• Yung Joc continues trying to have a a hit as big as “It’s Goin’ Down.” [PE]
• Black women in South Carolina struggle to choose their favorite presidential candidates and administer relaxers at the same time. [NYT]
• Jamie Foxx is a sad clown. [SP]
• If Tiny is really pregnant, and I hope she’s not, considering her boyfriend’s current situation, then whose marijuana and Ecstasy was she carrying when T.I. got arrested? [SR]
• Speaking of T.I. he was just denied bail. Tough break. [AHH]
Was it a calculated move for the feds to arrest T.I. before he was set to perform at the BET Hip Hop Awards (and subsequently win some top honors), thus humiliating the rapper and ruining a well-planned show? Probably. Would we have a lot more to complain about if the authorities hadn’t actually found a shitload of evidence that T.I. was trying to illegally buy machine guns with silencers? Definitely.
It is a serious crime with potentially serious jail time, compounded by the fact that Harris, a convicted felon, cannot own any firearms, let alone the ones that the feds accuse him of buying, or the three they allegedly found in his car, or the ones they say were tucked in his bedroom safe that used a fingerprint scan for access.
Saturday, a few hours before the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta bestowed upon him the “Best CD of the Year” award, Harris, 27, might also have earned himself up to 10 years in federal prison. His first court appearance on the weapons charges is Monday afternoon.
Also busted in the sting — Young Dro, Mac Boney, and T.I.’s girlfriend Tiny, who was arrested for possession of marijuana and Ecstasy. The AJC has all the sorry, sorry details.
• Rihanna seen making out with Josh Hartnett? I see it more than that Shia LaBeouf thing. []
• Twice, Foxy Brown has refused to get on the correction department bus that’s supposed to transport her from Rikers to the Brooklyn courthouse. Just because. [SP]
• Usher and Tameka get some good PR from Essence. []
• Whatever, you know Oprah has someone carrying her bags for her. [Jossip]
• With the proceeds from her monstrously successful album, from which she keeps pulling singles to make videos for, Fergie should get Will.i.am some teeth-whitening. [CL]
If Mychal Bell’s going to be the poster child for racial equality in the criminal justice system, I’m gonna need him to get his shit together from here on out.
Racism and nothing but racism was responsible for the ridiculous charges initially slapped on him and his friends and him being subsequently tried as an adult, but that really has nothing to do with the fact that he was on probation and shouldn’t have been fighting to begin with, despite the racial tension that had been building at Jena High School.
Louisiana State District Judge J.P. Mauffrey Jr. sentenced Bell to 18 months in the juvenile facility for four previous offenses, including two counts of simple battery and two pertaining to criminal destruction of property that occurred before the beating of classmate Justin Barker, according to The Associated Press. The decision came at the end of a two-day juvenile court hearing that was closed to the media, CNN reports.
I hate to see this kid go back to jail, though. I hope, and actually believe, that the events of the past year have probably permanently steered him in the right direction. Thousands of people marched into his town to protest the way he was treated — it will definitely make him think twice the next time he’s tempted to break the law.
[MTV]
I would probably give anything — well, maybe $5 — to see Snoop cleaning toilets and picking up trash at a park as part of his court-ordered 160 hours of community service. Most of the money would go toward the cleaning toilet viewing, I think. Too bad for me none of us will even see pictures.
The name of the park will not be disclosed to prevent disruptions.
The rapper will be part of a crew supervised by a park ranger. “I pointed him to a website of places that were all probation-approved,” Manssourian said. “He picked the place. And once you pick the place, the job description is set in stone.”
Not even a hint?
[LAT]
• Favorite headline of the morning: “Bowling Not Always An Option For Blacks.” What if it’s an option, but it bores you to tears every time you do it? [DFP]
• Your 401(k)? Please don’t forget about it. []
• And now for the obligatory Beyonce. She and her mom are launching a line of House of Dereon prom dresses. Oh no yay!
• John Edwards isn’t giving up on black voters. It’s a good thing, because we’re all going to die or go to jail if he doesn’t get elected. [CNN]
• Kim Fields got married, and Us Weekly didn’t even notice. I wonder why. [People]
• Jay-Z wishes he looked like (a human version of) that. Beyonce should be glad she doesn’t. [C&D]
• Prodigy gets hit with a three and a half year sentence after pleading guilty to illegal weapons charges. Maybe his legal team needed more people. [AHH]
• Oddly sexy for a tire ad, but I’ll take it. []
• Samuel L. Jackson reps Star Wars until the day he dies. [SP]
• Why do all close male friends have to attract gay rumors? Omarion, though? I’m not sure… [QT]
I might find some way to make fun of a band of dreadlocked outlaws in shiny track suits and Laker’s jerseys eluding capture on the Congo countryside if it weren’t for the fact that the gang, called the Rastas, is responsible for some of the most horrifying, disgusting acts against women and children I could ever imagine.
There’s a rape epidemic in the Congo, and its a horror that has gone from being a weapon of war to what researchers call a widespread “social phenomenon.”
CONTINUED »
Despite her current situation, Foxy Brown is kind enough to let us into her glamorous world for a moment via her Web site, Free Foxy Brown.
In a song she penned from the slammer called “We Don’t Surrender,” she raps: “Since I got my hearing back, all I hear is Foxy this and Foxy that. Bitch please, I’m in my Louis capris, overseas in Belize, ignoring the small [bleep]. So, hop off my [bleep], I got a 32-shot clip aimed at Page Six.” Brown - doing a year for violating probation in her BlackBerry assault case - has posted the tune on her Web site.
Although it seems that this song was actually recorded earlier this summer in response to her Great Hearing Aid Robbery Caper, the lyrics are still interesting in light of the fact that she’s imprisoned. In this particular case, “Louis capris” mean “prison jumpsuit”, “overseas in Belize” is the new euphemism for “doing a bid upstate,” and “I got a 32-shot clip aimed at Page Six” is a metaphor for, “I have written a vitriolic, but poorly-worded, letter to the New York Post.”
[]
How is Beanie Sigel going to remember his lines in Notorious — that is, if his destiny to portray Biggie onscreen is fulfilled — if he can’t remember to turn in his rental car? A warrant is out for the rapper’s arrest after a Philly rental car company called Payless complained that a car that was rented to him had not been returned for month. Beanie Sigel is clearly no stranger to warrants, but damn. He’s messing up his film career!
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