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Pharoahe Monch is back with a new single from his latest album W.A.R. (We Are Renegades). He gets assists from Phonte and Styles-P.

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N.O.R.E. drops new visuals for this Neptunes produced track off of his "The N.O.R.E.aster EP'.

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In many of Kidd Kidd's songs he references fallen rapper Soulja Slim and being next in line to put the city of New Orleans on his back.

For a young artist that may seem like a tall task, but Kidd Kidd says too many others have made it big and never came back to help the people of the city. He plans on doing things much differently.

“When you hear me, you hear the real New Orleans, you hear the struggle. The real struggle of New Orleans,” he told MTV. “A lot of people that’s from New Orleans that done made it out of New Orleans never really came back to really see what’s goin’ on down there; to help out or anything. And me I’m still down there, I’m still in that struggle; I been hit six times from being in the midst of that struggle," he explained. "But the Lord put me here for a reason. Rest in peace Soulja Slim. I'm here now -- all praise to 50 [Cent], Ryder Gang/G-Unit."

Jennifer Lopez and her husband on seven years, Marc Anthony have decided to put the brakes on their marriage.

The couple released a joint statement today announcing the split.

"We have decided to end our marriage. This was a very difficult decision. We have come to amicable conclusion on all matters. It is a painful time for all involved and we appreciate the respect of our privacy at this time."

The bad news comes at a time when J-Lo has been experiencing a comeback of sorts since becoming a judge on American Idol.

This was the third marriage for Lopez and second for Anthony. The couple have two children together, 3-year-old fraternal twins Max and Emme.

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Reuters

Black men are half as likely to die at any given time if they're in prison than if they aren't, suggests a new study of North Carolina inmates.

The black prisoners seemed to be especially protected against alcohol- and drug-related deaths, as well as lethal accidents and certain chronic diseases.

But that pattern didn't hold for white men, who on the whole were slightly more likely to die in prison than outside, according to findings published in Annals of Epidemiology.

Researchers say it's not the first time a study has found lower death rates among certain groups of inmates -- particularly disadvantaged people, who might get protection against violent injuries and murder.

"Ironically, prisons are often the only provider of medical care accessible by these underserved and vulnerable Americans," said Hung-En Sung of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

"Typically, prison-based care is more comprehensive than what inmates have received prior to their admission," Sung, who wasn't involved in the new study, told Reuters Health by email.

The new study involved about 100,000 men between age 20 and 79 who were held in North Carolina prisons at some point between 1995 and 2005. Sixty percent of those men were black.

Researchers linked prison and state health records to determine which of the inmates died, and of what causes, during their prison stay. Then they compared those figures with expected deaths in men of the same age and race in the general population.

Less than one percent of men died during incarceration, and there was no difference between black and white inmates. But outside prison walls, blacks have a higher rate of death at any given age than whites.

"What's very sad about this is that if we are able to all of a sudden equalize or diminish these health inequalities that you see by race inside a place like prison, it should also be that in places like a poor neighborhood we should be able to diminish these sort of inequities," said Evelyn Patterson, who studies correctional facilities at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

"If it can be done (in prison), then certainly it can happen outside of prison," Patterson, who wasn't linked to the new work, told Reuters Health.

As in the general population, cancer and heart and blood vessel diseases were the most common cause of death among inmates -- accounting for more than half of deaths.

White prisoners died of cardiovascular diseases as often as expected and died of cancer slightly more often than non-prisoners.

Black inmates, by contrast, were between 30 and 40 percent less likely to die of those causes than those who weren't incarcerated. They were also less likely to die of diabetes, alcohol- and drug-related causes, airway diseases, accidents, suicide and murder than black men not in prison.

All told, their risk of death at any age was only half that of men living in the community.

For white men, the overall death rate was slightly higher -- by about 12 percent -- than in the general population, with some of that attributed to higher rates of death from infection, including HIV and hepatitis. When the researchers broke prisoners up by age, death rates were only higher for white prisoners age 50 and older.

"For some populations, being in prison likely provides benefits in regards to access to healthcare and life expectancy," said study author Dr. David Rosen, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

But, he added in an email, "it's important to remember that there are many possible negative consequences of imprisonment -- for example, broken relationships, loss of employment opportunities, and greater entrenchment in criminal activity -- that are not reflected in our study findings but nevertheless have an important influence on prisoners' lives and their overall health."

