September 2, 2005
Hip-Hop Humanitarians
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, celebrities are putting forth effort to aid the victims affected by the Katrina's wrath. Two of those are none other than Sean "Diddy" Combs and Sean "Jay-Z" Carter. They have each donated $500,000 to the American Red Cross to aid victims. Diddy says, "These are our people. We can't stand around waiting for these people to be taken care of ; we have to take care of them ourselves. I urge all our fellow artists and Americans to answer the call. These are communities that I know, communities that have always supported me. Now it's my turn to support them."
Jay said, "This event has devastated hundreds of thousands of people. We, as African-American men and leaders of our community, felt it was a necessity to join forces and help. Diddy and I are committed to supporting our people in whichever way we can." In addition New Orleans native Master P, along with his wife Sonya and his son Romeo has founded Team Rescue, a charity to help gather food, clothing and funds for hurricane victims.
According to Sohh.com, Choppa, New Orleans native and former member of Bad Boy Entertainment group, Da Band, has already donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross. Sohh also reports that Lil Wayne and Baby also from New Orleans will likely begin a charity once they've secured their loved ones.
There are many more celebrities donating to the cause and performing and doing things to help, but they are people that we expect that from. I am so glad to see people like Diddy and Jay-Z be so quick to open up there checkbooks and help these people, who are literally without anything. Diddy made a very good point about taking action and not waiting around for others to help "our" people. The government is dragging their feet in helping these people and it is probably precisely because they are "our" people. Its like they feel a responsibility to these victims and thats good to see, because they don't have to help.
As for Master P, Choppa, Lil Wayne and Baby, I make fun of them often, but my heart really goes out to them and I hope that their loved ones are okay. I am sure this is affecting them in the worst way, but its good know that in spite of them dealing with their own issues revolving around the hurricane, they are still trying to help others. I have yet to figure out in what way I can contribute to the relief efforts of those in the gulf coast, but I'll figure something out. While I'm far from rich, I have enough, and I can't see myself not helping in some way or other.
Fat Joe Blames 50 For His VMA Outburst
Last Sunday, during the taping of the MTV Video Music Awards, Fat Joe, publicly dissed fellow rapper 50 Cent. Fat Joe told MTV, that he did not come to the VMAs with thoughts or starting anything with 50 Cent. Instead Joe says that 50's behavior pretty much forced him to say what he said. Joe said, "I had no intentions of going to the VMAs and starting no drama. This is Joe. MTV shows me love. I come to these events to have a good time. I never had any type of incidents before. But at a certain point, what do you do?"
Apparently 50 had gotten out of his seat and was walking around slapping fives with Jay-Z and Diddy's kids while Joe was onstage about to introduce the reggaeton performance. This behavior offended Joe who said, "He's up in the stands waving at me. Then he's walking around, and when I'm waiting to introduce the reggaeton dudes, he gets on the stage. I'm thinking, 'OK, we're about to fight.' I'm like, 'We're about to get it on right here at the VMAs?' "
Joe claims that he'd had it with 50 and he was only doing what he had to do. Joe said, "I said what I said because there's only so much you can take. This guy is jumping onstage and nobody said anything to him. He did 'Piggy Bank,' I made my record and said I'm out of it. I'm done. Then you have Tony Yayo trying to dis me every chance he gets. 50 is making music videos about me. What am I supposed to do? I have to defend myself. I was trying not to pay them no mind, until he jumped on the stage." With all of that said, Joe said he didn't know where they would take the beef next.
50 had a few words about Joey Crack on the afternoon before the awards show, he told MTV, "Before I put out my record, I knew Fat Joe would respond first, it's pride, Latino pride. You can't escape that. I made a two-bar reference on 'Piggy Bank' 'cause that's all I got for him to let him know my feelings. Then his album All or Nothing comes out and only sells 100,000 copies. It's obvious he doesn't generate the interest of the general public, so he doesn't generate mine either. I just had to let him know. 'Cause the kid in the schoolyard who doesn't want to fight always leaves with a black eye. It'll make a coward brave when they see you're afraid."
