As I watched the opening 20 minutes or so of the Grammys last Sunday, I couldn't help but wonder why Martina McBride and Florence Welch were taking part in a tribute to Aretha Franklin.

It has nothing to do with race and everything to do with their singing styles. Mcbride is a country singer and Welch is more pop/rock.  They just didn't mesh with the other 3 performers, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson and Yolanda Adams.

One person who would have been a great fit decided to skip the event altogether because she wasn't asked to participate.

Fantasia Barrino, who won a 2011 Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance told  Ontheredcarpet.com she just couldn't sit there in the audience and watch, so she stayed home.

"They were honoring someone who is my idol, Aretha Franklin, and there is no way I could have sat there and not got the happy feet and wanting to jump on the mic because she is my favorite so I felt like, you know, at the end of the day I should have been on that stage so, I kind of did my own little thing," Barrino said.

The Grammys' producers seem to be completely out of touch with the audience. They also butchered late soul legend Teddy Pendergrass' tribute by having country group Lady Antebellum perform it.

Hopefully, enough people complained and they learned their lesson.

Grammy Aretha Franklin Tribute

Video After The Jump

G-Unit's Lloyd Banks kicked off NBA All Star weekend festivities last night (February 18) by ripping through an energetic performance at the Key Club in Hollywood, California.

The PlK came out firing with "Take Em To War", the opening song from 'The Hunger More 2' album.

Banks was just getting warmed up as he performed the crowd favorites "Poppin Them Thangs", "I Smell P*ssy","Start It Up", "Any Girl" and "Beamer, Benz or Bentley."

Banks also let the crowd know he's dropping a new mixtape in two weeks titled 'Cold Corner.'

Much has been made of the controversial sales figures announced for Lil Kim's 'Black Friday' mixtape.

Kim announced via twitter that the tape moved 113,000 copies in the 1st 28 hours.

Since then, some critics and even Kim's number 1 nemesis, Nicki Minaj have scoffed at the numbers.

Laughing at Kim doesn't stop the fact that the wolves are circling Nicki right now.  Her first time manager, Fendi teamed with Lil Kim on the "Black Friday" video

In an interview with  Rap-Up yesterday (February 17), Kimmy Blanco attempted to clear the air regarding the sales numbers and Nicki.

RU: What do you say to those who question the authenticity of those figures?

 
Kim: At the end of the day, you’re always going to have your haters. We need the haters. There was actually a representative at PayPal who basically didn’t really confirm or deny it, but also [said] that they’re very happy and proud of the success of Lil’ Kim. I think numbers in other areas speak for themselves. I mean, why aren’t they questioning the Black Friday [video] being at 2.5 [million views] in less than 18 hours? Why aren’t they questioning that? What’s the difference? How can you add up one thing and not the other? I just feel like people pick and choose the area that they want to attack [laughs].

RU: Do you know the current sales numbers?

 
Kim: No, I actually don’t know right now. I have a team that kinda checks up on all that. We’ll keep you posted.

RU: Nicki Minaj laughed off your sales claims. Did you see that? 

 
Kim: I heard about it. I didn’t see it actually for myself, but to be honest with you, homegirl is basically obsolete to me right now. She’s doing a lot of lame stuff. She’s so lame to me right now—she’s always been, but now really. At the end of the day, her sales can be questioned also. Not to say she didn’t have the build-up, but the only thing you kept hearing before her album dropped was nobody liked it, it was wack. Don’t get me wrong, she might have a couple songs that are OK, but who cares. The haters will be haters, that’s their job, and we need them.

I think the interview might spawn even more questions until people see actual proof, but you can't question the fact that Kim is building a nice buzz for herself right now.

Video After The Jump

Blake Griffin is by far the best rookie in the NBA this year and has people wanting to see the Los Angeles Clippers when they come to town for road games.

Griffin is averaging almost 23 points to go along with 12 rebounds and a monster dunk or two a game.

He sits down with Jimmy Kimmel to talk about life as an NBA rookie, playing in the All Star game, participating in the dunk contest, what he likes about L.A. and more.

Detroit's rap collective D12 is ready to jump back into the game.

Eminem, Bizarre, Kuniva, Swifty McVeigh and Kon Artist haven't released an album since 2004's 'D12 World.'

Of course Eminem has dropped back to back quality albums with 'Relapse' and 'Recovery', but we haven't seen the group perform together other than Jay-Z & Em's Home and Home concert series last year.

Bizarre has kept busy with 3 solo releases since 2006, Kon artist aka Denaun Porter does a lot of production work and acts as Eminem's hype man during shows, while Swift & Kuniva have dropped a mixtape here and there

But now the solo projects are on hold now that the group, sans Eminem have released a brand new video for "Kill Zone", the 1st single off their upcoming mixtape 'Return of the Dozen Pt. 2' which drops April 19 according to Boombox.

Eminem is supposed to appear on the tape, here's hoping he does.

Video After The Jump

Darren Taylor, a.k.a. Professor Splash is a master of shallow water diving and some may even say he's a little nuts.

According to his website he holds World Records in Italy, Spain, Germany, Japan, and the United States. He is also featured in the Guiness Book of World Records.

In the video below we see him in Norway on February 10 as he leaps from 11.03 meters into 30 centimeters of water.

Don't know how he does it, lol.

