Archives 
News Headlines Archives for October 2007
AMERICAN GANGSTER WEEK: Dame Dash Spills on Nicky Barnes, Snitches, and Jay-Z
If you're Damon Dash, you don't listen to whispers. Sure, it's been a low-key time for the man formerly known as the business mind behind the glory of Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella label and clothing empire. But amid rumors of his own entertainment empire hitting hard financial times (Dame owns and operates Armadale Vodka, Dash Management, PRO-KEDS shoes, Team Roc, Tiret Watches and his CEO Clothing line), Dash may pull out ahead as the producer of the critically acclaimed documentary Mr. Untouchable. The Mark Levin-directed film, which hits theaters this month, is a hard hitting and insightful expose of the violent world of '70s Harlem drug kingpin Nicky Barnes. As usual, the bombastic Dame Dash has the last word - on Jay-Z's recent comeback, the corruption of Barnes, and why Ridley Scott's American Gangster is more fiction than fact.... (read more)
YOU DON'T KNOW ME: The Cool Kids
Straight up, the Cool Kids are diehard '80s babies who bring fresh, futuristic ideas to classic-style hip hop. Throwing minimal, post-Neptunes beats beneath their throwbacky joints - when was the last time you heard a young rapper shout out the Smurf with a straight face? - these cats sound extra smooth, slow-cadence gangster in their rhymes about BMX bikes and downtown b-boy bangers. Two Chicago based producer/rappers known as Mikey Rocks, 19, and Chuck Inglish, 23, the Cool Kids have been tearing it up onstage with their surprisingly hard stage presence, recently wrapping the Fool's Gold tour (with their Chi-City sistren Kid Sister), currently filling the opening slot for Sri Lankan-British toaster M.I.A. They're about to drop the "88 / I Rock" single on Fool's Gold Records (the label run by DMC Champ/Kanye West's DJ A-Trak and Jerz-or-die DJ Nick Catchdubs) with a full-length to follow in '08 on Chocolate Industries. ... (read more)
AMERICAN GANGSTER WEEK: Mr. Untouchable - Getting Close to Nicky Barnes
August 2006. Filmmaker Marc Levin, 56, had just finished editing the
Damon Dash-produced documentary Mr. Untouchable (Magnolia Pictures), a
bare-knuckled look at the bloody rise and spectacular fall of '70s
Harlem drug emperor Leroy "Nicky" Barnes. Levin was pleased with the
edit, which relied on interviews with lawyers, journalists, lawmen, and
Barnes' associates to tell the tale of the heavyweight hustler who, at
his peak, was generating more than $100 million a year through his
cocaine/heroin cartel, The Council. Only thing missing? Barnes himself.
Until...
... (read more)
VIBE's December 2007 issue: Keyshia Cole, An American Beauty
You can't miss VIBE's December 2007 issue - obviously - which officially hits stands November 12. Featuring "Hell's Angel," an intimate Keyshia Cole cover story written by VIBE Editor-in-Chief Danyel Smith - with a gang of even more stunning photos inside, trust. And the heat doesn't cease:... (read more)
AMERICAN GANGSTER WEEK: Common - from Chicago to Hollywood
"Hey, isn't that the guy from the GAP commercial?"
