Posted by ChasinDatPaper on November 12, 2009 at 11:36am
AllHipHop Reports
Rapper Corey “C-Murder” Miller cannot afford to hire lawyers to fund his appeal, but two lawyers have come to his aid in an attempt to secure a retrial.
Attorney Robert Smith, of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute of Race and Justice at Harvard Law School and John Adcock of New Orleans are representing Miller free of charge.
The rapper, 38, was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Steve Thomas, 16, inside of a now-defunct Jefferson Parish nightclub in January of 2002 and sentenced to a mandatory life sentence.
According to the Times-Picayune, Miller cannot afford to pay the $20,702 for case records and trial transcripts and fees, which alone total $17,335.
Since Miller has no known income, real estate or savings, his lawyers have filed a motion to declare him indigent, which would allow him access to the court records at no cost. A hearing is set for December 10. Miller is also facing a civil lawsuit in relation to Thomas’ death.
C-Murder is the brother of rap mogul Master P., one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs the Hip-Hop genre has produced. In interview last month, Master P. addressed C-Murder’s incarceration.
“He know he didn't commit this crime but for him keeping it real in the streets and not saying who did it, where he at? He in the penitentiary,” Master P. told AllHipHop.com. “So sometimes your pride could kill you. My whole thing is: don't let pride get in the way of what you want to do. Hip-hop artists got this ‘keep it real’ thing like they on the streets now.”
Master P. also blamed C-Murder’s rap name for some of the legal problems he encountered, despite his younger brother’s attempt to rename himself “C-Miller” to downplay the controversial moniker.
“Right now, C-Murder is a victim of a crime himself. He's innocent on this case but because of his name, image and past, that's given them the right to take him away off the streets,” Master P. said.
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Posted by ChasinDatPaper on November 12, 2009 at 11:24am
Rap-Up Reports
Just when you thought the star power at the 2009 American Music Awards couldn’t get any brighter, Janet Jackson and Whitney Houston have been announced as performers.
Jackson, who releases her greatest hits album Number Ones on November 17, will open the 37th annual show by performing a medley of hits spanning her illustrious career.
“We’re thrilled about having Janet Jackson open this year’s show,” stated American Music Awards producer Larry Klein. “She is an incredibly dynamic performer, and I think the audience will be excited to see what she has in store.”
Whitney Houston is also set to return to the AMA stage for her first primetime U.S. network performance in five years. She will sing her powerhouse ballad “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength” and receive the International Artist Award.
“We’re honored to have Whitney Houston back on the AMA stage after ten years,” said Klein. “She has won the most AMAs of any female artist in history and is without a doubt an international superstar, so it’s only fitting we honor her with the International Artist Award this year at such an important time in her career.”
Other previously announced performers include Shakira with Lil Wayne, Rihanna, Eminem, Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, Mary J. Blige, Keith Urban, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Lopez, Black Eyed Peas, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood,Green Day, Daughtry, and Adam Lambert.
The 2009 American Music Awards will air live from the NOKIA Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, November 22, at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.
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AllHipHop Reports
Renowned producer Sha Money XL has inked a multi-million dollar music and film distribution deal for his Dream Big Ventures imprint, which will allow him and his team to “nurture talent that has the passion to ‘dream big,’” he announced today (November 11).
“Sha Money’s reputation and track record of success speaks for itself,” said Michael Bull, General Manager of The Orchard, Dream Big’s new distribution home. “All of us at The Orchard are thrilled to be in a position to work with Sha, building and developing his new label. We see Dream Big as America’s next great urban independent.”
The former G-Unit Records president comes to The Orchard – the world’s leading digital distributor of music – with a roster of three artists, each at a different stage of their careers.
Dream Big Ventures also comes to The Orchard with a completed first project: former Shady/Aftermath recording artist Stat Quo’s long-delayed debut album Statlanta. Also signed to the new imprint are DJ Whoo Kid and former Young Money associate Kidd Kidd.
“The first three projects coming out of Dream Big are very realistic reflections of the three stages an artist can find themselves in: established and successful, in-between labels or ready to take your career to the next level,” Sha Money told AllHipHop.com in a statement.
Originally scheduled for a 2003 release, Statlanta now boasts production credits by Che Vicious, Hi-Tek, Key Kat Productions and Sha Money XL himself, who says he wanted to work with Stat from the first time he heard him.
“The anticipation for his debut album is still high,” he added. “I am pleased to be releasing it through my new venture.”
Along with the announcement of its new partnership, Dream Big released Stat Quo’s latest single “Freaky Girl” and Kidd Kidd’s “New Kidd On The Block” mixtape, hosted by DJ Whoo Kid and DJ Scream.
