," Jackson continued. "I will never forget it. It will be something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. You know, '06 for us was the magic year; we hit Lotto. Everything worked. I mean, there was nothing that we did that did not work. I gotta honestly say, outside of my kids, it was the greatest year of my life. It was so many [hit records] I can't even tell you. That was the year he won [ASCAP's] Songwriter of the Year [award]. We broke records — lots of [chart] records we broke and he did them quick. It was just a wonderful year, but I think it was defined by that magic month of August. He ran into the Hollywood class — and when he went to Hollywood, all things changed." Most notably, Storch went on vacation. "It was the first time he took off in, I would say, the duration of his career. I've been with him since he was 17 years old. I found Scott [playing keyboards with] the Roots in 1992, so for the duration of that, he's always been a worker bee, that's just his spirit. But in August of 06', we took a month off. It was over. Never came back." Literally. Storch got addicted to drugs and just stopped caring about his career. "Scott, I have to be real because, once again, it's about a story that has to be told," Jackson said. "We made a lot of money — I mean a lot of money that year [2006]. And Scott — in all honesty — he was broke by January. It was the quickest [loss] of money that I've ever seen in my entire life." "The cost of the drug didn't effect my life," Storch weighed in. "It was the poor decisions I made, that were so poor financially, that caused me to go into this situation where I was forced to change my lifestyle ... forced to change a lot of things. "[I had] 15 to 20 cars at all times," he continued." That's not smart. I would take one of 15 half-million-dollar cars I owned and go to the mall and spend that much money. Stupid, stupid stuff. It's like it didn't make a difference. They were ego investments. I would have been great with three or four cars! I didn't need a 117-foot boat." "Cars!," Jackson explained of how Storch lost his fortune so quickly. "Private jets are expensive — please leave them alone if you can't afford them. Trips to the Riviera on a private jet is $250,000 one way. I'm talking about, it was a routine [with Scott]. Spending on others — if you can't take care of yourself, how you gonna take care of everybody else? And it got out of control." Storch weighed in, "I watched my own father, he went bankrupt and had problems with the IRS. He was living beyond his means, and I guess I was doing the same thing and not even realizing it." As much as he was making, Storch was spending double on drugs and overly luxurious living. He was out of control, and Jackson takes some of the blame for not intervening sooner. "I was an enabler, I was an enabler," Jackson admits. "And it wasn't until I got a phone call — rest in peace [former Def Jam Records President Shakir Stewart, who died of an apparent suicide last year]. My man, one of my closest and dearest friends in the music business, said, 'D, what are you doing? Scott has Janet Jackson sitting in his studio and it's going on five hours. Where is he at? What are you doing, D? What are you doing?' And I knew the routine started to become like that. We did it to a lot of people in '07. It's when it all went bad. We had people sit in the studio for upwards of 10 hours at a time. And I would never be real to [Scotty]. I guess I got to a point where I stopped caring. We made money, I watched him blow it, I didn't care anymore. But then I watched that phone call come from Shakir." Eventually Jackson would exhaust himself trying to get his friend to clean up, so he resigned as Storch's manager. Scott still didn't get point: His addiction had tapped his inspiration to make music. "It started affecting me where my own son would be like, 'Dad, what's up? When's the next hit record coming up?' " Storch recalled. "I didn't have a answer for him." It wasn't until 18 months later that Storch and Jackson would see each other again. Storch had decided he needed help. "[It was] probably in the worst state I've seen [anyone] in my life," Jackson said of Storch. "Somebody that you knew when they were young and full of zest and fire and excitable — the spirit that the kid had was incredible. But to come back to black eyes, bloodied and bowed and unlike the person you knew. To be quite frank, he was a junkie. He was a junkie. And it was unlike anything I had seen in him, ever. Ever." Jackson checked Storch into a rehab facility called Recovery First. Thomas Trevino, a mental health tech and a three-quarter-way manager at Recovery First has been working with Storch for the past few months. "I can clearly remember the first day he came in," Trevino recalled. "The guy just looked like many others clients we've got: emotionally, physically and spiritually broken. Throughout the time, he resided in our in-patient program and he eventually graduated into an out-patient program; he was then taken into our three-quarter way house. "I have seen him change," Trevino continued. "I've seen his mind is totally opposite from day one. The