A
little girl points out Common's familiar bald head as he signs copies
of the CD she's never heard of at a nearby table. The line of fans
slowly snaking through the aisles of a downtown DC Borders bookstore on
this early August afternoon is notably more diverse than his original
audience, which he once jokingly referred to as "coffee-shop chicks and
white dudes," but the afro chicks and backpacking hip hop heads are
still in the building. Mixed in, though, there's also a crew of
rainbow-embellished high-schoolers, some buttoned-down guys with work
IDs around their necks, and a couple of veiled Muslim women in full,
traditional garb.... (read more)
Kelis Gets Dumped from Jive
Maybe it's not a surprise, what with the music industry raining bricks and only betting on sure-thing megastars, but Kelis Rogers, aka Mrs. Nasir Jones, aka "Ms. Boss-ay," has been unceremoniously dumped from Jive Records, according to Entertainment Weekly. Her manager, Jeff Rabhan, explained to the magazine, "It was a case of being in the ever-shrinking world of the record industry and finding herself on a label she wasn't signed to and without a champion."... (read more)
Jay-Z Film Details Emerge
VIBE has exclusively learned new details regarding the film version of Jay-Z's American Gangster - the film based on the album based on the Ridley Scott film. It's a 40-minute-long, fictionalized account loosely depicting details of Jay-Z's life.... (read more)
Clipse Back in the Clip
If hell hath no fury, then revenge is sweet. According to a press release from Sony/Columbia, Rick Rubin and industry celeb A&R Kyambo "Hip Hop" Joshua (who was featured in VIBE's 2007 Juice issue) have signed Pusha and Malice, aka Clipse, to the label. This comes after the duo's much-publicized/maligned relationship with Jive Records, who last dropped their critically acclaimed but-not-quite-box-office-poppin 2006 release, Hell Hath No Fury.... (read more)
T.I. is Free, For Now
Tip was released from jail this morning on $3 million bail, with the stipulation that he would stay on house arrest, pay for his own 24-hour GPS monitoring service, not have any guns or make contact with witnesses or informants in his case.
... (read more)Styles P: I'm Back...
It's an unseasonably warm Columbus Day afternoon in Brooklyn, New York, and most people are enjoying the last of their three-day weekend. But instead of spending his Monday relaxing, David Styles - better known as Yonkers, NY rapper Styles P - is hard at work in Brooklyn Studios, shooting the video for "Blow My Mind," the first single from his upcoming album, Supa Gangsta, Extraordinary Gentleman. Styles, who is one-third of The Lox (rappers Jadakiss and Sheek Louch complete the set), doesn't seem to mind putting in some work, though. "The energy is good, baby," he yells, as he shakes the hands of crew members and staff. Amid rumors that the Lox are signing to Def Jam for a 2008 release - and that Jadakiss is about to sign to the label for a solo album, as well - it seems as if Styles and his D-Block soldiers are ready to gear up for battle again.... (read more)
Sawing His Way to the Top: Lyriq Bent
A black character who survives three installments of a horror movie has
got to go down in the Hollywood history books. We all know black folks
are killed off in the sacrificial gross-out scene in the first five
minutes. However, the creators of the gruesome Saw franchise have consistently featured a diverse cast, and for their latest installment, Saw IV
(opening today, October 26), they've reprised the longest surviving
character, SWAT Commander Rigg, played by up and coming actor Lyriq
Bent.
Lyriq is a face you may have seen, but haven't had a
chance to know - till now. Originally from Jamaica, Lyriq has been
grinding in Hollywood for over seven years, appearing in films like Honey and Four Brothers. He made his debut with Saw in the 2005 sequel.
The
role of Commander Rigg for Lyriq almost didn't happen - it was a role
he didn't even want. "I auditioned for Xavier, which was one of the
characters in the house," he explains. "I thought I hit it out the
park, but we have some pretty insightful people on this team; they
thought it would be too stereotypical to have a black guy play that
role because he was a drug dealer." Instead he landed the role of
Commander Rigg who, at first, was "a glorified extra," he says. But two
years later, Commander Rigg has survived the villain's Jigsaw ghastly
traps - and Lyriq Bent is still part of the popular franchise.... (read more)
Home of The Brave: Exclusive Trailer
Out on DVD today, the trailer for Home of the Brave. Ya man Irving Winkler directed; you might know him from Rocky.Warning: graphic content in this trailer - may traumatize, particularly in our present war culture, which could in fact be the point. With all this grimy action, could this be an antiwar movie? ... (read more)
New BRITNEY Music!
