HipHopWired Reports
The Underground Music Awards is making its seventh return as the fireworks are set to start going off August 23. Hosted by Urban Threshold, the event will be showcased at the Famous BB Kings Concert Hall in Times Square, New York City.
Last year the event was hosted by Slick Rick and GrandMaster Flash and featured such upstart MCs as Donny Goines, Red Café and Mickey Factz.
Geared towards indie artists, this awards ceremony has been dubbed as being the largest awards show that takes place in commemoration for the Hip-Hop heads that take their musical endeavors out the hands of major labels and invest in themselves independently. This goes to show that all work, no matter how much coverage is given, is unappreciated.
Old school and new school have been honored at this event in prior years with legends such as Slick Rick, GrandMaster Flash, Kid Capri, Marley Marl and up and comers such as Serius Jones, Joell Ortiz and Saigon.
Just like the underground artist on the come up, this awards show is also unconventional and breaks the general rules that have been set by premier awards shows. The sole purpose of this event is to acknowledge unsigned artists and underground artists for their contributions to the urban scene of music unlike things such as the Grammy Awards, the Billboard Music Awards or even BET award shows.
The overall theme is blending as DJs, artists, fans, media outlets and music professionals are all brought to the same venue in order to network and build relationships past the closing of the event. Think of it as an awards show mixed with a Hip-Hop Summit or round-table.
Performances featured include DMC from Run DMC, Freeway and more. Click here for more information.
Also, checkout footage from last year's event.
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HipHopWired Reports
Today the rapper known as Shyne learned around 2:30 p.m. that he will be given the minimum in regards to his parole, according to his attorney, Oscar Michelen. Through an interview with HipHopDX, Michelen informed all of the conditions and arrangements made as it pertained to his parole release.
“He gave him two-and-a-half [years], which was the minimum. The D.A. had requested the maximum, five years… [Shyne] got a chance to address the court today. He did address the court and asked court to consider not giving him any post release supervision at all. But the court said that it was obligated to do so. And [the judge] pointed out that he agreed with our argument [and so] he's gonna give us the minimum… And we're just thankful that the court read our sentencing memorandums and agreed with our position. We now wait for his release, which should be October 6th.”
Some may question why the sentence is coming now, especially since the rapper has already served 8 _ of his 10 required years. Michelen explained that when he was sentenced in March 2001, he wasn't given a parole sentence which was actually mandatory. As a result, the Correction Department made a request for the court to re-sentence him.
Life behind bars has caused a change in the rapper. Spiritually, the man once known as Jamel Barrow has now become a devout Orthodox Jew and changed his name to Moses Michael Leviy.
Initial fears came from the client and his attorney if Shyne were given the full five year parole term it would limit him from making rounds and even making a consideration to music as he would not be allowed to leave the state of New York and he would have constant surveillance on him as he would have to be given permission to engage in most activities as an artist. He will, however, still have particular restrictions to deal with after his release in October, according to Michelen.
“[The] parole [board] will decide [any restrictions],” he noted. “The usual parameters are you can't leave the state without prior permission. If you change your address you have to give them notice. You can be randomly drug tested. They could even search your home randomly without notice. And the most important [parameter of parole] is if you were to commit a crime, or get re-arrested for anything, you can face jail for the full two-and-a-half years of your PRS [post release supervision].”
Although the last thing that might be in the mind of Shyne is music, there have been rumors that he has been in talks with Jay-Z to be yet another recruit for his new Roc Nation imprint. The rapper allegedly went to speak with Shyne last Friday to discuss the possibility of him signing. Nothing has been confirmed from this rumor, however.
Shyne has been incarcerated since his involvement in a shooting on December 27, 1999 at Club New York. At the time he was under the Bad Boy label and was in the company of then Puff Daddy and his former girlfriend Jennifer Lopez. Although there seems to be no need for worry or retaliation, Shyne has stated that he knows his former boss had a hand in him living behind bars and snitched on him in some form.
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An Alabama woman was arrested after police say she injured a child while dragging it through a store in Rome.
