Ale

Video & Pictures here! http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1238957.html?storylink=omni_popular

Osterheldt | DJ Jazzy Jeff shocked after being booted at P&L District By JENEE OSTERHELDT The Kansas City Star For a year, the black community has been in arms about perceived racism at the entertainment district, a place their tax money helped fund. But it's always refuted. Everyone is welcome at the P&L, the officials say. Well, those who follow the hip-hop music scene have more to chew on since late Saturday night, when one of hip-hop's biggest stars, DJ Jazzy Jeff, cut short a set of music and left the stage in a dispute over the kind of music his show was spinning. I walked in just as his set was being packed up and he was walking off the stage. He had performed less than 20 minutes. In his wake, the crowd booed and I heard people, both black and white, yell about how the Power & Light didn't want him to play hip-hop. I saw Jazzy Jeff and his crew power-walking out of the venue. My stomach dropped. I wasn't sure what happened, but I knew it was bad. A conversation I had with him early Sunday confirmed it. I grew up listening to this man's music. He might be best known as one half of DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince but he is more than Will Smith's old DJ and friend. The two won the first rap Grammy. He is more than the menace on "Fresh Prince of Bel Air." Jeff Townes, his given name, is a music icon. He introduced "transforming," the scratching technique turntablists use that cuts up forward and backward scratches with the crossfader, creating a robotic "Transformer" sound. This man has toured around the world for 25 years. He's a critically acclaimed producer: he has worked with musical stars such as Jill Scott and Michael Jackson. He has been around the proverbial block and has millions of fans. So what exactly happened to make a legend walk off a stage in downtown Kansas City? According to his Tweets, (twitter.com/djjazzyjeff215) he was kicked off stage for playing hip-hop. Jon Stephens, director of marketing for the Power & Light District, says it was about the sound levels. "The issue that arose with the performance last night was completely about the sound levels," Stephens said. "His audio tech was maxing out the sound system to a point that risked damage to the speakers and sound system. His sound techs and management refused to bring the decibel level down. They were told to bring it down or cease performance. They refused to go on." Just hours after he returned to his Philadelphia home, I spoke to Jazzy Jeff on the phone to hear his side. He says it was about what he was spinning, not the levels. His set started with sounds of hip-hop and pop favorites -- Jay-Z, Biz Markie, Rihanna. His MC, Skillz, a celebrated rapper and ghostwriter, hyped up the crowd. They were off to a good start. But after 15 minutes or so, in the middle of an R&B hit by Ne-Yo, "Miss Independent," he was told to stop. "My road manager walked up to me and said they were having problems with the music I was playing," Jazzy Jeff told me. "I played three more songs and he comes back. I knew something was wrong. They said I had to kick Skillz off the stage, change the format of the music I was playing or quit. They said if I continued playing they had 30 cops ready to come escort me off stage. So I stopped." Jon Stephens says that isn't so. "Obviously we have a desire to book a diversity of acts," he said. "We booked Jazzy Jeff on a Saturday night, the biggest night of the week in the district. We were excited to have him there. It's unfortunate that his sound and management people had problems adhering to the sound and audio rules. We wanted him to play, that's why we booked him." Jazzy Jeff was excited to play here, too, he said. Of all his travels around the world, he had never played Kansas City. So when the Bacardi B-Live Tour was stopping here, he thought, cool. When they arrived early on Saturday, they loved the vibe of the district, the restaurants, the people, the decked-out movie theater. Jeff says he just knew the party would be great. But it all went wrong. Venue officials said the set attracted the wrong kind of element, he says. They said Skillz made gang-like signs and grabbed at his genitals and P&L officials wanted him off stage. Skillz is not a gang member. He is a father. His hand gestures were the kind of excited movements you