November 11, 2004
Chingy in XXL
A good bit of the article was focused on Chingy's growth as an individual and artist and his separation from Ludacris' DTP clique. There had been rumors floating around about Lil Howard's defection from the Disturbing Tha Peace camp and it made everyone wonder what went down between Chingy and his mentor Luda. As it turns out, Ludacris had nothing to do with Chingy going his own way.
According to Chingy, it was Chaka Zulu, Luda's partner and Chingy's former manager that made Chingy feel the need to leave the crew. Chaka, who is Luda's right hand man and vice president of Def Jam South, pretty much discovered Chingy and brought him to Luda. Chingy was pretty much thrown into DTP. Chaka liked Chingy's music, used his own money to press and distribute 12" versions of "Right Thurr". The song caught on and deciding to strike while the iron was hot, Chaka tossed Chingy into DTP and much to the chagrin of DTP members who had been waiting their turn made Chingy and his album their priority.
While Chingy's album was on the charts, he was working with other artists and touring, his pockets were not as fat as they should have been. During a five week Disturbing Tha Peace tour, Chingy began evaluating his financial situation. Chingy says, "While on the tour, I had already sold 2 million records and was getting $10,000 a show. If I do my own shows, I'd be getting $30,000 to $40,000, so it was weird... At the end of the tour, I was like, damn how can I make like $30,000 or more doing shows by myself and not make at least that much when I'm on tour? Then with the merchandise on the tour, me and the Trak Starz was supposed to split the merchandise 50/50. I didn't know that certain other people were getting a cut of the merchandise money too. I didn't know what I was making off the merchandise or what I was losing."
Chingy admits that he wasn't really business minded going into things with Chaka. All he cared about was getting a record deal and getting it out to the world. Other than the tour, Chingy felt that he was being heavily cheated out of monies for working with other artists. He says, "I do a song for somebody, that could be $80,000. They (Chaka and company) wanted to take 75 percent of that, or 70 and give me 10. One time I did a song with a particular person and they had told me that it was for this amount of money, and from what I heard from the management it was for this amount of money. So I was confused."
All in all, Chingy was in a management agreement with Chaka, but no contracts had ever been produced or signed. Chaka maintains that Chingy was paid everything he was owed and that he is innocent of these allegations. Chingy and Luda remain cool, and Chingy holds no ill will toward Chaka and has moved on. This situation now has Chingy watching his business and money a little closer. Chingy understands that no matter how mismanged he was, his own naivete played a large part in the situation. He has learned from this experience and says, "I have this problem of thinking that nobody's gonna try to do me wrong. I really got that problem. That nobody's ever gonna try to do me wrong because I ain't never do nothing to them."
On another level entirely, Chingy brought up some issues with fellow St. Louis native Nelly. Accrording to Chingy, he went out and purchased Nelly's double album, one titled "Sweat" and the other "Suit" and heard Nelly dissing him. On the song "Another One" from the "Sweat" album, Nelly says: "I like the way you do that right thurr/ Just remember when you do that right thurr/ I made it tight to be country/ They thought country was bummy/ Till country start making money."
Of the statement Chingy says, "That's not true. I understand and I appreciate what he's doing, and he opened doors for St. Louis, for us getting in the industry. But I been rapping just as long as dude flat out. I just feel like Nelly shouldn't have said that. He was threatened by me and I felt disrespected by that because I never said nothing to dude. How you gonna feel threatened by me when you got millions and millions, and you sold millions of records? Do you and let me do me."
The world can rest assured that their will not be a midwest version of the King of New York battle that Jay-Z and as had a few years ago, because Chingy refused to buy into the hype and record a response to Nelly. Chingy says, "I ain't trying to get into no problems with anyone. But at the same time, I'm man, and if you talk about me, I'ma respond. But I ain't into manufacturing no beef stuff. If we got a problem then you need to holla at me and we'll handle it like that, I'm not into going back and forth on record."
