Grisly killings, abductions, and rapes allegedly committed by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in central Africa have garnered international attention following the release of a video highlighting abuses committed by the group and its leader, Joseph Kony.
The half-hour film (below) produced by Invisible Children follows a former child soldier named Jacob. The film issues a call for action, reportedly aiming to raise awareness by making Joseph Kony a household name. While the organization describes itself as a movement seeking to end the conflict in Uganda, some have criticized the group's spending practices and the film's approach as overly simplistic.
However, the LRA is allegedly responsible for a host of abuses, including the murder, rape, and abduction of tens of thousands in the past two decades. The Associated Press reports:
Kony, whose army abducts children and takes women as sex slaves, has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity committed during a decades-long insurgency against Uganda's government. The group has been blamed for the murder of thousands of civilians in four countries, and the U.S. classifies it as a terrorist organization.
Myths surround the LRA's leader, Joseph Kony, who enjoys a cult-like respect. Kony calls himself a "freedom fighter," although it is unclear why he is fighting.
Last October, President Obama announced that 100 US troops would be dispatched to central Africa as advisers to those fighting against the LRA. The LRA is reportedly fractured and weakened, however its leader Joseph Kony remains at large.
A Twitter campaign targeting celebrities and influential figures took off last night using the hashtag #STOPKONY. Below, see a few of the reactions:
Papoose is a very confident MC who he firmly believes he's the best rapper on the East Coast. The Brooklyn rapper stopped by Superstar Radio recently to further elaborate on the claim he made last year that he was the "King of New York."
Ice Cube stopped by Sway In The Morning recently to talk about his new movie 21 Jump Street, the next Friday film starring Mike Epps and possibly Chris Tucker, Detox , the NWA biopic and more.
Ice Cube speaks on 'Detox' delay
Ice Cube talks about the next Friday movie and confirms a NWA movie
Ice Cube talks about Amerikkka's Most Wanted and Boyz N the Hood
Austin's annual South by Southwest music festival just got a major addition to it's lineup.
It's been confirmed that Jay-Z will perform at the festival on March 12 at 7 p.m. CST. The show will be broadcast live on American Express' youtube channel as part of an interactive experience with fans who can request songs via Twitter.
Just use #JAYZSyncShow and #Songwhen you Tweet. If your song is the most requested, he'll perform it live from Austin.
50 Cent's banger "I Just Wanna" featuring Tony Yayo is the most added song on radio this week. Not a surprise given the fact that the D.R.U.G.S. produced song is so catchy.
According to HipHop-N-More it is "the most added song on Urban radio with 26 adds and also the most added when Urban & Rhythmic are combined with a total of 37."
That total beats out new songs from the likes of Rihanna, B.o.B., Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown and Frank Ocean.
"I Just Wanna" is off of 50's street album/mixtape The Big 10. Make sure you call up your local radio stations and request it!
WZRD made their television debut Tuesday [March 6] on Conan. The band performed "Teleport 2 Me, Jamie" off of their new self-titled album, which is available now.
You can cop it from Amazon, iTunes and all other retail outlets.
Peyton Manning's 14-year career with the Indianapolis Colts is coming to an end after owner Jim Irsay informed the four-time NFL MVP on Monday night that the team will release him, according to team sources.
Irsay and Manning traveled together Tuesday night from South Florida on Irsay's private jet and will conduct a joint news conference at noon ET on Wednesday, which sources said will be to announce the quarterback's departure.
The pair was spotted together in Irsay's car after arriving in Indianapolis. Irsay began to address the media before Manning, while smiling, "We'll see ya'll tomorrow. We're gonna talk tomorrow."
When asked if they were both happy, Manning said: "We're good, we're good. We're gonna talk tomorrow. We're gonna do it the right way tomorrow."
Manning then repeated the same "We'll do it tomorrow" response when asked to describe how tough his pending release was for him.
The decision to pass on the $28 million bonus owed to Manning and not to pick up the four remaining years on his contract means Manning will become a free agent. Sources said Manning intends to continue playing despite missing the entire 2011 season after having his third neck surgery in 19 months, a fusion of two vertebrae.
Without Manning, the Colts went just 2-14 and landed the No. 1 overall pick in April's draft.
Irsay has since rebuilt the Colts organization, firing vice chairman Bill Polian, coach Jim Caldwell, most of Caldwell's staff and general manager Chris Polian, Bill's son.