make to get the crowd excited and their hands in the air. He wasn't cursing or being offensive. He was playing the part of hype man. Jeff said he was told to play Top 40. "I was playing Rihanna, she is Top 40," he says. "If they would have let my set play, they would have known I play everything. I play rock, funk, soul, pop, hip-hop, reggae. I don't play for a certain genre, race or gender. I play for music lovers. I have played in Dublin to an Irish crowd of 5000, screaming, drunk people. We had a great time. When you love music it doesn't matter." In his 25 year career, at 44-years-old, Jeff has never been told to end a set because of hip-hop. He says he has never felt that kind of racism. The "element" officials referred to felt like a reference to black people, a hip-hop crowd. "I'm in shock," he says. "I didn't understand what element they were talking about. I looked out in the crowd and it was multicultural, but about 75 percent white. Everyone was having a great time. I wondered what was so offensive. I never had a race issue. I didn't know how to feel. I was playing 'Just a Friend.' Is that offensive? What element? It's uncomfortable when you feel unwanted." To be fair, I have heard hip-hop played at the district. Biggie Smalls, Lil Jon, even Gucci Maine. But it's always a mash-up, always either mixed in with a rock song or followed by one. Of all the themes the district celebrates in its bars and clubs, there isn't a hip-hop one. Jeff says he doesn't understand why they didn't tell the DJs about their set expectations ahead of time. On the B-Live tour thus far, there have been no problems. They were just in Vegas on Friday and played an eclectic crowd that had a ball. His friend, Z-Trip, a fellow friend and iconic mash-up DJ on the tour, told Jeff about being warned 15-minutes before his set that the district wanted top 40. "I respect a venue if they say we don't want hip-hop," he says. "But tell me that beforehand and let me make the decision about what I want to do. Don't tell me 15 minutes before my set. You want me to change and do something different from what I do, but you never told me." Jeff says one of the reps asked him to go back on because the crowd was disgruntled that his set ended so briefly. They asked him to make the set changes and go on without Skillz. But he said that was like booking the Jackson 5 and asking Michael not to sing. Jeff left. Skillz stayed behind, not on the stage, but in the crowd. Jeff says someone asked for the MC's autograph, but he was asked to leave by police officers. It added insult to injury. "Being from Philly and traveling the world, this experience blows my mind," Jeff says. "You don't get this outside the country. I can walk down the street in Hong Kong and see no one that looks like me and be more accepted than this. It's like I should be watching this on the news happening n a third world country. I can't believe this happens where I live." He didn't sleep Saturday night. The DJ stayed up until it was time to catch his 5 a.m. flight back to Philly. He said he had a nervous laugh he couldn't shake. He's still figuring his emotions out. Jeff says he hopes to return to Kansas City under different circumstances. "Now more than ever, I have to come back. I'm not going to let 25 years be changed by one day," he says. "I got to wash this under the bridge and keep doing what I'm doing. I don't blame the city, this was an individual, an establishment," he says. "My issue is that with all that is going on in the world, it is my job as a DJ, to help you forget that for one and a half to two hours. I play music so everyone can have a great time. And someone deliberately stopped people from having a good time for no reason. If you are looking for a fault in last night's set, you are just looking for it." Now that he's back home in Philly, he's reading the blogs and starting to learn about the dress code issues of the P&L and the exclusion. He says it's unfair. "I'm not the Malcolm X guy," he says. "I have very good and very deep morals. I don't know what to tell everyone to do. But I absolutely think its wrong," he says of the problems at the district. "I don't know if I could go to work 9-to-5 and have my taxes help build an establishment that I don't feel welcome to go to. I don't know if I could sweep it under the rug. If I can't go, give me my money back." http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1238519.html