Late nights, rumored drug probs, and child custody issues aside, Britney Spears has been on her studio grind. Sample like a million new tracks here. ... (read more)
The-Dream, "I Luv Your Girl"
The-Dream ruled your summer whether you knew it or not: as the genius who penned "Umbrella" for Rihanna, "Bed" for J. Holiday and his own "Shawty is a Ten," his glossy and romantic harmonies had us fiending for more. His album comes out on Def Jam in December and features more unforgettable hooks, emotional appeals that make you melt, even some techno dance tracks and, of course, tons of falsetto. Question: could The-Dream be a 21st Century Al B. Sure!? Oooh this love is so... "I Luv Your Girl" is our jam right now.... (read more)
Alicia Keys to Play Nobel Prize Ceremony
Ms. Alicia Keys was selected along with a handful of international superstars to perform in honor of Vice President Al Gore as he accepts his Nobel Peace Prize for his global warming awareness efforts. The ceremony will be held in Norway on December 11. ... (read more)
Duo Live f. Fabolous, "Princess" (Music)
Sid V and Fre, aka Duo Live, are dropping their album The Color of Money tomorrow... but tonight, they celebrate at PM Lounge in NYC with collaborators like Fabolous, all-time-fave Al B. Sure!, Talib Kweli, Cheri Dennis and Jimmy Cozier. (Unfortunately no Angie Stone, but she did end up on the record, though.) We're kinda feeling the laidback, mid-'90s vibe on this track, Princess, featuring your man Fab.... (read more)
T.I. Denied Bail... Again
T.I. plead for his release on bail today (October 19) in US Ditrict court, but was denied, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He is scheduled for another hearing next Friday, where the judge will reconsider the ruling. Said Judge Alan Baverman, "I haven't decided on releasing him yet. I just haven't heard the conditions yet and I'm not satisifed."... (read more)
Ashanti f. 7 Aurelius, "Hey Baby Remix" (Music)
So for someone who's been so MIA for a minute, Ashanti is all over lately - on magazine covers, on the web and, well... at awards shows? Maybe people are fiinally just sick of looking at Beyonce and Rihanna and Britney and decided to go in for the throwback jam - old reliable, is what we like to call it. At any rate, this cute club remix of Ashanti's "Hey Baby (After the Club)" is giving us palpitations - and just cause we can, an older remix by DJ Phinesse done in Baltimore club style.... (read more)
Treal, "Zone'n (Fantasy Lady)" (Music)
Now that Pleasure P has quit Pretty Ricky, there's a void for sexed-up R&B vocalists fronting Floridian hip hop soul groups. Enter Treal, the Orlandoans who take sensual rap&B to grown and sexy levels. Their newest track, streaming below, is kinda like T-Pain sans spastic voicebox, all low and hypnotic with the right amount of booty in the bass. FLA is so heavy.... (read more)
Death Row Bodyguard = Undercover FBI Agent
If you always feel like somebody's watching you... they just might be. In a shocking revelation at an LA media screening of the new documentary Tupac Assassination: Conspiracy or Revenge, former Death Row bodyguard Kevin Hackie has revealed he was working undercover for the FBI the entire time he was employed there, from '92-96. Time to change the locks!... (read more)
MY ALBUM'S OUT: Angie Stone
The late '90s saw a resurgence of the R&B singer/songwriter, when
urban radio was graced with artists like Maxwell, Erkyah Badu, D’Angelo
- and Angie Stone, who in 1999 debuted with her now-classic album Black Diamond.
Over the course of a near-decade, she would garner a huge following
with soul anthems like "No More Rain (In This Cloud)", “Brotha” and
“Wish I Didn’t Miss You.”