For Rosen, one of the main messages from the study is the need to make the world outside of prison walls safer, and to make sure people living there have adequate access to healthcare.

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Chris Brown fans started lining up on Wednesday for a chance to see the singer perform on the Today Show this morning (July 15).

In the end a record 18,000 screaming members of Team Breezy got to see him sing and dance his way through some of their favorite songs at "Today's" Rockefeller Plaza location.

Check out the performance below.

Chris Brown fans began lining up on Wednesday for this morning's perfomance

"I Can Transform Ya"

"Yeah 3x"

"Forever"

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The Diplomats are bringing their story to the big screen. The working title for the flick is 'Diplomatic Immunity.'

Juelz Santana told XXL that the movie will cover a big chunk of his professional life, as well as that of Jim Jones, Cam'ron and Freekey Zekey.

“It’s gon’ be [about] the break up and us gettin’ back together leadin’ into the album,” Juelz told XXL. “The album is gonna be like the soundtrack to the movie. It’s just gonna be everything from [Cam'ron] meeting Biggie to him meeting me and us becoming The Diplomats.”

Juelz also said the Dips will be playing themselves in the movie.

“It’s gonna be a movie like the way they did Notorious,” Juelz said. “But we’re just gonna be playin’ ourselves. That might be the first [movie] where we get to play ourselves instead of havin’ people. We’ll do it when we’re younger, but as it gets to us we’ll really play ourselves, cut the hair off our face so we look younger and shit like that. Cam might have to gain some weight from when he was big. Jim would have to grow his braids back, get some extensions and all that ’cause he cut his hair. We gon’ figure it out, but we gon’ do it right.”

Previously Jones had told XXL that the project was "currently in motion, we been working."

While no release date has been mentioned yet the Dipset Capo assured fans that everyone was on aboard.

"We definitely been locking in. Shout outs to Cam, shout outs to Juelz, shout outs to Freekey Zekey. Everybody’s on board."

Rihanna hasn't overtaken Lady Gaga in record sales just yet, but she is beating the pop diva on Facebook.

Riri just passed Gaga with 40,591,415 fans compared to Gaga's 40,560,634, earning the title of "Queen of Facebook" from Famecount.

Currently Eminem reigns overall with 43,296,324 fans.

Will Rihanna catch the rap titan? Only time will tell.

There is good news for D'Angelo fans. Billboard is reporting that the R&B singer is back working on his new album.

Frequent collaborator, drummer Questlove of The Roots tweeted that the two were back in the lab.

Others in on the sessions include bassist Pino Palladino and producer/engineer Russell Elevado.

It's been eleven years since the man once dubbed the "R&B Jesus" dropped the Grammy Award winning album 'Voodoo.'. Since then rumors of drug abuse and various run ins with the law have plagued the singer.

The new album titled 'James River' is expected later this year or early 2012 on J Records.

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Michael Irvin is one of the best players the NFL has ever seen at his wide receiver position. When he was inducted into the NFL Hall Of Fame in 2007 Irving had reached football's peak.

The married father of three, has maintained a high profile in the public's eye in recent years as a very opinionated on-air analyst for the NFL Network.

Irvin has also become an outspoken advocate for the gay community. He just covered Out magazine, a publication that deals with gay men's fashion, entertainment and lifestyle. Irvin said his brother was gay and it opened his eyes to the fact that everyone should be treated with equality.

Irvin's brother, Vaughn died of stomach cancer in 2006.

TMZ caught up with Irvin earlier this week and the former player talked about God allowing each individual to make their own choices about who they want to be with.

"God has taken away a great deal of choices," Irvin said. "He doesn't give you the choice of mom, bad, brother, sister, cousin, uncle [or] nephew. He gives you the choice of companion. Now if God decided to give you that choice I don't think the government should mess with it."

What do you think of Irvin's stance on gay equality?

Michael Irvin Says God Is Ok With Being Gay

News Coverage

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Gucci Mane is back in grind mode. Fresh from a stint behind bars for shoving a female out of his moving car for refusing a cash offer for sex, the Atlanta rapper is already back in the studio and shooting music videos.