According to Floyd County Jail records:
Melissa Catherine Smith-Means, 37, of Gaylesville, Ala., was arrested by Rome police around 12:30 p.m. She was charged with felony first-degree cruelty to children.
Police say she was observed by customers and employees at a store on Broad Street, dragging a small child around by a backpack leash. The child had visible marks on the neck from the incident.
She remains in jail without bail.
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AllHipHop Reports
West Coast rap icon Snoop Dogg will be among a group of celebrities slated to help celebrate the 10th anniversary of ABC’s hit game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
The two-week run will include a different celebrity, who will take the hot seat every night to answer a single question.
A correct answer will result in the celebrity winning $50,000 for his or her favorite charity.
In addition to Snoop Dogg, the Millionaire 10th anniversary will include appearances from Vanessa Williams, Sherri Shepard, Katy Perry, Rachel Ray, Steve Nash, Lauren Conrad, Patricia Heaton, Shawn Johnson, Wynonna… and a “surprise guest.”
The 10th anniversary of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire will premiere from 8 p.m. to p.m. Sunday (Aug. 9) on ABC.
The celebration will continue for 11 nights as it airs at 8 p.m. Sunday-Thursday. The 10th anniversary finale is scheduled to air from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET Aug. 23.
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Wendy Sewell, Therese Ziemann and Michelle Belliveau face up to six years in prison for their glue revenge ambush.
NYDailyNews Reports
A married man who planned to rendezvous with one of his handful of lovers at an eastern Wisconsin motel instead found himself bound, blindfolded and assaulted by a group of women out for revenge, according to court documents.
Four women, including his wife, eventually showed up to humiliate the man, who ended up with his penis glued to his stomach in a bizarre plot to punish him for a lover's quadrangle gone bad, according to the documents filed in Calumet County.
Now it's the women who face punishment, perhaps six years in prison, and at least one said Monday the story has gotten twisted and she's embarrassed. "I am disturbed.
I am upset. I am having a hard time handling life; an emotional wreck," Wendy Sewell, 43, of Kaukauna, said in a telephone interview from her home.
"I am ashamed." Sewell, Therese Ziemann, 48, of Menasha, Michelle Belliveau, 43, of Neenah, and the man's wife are charged with being party to false imprisonment, a felony.
Ziemann also is charged with fourth-degree sexual assault. The women are free on $200 cash bails. Investigators say all the women but Belliveau were romantically involved with the man.
Online court records didn't list defense attorneys for any of the women Monday. The Associated Press is not naming the man's wife to protect his identity as an alleged victim of sexual assault.
The women's plot for revenge unfolded last Thursday at the Lakeview Motel about 30 miles southwest of Green Bay in the tiny village of Stockbridge near the scenic shores of Lake Winnebago.
Criminal complaints filed Friday allege the man agreed to be bound with "sheer sheets" and blindfolded with a pillowcase for a "rub down" by Ziemann.
She instead cut off his underwear with a scissors and summoned the others to the room with a text message.
Ziemann struck the man in the face, and used Krazy Glue to attach his penis to his stomach when the other women arrived, according to the complaints.
The man told investigators he also was threatened with a gun.
Ziemann told investigators she didn't have a gun but may have told the victim, "Do you know how much I want to shoot you?"
He started screaming and the women rushed off fearful that he could get loose and hurt them but allegedly took his wallet, vehicle and cell phone.
Ziemann told investigators she met the man online through Craigslist, fell in love and paid for his use of a room at the motel for the past two months.
She said she gave him about $3,000.
Then last Wednesday, she learned from the man's wife that he was married, had other girlfriends and was "using them for money." She expected the money to be repaid, according to the documents.
During Thursday's confrontation with the man, Ziemann told investigators Sewell asked him, "Which one do you love more?" and the man's wife made a derisive remark about him being scared.
The man got free from the bed by chewing through one of his bindings, went outside and borrowed a telephone from the motel owner to call police.
Ziemann and Belliveau are sisters and Belliveau didn't do anything wrong, Sewell said Monday.
"She was just there for moral support. She wasn't even dating the guy. She stood at the door the whole time and didn't participate or nothing."