The interview pretty good. It gave you more insight to Chingy's character than his music, which considering that music, is not such a bad thing. There's so much more than the few things I touched on, so the story is definitely worth checking out.
I'm mad Chingy left DTP, as he was the only artist most people can name in that crew, outside of Luda of course. What the hell are they gonna do now? Chingy at least provided some help for Luda, whose back must be broken from holding them down. As for Chaka Zulu stealing Chingy's money, it's not really surprising. When you go into the record industry and don't know which way is up, everyone who can will take advantage of you 9 out of 10 times. It's something that happens to way too many artists and will continue to happen until they school themselves to the game and have the right legal representation working out deals for them. Chingy didn't know any better and Chaka did what's normally done. Nothing new there. Chaka was wrong, but Chingy's not crying about it, so whatever.
As for Nelly going at Chingy. That is just insane. I love both of these guys, even if their music does make my ears bleed and my head hurt. They both present themselves as good guys and it's ridiculous that Nelly felt the need to dis Chingy on his wack ass album, for no other reason than Chingy being successful and being from the same city as Nelly. As the elder and the man who paved the way for there to be a Chingy, he should have conducted himself in a better manner than that. Nelly couldn't battle his way out of a paper bag, so why come at someone like that? Nelly is known for his nonsensical party cuts and that is the way it should remain until he stops making albums. By no means should he start getting brand new because Chingy's making a name from himself. He should be glad that someone else from St. Louis was able to come through and have mainstream success similar to his own. That is so unnecessary.
That little Chingy is so adorable. I am always talking about his wack rhymes, bad fashion sense, and how adorable he is, but never realized that I didn't know a damn thing about this dude until this article. I have no idea if the Power Ballin album is in stores or what, but if it isn't it will be soon. If you're not a Chingy fan, buy it at your own risk. I really hope there are a lot of you out there that do listen to him and will buy his album, because I really want him to do well, but I myself cannot support his music.
Mariah Carey and Kim Porter
The New York Daily News provided some tidbits from Puffy's recent birthday bash. According to the News, delusional songstress, Mariah Carey was not only in attendance, but was followed around by an assistant the entire night. The assistant was walking around with Handi Wipes, dabbing Mariah's face at random intervals. Apparently it took Mariah some time to get Diddy's attention and she was said to be tugging on his jacket for an extended period of time, before he finally acknowledged her.
It's said that Kim Porter, his doormat, or rather sometimes girlfriend and mother of his son Christian, was quite perturbed at the sight of Puffy and Mariah Carey holding hands. She allegedly complained to her friend, actress Vivica A. Fox and told Viv that Puff was neglecting her. Rumor has it that Vivica's response to Kim was, "He's not paying any attention to me either." Poor Mariah, she is still as lost as ever. I just read somewhere that she is on the brink of being dead broke because she hasn't invested and has spent her money recklessly.
Well isn't that something? Mariah Carey is $100,000 away from being broke, yet she has an assistant following her around patting her face with baby wipes. She is still in need of some serious help. I think she has an album coming out soon, so hopefully the writing on the album and record sales will be enough for Mariah to continue her elaborate lifestyle. I've recently seen pictures of Mariah and Jay-Z, with her butt all on top of Jay, breasts out. I don't know if Beyonce can fight or what, but she needs to put Mariah in her place. Mariah is probably just looking for someone to take care of her or in the very least, garner some publicity for her forthcoming album. It's not as if the world is waiting with bated breath for the next Mariah release.
Now on to Kim Porter. When is she going to stand on her own two feet and leave Diddy's ass alone? He's never paying her any attention when they're out in public and is only in a "relationship" with her when some singer, actress or model decides to dump him. I don't know what Kim Porter's obsession with this man is, but it can't be the money, as she being paid millions in child support. Maybe it's just being his "girlfriend" that makes her carry on this way. I don't know what her deal is, but I would be so happy to see her gather up her good senses and her strength and leave him alone. She's recently been talking about the two of them getting married. Good luck to her with that endeavor.
