bigted

Joe "Very Special Friend"

MC Hammer is a more versatile artist than most of today's rappers so I think he has the right to give advice to save the industry, what he's basically saying is that you have to do more than one thing to be successful and I agree with that, he paid his dues and he deserves some credit for that, he was more than just the "U Can't Touch This" rapper image with the baggy pants that he's been labeled with, he was the total package when it comes to performing, having creative videos, and being versatile with his music, he talks about many different things in his songs on his albums just like Will does, even Boyz II Men credit him for them working on becoming better artists when they would tour with him in the 90s....

I'm curious to see what some other posters in this forum liked in 2009(where ya at Brakes, AJ, Jim, etc???...)

News: Twista Speaks "911" Freestyle Tribute, "Once That [Tragedy] Happened, It Was A No-Brainer" Saturday, Jan 23, 2010 8:31AM Written by Biz Jones Rapper Twista recently spoke on the motivation behind his recent "911" Haiti tribute track and explained why it was only right to bring awareness to this month's massive earthquake. According to Twista, he felt the same vibes he received after being shocked from 2005's New Orleans, Louisiana disaster. "When I did that, it was just like what I saw with Hurricane Katrina," Twista explained via telephone from Chicago. "What I saw in Haiti hit me just the same. Especially if you're a person that is black and you're into our African culture, when you saw these things, it hits you harder than the average person. I know Wyclef personally, I'm a fan of his music before any of this happened. He put out CDs that were completely in Haitian. I would still bump those CDs 'cause I was into the whole vibe of it. I happened to be in the studio working. It was during the week when I was putting out a different freestyle for each day of the week. Once that [tragedy] happened, it was a no-brainer, like, 'What I gotta do today?' I thought real hard and the Mary J. Blige and Wyclef [Jean] '911' song came to me. I looped it up, played it for a while and thought about everything I wanted to say before I went in there. I just put something down. I thought it wasn't about lyrical skill -- just go straight in and tell them how you feel how you think people should react. That's what I did." (MTV) The song also places emphasis on the actions made by rapper Wyclef Jean and United States' President Barack Obama. "Man, I don't know what's going on y'all," Twista starts off saying. "We just gotta all hold hands and pray...Woke up this morning to the news and heard the fears and the cries/The sight of Haitian faces brought nothing but tears to my eyes/People suffer from a tragedy of the same demeanor as a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina/Where is God when I need him, I can't believe thedrama...it was like I was right there to see how death felt, I couldn't imagine the pain that Wyclef felt...I got up some old clothes like Nike and Pelle donate to 'em and make some contributions...and I'm glad to see Obama react the way he did, immediate reaction because we have to save the kids/Pride and honor because we both are from Chicago..." ("911 (Haiti Dedication)") Rapper Lupe Fiasco has also penned a tribute track for Haiti relief funds. Lupe has partnered with Music for Relief by donating/recording a brand new track "Resurrection" with Kenna to support the Haitian Earthquake response effort. Artists include: ALANIS MORISSETTE, THE ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS, DAVE MATTHEWS BAND, ENRIQUE IGLESIAS, HOOBASTANK, KENNA, LINKIN PARK, LUPE FIASCO, PETER GABRIEL AND SLASH. You can join us and support of the immediate relief and long-term recovery process in Haiti by downloading the music player, listening to your favorite songs and making a donation for your downloads. (Lupe Fiasco's Blog) Haiti's earthquake took place earlier this month. The major earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday may lead to hundreds of millions of dollars of insured losses, risk assessor Eqecat said, an amount that could have been higher had underwriters loosened their standards. Eqecat indicated that insured buildings often must meet a higher standard and therefore may sustain less damage. However, the company said Haiti's magnitude 7.0 earthquake, whose epicenter was just 10 miles (16 km) from the capital of Port-au-Prince, "is very severe, and even well-designed buildings could expect damage from this event." (Reuters)

Well maybe it went gold worldwide, that wouldn't surprise me since the world since the world seems to have a better taste in music than here in the US