KarmaloopTV caught up with Gucci, who revealed that he went directly to the studio upon his release.

"First thing I did [after being released] was get my feet back on the ground, went to the studio and banged out about 5 records," Gucci said.

Gucci also talked about what he was like in high school, what made him get the ice cream tattoo and where he sees himself in 10 years.

In a separate interview with MTV, Gucci's friend Shawty Lo revealed that Gucci has already shot 4 videos since being released.

"Gucci doing good now, he just came home the other day,“ said Shawty. “He back working, shooting a lot of videos and doing his thing.”

Shawty added that Gucci is now off of probation which should allow him more time for his family and music.

“I think he’s off probation now and his focus is his music and family.”

Gucci Mane's 1st post-prison interview

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The rumors of T-Pain leaving Konvict Music to join Lil Wayne's Young Money record label have been floating around for several months.

Jeweler Gabriel Jacobs initially let the cat out of the bag in December when he told VladTV that he had just designed a YM chain for the singer.

"T-Pain's about to sign to Young Money," Jacobs said at the time. "He better, after doing this. So you see it's all blacked out. It's all natural, red rubies, black diamonds. We gotta put a red ruby necklace on this thing. The pendant is worth around $45,000 and when it's with its chain, it will cost $100,000."

In a new interview Akon confirms that 'RevolveR' is Pain's last album on his label.

"That's Pain's business decision," Akon said of the move to Young Money. "We got one one more album which is the one he's about to release now. After that Pain is free. He's his own man, his own entrepreneur. Decisions from this point he has to make them on his own. I'm happy for him whichever way he goes. That's my little brother, he gets the support from us."

Obie Trice's mom passed away Tuesday (July 12) from breast cancer.

The former Shady Records artist spoke to AllHipHop about the tragic loss, and how he is more determined than ever to make his mother proud.

"My mom was always in my corner and her presence will be missed tremendously," he said. “I'm more determined than ever to ensure I not only impact the music industry but also my community, just as she expected."

We wish Obie and his family the best during this difficult time.

His third studio album 'Bottoms Up' is due out later this year.

Foxy Brown escaped prosecution for allegedly dropping her panties and mooning a neighbor when a judge dismissed the charges on Tuesday [July 12]. Today Foxy's lawyer says the rapper plans to sue to the city for $100 million.

Salvatore Strazzullo told the New York Post that his client is suing the Assistant District Attorney's office for what he calls "malicious" treatment of his client.

"With school budgets cut, they had the audacity [to file charges]." Strazzullo said. "Do we want our tax dollars going for this?"

A rep for the city said ADA's have "absolute immunity" from being personally prosecuted and would seek an immediate dismissal of the lawsuit.

Olga Zajac kept would-be robber as sex slave

A thief in Meshchovsk, Russia met his match and then some, when the salon owner he tried to rob beat his ass then kept him as a sex slave.

Police say Viktor Jasinski. 32, was beaten up by Olga Zajac, who is a black belt in karate.

After knocking Jasinski unconscious with a kick, Zajac then dragged him to the back of her shop for what the DailyMail describes as some 'Pulp Fiction' type of revenge. But unlike Ving Rhames character in that Quentin Tarantino directed flick, Zajac didn't need to call in a team of "hard pipe hitting n*ggas" to exact her revenge.

The 28-year old salon owner tied Jasinski up, and for three days used him as a sex slave to "teach him a lesson." Force feeding him viagra to ensure he kept up his performance.

After several days Jasinski was released, but instead of going home happy to be alive, he ran right to the police station to tell them what happened.

Now they have both been arrested.

When police questioned Zajac she reportedly said: "What a bastard. Yes, we had sex a couple of times. But I bought him new jeans, gave him food and even gave him 1,000 roubles when he left."

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Reporter Elie Seckbach caught up with street legend Ricky Ross and talked a lot about Ross's upcoming plans.

Ross revealed that the movie based on his life is still in the works, said he's looking to become a boxing promoter himself and proclaimed Floyd Mayweather Jr. the greatest boxer ever.

He thinks Mayweather will easily handle Pacquiao.

Peep the full interview below.

1017 Brick Squad CEO Gucci Mane and his capo Waka Flocka are about to release their joint album on August 9.

You can pre-order it on iTunes here