I had no idea that Vivica and Kim were friends, but what kind of friend tells you that your so called man is not paying them any more attention than he is to you? Way to be supportive Viv. Not! If that conversation really went down like that, Kim should have slapped fire out of Vivica. Knowing Vivica, she is just that high on herself that she thinks everyone in the room should have been flocking to her. I've noticed that Vivica Fox is a way bigger star in her own psyche than she is in real life.
R. Kelly Sues Jay-Z
I know everyone must be sick to death of all the talk about the Jay-Z/R. Kelly feud. I know I am, which is why I refuse to provide any backstory to all the nonsense. If you don't know what's going on with them and that joint
tour by now, you never will. R. Kelly and Jay-Z have both made some interesting statements about each other and why they were unable to successfully tour together.
It's quite possible that Jay is jealous of R. Kelly, but highly unlikely. Jay-Z has too much going on right now to be jealous of R. Kelly for any reason. For a while, R. Kelly had me believing that he was just out and out crazy, but after this tour debacle and all of his statements, I now believe that R. Kelly is on drugs. There is no other explanation for his erratic behavior. At the same time, knowing Jay-Z, this could be a ploy to sell albums and promote his new movie, "Fade to Black". Through all of the tomfoolery going on involving this tour, "The Best of Both Worlds" album is still at the top of the Billboard charts.
I'm sure everyone knows that R. Kelly is accusing Jay's boy Ty-Ty of pepper spraying him during the melee at the Madison Square Garden concert. I really hope that's not true. Why is a man walking around with pepper spray to begin with? For those of you not familiar with Ty-Ty, there is an old mugshot at thesmokinggun.com. Here it is http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1101043tyran1.html
Master Of The Rap Universe
There was a very good Jay-Z article in the New York Daily News a couple of Sundays ago. The article discussed his career and the new projects that Jay is taking on. They also discussed his relationship with longtime business
partner Damon Dash. Jay won't say there are any ill feelings between the two, but he does admit that they aren't the tandem they used to be. Jay says, "Me and him will always be great. We made history - we took a little company and ran it for eight years. But now we have different things. He sees a Basquiat (painting) and goes and buys it. I'm not into that. We got different tastes. It ran its course."
The article was really good. It painted a different picture of Jay than what you read in our urban publications. It was really good and sort of a departure. I enjoyed it. The only fault I could find with the article is that it wasn't longer. You can read it in it's entirety here: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/247506p-211980c.html
Dame and Jay haven't been the Dame and Jay that was introduced to the world years ago, for some time now. They always claim that they'll be friends forever and that's nice. Even now, Dame is still telling everyone that it's all love between him and Jay and that Jay is his son's godfather. Many great friendships and business partnerships run their course. At the same time, Jay and Dame have always seemed to be opposites. Jay is acting like Dame's behavior is something new. He's talking about Dame investing in Basquiats like they're low clarity diamonds from Jacob. If he wants to give reasons for not hanging out with Dame anymore, the fact that Dame dances around on television while wildly shaking liquor bottles at the camera should have been reason numero uno, not the fact that he invests in art.
I definitely think Jay has outgrown the Roc and everything they represent, so it's good to see him moving on to greener pastures. Now who is going to put the Roc on their back and carry it? Other than Kanye West, Jay is the only platinum selling artist that label has ever seen. It's a sad state of affairs over at Roc-A-Fella when you have State Property, the Diplomats and Nore trying to keep the label afloat. Good luck to Dame and those guys.
Brandy Leaves Atlantic
Singer/actress Brandy has decided to part ways with Atlantic Records, her recording home of 11 years. The singer requested to be released from her contract and was appeased. Courtney Barnes, a spokesperson for Brandy says,
"Artists get to a place where they want some change in their life. She wanted to move on."
Brandy goes through a different change everyday. I truly hope she finds what she's looking for. The last thing she needs is to have another one of those Mariah-esque meltdowns. With the dismal sales of her last album, I don't blame Brandy for running from Atlantic. The album has sold just over 300,000 copies since its release and Atlantic hasn't done anything to help the cause. At the same time, I wonder where Brandy is headed as far as labels are concerned?