Is this the official cover for the 'Yo Home To Bel-Air' CD Single? If so, I had never seen it before.

LOL! Yeah! I did it Fresh Prince of Bel Air style!!

Will's role was originally written for Bruce Willis. He was the actor that the director, Kevin Smith, wanted. But Bruce never called him back. I didn't dislike 'Jersey Girl', although I don't consider Ben Affleck a good actor.

Shame these things still happen in the Twenty-First Century :mad:

Well, as a Queen fan, I must defend 'We Will Rock You' :smile:

'HawthoRNe' Press Conference http://www.daemonstv.com/2009/06/06/jada-pinkett-smith-michael-vartan-from-hawthorne-pictures/ Video: Guy Stalking Will & Jada LOL!

Haha, FPOBA! Classic! :laugh: Nice vid.

On the Set of Jada Pinkett Smith's New Show Jada Pinkett Smith is heading to TV, and ET paid her a visit on the set of her new show. Jada is starring in and executive producing "Hawthorne," a new drama series for TNT. In the show, Jada plays Christina Hawthorne, a recently widowed nurse who fights for her patients as Chief Nursing Officer at Richmond Trinity Hospital. At home, she also deals with the trials and tribulations of raising her rebellious teenage daughter Camille (Hannah Hodson). Michael Vartan of "Alias" fame co-stars as the hospital's Chief of Surgery. "I thought it was interesting to tell the stories from the nurses' point of view because it's the nurses that spend most of the time with the patients," Jada explains. "The doctors come in and they're there for about 15 minutes, but really it's the nurses that work the long shifts that are there for the patients for pretty much their stay at the hospital. They're the ones that have to wear all the different hats. Whatever the patient needs at that particular time they're there to facilitate that." You can catch "Hawthorne" when it premieres on TNT on Tuesday, June 16 at 9 p.m. VIDEO! http://www.etonline.com/news/2009/06/74878/index.html

I'm pretty sure I have the full episode on my comp back at home, I'll have a look when I get home in a couple of weeks. Man, if you got it, you become my god lol :D I think the member "fresh_from_sofia" uploaded this video some time ago.

Amazing! Thnx Romano! :smile:

_______________ Crazy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQUBvFsuxeQ

Awww, sad to hear that :( RIP David

Pif e Victoria Cabello - Will Smith - Iene 08/03/05 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faMxVlgPBAM&hl=eshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faMxVlgPBAM&hl=es

Great Interview! http://blogs.pitch.com/wayward/2009/06/im_the_dj_hes_the_rapper_an_interview_with_dj_jazzy_jeff.php :smile:

Great find Vipa!

The first link doesn't work for me.

Very cool. Thanks!

I don't know why I thought it was different than the one on the album. My fault! Ahh these exams are affecting me...

Relapse just dropped and Will hasnt put anything out since 2005. It's not that surprising. I don't think that's the reason why Em got 91% of the votes to be honest. I agree with what TD said: "I'm not surprised Will lost to Em nor am I surprised by the outcome. We have an entire generation of people who think Em is the greatest thing rap has ever seen. I'm not saying that he can't spit because he can it's just after the MMLP he's been falling off ever since."

EXCLUSIVE: Taraji P. Henson To Play Mom in The Karate Kid Remake We keep hearing sudden bursts of news about Will Smiths remake of The Karate Kid, then the project seems to quiet down for awhile. Now, a new actor has signed on to star alongside Smiths son and shes a red-hot Oscar nominee coming off The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Im off to Beijing [soon] to work on a film, actress Taraji P. Henson revealed to us Sunday afternoon on the red carpet of the MTV Movie Awards. Theyre remaking The Karate Kid. The controversial remake of the Eighties classic is rumored to be called Kung Fu Kid, although Henson referred to the film by its original title. Will Smith is producing the project, which will cast his real life son and Pursuit of Happyness co-star in the role originally played by Ralph Macchio. When we caught up with Macchio a few months back, he expressed cautious interest in the project. Benjamin Button star Henson, who played Brad Pitts adoptive mom Queenie in that film, will once again tap into her maternal instincts for Kung Fu Kid or whatever its called, playing Jaden Smiths mother. According to reports, Hensons character is a single mother named Sherry who is forced to move with her son to China in order to keep her job. Jaden Smith - Will and Jadas son - is playing the karate kid. Im playing his mom, she explained. And Jackie Chan is playing Mr. Miyagi. Mr. Miyagi role had been changed to the name Mr. Han although Fast Times at Ridgemont High fans would undoubtedly get a bigger laugh if the latter name was kept. Henson is currently hard at work on the Steve Carrell/Tina Fey comedy Date Night, and shell be flying to Beijing to shoot Karate Kid as soon as shes done with that film. Stay tuned; if Henson is soon off to start shooting, then we can expect more casting to be announced soon. Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/06/02/exclusive-taraji-p-henson-to-play-mom-in-the-karate-kid-remake/

Mierda being the Spansih for "sh!t" right? I always thought he was saying "Mira" as in a womans name. Listening to the track again it deinitly sounds like Mierda, weird. Sí, I'm pretty sure he says "Mierda", which means "Sh!t". And after that he says: "Damn you look sexy", LOL!

Haha! Cheers dude. Yeah I'm a big Sly fan too. I think he'll always be the best action hero ever. Shame the action genre is so underrated. Can't wait to see 'The Expendables'. What an awesome cast! :smile: