Rap star Da Brat has been sentenced to three years in prison, with seven years probation and 200 hours of community service, for striking a woman with a rum bottle at an Atlanta nightclub last year. She must also undergo substance abuse treatment, a mental evaluation, and attend anger management classes.
The incident happened on Halloween at Studio 72. The witness, a waitress at the club, suffered permanent facial scarring from the altercation. Brat, real name Shawntae Harris, stood as family members wept as she was taken into custody on Friday. Brat pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, and as she was led out the courtroom she calmly looked over at relatives and said, "I love y'all."
Da Brat's 1994 album, Funkdafied was the first album to go platinum by a female. Her most recent claim to fame is as a contest on The Surreal Life and The Celebrity Fit Club.
Andre Young Jr., the 20-year-old son of legendary West Coast rap mogul Dr. Dre, was found dead at his home in Woodland Hills on Saturday morning.
Young reportedly came home around 5 a.m. the morning of his death and was found unresponsive by his mother around 10 a.m. The cause of death is still pending due to an incomplete toxicology report.
A rep for Dr. Dre released a statement today saying, "Dr. Dre is mourning the loss of his son Andre Young Jr. Please respect his family’s grief and privacy at this time."
Dr. Dre, a founding father of modern day hip hop production, is a former member of the West Coast gangsta rap group NWA, and the founder ad CEO of Aftermath Entertainment (Interscope).
After a lot of well documented big talk about one another supremacy in Madden Football The Game and Bow Wow finally met. The virtual battle was put together by Konsole Kingz and took place at Holly's in Hollywood, Calif Friday night in front of a capacity crowd that included host comedian Griff and Def Jam/Tag honcho Jermaine Dupri. Game ran with the New England Patriots (using the Oakland Raiders playbook) and Bow Wow went with his heart and chose his home state team the Cincinnati Bengals.
After all the hype the battle turned out to be an embarrassing blowout. Game took control immediately driving down field taking full advantage of Bow Wow's Bengals weak defense. After a shutout first quarter the game was never in doubt. Game cruised to a 55-23 trouncing of Bow. As with any Madden game, no feelings were spared and there were a lot of excuses but at the end of the day Game remains the self proclaimed #1 Madden player in the world and Bow Wow is light about $100K.
As Seen On Pharrell In The "Everybody Nose Remix" Video
That most luxury labels quickly license their eyewear rights as soon as their brand is strong enough to get offers is a testament to how lucrative such a transaction can be. That Maison Martin Margiela has not only licensed said rights but has not even up to this point put out a single pair of sunglasses with its name on it is a testament to how different of an operation Margiela runs. This is all a rather long-winded way of saying Margiela is releasing its first pair of sunglasses in collaboration with Italian eyewear manufacturer Marcolin. The glasses are named "L'Incognito" but anyone who wears them about town will be anything but--an irony that's certainly not lost on Margiela. Available at Margiela stores worldwide and select multi-brand boutiques starting February 2008.
The shrewdest businessman in the game. The baddest chick on his arm. The Original. Jay-Z is the pinnacle of hip hop. Right before a legendary performance at the Glastonbury Festival, ELLIOTT WILSON sits down with Shawn Carter and grills him with 15 questions—about his career, the breakup of Roc-A-Fella, his support of Barack Obama, and his marriage (?) to Beyoncé Knowles.
This Bryan Barber, I’m so mad at him...Seriously, when I see [him], Don’t fuckin’ speak to me.
“NI**AS SAID, ‘HOVA WAS OVER’ / SUCH DUMMIES / EVEN IF I FELL / I’D LAND ON A BUNCH OF MONEY.” —Jay-Z, “Success” (2007) JAY-Z RETIRED early last night.
The richest rapper on Planet Earth was all alone in the lavish Capella Castlemartyr hotel in Cork, Ireland. On his MacBook Air and through his trusty Slingbox, he watched the entire broadcast of the BET Awards ’08. Today, while on his way to grab some grub before this evening’s concert Live At the Marquee, Hova gave a no-holds-barred recap of hip hop’s biggest annual showcase with biting wit, steady sarcasm, and more venom than the most vicious blogger. Some of it is even fit to print.
“This Bryan Barber, I’m so mad at him,” says Jay, shaking his head in the back of a chauffeur-driven black BMW. “He goes up to accept the award for best video [for UGK feat. OutKast’s “Int’l Player’s Anthem” (I Chose You)]. This was clearly UGK’s moment! He’s all mad ’cause they didn’t win last year. Pimp C’s widow is right there, and he’s up there complaining. She speaks like 10 seconds!” Hova pauses and sucks his teeth.
“Then Barber grabs the mic.... Again! Seriously, when I see [him], Don’t fuckin’ speak to me.”
If there’s one thing Jay-Z hates, it’s seeing a great moment ruined. That’s because he always seizes them: Bringing Michael Jackson out at Hot 97’s [WQHT 97.1FM] Summer Jam in 2001. The perfect Madison Square Garden retirement show two years later. Squashing beef with former rival Nas live on New Jersey’s Continental Airlines Arena stage in 2005.
These are just a handful of benchmarks from hip hop’s most consistently stellar career. The stats alone are mind-blowing: Tied with Elvis for 10 No. 1 Billboard 200 albums. Forty-five million sold world- wide. Seven Grammys. But it’s bigger than that to those in the know. Shawn Corey Carter is not just the best rapper alive, he’s the hustler’s poster child.