Again, here we go with this nonsense. First of all, Fat Joe needs to cut it out. He can do what he wants, but if he's gonna call 50 out, he doesn't need to pretend it was in self defense or anything of the sort. I don't care if 50 high fived the entire audience at the VMAs, that should not have been encouragement enough for Fat Joe to call him out. I mean, how is that defending himself? A man that was not physically threatening Joe or any of his loved ones was not posing a threat. Both of them need to quit. 50 is a nuisance and Joe is just playing into 50's silliness. He wants to be the most hated. He thrives on being the man everyone else loves to hate. The two of them need to get it together.
Joe doesn't know where this beef will go next, but I truly hope they don't take it to the streets. That is so unnecessary.
Jay-Z: C Student
An article about Jay-Z's life as Def Jam president recently appeared in the Houston Chronicle. The article was written by journalist Lola Ogunnaike and it was very thorough. It touched on his artists, what kind of president he is and how he spent a work day in his office wearing jean shorts, while Beyonce lounged on the couch reading magazines.
Anyway, in the article, Jay admitted that he is not doing the best job as president over at Def Jam. He was very candid and honest and says he only took the job because he felt that it would be a challenge. When asked to grade his performance to date as president he said he would give himself a C. He also admitted to the error of his ways when releasing the albums of Memphis Bleek and Young Gunz, both major flops.
He said, "Logically, I shouldn't have put them out because the numbers; the video spins and radio spins; didn't indicate that they were ready to go. But me, relying on the brand, figured they'd do 100,000 anyway, but they didn't. So that was a mistake."
There's more to article and you guys should check it out, it's interesting. You can find it at http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/ae/music/jump/3326658
I'm glad to see that Jay-Z is recognizing the error of his ways. He seems to feel the same way I do about what he's done for Def Jam, since taking over as president. While, I think he will improve in time, it's kind of like, what the hell? What made them offer him that position to begin with? We all know that Jay wasn't exacting running the operation when he was down with Dame and Biggs. He can say he was all he wants, but we know better. I think giving himself a C was being damned generous. So far, he is failing miserably.
In retrospect he regrets releasing Bleek and Young Gunz albums when he did. Well, they've never sold before, what the hell made him think this time around was going to be any different? If he waited for radio spins to dictate when their albums would be released, they'd never be released and that is pretty much how it should have gone down. They've not been successful in the past, I don't know what miracle Jay was expecting to happen this time around.
I'm sure Jay has something in his bag of tricks to get Def Jam/Roc-A-Fella on the ball, because what he's done thus far is just not cutting it. I am definitely not counting Jay-Z out on this one, but he needs to hurry up. Def Jam has been a hip hop brand for over 20 years, and it's always been consistent in some form or other and that is no longer the case.
There have been rumors that Nas will be signing to Def Jam, which seems like a stretch, who knows. Allhiphop.com reported that Nas was recently seen leaving the Def Jam building. That would be interesting and as much as I love Nas, his albums are not big sellers, so even if he signed to Def Jam, I don't think that would do Jay much good. I'm curious just how much time Jay has, before someone says enough is enough and fires him.I can't see anyone firing Hov, but damn, he needs to produce.
Tyson Beckford Suing Diddy
Model Tyson Beckford is suing Sean "Diddy"combs and citing breach of contract and trademark infringement. Tyson is suing for money from both Bad Boy Entertainment and Sean John, two of Diddy's corporations. Tyson claims to have signed a $1.2 million contract to be the face of Sean John, Diddy's clothing line, and he only received a fraction of that amount. Diddy's reps released a statement that reads: "While we don't generally comment on pending litigation, we feel this action against us is without merit. We plan on vigorously defending ourselves."
The lawsuit claims that Tyson's image was used without his consent and caused "irreparable commercial harm" to his standing as "a popular culture icon." There were more nonsensical allegations on Tyson's behalf, but no need to get that deep.
All in all, Tyson is a mess. He went from the face of Ralph Lauren, to Fubu, and now he's trying to extort Diddy for $5 million dollars. That's outrageous. For one, if he signed the contract, he'll have a hell of a time claiming that that they didn't have his consent to use his image in their ads. On top of all that, when the hell was Tyson a popular cultural icon. Don't get me wrong, I remember Tyson in his prime, but never was he anybody's icon. He really needs to get right. He has fallen off so hard and now he's suing Puffy like everyone else in the world. Too bad for Tyson, something went terribly wrong somewhere along the way and I don't think he's ever going to recover.
- reported by Keshawnta J.