In addition to operating his new venture as a traditional label, Sha Money XL has launched a new website, DreamBigVentures.Net, which he hopes can serve as an interactive advertising and promotion tools for up-and-coming talent and music-related service providers, ie web and graphic designers, producers, and videographers. Sha’s hope is that the site will also encourage established industry executives to seek out those kinds of talent the world over.
“Dream Big is about me fulfilling my dreams and my visions,” Sha Moneys explained. “Imagine if Dr. Dre had never moved on from NWA or Death Row? You have to have wisdom to accept that a change has to take place, but not be careless with your future.”
In addition to his continued expansion of the One Stop Shop, which, in three years, has become the premier annual networking event for producers, Sha Money XL is currently co-managing Hi-Tek and Talib Kewli as Reflection Eternal. Revolutions Per Minute, the duo’s highly anticipated follow-up to 2000’s Train of Thought, is due out in 2010.
Sha Money also recently served as the Associate Producer on 50 Cent’s fourth studio album, Before I Self-Destruct, which is set to hit stores Tuesday (November 16).
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MTV Reports
Together, Chris Brown and Soulja Boy Tell'em have the type of star power that could resurrect the Scream Tour.
The duo have collaborated on a record together for Brown's forthcoming Graffiti album, "Bad." Both spoke to MTV News about the song recently, saying it's definitely one the ladies will enjoy.
"Well, me and him, we been on tour together and we're friends, so I was just like, 'Yo, I gotta do a record with Soulja Boy,' " Brown said. "Because me and him are always gonna have, like, this kind of energy, just as far as kids, and with him, he does records that are, like, the easiest records ever. I'm not discrediting him, 'cause they're big records, but he could talk about, 'I got my shoes on, I got my hat on, but I'm fresh though,' and it could be something funny. But it's always something that can be catchy for kids, and I wanna do something that's real cool for everybody.
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Video After The JumpPeople.Com Reports
Mike Tyson and a photographer made citizen's arrests of one another after getting into a scuffle Wednesday at Los Angeles International Airport, police say.
At 4:30 p.m., the former boxing champ, 43, was passing through LAX from Europe en route to Las Vegas when a celebrity photographer began taking his picture at the United Airlines terminal, Sgt. Jim Holcomb tells PEOPLE.
"The two men got into a scuffle, and it's alleged that Tyson hit the photographer once in the face with one hand, causing him to fall to the ground," Holcomb says. "The photographer sustained a laceration to the forehead, and was taken to a local hospital."
Officers arrived on the scene and detained Tyson, who was booked at a nearby LAPD station and held on $20,000 bail, according to police records. Documents also show that Tyson was released at 8:24 p.m.
Tyson was reportedly traveling with his wife and 10-month-old baby. The incident was first reported by Radaronline.com.
"Mr. Tyson did absolutely nothing wrong, he was the victim in this case," his attorney, Richard Schonfeld tells PEOPLE. "We look forward to vindicating him and pursuing his rights."
Earlier this year, the boxer's 4-year-old daughter, Exodus, died in Phoenix after accidentally getting her neck wrapped in a cord from an exercise machine. In November 2007, Tyson was sentenced by an Arizona judge to 24 hours in jail and three years probation for drug possession and driving under the influence.
It remains to be seen whether the airport incident will be deemed a violation of his probation terms.
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MTV Reports
Until the demise of the Fame Kills Tour, Kanye West had been planning to hit the road with Lady Gaga, one of the gay-friendliest pop stars out there today. So it doesn't really come out of left field to have Fergie credit him, along with her cohorts in the Black Eyed Peas, for helping make the world of hip-hop a little more open to alternative lifestyles.
"They're completely gay-friendly. Are you kidding me? Look at how they dress!" she joked to The Advocate about the guys in her band. "Kanye West really did a great thing for hip-hop and made it very mixed and open."
As for her own sexuality, the singer says that although she's now married to actor Josh Duhamel, she has experimented with girls in the past. So when the time came for her to get flirty with a girl or two in the "I Gotta Feeling" video, she didn't flinch for a second. "Yes, it was [my idea to flirt with the girls]," she said. "That was fun because it was so naughty. It was a big tease, but it felt very natural."
Long before she was a pop star, Fergie got her start on a beloved children's show, "Kids Incorporated." She admits now that she made a few gay friends back then. "Oh, there were plenty on that show," she said. "But I don't want to out anyone, just in case."