Manning preferred to remain with the Colts, one source said, but a source close to Irsay said the owner concluded that the major restructuring of the organization would include a change at quarterback, likely either former Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck or former Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III.
One source close to Irsay said the decision was not financially driven, evidenced by the fact the owner chose not to engage in negotiations to restructure Manning's contract.
Free agency begins March 13, but Manning can sign with another NFL team immediately after the Colts formally release him. Indianapolis has until 4 p.m. ET on Thursday to make the transaction official.
Sources said Manning expects to have significant dialogue with interested teams before he makes a decision on where to resume his career and will likely work out for a few select teams once he analyzes his top choices.
Dr. Robert Watkins, who performed the single-level cervical fusion, has stated publicly that he has cleared Manning to resume his playing career and the damaged nerves have regenerated to the point where Manning has thrown the ball with greater distance and velocity in the past few weeks.
To that end, Manning, who turns 36 later this month, conducted an aggressive throwing session in his Colts helmet, shoulder pads and jersey at Duke University on Friday, a source said.
Sources at Duke and close to Manning confirmed he had been conducting aggressive throwing sessions in shoulder pads and helmet since Feb. 28 at Duke, where his former University of Tennessee offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe is now the head coach. It was Manning's second trip to work under the supervision of Cutcliffe.
Several current teammates who took the field with the quarterback and non-Colts coaches who observed Manning throw in challenging environments during five days of workouts encouraged Manning to keep playing, sources said.
Tom Moore, who was Manning's longtime offensive coordinator beginning in the quarterback's rookie year of 1998, was one of the coaches to observe Manning at Duke, sources said.
Moore retired two years ago, but was an offensive consultant for New York Jets in 2011. His time with the Jets ended with the team's final regular-season game and Moore no longer has any affiliation with the Jets, which enabled him to accept Manning's invitation to observe the workouts.
A former No. 1 overall pick, Manning has broken all of Indianapolis' career records for quarterbacks since being drafted out of Tennessee in 1998. He's taken the Colts to the playoffs 11 times, captured seven AFC South titles in eight years, won two AFC championships, one Super Bowl title and aSuper Bowl MVP Award.
But in 2009, after Manning brought the Colts to the cusp of history with a 14-0 start, bad news began to overshadow his lengthy resume. The Colts pulled their starters against the Jets and lost the final two games that season. Indy then wound up losing to New Orleans in the Super Bowl. During the offseason, Manning had the first of his neck surgeries.
Then, after making an early playoff exit in the 2010 season, Manning underwent another neck surgery to repair a damaged nerve that was causing weakness in his throwing arm.
Last July, Irsay signed Manning to a new five-year, $90 million contract extension that everyone expected would keep Manning in Indy for the rest of his career.
But when the nerve did not heal as quickly as anticipated, Manning had two vertebrae fused together in September, a surgery that forced him to miss the first game of his career.
Word of the impending breakup caught one of Manning's closest friends, longtime center Jeff Saturday, off guard. Saturday said Tuesday night that the two had not yet spoken about the apparent decision.
"I never thought it was a foregone conclusions," Saturday told The AP. "I was always hopeful they'd get something worked out, and that he would be back in a horseshoe, but it doesn't look that's going to happen."
Music really is the universal language. English speaking singers and rappers can travel to foreign countries and the audiences can recite their lyrics word for word.
A prime example of that is a 13-year old Iranian named Tara. Here she sings a fantastic version of Adele's"Someone Like You."
Rush Limbaugh is a desperate man. He stuck his foot in his mouth so deep that he's resorted to grasping at straws to try to get himself out of trouble.
The conservative talk show host referred to Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke as a "slut" and a "prostitute" on air, after she testified to congressional Democrats that her Jesuit college's health plan should cover her birth control, because she spends $3000 a month on it.
"If we're going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch," he added the next day.
President Obama reached out to Fluke after hearing about Limbaugh's comments.
"He encouraged me and supported me and thanked me for speaking out about the concerns of American women," she told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell. "What was really personal for me was that he said to tell my parents that they should be proud. And that meant a lot because Rush Limbaugh questioned whether or not my family would be proud of me. So I just appreciated that very much."
That call seemed to set Limbaugh off even more because he had more to say the following day.