Having survived the now debunked “neo-soul” movement, Stone returns on the legendary Stax Records, with her fourth studio album The Art of Love & War, a testimony of survival, relationships and redemption. Stone spoke with VIBE about her heavily criticized appearance on VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club, the status of missing-in-action crooner D’Angelo (her baby’s daddy!), and much more.... (read more)
Kenna: Feel Like I'm Nowhere
Star Trak’s Kenna is probably not an artist you know very much about. Since his first album, 2003’s acclaimed New Sacred Cow, he’s developed a sort of anony-stardom. Featured in Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, the best-selling book about instinctual decision-making and social trends, Kenna has gained loads of notoriety for his uncategorizable sound, but sold few albums, despite an affiliation with high school classmates The Neptunes and a major label deal. Today he releases Make Sure They See My Face, a more ostentatious presentation for such a humble soul. The album is livelier than his previous, New Wave-inspired work. It’s also one of the year’s most satisfying albums. We spoke to Kenna about climbing mountains and conquering fear earlier this month.... (read more)
T.I.: Tell 'Em I Said That
I was at dinner on Saturday night when I first got the text: "So you heard about Tip?" I hadn't - it's Saturday, a man's gotta chill - but when I got the details, I was glad to hear that, if nothing else, he was at least alive, if not well. Of course, as the story continued to unfold over the course of the night and on into Sunday, it became clear just how "not well" things were on the end of one Clifford "Tip" Harris, Jr., 27. ... (read more)
UPDATE: Rap Star T.I. (or was it T.I.P.?) Arrested
Rapper T.I. has been charged with possession of firearms by a convicted felon, and possession of unregistered machine guns and silencers, after being arrested Saturday by the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives law enforcement agency right before he was to take the stage at the BET Awards.... (read more)
Out the Box Office: Tasha Smith
Some performers just glow. But from Tasha Smith's opening scene in Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?, she illuminates. Even next to her co-stars, an icon like Janet Jackson and a soul diva like Jill Scott, she triumphs as a crowd favorite. In a performance that matches the vigor of Angela Bassett in Waiting to Exhale, Tasha Smith has proved she was made for the movies. ... (read more)
Unlocking Fiascogate
After screwing up his rhymes during a tribute to A Tribe Called Quest on VH1's Hip Hop Honors awards show on Sunday, rap star Lupe Fiasco has quickly become a blogger's whipping boy in a drama now referred to as "Fiascogate," with new allegations from Q-Tip that Lupe was never asked by him to perform at the VH1 ceremony at all.
The 25-year-old rapper claimed Q-Tip personally asked him to perform "Electric Relaxation," off 1993's Midnight Marauders, an album critics and rap heads alike have called Tribe's best effort. But Lupe, an artist with a predilection for positivity, shot himself in the foot when he flubbed the lyrics to Phife's verse.
The screw-up fell in line in the great tradition of award show lyrical bloopers, like Kid Rock's flub during a cameo performance of Jay-Z's "99 Problems" at the 2004 BET Awards, and Nas butchering a Tupac song during his tribute performance to the slain rapper at 2005's Hip Hop Honors. But unlike these fumbles, Lupe's mistake resulted in blog crucifixion - Fiascogate.... (read more)
With Trial Postponed, Kellz Tours
R. Kelly is back on the road. Fresh off the hit-birthing Double Up and the latest amazing installments of Trapped in the Closet, Kellz has announced his anticipated tour will kick off Nov. 14 in Columbus, Georgia. He'll also make stops in Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Newark, New Orleans, Oakland, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Washington, DC, and Chicago, though specific dates have yet to be announced.... (read more)
King Diddy Sued for Biggie Royalties
Diddy is being sued for the rights to a Biggie recording session dating back 13 years.
The twist, however, is that the plaintiff is James Sabatino, who not only worked as a Bad Boy consultant, but later was named a "person of interest" in the investigation into the Notorious B.I.G.'s murder. Sabatino is currently serving time in a Florida prison for unrelated charges of phone fraud and threatening to murder a federal prosecutor.