guy couldn't even carry on a clear conversation when he first came in. And now I have been having the honor and privilege to come with him to the studio a couple times and check him out, see what he's doing. And it seems like he's back on track, man. He's a great inspiration for many out there who are trying to do this line of work — and at the same time he's a great inspiration for many drug addicts out there who want to stay clean and live this way of life." "It's just that type of deal," Storch — who is still under treatment — said of his fall and his climb back to the top. "I've lived it, done it. I've been around a lot of greats I seen in this industry that have problems, but the comeback can be that much greater. It's a well of creativity in my mind right now; it's not being hindered and being in love with the music again — seeing the day and taking advantage of the opportunities I've been afforded." Storch is back at work, and says he's better than ever. He's in the studio with the Game for three days, and next week goes to Orlando to work with Chris Brown. There's also a track in the works involving him, Quincy Jones and Jennifer Hudson, as well as Kat DeLuna's potential first single. Outside of music, he's been shooting a reality show and has guest appearances from the Kardashians. "This is God's work," Jackson opined. "So he has to respect that. I just hope that the people out there that watch this take the time to understand that even in the lowest of moments — because it was low for me, it took a year out of my life, it destroyed my life because I was so in tune to him — to always remember you can come back, you can clean your life up. You can be the same again. It's never too late. Never too late — never! So hopefully from this, people will understand that there's always a tomorrow." Source:MTVNEWS
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Approximately one month after his release from prison, West Coast lyricist Ras Kass is ready to get back to work, he told AllHipHop.com in a recent interview. But his new direction may surprise some of his fans. The former Capitol Records artist, born John Austin IV, was arrested in October 2007, reportedly for violating the terms of his probation for a previous arrest, by appearing at the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta. While he would not speak about the circumstances that lead to this most recent arrest, Ras Kass was very candid about the recent adjustments he’s had to make. “I’m kinda numb, evidently happier and appreciative,” Ras Kass told AllHipHop.com. “Any situation where you’re removed from day-to-day normality, you have to get used to it. The adjustments are everything. It’s sensory overload, especially in respect to where I just came from, where everything is regimented. “[But] It’s a time when you just gotta grow up, in whatever respect it is. So it’s certain things I can and cannot do. Ninety percent of it is recognizing that. The other ten percent is putting it into action.” Ras Kass said he took advantage of his two-year sentence to study the business side of the game. His motivation for such research, he explained, was the disparity between his level of talent and his level of success as he sees it. “My whole thing was sitting back and doing a lot of third-person critiquing of Ras Kass,” the rapper recounted. “'He’s probably arguably in my opinion, one of the greatest lyricist that has many a time been swept under the rug by the music business. Part of the problem that has held Ras Kass back is having the right team, the right marketing, the right company behind him for him to be able to do the same things as other talented people such as Outkast or TI or Nas or Jay-Z or Eminem. Talented people who make it to the next level.’” “My thing was, I don’t need to write a rap. I’m good at that. That’s not the issue,” the lyricist continued. “So I wanted to focus on the business. Imma probably do online just to get acclimated. And it’s not like I can’t record during that time, but my focus is the business and putting the right team together.” Ras Kass is also undertaking a great challenge in his personal life: seeking a college degree, something he’s been wanting to do for nearly a decade. Apparently, he and rapper Xzibit had discussed the idea of not only going through the experience together, but also documenting it, even before the advent of reality TV. The likeliness that Ras Kass’ college experience will become must-see-tv is unlikely, however, as he says he’s in it for the education at this point. He reassures his fans that none of this means he is retiring from rapping. “It’s my passion,” he asserted. “I’m not retired, it’s just I have to reassess, even before this situation happened, what needs to be done. Some of my s**t, [people] are just gonna have to rediscover it. If we talking about body of work, as a solo artist, 16 bars, three verses per song: dude, I’ve said some s**t! And I don’t get the same credit that the more known people get. The goal is 90% business and 10% music. If the business isn’t right, the music’s always gonna suffer.”
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