"I'd be embarrassed," he said. "I'd disconnect the phone. I'd go into hiding."
Now advertisers are pulling out of his show left and right. At least nine, including AOL have pulled the plug. And one station in Hawaii has dropped the show completely.
Limbaugh has since apologized for the comments he made last week, but he's found a scapegoat. He's now blaming hip-hop. His argument being he should be allowed to say what he wants because rappers do it all the time.
"You talk about the double standard, one of the greatest illustrations of it is that rappers can practically say anything they want about women, and it's called art," he wrote on his website.
The Huffington Post compares Limbaugh's comments to Don Imus and Jackie Magazine. Check out their take on it below:
Limbaugh's original comment about Fluke and his rapper defense are reminiscent of a similar incident in 2007 when another radio host, Don Imus, referred to the primarily black Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy headed ho's." Imus said that the phrase "originated in the black community," citing the degradation of women in hip hop music.
More recently in December 2011, the Dutch fashion magazine, Jackie came under fire for referring to singer Rihanna as "the ultimate n*ggabitch." The magazine editor (who later resigned after the backlash) issued an apology on their Facebook page. Hoeke also referred to the prevalence of the expression in the media:
"It was stupid, it was naive to think that this was an acceptable form of slang--you hear it all the time on tv and radio, then your idea of what is normal apparently shifts--but it was especially misguided: there was no malice behind it."
Are Limbaugh's comments about rap as outrageous as what he said about Fluke? And can you even compare an art form to a talk show?
2 Chainz is arguably the hottest rapper in the south right now. Here we get a behind the scenes look at the life of the newest artist to sign to Def Jam Records.
From the stage, to video sets, this is "A Night in the Life" of 2 Chainz.
Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) traveled to Paris, France recently and stopped by Radio Nova. While there he performed an in-studio version of "N*ggas In Poorest," a remake of The Throne's"N*ggas In Paris."
Bay Area legend E-40 Fonzerelli is back with new music for the masses. "Function" is the lead single off of his upcoming albums The Block Brochure: Welcome To The Soil 1,2 & 3, due in stores March 26.
If you're a Jay-Z fan you have heard Young Guru's name shouted out by the rapper many times on records. He is Hov's No. 1 engineer. If anybody knows what Jay has planned musically is would be Guru.
Complex caught up with Guru recently to talk about two projects that are on everyone's minds.
Young Guru
On Jay-Z's upcoming solo album:
"Jay-Z is always working on stuff, it’s a concept that I can’t talk about but I’m marveled at how smart this guy is. When he told me the concept, I was like ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ It was just so simple. It’s not a concept album though. It’s not like American Gangster, it’s not a Beatles concept album. It has a concept and a title, and the title and the concept fit him so well that people are going to be like ‘Wow.’"
"I like certain writers because it takes me 8,000 paragraphs to get my full point across. When somebody can take what I just said and condense it into two sentences and still have the same effectiveness, that’s a good writer. The simplicity of the title and the concept that it conveys is incredible."
"I can’t tell you the title, it’s so good it’s like, ‘Oh my god why didn’t I think of that? What made you think of that and why haven’t we done that before?’ It’s just staring us in the face all these years, we could’ve been put that out as an album concept."
On the possibility of Watch The Throne 2:
"It's definitely a serious consideration. Hasn’t been underway yet but definitely serious consideration. Has been talked about but hasn’t been executed yet. Definitely could happen. A lot of artists just say sh*t too but if you think about it, this is just my opinion, the way I would like it to go-I would like Kanye to do the G.O.O.D. Music album and Jay-Z to do a solo album then they go out and tour and do all that sh*t and then next year, or the end of the year, we get Watch the Throne 2. To me, that would be the best thing to happen. I think the G.O.O.D. Music album is necessary for Kanye to establish that brand because they need to establish [themselves]."
Yelawolf was forced to cancel a scheduled concert tonight in Detroit after being hospitalized on Friday March [March 2] in Madison, Wisconsin.
"He remains under observation for illness," Live Nation announced via the Detroit News. "At the request of his doctor, the show will be postponed to a later date."
Kawan Prather, the CEO of the production company, Ghet-O-Vision Entertainment, Yela is signed to said the Shady Records artist needs rest.
“He’s going to be okay,” Prather told XXLMag.com. “He just needs to get some rest. He goes hard at these shows and is taking some mandatory rest right now.”
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