... (read more)PREVIEW: Jay-Z's American Gangster
Jay-Z presented his nearly-completed tenth album, American Gangster, Friday evening for a small gathering of media at Manhattan's Roc The Mic Studios. Inspired by the forthcoming Denzel Washington drama of the same name, the album – a crisper, more focused effort than his previous album, last year's somewhat maligned Kingdom Come – is a cinematic work, told with a loose narrative that follows the rise and subsequent fall of a New York drug lord. "It plays like a cautionary tale," he said. "But it's not me. I made it. I'm a bad motherfucker."... (read more)
The 77 Best Lil' Wayne Songs of 2007
It's 2007 - and hip hop is nothing without Lil Wayne.
Rap
needs a leading man, always has. An artist against whom all others are
measured. Securing the spot requires a keen combination of skill,
marketability, controversy, and luck. That Dwayne "Lil Wayne" Carter
would become that man was never a sure thing. As a member of the Hot
Boys, he didn't much stand out, and his early solo career remains
easily overlooked. He's not traditionally handsome. He's from the
South, and it's been easy, for some fans and critics, to not give the
South its due.... (read more)
The Good Life: DJ Toomp
DJ Toomp's track record reads like he's a hip hop Chauncey Billups:
Kanye West's "Good Life," "Can't Tell Me Nothing" and "Big Brother"
(swish!). T.I .'s "What You Know," "Motivation," "U Don't Know,"
"24's," and "Be Easy" (swish!). Young Jeezy's "I Love It" (game over!).
But even with all the champion beats, the Atlanta
uber-producer who gave T.I. (or is it T.I.P.?) his drooly-commercial
sound - and is now working on tracks for President Carter's highly
anticipated American Gangster album - has a lot more on his
mind. In an exclusive sit-down interview, Toomp opens up about why 50
Cent's album Curtis didn't outsell Kanye's "Graduation," how the
industry has changed, and why he no longer works with T.I.... (read more)
Weezy F. Baby: Uncut
Lil Wayne is a madman. He's unhinged. He's hilarious. Passionate. Downright mean.
During my time with him in Miami for The Art of Storytelling
(November '07), I knew that Wayne would be difficult to capture. Many
of the deepest, darkest stories he shared cannot be translated onto the
pages of a magazine. But he gave so much, there's still plenty left to
report. We may never fully understand the mind of the most prolific
rapper this year - but we can go as deep as he'll let us.... (read more)
Kevin Gets the Kids: Britney Loses Custody
Britney Spears was ordered Monday (October 1) to surrender her two children, Sean Preston, 1, and Jayden James, 2, to their biological dad - Kevin Federline.... (read more)
Toya Carter Speaks Out (Part 2)
After reading the Lil Wayne cover story in VIBE's November 2007 issue, Antonia "Toya" Carter, Lil Wayne's ex-wife, wanted to give her side of the story. In the first part of this exclusive Q&A, she speaks about their history. She also loaned us a whole gang of photos - which seem to show they did have love, if only for a time - which we'll be publishing here on vibe.com over the next few days. Keep checking back. And now: part 2 of our exclusive interview with Antonia "Toya" Carter, Lil Wayne's first wife.... (read more)
From the Blogs
-
zentronix d+h
Wednesday was the day that the party and its discontents decided to party. At highly exclusive big-donor events, the Black Eyed Peas and Fergie rock (read more) -
The Nappy Diatribe
As much as I wanted this Democratic Convention to be all about Barack Obama, there were early indicators that every underlying storyline this week wou (read more) -
Invite Only
Shirea and Young Jeezy it's the only way to go...and so...I did. Last night, August 26, 2008, at New York City's Blender Theatre I went into the stand (read more) -
Critical Noir
W. E. B. Du Bois died quietly in Accra, Ghana on August 27, 1963 at the age of 95. Du Bois had been living in Ghana for several years at the invitat (read more)
Celeb of the Day
Bun B
Government Name: Bernard Freeman
Hometown: Port Arthur, Texas
More Celebrities
|
|
|
|
