The man shot at the Beverly Center mall this afternoon was identified as Atlanta-based Dolla, whose real name is Roderick Anthony Burton II, according to his publicist, Sue Vannasing. She said Dolla was shot in the head around 3:10 p.m. while he and another rapper, D.J. Shabbazz, waited in the area after shopping at the popular Westside mall. A friend who was with the rapper at Beverly Center also confirmed his identity to The Times.
About two hours later, Los Angeles police detained a “person of interest” as he attempted to board a plane out of Los Angeles International Airport. The man allegedly drove his silver Mercedes SUV from Beverly Center to the airport. Vannasing said Dolla had gotten into an altercation with other passengers on a flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles, but it's unclear if that was related to the violence.]
[Updated at 5:15 p.m.: Police have arrested one "person of interest" in connection with the shooting but were looking for a second suspect.]
[Updated at 5:40 p.m.: The arrested suspect, who fled from the mall in a silver Mercedes, was detained at Los Angeles International Airport while trying to board a flight. Police said the shooting took place in the valet waiting area of the mall].
The shooting occurred just after 3 p.m. at the La Cienega Boulevard entrance to the popular Westside shopping center. All entrances and exits to the popular Westside shopping mall were sealed off as police swarmed the scene.
LAPD officials said that officers were sent to the mall on a report of a group fight, possibly involving a knife. LAPD Sgt. Ronnie Crump said two suspects ran in the direction of Beverly Hills.
At a Chipotle restaurant in the mall, several people were eating when the shots rang out.
“The customers were yelling 'close the store, close the store, because somebody is shooting,' ” said Elsa Hernandez, general manager of the restaurant.
An employee who was behind the restaurant, near the mall’s valet parking service, saw the tail end of the dispute, Hernandez said. “He saw a lady ... shooting a handgun,” Hernandez said.
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Are Eminem and 50 Cent touring together this summer? For now, fans can only hope — MTV News' requests to label reps for comment had not been answered at press time — but according to G-Unit member Lloyd Banks, there's been preliminary talk about possibly ramping up the Anger Management Tour again.
"I'm in and out the office, and there's conversations," Banks told MTV News recently. "I'm just as excited as the fans are. The first Anger Management Tour, I wasn't a part of."
Banks said that if Em and 50 do go out, he'll definitely be on the show with the rest of G-Unit.
Eminem was recently a guest on BBC's "Friday Night With Jonathan Ross," and he told the host that he hasn't solidified his touring plans yet.
"As far as touring, I haven't got that far to really figure it out yet. I haven't got that part," he said. "I'm kinda in album cycle right now and promoting. But we'll see how it goes."
Em has been back onstage in promotion of his new LP, Relapse, which officially drops Tuesday. He performed on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on Friday, will rock the Kimmel stage again this week, and he announced a special free MySpace concert in Detroit on Tuesday night.
Em's new DJ, acclaimed producer the Alchemist, told Mixtape Daily that he really gets a charge out of seeing Em do the Relapse record "Underground."
"When I first heard [Relapse], that was the song I said, 'This is gonna shut mutha----ers up.' Straight up. It would not be an issue," Al said. "Nobody would be like, 'I didn't like this, I didn't like the flow.' ... When we perform that song, Em takes a spot on the stage, and that's it. He picks a spot and dumbs out. There's not a lot of moving.
"When we're rehearing the song, you know, 'This is gonna be something crazy.' He says, 'Turn the lights down,' they put the spotlight on Em, and it's just snap rap. In the current day and age, you don't hear songs like that. It doesn't seem like any of that other sh-- going on in the world or in the music industry was going on in his mind when he [made the song]. He was strictly into the craft. I don't think anybody is f---ing with that."
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Dark Night Of The Soul- a new project from producer Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and film maker David Lynch- will be released as a blank CD due to a legal dispute.
The album also features vocalists Iggy Pop, Julian Casablancas from The Strokes, Susanne Vega, Gruff Rhys of Super Animals, The Flaming Lips and Frank Black of The Pixies.
But due to an apparent dispute between Gnarls Barkley and Gorillaz man Danger Mouse and EMI it will now only be available to stream on the internet. Visuals for Dark Night Of The Soul come from Lynch.
A statement given to MTV News said: “The photographs, which provide a visual narrative for the music, are compiled in a limited-edition, hand-numbered 100+ page book, which will now come with a blank, recordable CD-R.
“All copies will be clearly labeled: 'For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.”
Despite the lack of CD release the full album is currently available to stream on the internet.
Danger Mouse is one half of Gnarls Barkley and has produced albums for Beck, Gorillaz, MF Doom, Black Keys and The Shortwave Set.
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Rapper T.I. will be coming to Arkansas — to serve a federal prison sentence.
T.I., whose real name is Clifford J. Harris Jr., must report to Forrest City's low-security federal prison by noon on May 26, according to court filings. There, Harris will join 1,500 other inmates as he serves a year-and-one-day prison sentence after pleading guilty in March to federal weapons charges in Atlanta.
The rapper, the self-proclaimed "King of the South," had faced a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each charge in his three-count indictment.
Harris will be credited for 305 days of home detention he already has served after being charged, so his stay at the Forrest City prison likely will be only two months.
R.D. Weeks, a spokesman for the prison, said Harris likely would be treated like any other prisoner coming into the facility.
"Unless there are custody or security concerns, all incoming inmates are placed in general population," Weeks told The Associated Press.
Weeks said each cell at the prison is double-bunked. Harris also will have the opportunity to use the recreation yard, as well as take part in counseling or participate in the one of the facility's 14 religious groups, Week said.
Harris, 28, was arrested after trying to buy unregistered machine guns and silencers from undercover federal agents in 2007. That came after Harris' best friend was killed following a post-performance party in Cincinnati in 2006. The rapper has said the bullets that killed his friend were meant for him.
Upon his release, Harris will be on probation for three years. He also must pay a $100,000 fine as part of his sentence.
Harris' sixth album, "Paper Trail," has sold about 2 million copies and the rapper earned a Grammy for the song "Swagga Like Us" that he performed with Jay-Z. Harris wrote the lyrics for the album while awaiting trial.
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}