By now you’ve probably heard that Lil Mama crashed Jay-Z’s VMA performance and made a fool out of herself. During Jay’s performance of “Empire State of Mind” with Alicia Keys, Mama invited herself to the stage and started dancing. Jay tapped Mama’s knee and motioned for her to get off the stage, but she ignored him and kept swaying. At some point, Jay even told her, “You’re T-Paining right now,” a reference to T-Pain’s impromptu stage appearance at Jay’s Summer Jam rendition of “D.O.A.”

Lil Mama offered the following apology to Jay-Z and Alicia Keys via MTV:

“I did not mean any disrespect towards Jay-Z or Alicia Keys. I admire them and look up to them as role models. ‘Empire State of Mind’ had my emotions running high. In that moment I came up onstage to celebrate my two icons singing about NY.”

Pop the lid for a video of Jay-Z punching Lil Mama backstage after the performance. Read the rest of this entry »

Move over Will Smith, Doug E Fresh’s Scientology-penis is bigger than your Scientology-penis. “I am the first hip-hop artist to do it,” Doug E Fresh told Essence magazine in a recent interview.
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Speaking of femcees, London’s own Speech Debelle has won Britain’s Barclaycard Mercury Prize for her Speech Therapy LP. The album was inspired by her experience in the streets as a homeless teen. Debelle knocked out 11 other acts, including Kasabian and Bat for Lashes, to snag the prize, £20,000 ($33,000).

I feel so good,” the 26-year-old told the AP after her win. “It feels better than I imagined. My family’s here. My friends are here. I’m from south London. I don’t get emotional – I’m emotional.”

Other artists in the running were: Florence & the Machine, La Roux, Sweet Billy Pilgrim, The Horrors, Glasvegas, Led Bib, The Invisible, Lisa Hannigan, and Friendly Fires.

Pop the hood for some videos of Speech at work.
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Word on the street is that Mandate Pictures has picked up the teen dance drama script Dream On from Jason Ubaldi for Laurence Mark to produce. According to Variety, the plot revolves around an aspiring Olympic gymnast who discovers the underground hip-hop scene in Atlanta. Read the rest of this entry »

Remember the 80’s rapper that forced her label to fund her education? It never happened. According to an investigative report by Slate, Shante was faking the funk.

• According to Warner, neither it nor any of its subsidiary record labels ever had a contract with Shanté, and it was not obligated to pay for her education. Indeed, there’s no evidence that it ever did.
• Shanté—real name Lolita Shanté Gooden—doesn’t have a Ph.D. from Cornell or anywhere else. Indeed, she admitted it in an interview with Slate. And Cornell has no record of Gooden (or “Shanté”) ever attending or receiving a degree.

Full Story: Roxanne’s Nonexistent Revenge

When you’ve had so many close calls with death, it eventually becomes a numbers game. Unfortunately DJ AM emerged on the losing end of this game. DJ AM (aka Adam Goldstein) was found dead in his New York pad on Friday, nearly a year after escaping a fatal plane crash that killed 4 others. According to the NY Daily News, police found laying on his stomach with a bag of crack and a pipe on his bed. They also found bottles of prescription drugs, including Xanax in his kitchen. Read the rest of this entry »

A woman who may or may not be Juelz Santana’s wifey called one time claiming that he threatened to kill her this morning. Cops showed up at Santana’s house and arrested him on domestic charges.

According to TMZ, the woman did not need medical assistance but she told police the threat was made in front of a child. Santana’s bail was set at $300, which means he’ll probably on his way out by the time you finish reading this. Yeah, I’ll go out on a limb and assume that Jim Jones can afford to part with 3 Ben Franklins.

When a rapper drops out of college, that’s not news. But when a rapper graduates with a Ph.D and gets her record label to foot the bill, now that’s not something you hear about everyday. Some of you were probably in Superman Underoos when Roxanne Shante, a pioneering female MC, had her run with “Roxanne’s Revenge” at the tender age of 14. The single, a response to UTFO’s “Roxanne, Roxanne,” sold an amazing 250,000 units. Shante would go on to release two albums but she found herself constantly being ripped off by her record label. Then she had an aha! moment and remembered one throwaway clause in her contract that required Warner Music to pay for her education. The then 19 year old took advantage of that offer and today, Dr. Roxanne Shante has a Ph.D in Psychology from Cornell University to show for her contract. Why settle for a royalty check when you can get a Ph.D and a royalty check?

[via: NY Daily News]