The gifted one who outworked everyone to claim the throne vacated by the passing of rap legends Christopher Wallace and Tupac Shakur at the height of their fame. With style and substance, Jay has been the driving force in hip hop culture for more than a decade.
Today, the MC who likens himself to Michael Jordan—with matching retirements—is more committed than ever to growing old in hip hop while still making timeless music. As he inches toward his 40s, Jay has no plans of walking off into the sunset. Damn a Hip Hop Honors highlight. Young Hova aims for an even more audacious accomplishment: going toe to toe with any and all comers from rap’s next generation.
It’s hard to believe, but in the mid-’90s, it was supposed to be AZ, not Jay-Z. After Jay’s mentor The Jaz bricked with his major label debut, Word To The Jaz (EMI), in 1989, Jay-Z joined him a year later for a song called “Th e Originators” (EMI). It was a pass-the-mic, tongue-twisting lyrical exercise in the frantic, fast-paced rap style that Bone Thugs-N-Harmony would one day take to the top of the pop charts. Jay had so much to say, but, unlike Rakim, he didn’t flow slow. So no one listened.
It wasn’t until Jay slowed down his words that the rap audience began to listen. And once they started, like a demented game of Hova Says, they started doing whatever he said. Drink Cristal. 4.6 not 4.0. Rock Reeboks. Stop wearing throwback jerseys with your grown ass. Put on a button-up. Stop drinking Cristal. Pop Ace of Spades. He inspires people to aspire. Dreams of fuckin’ an R&B bitch? Not good enough. Lock her down! He’s a guiding light, even when he’s not right. Still we ride. Stab Un (Google it). Fuck Nas’ baby mama. Abandon R. Kelly when the drama comes. Dump Dame. Shelve Joe Budden. Drop DMX.
We still love him. He’s power personified. Even his enemies respect him. Jay-Z is the best thing goin’, and we don’t want it to stop. 50 Cent may be the most entertaining. Kanye West, the most dramatic. Eminem, the most mysterious. But it would all be so empty without Jay.
Jigga has also drawn the blueprint for the rapper as a successful businessman. Pardon me, he’s a business (see résumé, left ). Before rap, he was crazy paid. When no major label would give him a deal, the Bed get lax. A lot of times when I looked around the room when I was at the record company, I thought some people were [just] doing jobs. Stuy–bred former drug dealer founded Roc-A-Fella Records in 1996 with partners Damon “Dame” Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke.
Nearly 10 years later, the trendsetting triumvirate sold the company to Def Jam Recordings and its parent company Vivendi Universal for a reported $10 million. Then to the shock of many, label chairman Antonio “L.A.” Reid gave control of the brand back to Jay as well as the rights to his masters in exchange for his agreement to become president of Def Jam.
After a contentious three-year tenure that ended in December, Jay inked a $150 million, 10-year deal with Live Nation in April, the same month he married longtime girlfriend, international superstar Beyoncé Knowles (at least if you believe the blogs—the alleged newlyweds themselves have neither confirmed nor denied their nuptials).
Across the UK over the course of five days, Jay shared his world. Private G5 jet rides with the occasional grilled-cheese sandwich service. Strong cocktails at six-star hotels. And charismatic candor in addressing his new status as The Rolling Stones of rap, a goal-oriented future, his reenergized artistic present and his character-defining past. And maybe even a small peek into his personal life...if you pay close enough attention—and dare to ask.
I: Since American Gangster, you’ve been on fire, jumping on remixes and doing freestyles. Have something to prove after the failure of Kingdom Come?
Jay-Z: My goal is to make a classic album this year, and my thing is to take a couple jump shots in my lay up line. I look at it like a sport, like basketball. And when I came out with Kingdom Come, I didn’t do that. I came off the bench cold. It’s what I felt like doing at the time. So, once again, I don’t have regrets over it...I still think it’s a great album. I just think, had I took a couple more jump shots, I could have made it to where everyone could have been able to relate to it.
II: Did American Gangster take your career back to where it needed to be?
Oh yeah. I called it a reset button. I recently had a conversation with Timbaland about it for like five hours, and he was telling me it wasn’t needed. “Like you’re Jay-Z, you can do whatever.” That’s the beauty of rap: I’m not Jay-Z and can do whatever—it doesn’t work like that. With rap, it’s always about the next project, no matter who you are! It’s about what’s current, what’s happening right this second. [Gangster] set the foundation all over again, and it made everybody say, Whoa, hold up for a second. It quelled those arguments [that Jay had fallen off ], and those arguments were not founded, but that’s just how it happens. That’s what keeps it fresh for me. I love that challenge. The day people just stop and say, He’s the greatest.... Oh just forget it, there’s never going to be anyone to touch him. Once that’s everyone’s opinion, then that’s it for me.
III: Is that the Biggie and 2Pac factor? Are you chasing greatness?
Chasing ghosts. The thing about that is no one expects you to be better than them. It’s almost blasphemous to say that, [but].... Even with their untimely and unfortunate deaths, they wouldn’t want it to stop at them. I’m supposed to want to strive to be the best in history. Period. Bar none. And that’s my goal. That’s how I really approach it. I mean it has to be that, right? There still has to be a yearning and a passion for what I do, to really further cement that mark. Every time I make an album, it’s going toward the legacy. It really ain’t about the sale of an album at this point, and a lot of people say that shit, and it’s almost cliché. Man I don’t care what it sells. For me, at this point, if I’ve developed a fan base, it’d be better than trying to get 10 million people. Because that’s how I actually started—and it’s come full circle.