Although Fergie seemed open to talking about most subjects, including her upcoming role in "Nine," the singer chose not to discuss an altercation between Peas manager Liborio "Polo" Molina and Perez Hilton in Toronto in June. She noted, though, that she was upset that night because Perez had been criticizing her music on his blog and that it had bothered her.
"When I see somebody I thought was my friend or starting to be my friend," she said, sighing, "when someone talks out of both sides of their mouth, it just makes me question their integrity."
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Video After The JumpAkon's newest signee, French Montana is nothing if not consistent. He stays on the grind, his mixtape game and internet presence via videos is right up there at the top of the game. Director, Picture Perfect gives dope visuals to this joint off of French's "Coke Wave 2" mixtape.
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People.com Reports
Jennifer Lopez has been granted a temporary restraining order preventing her former husband, Ojani Noa, from marketing steamy home videos from their 11-month marriage.
Noa, 35, was in California Superior Court without a lawyer on Tuesday and claimed after Judge James C. Chalfant's ruling it was never his intention to sell the private camcorder footage. He said it was his intention to produce a Borat-style mocumentary about himself as a Cuban immigrant.
"She is destroying my life," Noa, vowing the videos were non-sexual and not for sale, told New York's Daily News immediately after the hearing. "This is another proof of her power and money trying to stop me from moving on with my life."
He added: "I'm not making any money from these videos," he said. "This is about having a closure. It's my story."
As described in reports, the video, called How I Married Jennifer Lopez: The J.Lo and Ojani Noa Story, reputedly includes 1997 footage of Lopez, now 40, wearing skimpy clothing and supposedly being spanked by Noa. It reportedly also contains a fight between her and her mother.
In 2007, Lopez won a lawsuit that forbade him from publishing a tell-all book about their marriage. That book allegedly claimed Lopez frequently cheated on Noa, including with her current husband, Marc Anthony.
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Video After The JumpCNN Reports
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of the greatest college and professional basketball players of all time, says he has been diagnosed with a form of blood cancer.
"I have chronic myeloid leukemia," Abdul-Jabbar told CNN. He said he received the diagnosis last December.
The 62-year-old former center for the Los Angeles Lakers said aside from having to see his doctor and checking his blood levels on a regular basis, having chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) hasn't significantly affected his quality of life.
Abdul-Jabbar said he's going public now to educate people about this disease.
"I think it's possible for someone in my position to help save lives," he said.
Abdul-Jabbar is best known as the 7-foot-2 center who led the UCLA Bruins to three NCAA championships in the 1960s, then went on to win one NBA championship with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1971 and five more with the Los Angeles Lakers before retiring in 1989.
He also has dabbled in acting, notably as an airline pilot in the 1980 comedy "Airplane!"
However, raising awareness about cancer has been part of his portfolio for some time now, too.
He said cancer has been prominent in his life.
"My grandfather died from colorectal cancer, my uncle died from colorectal cancer and my father almost died from colorectal cancer," Abdul-Jabbar said.
He added that he has the gene for colorectal cancer. This led him to get involved in a colorectal cancer awareness campaign in the African-American community. He's also participated in an NBA-sponsored prostate cancer awareness campaign.
But now he's a cancer patient himself. He said he first realized something was wrong when he began having hot flashes and sweats, something he admits wasn't normal, "even for someone my age."
After seeing his physician, blood work showed he had a "white blood cell count that was sky-high." The National Cancer Institute describes CML as a "slowly progressing disease in which too many white blood cells are made in the bone marrow."
Abdul-Jabbar said when he received the diagnosis of early stage CML, he wanted to know what was possible in terms of treatment.
He said his specialist told him the cancer diagnosis did not have to be a death sentence, as long as he followed a proper treatment regimen.
Abdul-Jabbar wouldn't reveal what his prognosis is, but he did say he is managing his disease and that having CML "doesn't impact my life too significantly."
In the process of researching CML, Abdul-Jabbar says he was shocked to learn that some cancer patients do not regularly take their cancer medication. This led him to approach the pharmaceutical company Novartis about launching an educational campaign.
Abdul-Jabbar said Novartis is paying him for his travel and time, but the idea for the campaign was his.
"The message is simple: You have to have the expert advice of a specialist. You have to take your medicine and get your blood analyzed," he said.
In an effort to provide more information about this type of cancer, he is launching a Facebook page -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Patient Advocate -- supported by the pharmaceutical company, which manufactures drugs to treat this and other types of cancer.
According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), the average person's chance of getting CML is less than 1 in 500. The cancer society says CML is slightly more common in men than women, and it accounts for 10 percent to 15 percent of all leukemias or blood cancers.