Video After The Jump

Eddie Griffin has got to be one of the funniest comedians around. He had George Lopez cracking up during his appearance on Lopez Tonight.

Eddie talked about his 9 kids, wanting to make love to Michelle Obama, The NBA All Star Game h*es and more.

Check out the hilarious interview below.

Video After The Jump

Waka Flocka's security team was involved in a shooting on and near his tour bus while in Charlotte, North Carolina yesterday (February 16).

There's been a lot of speculation as to what exactly happened.

Waka's mom, Deb Antney, who also manages him through her company Mizay Entertainment, separates fact from fiction regarding the incident.

Video After The Jump

Lil Kim continues to keep Nicki Minaj in a pressure cooker by releasing the video to her scathing 'Black Friday' diss.

The video comes on the heels of Kim's huge success with her 'Black Friday' mixtape which has sold over 113,000 copies in less than 48 hours according to the Queen Bee.

Kim is already succeeding in grabbing some of Nicki's shine, and that will continue until the Harajuku Barbie fires back with some heat, subliminals won't do here.

Video After Jump

Waka Flocka wasn't kidding, the boy really does dust his gun.

The rapper has been detained in Charlotte, North Carolina after a shooting that left 1 person injured.

According to reports, Waka's tour bus was parked outside of the Car Stereo Warehouse when a car pulled up and started firing at the bus. Waka and his security team returned fire.

It's not known at this time who was injured.

Video After The Jump

Part of being a fan of music is how good it feels when you discover a new band, singer or rapper that has potential talent.

23-year old Cait McMahan could be one to keep an eye on.

Cait is unique for a couple of reasons. One is she won two NCAA titles playing basketball for the University of Tennessee where she also made the Dean's list. If not for knee injuries, the 5'4 guard might be dropping 3 pointers right now instead of 16's.

Number 2 is the fact that Cait, who goes by Babi Mac is a white female rapper.

Aside from UK import Lady Sovereign several years ago we haven't seen one make much noise yet, so that lane is wide open.

Check her out and see what you think.

Info from XXL and the Tennessee Vols Athletic Dept was used in this article.

Babi Mac "Proved That"

Cait McMahan aka Babi Mack playing hoops

Video After The Jump

Chris Brown continues to work on his rapping skills.

He showcases them in this video featuring Kevin McCall.

"We don't believe you, you need more people."

That seems to be what Nicki Minaj is saying in response to Lil Kim's claims that she moved 113,000 copies of her new Black Friday mixtape at $9.99 a pop in 28 hours, which would have grossed her a staggering $1.1 million dollars

Immediately following Kim's announcement Nicki responded via her twitter account.

"Bwaahhhhahhahahahahahahhahahhhaaahhhhhaaahahahahhhaha!!!!!!!! *lifeless* *leaves on stretcher* *cant go on*," Minaj wrote. She then retweeted a fans comment that "The devil is a liar."

According to Billboard, Lil Kim's last album 'The Naked Truth' sold 109,000 copies in a week, which would make the sales of this new mixtape astonishing. But the numbers could indicate a strong Nicki Minaj backlash could be developing.

Whatever the case, Kim had the last word on the matter for the night, tweeting:

"#twitterbeef This is not beef. Real beef is when you get your ass whipped 20 minutes later. CHILD PLEASE!!! #lilkimblackfridaymixtape," she wrote.

We're about to find out what beef is between female mc's as thing heat up between Nicki Minaj and Lil Kim.

Kim's new mixtape 'Black Friday' has set a paypal record for sales.

According to the Queen Bee the tape moved 113,000 units at $9.99 a pop in just over 28 hours. If the numbers are accurate Kim caked up nicely, grossing $1,128,870.00.

Kim tweeted the news to her 140,000 followers.

The announcement was immediately met with skepticism at by Nicki Minaj, who tweeted:

 

Nicki also wrote "The devil is a liar"

Lil Kim wasn't done, she responded to Nicki's tweets with a couple of her own.

"#twitterbeef This is not beef. Real beef is when you get your ass whipped 20 minutes later. CHILD PLEASE!!! #lilkimblackfridaymixtape. #twitterbeef This is not beef. Real beef is when someone gets shot 5 minutes later. CHILD PLEASE!!! #toomanytwittergangstas #teamlilkim LEGO," Kim wrote

Now that Kim has Nicki's full attention, let's see who will come out on top.

Video After The Jump

The violence in Mexico is starting to affect U.S. citizens as well.

Last week 2 high school students were shot and killed in Ciudad Juarez while at a car dealership. In March 2010 a couple associated with the U.S. consulate were also killed in Juarez. In October 2010 a couple was fired upon as they returned to the U.S. from a sightseeing trip along the U.S. border near Matamoros. David Hartley was killed, while his wife Tiffany, barely escaped with her life.

Now comes word that two U.S. ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) were ambushed yesterday (February 15) at what they thought was a security checkpoint 100 miles outside of Mexico City.

One was killed, while the other was wounded.

The attack marks the 1st time a U.S. agent was killed in the line of duty in Mexico since 1985, when a Drug Enforcement Administration officer was captured, tortured, and killed while on assignment there.

"ICE is working with the U.S. State Department, Mexican authorities and other U.S. law enforcement partners to investigate the shooting. Our thoughts and prayers are with our colleagues," ICE officials said in a statement.

Information from Chron.com, CBS News, Associated Press was used in this report