Ziemann's husband answered the telephone at their home and declined comment. There was no telephone listing for Belliveau. The man had no telephone listing in Fond du Lac.
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Aubrey O'Day took some time out of her busy "Peepshow" rehearsals to work with Young Money's Shanell Woodgette for a cover of Eddie Murphy's 1985 hit "Party All the Time."
O'Day worked with Maestro on the production and, according to Celebuzz, she even wrote a new bridge for the song. O'Day posted a link to the track on her Twitter page.
This isn't Woodgette's first collaboration with one of the Danity Kane ladies — Shanell is actually "Making the Band" alum D. Woods' sister and has written songs for the group, including "Key to My Heart" off their Welcome to the Dollhouse album. She also penned Lil Wayne's "Prom Queen."
O'Day also recently revealed her love of all things Eddie Murphy when she tweeted that one of his classic flicks is on her favorite movies list. " 'Coming to America' is on, one of my favorite movies!!!!!!!" she wrote.
In addition to the song, O'Day is also gearing up to make her debut in "Peepshow" this September in Las Vegas. The former "Hairspray" star told MTV News that she was looking forward to the part. "I'm about to take a huge star's position in a Vegas show that just opened," she said. "And coming with me will be reality-show cameras, of course ... I'm starting to film my reality show, hopefully coming out in October."
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WWLTV Reports
Attorneys selected four jurors Monday in the second murder trial of rapper Corey "C-Murder" Miller.
Miller is charged with the second-degree murder of a 16-year-old in a now-closed nightclub in Harvey back in 2002.
The judge began questioning potential jurors individually to see how much they've heard about the case that has twisted and turned in court, and in the public spotlight, for seven years.
After a month-long trial, a Jefferson Parish jury convicted Miller of second-degree murder in 2003. But the judge in the case, Judge Martha Sassone, threw the conviction out. Her handling of the case was the subject of her heated re-election bid last year when her challenger, Ellen Kovach, criticized Sassone’s handling of the C-Murder case. Kovach won the election and later recused herself from it.
It was just one of the many turns of events in the murder of 16-year-old Steve Thomas that generated publicity.
Over the years, Miller made a rap video from inside the Jefferson Parish jail, drawing the ire of the late Sheriff Harry Lee.
Lee said during a 2002 press conference, "He just wants to be a gangster and it may very well be that he's living out his lyrics, or he wants to live 'em out and write another song or whatever he's doing.”
Publicity played a role in Miller’s second murder trial, as his attorney tried to get it moved to another parish.
“It really hasn't been publicity about the substance of the case as much as it has been about the name of the defendant,” said Loyola Law Professor Dane Ciolino.
Miller's attorney, Ron Rakowsky, tried once again to get the case moved out of Jefferson Parish before jury selection began Monday. Rakowsky told the judge in court, "As much as we try, I think it's going to be impossible to get a fair jury here."
Prosecutors argued that enough time has lapsed between the murder and the trial that publicity isn't as much of an issue.
Publicity swirled again three months ago when Miller pleaded no contest to two counts of attempted second-degree murder in a Baton Rouge nightclub shooting, where the rapper was caught on surveillance video.
“If it turns out throughout this voir dire process that so many jurors know so much about the case that it prejudicially affects their ability to sit as a fair and impartial juror, I don't think the judge would have much of a choice other than to try this case in some other judicial district,” Ciolino said.
The professor continued, saying Rakowsky's attempts to move the trial were likely legal maneuvers as much as they are attempts at fairness.
“Jefferson Parish juries are typically more conservative. It's not a very defendant-friendly jurisdiction. And for that reason alone, I'm sure defense lawyers would like to be in another parish,” he said.
Miller’s last trial depended solely on eyewitness testimony, and often featured conflicting eyewitness testimony from the defense. hat could by why defense attorneys said in court Monday that the prosecutors filed notice that they may call as many as 85 witnesses in the case.
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After watching this insane "birther" I had to look further into who they are and what they represent. Here is an interesting article I found
Who Are the Birthers?
Conspiracy theories often flourish in the wake of traumatic or game-changing events – the Sept. 11 attacks, the moon landing, the Kennedy assassination – and the election of America's first black president has been no exception.