The ACS estimates just over 5,000 people will be diagnosed with CML this year, and that 470 will die from it. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society estimates the five-year survival rate for CML of 44.4 percent.
More information on CML can be found at www.cancer.org and www.leukemia-lymphoma.org.
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Video After The JumpWashington Times Reports
JARRATT, Va. | John Allen Muhammad - the mastermind of the 2002 sniper attacks that killed 10 people in Virginia, Maryland and the District - was executed by lethal injection Tuesday night in Virginia.
Muhammad was executed at 9 p.m., about nine hours after Gov. Tim Kaine announced that he would not intervene.
Dozens of television crews, photographers and reporters camped outside the Greensville Correctional Center to cover the execution of the man responsible for the deadly three-week sniper rampage.
Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, then 17, terrorized the D.C. area, killing random people outside restaurants and shopping centers, schools, grocery stores and gas stations. The pair is also suspected of a number of other shootings across the country.
John Allen Muhammad, the Washington sniper, has been executed for carrying out 10 murdersRead more…
Video After The Jump
With her new album "In Love And War" out in stores now. Def Jam artist Amerie continues making the rounds on talk shows in support of it. She hit up the stage at The Jimmy Kimmel Show last night (November 10th) and gave a great performance of her hit song "Heard 'Em All".
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Video After The Jump50 Cent goes in (jokingly, of course) on the 102 Jamz staff, wanting to know why he wasn't on their wall of pictured rappers as opposed to Fat Joe. He reveals why he chose Kelly Rowland as his leading lady for the "Baby By Me" video. And also talks about his new album "Before I Self Destruct"
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SixShot.com Reports
DMX's $1.5 million tax debt records have emerged, detailing each payment the rapper currently owes including both state and federal taxes.
According to the records revealed by The Detroit News, DMX's tax issues go back as far as 2005:
*The IRS filed a $370,460 lien against the rapper and his wife on Sept. 20, 2005, in New York.
* The New York State Tax Commission filed a $44,357 tax warrant against the rapper and his wife on March 6, 2006, in New York.
* The state of New York filed an $8,343 tax warrant against the rapper and his wife on Feb. 15, 2007, in the New York County Clerk's office.
*The IRS filed a $663,554 lien against DMX on Sept. 10, 2007, in the Maricopa County (Ariz.) Recorder's office. According to the lien, he owes income taxes from 2002, 2003 and 2005.
*The IRS filed a $442,869 lien against DMX and his wife on Jan. 2 in the New York City Register's office.
DMX had been in and out jail t he past few years and during his incarceration, the rapper lost his Phoenix home to foreclosure.
DMX was replaced earlier this week by Coolio and the brawl will take place on December 12 at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex in Birmingham, Alabama.
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01 Welcome
02 Got Hungry
03 You’ve Been Slain
04 On & On
05 I Am
06 4 Stories
07 Roughnecks f. Deuce Wonder
08 Cool Cat
09 What You Want
10 Jack My Dick
11 Dope, Jobs, Homeless [Bonus]
Album Drops December 15th !
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Videos After The Jump
In this in depth thirty minute long interview with iTunes, 50 Cent talks about Before I Self Destruct, his writing process, the position he is in, his rivals, his favorite tracks off of the album and much more. Shouts To PhillyCustoms hooking this up !
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Video After The Jump
Comedian/Actor Mike Epps drops his new DVD "Under Rated & Never Faded" today (November 10th). In this laugh out loud clip, Mike warns the fellas why it's never a good idea to sleep on your woman's detective skills. Support good comedy and go cop the DVD.
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Pittsburgh Post Gazette Reports
A few years ago, I finally got around to reading "Black No More," a novel by the late journalist, social satirist and novelist George Schuyler.
A former reporter for the Pittsburgh Courier, Mr. Schuyler was both a black conservative and a "race man," an archaic term that refers to someone who takes upon himself the duty of protecting and defending the black race.
First published in 1931, "Black No More" is a hilarious and brutal tale about Max Disher, a Harlem insurance agent and neighborhood rogue who undergoes a pigment-lightening process said to have been invented by Dr. Junius Crookmore, a black mad scientist. Dr. Crookmore's studies in Germany led to the invention of a machine that turns people of African descent into Swedes and Norwegians.
Once Max takes on his new identity as a white man, he changes his name to Matt Fisher and marries the unsuspecting daughter of a notorious white supremacist. As you can imagine, all sorts of hilarity and racial subversion ensue.