People like Beyonce, Alicia Keys and Christina Aguilera are taking precedence at larger labels, another Brandy album may never see light of day if she signs to a label where she has to compete with artists of that caliber. Whatever the case, I hope Brandy is happy and finds a new label. In the meantime, she will start shooting her new television show for Fox, beginning in January. Lots of luck to Brandy.
LL's Abs
Rapper LL Cool J has had to cancel the remaining 12 dates of his concert tour due to an unspecified abdominal injury. The 36-year-old entertainer whose give name is James Todd Smith, has released a statement that reads: "I
am extremely disappointed to have to cancel the rest of this fun and successful tour. I apologize for disappointing my fans who have already bought tickets."
According to a public relations rep, the rapper is taking medication for his ailment as well as resting. Fans who have purchased tickets to the canceled were able to be refunded at the point of ticket purchase. I wish LL a speedy recovery.
Now that I've gotten the niceties out of the way, I bet that this "unspecified abdominal injury" is a direct result of complications from those ab implants. I know he claims that he didn't get ab implants. I don't believe that for a minute. He has got to be the vainest man on the planet. Probably the only rapper vain enough to get ab implants. Has anyone seen him lately? He has gotten a whole face lift. He looks about 16-years-old. I had an argument with someone who says that he has not gotten a face lift, he just lost some weight. Losing weight does not make you look 20 years younger at all. I even conceded that he may have just gotten botox injections, but he has definitely done something to his face.
All that aside, why didn't I know LL was on tour? Where is he touring, in church basements? He can not be doing arenas. I don't think the world is feeling LL like that anymore. Tickets should have been nonrefundable. Not getting your money back should have been the punishment for people that went out and bought tickets to an LL concert. I'm only kidding, but are you ticket holders serious?
Foxy Brown a.k.a The Hip Hop Mariah
Rapper Foxy Brown has been pretty quiet lately, though rumors have been
appearing that the self-proclaimed "female Pac" has signed to rapper Jay-Z's
S. Carter label. Fox and Jay performed during Jay's "retirement" concert and NY area dates of the Best of Both World's tour, and Fox claims that the magic is back. Fox believes that the world is ready for her and Jay to collaborate again.
MTV caught up with Fox and she says that the rumors of her signing to S. Carter are true, while Jay-Z claims that it's not a done deal. She also claims that she and Jay will be taking over the game in 2005, as though it were 1996 all over again. She says, "This is a rebuilding process for me. The streets are begging me for me to come back. They gotta listen to all these bullshit female artists right now. They just gotta settle right now, I don't think hip-hop should have to settle. They had a great teacher, but mommy's home right now. When I come back, it's a problem. I am so back. I'm knocking out five joints in one night; I'm a complete beast right now."
Fox claims in the time since she parted ways with her former label, Def Jam, she has been courted by every label in the industry. Fox says, "I sat down with every label president. They are like, 'Boogie what do you need? You know how to make a hit record.' That's the bottom line. We been doing this since '95. It's a formula. You know me, I thrive off of controversy. I thrive off niggas talking. I get a kick out of that. Whatever I make has to be serious, it has to be ridiculous. I gotta shake New York up."
To shake New York up Foxy has her new album all planned out, it is tentatively titled, Black Roses.Oh have mercy. Here Foxy goes again. I love Fox, but she is the hip-hop Mariah, deluded to no end. Legendary in her own mind and not many other places. Her behavior and commentary are so random and erratic. Always talking, without an album to speak of. I'd love to see Fox come back with a good quality album. She's one of the best females in hip-hop, but let her tell it she is the first chick to ever grace the mic. It is not that serious. I definitely agree with her on the point that hip-hop is settling right now, but I don't blame that on female rappers. Most of the rappers that hip-hop is settling for are male.