Almost as soon as Barack Obama emerged as a serious candidate for the presidency, rumors about whether or not he is really an American, and thus eligible for the presidency, began popping up online. In response, the Obama campaign posted his birth certificate (Here It Is) showing that Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961.
But that did not quiet the skeptics, a group that has been come to be known as the "birthers." If anything, it encouraged them. They argued that the birth certificate is a fake, and that Mr. Obama is not the "natural born citizen" he claims to be. Mr. Obama, many birthers say, was actually born in Kenya, though there are a number of theories that fall under the birther umbrella.
The din eventually got loud enough that some reputable organizations checked out the birthers' claims – and they found no evidence to support them. In fact, there was overwhelming evidence against such claims, including Mr. Obama's 1961 birth announcement, printed in two Hawaii newspapers. Here's one detailed investigation, and here's another.
PolitiFact wrote after its extensive look at the claims a year ago:
It is possible that Obama conspired his way to the precipice of the world's biggest job, involving a vast network of people and government agencies over decades of lies. Anything's possible.
But step back and look at the overwhelming evidence to the contrary and your sense of what's reasonable has to take over.
Yet the birthers' claims have not simply survived into Mr. Obama's presidency – they've actually gained steam. Liz Cheney, talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Michael Reagan and even CNN's Lou Dobbs are among those taking the birthers' theories seriously. Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes and others have pushed the argument in court; earlier this month a soldier challenged his deployment to Iraq based on birther claims.
The birthers are a passionate bunch, as this video of a birther angrily confronting Delaware Republican.Rep Mike Castle handily illustrates "Why are you people ignoring his birth certificate?," the woman asks, prompting cheers from the crowd. "He is not an American citizen, he is a citizen of Kenya."
Some Congressional Republicans have also taken up the birther cause: California Rep. John Campbell co-sponsored a bill (with at least nine others) requiring presidential candidates to submit a birth certificate, a wink and a nod action that he maintains is somehow not related to the birthers' claims. When MSNBC's Chris Matthews asked Campbell if he believed Mr. Obama is a natural born citizen, Campbell hedged, saying, "As far as I know, yes, OK?" He told Matthews, "it doesn`t matter whether I have doubts or not."
To find out why the birthers' claims have endured, Hotsheet contacted Michael Barkun, an expert in conspiracy theories and professor of political science at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.
"There are people out there who firmly believe that the truth is always hidden, regardless of whether it's about politics or science or any other subject," he said. "That whatever is presented as public knowledge is necessarily false. That the truth is always hidden from them, regardless of what the subject is."
Pressed on why that is the case, Barkun pointed to the ability of the Internet and to a lesser extent television to disseminate conspiracy theories far more easily than ever before. He also said that, "in a strange way, conspiracy theories are comforting."
"They give people a feeling that we know the truth," Barkun said. "That we have secret knowledge, and that we know how the world really works. In a sense, we're part of a kind of elite of those who know and everybody else is misled or are trapped by illusions."
The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder, CBS News' chief political consultant, notes along these lines that "birthers now wear the term 'birther' as badge of honor, as if they were a persecuted minority -- which, come to think of it, is one mechanism for solidarity in the face of evidence to the contrary."
As Ambinder suggests, the birther phenomenon goes to the heart of the dilemma now facing the Republican Party.
"Republican presidential candidates need to figure out how to diffuse angry birthers who are bound to show up and demand their attention," he writes. "…If they give credence to the birthers, they're (not only advancing ignorance but also) betraying the narrowness of their base. If they dismiss this growing movement, they might drive birthers to find more extreme candidates, which will fragment a Republican political coalition."
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LATimes Reports
Ryan O'Neal admits that he was so frazzled at Farrah Fawcett's funeral that he hit on his own daughter, Tatum O'Neal.
“They had just put the casket in the hearse and I was watching it drive away when a beautiful blonde woman comes up and embraces me," Ryan tells Vanity Fair. "I said to her, 'You have a drink on you? You have a car?' She said, 'Daddy, it's me -- Tatum!' I was just trying to be funny with a strange Swedish woman, and it's my daughter. It's so sick."