Max isn't alone in undergoing the novel's "black no more" process. The book has most of Harlem, from the intellectual elite to juvenile delinquent, undergo the relatively cheap skin-bleaching and hair-straightening transformation inside Dr. Crookmore's machine. So many blacks flood the market as newly minted Caucasians, enraged Southerners push legislation to make it illegal to switch races, rather than suffer the further devaluation of white skin.
I thought of George Schuyler's book last week when recent photos of famed baseball slugger Sammy Sosa, born dark-skinned in the Dominican Republic, began making the rounds. Like Max Disher, Sosa appears to have undergone significant lightening since his debut with the Texas Rangers and famed years with the Chicago Cubs.
While falling short of the albino whiteness Michael Jackson perfected over a quarter of a century, Mr. Sosa shows what can happen when black folks with money engage in too much impulse buying on the racial cosmetics market.
Sammy Sosa Then
Mr. Sosa denies hanging around the modern equivalent of Dr. Crookmore's "black no more" machine. A former Chicago Cubs community relations flack blames the lighting in recent photos for Mr. Sosa's pale look. "He is going through a rejuvenation process for his skin," she said, adding that it wasn't much different from what a lot of women go through when they apply moisturizing treatment to their faces at night.
If Sammy Sosa hadn't also insisted that he only "accidentally" used a corked bat during a Cubs game in 2003 that resulted in an eight-game suspension, or that he had never used performance-enhancing drugs despite forearms as big as Popeye's, or if he hadn't failed a Major League Baseball drug test, I would be more inclined to believe he is the victim of a bad batch of lotion.
Sammy Sosa Now
If Mr. Sosa is trying to steal a base on the other side of the color line, he has plenty of company. I was surprised to read a list on the Internet about all of the black performers -- especially R&B artists -- who are also believed to use skin lighteners.
Using skin lighteners is generally frowned upon in the African-American community, but somebody in that demographic is buying them. Skin-whitening soaps containing banned ingredients in the U.S. and Europe have accounted for billions in sales in Africa alone in the last half century.
Advertisers in Asia know that they can juice sales by appealing to the vanity of female customers obsessed with achieving "milky white skin" they consider more desirable and aristocratic. Skin whiteners are believed to be an even larger business in Asia than in Africa.
The politics of skin lightening couldn't be more absurd. There is probably more acceptance of someone undergoing sex reassignment than of someone trying to "upgrade" their color. A transgendered person is trying to find a body in which to feel more authentic. Someone lightening his skin has bought into an inherently corrupt measurement of worth in society.
Folks who try to buy social acceptance in a bottle of whitening lotion are looking for the kind of shortcut to success Mr. Sosa sought when he turned to steroids. It's cheap and degrading to the soul.
Perhaps I'm being unfair to folks who feel "whitening up" is in line with their sense of beauty and personal aesthetics. Who says that you only get one bite at the apple of racial identity? For all his brilliance, George Schuyler could be wrong. In the end, looking askance at what many would consider pitiful attempts at racial migration is just another way of being prejudiced.
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Video After The Jump
Never one to bite his tongue or back away from an uncomfortable question. 50 Cent admits in this interview that in retrospect he regrets recording the very controversial song "Pearly Gates" with Mobb Deep off their "Blood Money" cd. Due to what many people perceive as a blasphemous verse from fellow Queens rapper Prodigy, that blasted both Jesus and God.
Interview With RollingOutTelevision"Pearly Gates"Read more…
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on November 10, 2009 at 10:00am
Videos After The JumpInquisitr Reports
Former Washington Redskins cheerleader Desiree Jennings made headlines in October when she told the media that she had been afflicted with the neurological movement disorder Dystonia following a flu shot.
As we noted at the time, the disorder apparently left her only able to walk properly backwards, or run forwards. The rest of the time she appeared on camera to be seriously messed up.
Despite their being “no successful treatment for its cause” (Wikipedia) guess who has been miraculously cured?
According to Science Blogs, the doctor who miraculously cured Desiree, Dr Rashid Buttar is “known for urine injection therapy, among other things, and has charged tens of thousands of dollars to apply his quackery to cancer patients.”
Desiree in the mean time is now pumping the anti-vaccine message, putting at risk the lives of thousands of children.
The chances of the whole thing being a hoax just went from about 50% to pushing towards 100%.
Original VideoDesiree's Most Recent Video
And Finally Desiree "Walking It Out"
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Video After The JumpRobin Thicke is hard at work on his new album "Sex Therapy". The follow up to last year's "Something Else" which debuted at # 3 on the Billboard 200 chart. This album has a great production line up of Polow Da Don, Jeff Bhasker, Scott Storch, and Surf Club. With features from Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj. Peep the video below of Robin & Hov recording "Meiplé"
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