I definitely don't see the reason for her to come at the other chicks in the game sideways. If she's the greatest female out there, she would not have to talk about it. The world would be telling her she's the greatest, not the other way around. I'm not saying that most female rappers aren't wack, because they are, but if they're so beneath her she shouldn't even waste her breath talking about it. A hot album would easily shut them down. This chick has given like 500 interviews in the last year and hasn't had an album out in like 3 years.Foxy and Jay together should be interesting, the two of them are such divas that I can easily see this reunion ending just as ugly as their past partnership. I am not looking for it to last, but I am not mad at them if they can recreate the chemistry they had back in the day. Before I go any further, what is up with Barrington Levy being Foxy's best friend? She changes best friends like she changes designer purses. Last month she and Shyne were best friends, last year her best friend was Lauryn Hill. At one time or another Jay-Z, Nas, Lil Kim, and AZ have all been her best friend. I really hope she is not popping those prescription drugs again.
I don't take joy in anyone's pain or misfortune, but most true artists channel their pain into their art and come up with some of their work ever. My favorite example is Mary J. Blige's "My Life" album. "Broken Silence" was
in my opinion a very good album, but it was not all that great. From what I can tell, Foxy has always been in pain and that "Chyna Doll" album was pure garbage.
I don't know what to expect from "Black Roses" other than her and Dido screaming and Luther singing. Is Luther even singing again? The tone of the article made me think that most of what Foxy was saying was well thought out
in her mind, but is nowhere near happening yet. I haven't got a clue, but I'm on Foxy's side. I hope she comes out with a really good album, shows these other chicks that they're inferior, and maintains her personal and working
relationship with Jay-Z. Whatever she wants to happen regarding all of these things, I'm riding with her and hope she can bring them to fruition. I just need her to stop talking all this craziness in interviews and make something happen.
Murder Inc
Cynthia Brent, a bookkeeper for hip-hop label Murder Inc, was indicted on money laundering charges on Monday. This stems from the ongoing federal investigation which links Murder Inc to well known New York City drug
dealers. Brent, who is 39 has pleaded not guilty at her arraignment and was released on a $200,000 bond.
Irv Gotti and Ja Rule maintain that they are innocent and that this investigation is just the cops trying to stop a black company from making money.
Damn, I didn't even know the feds were still investigating Murder Inc. You would think they Murder Inc had ties to people in Columbia importing cocaine into the United States. Murder Inc is still screaming that they are innocent and being harassed because they are young black entrepreneurs, but at what point will they realize that they sound ridiculous? The local authorities aren't going to keep hounding someone that they know is innocent, never mind the feds. If there really wasn't anything there, at this point they would have probably left well enough alone.
I'm sick of this investigation and I would like it to end soon. I hope Murder Inc can prove the innocence they are maintaining and move on from this unfortunate turn of events when all is said and done.
Murphy Lee Arrested
St. Lunatics rapper Murphy Lee was arrested and charged with driving under the influence on October 31. Police claim that they found 35 grams of marijuana in his Mercedes Benz. Lee, 22, was stopped for an expired license
plate just south of St. Louis Missouri. Police officers say that they smelled marijuana in the car and proceeded to arrest him. Lee's camp has not released an official statement, but his lawyer says that he will not plead
guilty in December, when he appears in court.
By now, we should all know how I feel about people being arrested with and for marijuana. It's ridiculous. Yeah, it's illegal, but cops could be letting suspects of real crimes get away while they run after pot smokers. I figured Murphy Lee smoked weed, but I didn't know this man was only 22. He's a baby. Nelly is like 30 something years old, so I do not believe that Murphy Lee is only 22. They're always talking about the good old days, but never once had they mentioned Nelly was pushing Murphy Lee around in a stroller back in these days. Whatever, as usual, I'm way off topic.
Anyway, on Hot 97's morning show they were saying that Murphy Lee was pulled over on his way home from law school class or some type of criminal justice seminar. According to Miss Jones, Murphy Lee is trying to be a lawyer. I commend him for trying to further his education, but that has nothing to do with him being arrested. Now if he's claiming that he didn't have any drugs in his car and wasn't smoking anything when he was stopped, he should say that. But by no means does he need to tell everyone where he was coming from to make it look good.