But the bigger question is whether Ryan's devotion to Farrah in her last days was just an act.
His son Redmond thinks it was.
"All those crocodile tears! ... My dad's only goal was to make sure he would be in the will,” Redmond tells Vanity Fair. "It was so disgustingly transparent as soon as he found out she was terminal. I consider him a vulture presiding over a carcass. Ryan thought he was going to get everything."
Farrah reportedly left almost her entire estate to Redmond. And nothing to Ryan.
Both Tatum and her brother Griffin O'Neal also speak to Vanity Fair of Ryan's failures as a father, his rages and his drug use.
"My father is afraid of me because I know the truth," Griffin says. "That's the part that absolutely scares him to death." Griffin suggests that the family's problems might have something to do with the fact that Ryan plied his children with drugs -- "My father gave me cocaine when I was 11 and insisted I take it. ... He was violent all the way through my upbringing," says Griffin. "He was a very abusive, narcissistic psychopath. He gets so mad he can't control anything he's doing."
Tatum wrote a book about her childhood, much to her father's annoyance.
"No parent wants to hear their kid saying [awful] things about them. ... But what I wrote in the book was true. I've got a battle with drugs, but I'm a strong, independent person, and I fight for myself, and my father and I butt heads. When I was 16 years old, he and Farrah moved in together, and after that I saw my dad periodically, and that took a long time for me to get over."
About being hit on by her dad, Tatum sighs and says: "That's our relationship in a nutshell. You make of it what you will." It had been a few years since we'd seen each other, and he was always a ladies' man, a bon vivant."
The documentary, "Farrah's Story," about the actress' fight against anal cancer, has been nominated for an Emmy and there will be a tribute to her during the Sept. 20 awards show.
Will Ryan and Farrah's friend and documentary producer Alana Stewart appear together?
Are they living off Farrah's limelight? What do you think?
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NYDailyNews Reports
Boxer Rob Newbiggin will fight for the last time Aug. 14 - as a man, that is.
The Southport, England, boxer will undergo a sex change operation, after which he will be a female known as Mercedes, The Southport Visiter reported.
Newbiggin, born in Pennsylvania in 1964, had the anatomy of a male but high levels of the female hormone estrogen, which mean he could not be definitively classified as either sex.
His parents abandoned him, and he was adopted at age 2 1/2 by Ted Newbiggin and his wife, who had immigrated to Canada from Manchester, England.
Around age 12, Newbiggin picked up boxing, after his father encouraged him to act more masculine.
“My dad said that I had to act like a man because people wouldn't accept me as anything else,” the younger Newbiggin told the Southport Visiter.
“He was trying to protect me. I didn't find out I was adopted until I was 16, and then about how I was born, but then it all started making sense to me,” he said.
Newbiggin's announcement was first printed in the daily tabloid The Sun, and he said afterward he had “lost every friend I have ever had in the world in this town.”
“My friends don't want to know me. I’ve got people winding their windows down shouting abuse at me while I go for my run – that’s why we are having to relocate. I have to think about my kids,” the boxer said.
As far as his kids are concerned, Newbiggin says sex will have no bearing on his ability to be a parent, and he might even do better as a woman.
“When it comes to my kids, it doesn't matter whether I’m a mother or a father as long as I’m a good parent,” he said. “And I think I'll be a better parent as a woman. I haven't provided enough financial stability in my male life for my children.”
He and his wife, Emma, who have been married for three years, are going to stay together, Newbiggin said, and added that she has been extremely supportive.
“I am so lucky in that respect because she understands what I'm going through.”
After becoming Mercedes, Newbiggin said, he hopes to have a future in modeling, painting and interior design. He also said he plans to apply for a boxing license as a female to continue his career.
Newbiggin said he has been flooded with supportive correspondence from people whom his story has moved to come forward.
“So our family’s sacrifice of our privacy is already working to help others, and that’s what this whole things is about.”
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Southside Jamaica & Far Rockaway Queens collabo as Bynoe from The Riot Squad links up with G-Unit's Tony Yayo !
This joint is off of Bynoe's new mixtape "Live Bad,Die Famous"
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