At the same time, he may not have said any of that crap, but I listen to Hot 97 in the mornings from time to time and this is what I come away with. Utter confusion. Regardless, I hope it works out for Murphy Lee and he isn't fined a whopping $100 for his infraction.
Ashanti
Ashanti is on the cover of the latest issue of Vibe magazine. I was going to get into it, but the article is not that interesting. It's pretty much the same old nonsense. She is still talking about how she can really sing, the new album is going to be bananas and on and on and on. She again stated that if she could not sing or dance, she wouldn't be making music. Of course, her mother throws in her 2 cents. It's the same shit from 3 years ago. I am going to need Ashanti to come up with some new statements.
I saw Ashanti's new video and she looks really pretty in the video. The clothes, the make up, the weave are all damn near flawless. The song sounds like every other Ashanti song, except there's no repetition of the word baby in this one. I'm not mad at her for doing what she does, because she has every right to, but she is killing me by acting like she's doing things new and amazing things never done before in music. I'm not picking on Ashanti, but what the hell happened to R&B music? I'd hate to be a kid growing up in this day and time and think that Ashanti and other artists like her was what music was all about.
I just used Ashanti to go off on another one of my tangents, which wasn't really fair, but I could care less. Ashanti's album Concrete Rose will be in stores next month, so all you Ashanti fans need to run out and buy it.
Blingware
According to allhiphop.com Errol and Nicole Footman, a married couple, have designed flatwear called Blingware. The couple experimented with untensils and Swarovski crystals to create the elaborate forks, knives, and spoons.
Each fork, knife, and spoon contains 70-80 hand set crystals on solid stainless steel. The crystals used for Blingware have a similar quality to diamonds. A 16 piece Bling Ware set will set you back $5,500, while a 40 piece set will
sell for $10,000.
Prior to starting Blingware, Errol was a systems analyst and software developer on Wall Street, while his wife Nicole was a receptionist and personal assistant in the entertainment industry. The first thing I did when I read about Blingware was call my friend and ask her why we hadn't come up with this idea. I wish this was my idea. Errol and
Nicole are going to make a killing off of people who have no problem spending thousands on crystals with diamond like qualities. I can already see the rappers putting in orders for their Blingware.
Can't you guys just
see Lil Jon, Snoop and the Pimp Bishop Honorable Reverend Magic Don Juan showing up at awards shows with their crystaled out forks and knives to match their pimp cups?
In theory it's a ridiculous idea, but in reality it's a gold mine and I hope Errol and Nicole make a lot of money off of this. Maybe they'll eventually expand to other items swathed in crystals. As long as their are rappers, this sounds like it will be a success.
Destiny's Child
Has anyone seen Destiny's Child "Soldier" video featuring T.I. and Lil Wayne? I have never seen anything more ghetto in my life. Beyonce and the girls look crazy. Most of the outfits look like something straight out of
the circus. They look worse than Tina Knowles originals. Then they have a pregnant Solange in the video, along with her husband, and the husband and the Destiny's chicks are bouncing around rubbing on her belly. I am really
surprised at Destiny's Child. If you haven't seen it, you can't get a better laugh anywhere, so check it out.
Vibe Awards
The 2nd annual Vibe Awards will be airing on Tuesday, November 16 at 8 p.m on UPN. The show will be hosted by L.L. Cool J and Tyra Banks. There will be a bevy of performances and awards given that night. Chingy, Alicia Keys and Usher will be there. They are not the end all be all of the show, but they're the only names I can remember. Hopefully it will be entertaining in one way or the other and we can talk about it next week.
Ciara's Video
This is totally related to anything, but my cousin from Atlanta is in Ciara's new video. I couldn't tell you what the song is called, but he's the skinny guy skating on the left. He's also skating in a Boost Mobile commercial. Skating is like, big business in the south. My cousin actually has an agent that books him these televised skating jobs.
- reported by Keshawnta J.