-I think it's time that they limit all star voting from the fans 'cause it's turned into a popularity contest that's a bunch of BS... Iverson isn't playing on an all star level and the 76ers are a bad team this year, after what Iverson did to the Pistons and Grizzlies I lost a lil' bit of respect for him, it's not a lifetime achievement award, if that's the case somebody like Grant Hill who never quits on his teams should get to be in the all star game... Mcgrady almost got voted in and he's not even playing since he's waiting to be traded from the Rockets, even if he did play he hasn't been that great of a player in quite a while... Iverson voted in; Nash, Duncan get All-Star spots By BRIAN MAHONEY, AP Basketball Writer 9 hours, 8 minutes ago NEW YORK—Allen Iverson(notes) was voted to start in the All-Star game Thursday, while Steve Nash(notes) and Tim Duncan(notes) made late moves to claim starting spots for the Western Conference. Nash passed the inactive Tracy McGrady(notes) as the second guard, while Duncan disappointed Dallas fans hoping to see Dirk Nowitzki(notes) start by rallying past the Mavericks forward. LeBron James(notes) was the leading vote-getter for the Feb. 14 game at Cowboys Stadium, becoming the first player to earn at least 2.5 million votes three times. He will make his sixth All-Star appearance, all as a starter. “The fans still love and see what I do every night and they appreciate it, and I appreciate them for electing me as an All-Star starter,” James said before the Cavaliers hosted the Los Angeles Lakers. “It’s still special.” Joining James and Iverson as East starters were Miami guard Dwyane Wade(notes), Orlando center Dwight Howard(notes) and Boston forward Kevin Garnett(notes). Lakers guard Kobe Bryant(notes) was picked in the West along with Phoenix center Amare Stoudemire and Denver forward Carmelo Anthony(notes). Starters were decided by fan balloting at NBA arenas and electronically. The reserves will be chosen by votes by the head coaches in each conference and will be announced next Thursday. The fans still love Iverson, even though he’s played only 19 games during the worst season of his career. He appeared on the West ballot since he began the season in Memphis, but he and the Grizzlies parted ways following only three games. Iverson’s votes counted in the East since he rejoined the Philadelphia 76ers, his longtime team. He is averaging only 14.8 points with the 76ers, but will get a shot at earning a third All-Star game MVP award if he chooses to play. Bothered by a sore knee, Iverson previously said he would consider his health before deciding whether to play in the All-Star game for the 10th time. He’s been an All-Star for 11 straight seasons, but missed the 2007 game because of injury. “I just want to thank everybody for their support this season and it’s an honor that the fans have voted me into the All-Star game as a starter,” Iverson said in a statement. “The fans are who make us and make the NBA so popular. This year is even more special because I’ll be representing a city and fans that I love and a team that has been such a big part of my life throughout my career.” A McGrady election would have been a bigger embarrassment for the NBA, since he has played sparingly in only six games for the Houston Rockets. The team gave him permission to leave the team and work out on his own while trying to find a trade, yet McGrady still was second among West guards when the most recent update was released on Jan. 7. That sparked some criticisms of the voting process, but Nash and New Orleans’ Chris Paul(notes) both moved ahead of McGrady in the final days of voting. Duncan’s late surge gives him a 12th All-Star appearance. Bryant, who claimed his third All-Star game MVP last year when he shared it with Shaquille O’Neal(notes) in Phoenix, also will be appearing for the 12th time. Garnett’s selection was his 13th, trailing only O’Neal (15) among active players. The NBA expects more than 80,000 fans, which would be the largest crowd ever to witness a live basketball game. It’s a return to Dallas for Nash, who spent six seasons with the Mavericks before signing with the Suns in 2004. He and Stoudemire give Phoenix two starters in an All-Star game for only the second time, joining Charles Barkley and Dan Majerle in 1995. AP Sports Writer Tom Withers in Cleveland contributed to this report.

Word, much respect

Naughty By Nature "Yoke The Joker"

http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/features/archive/2010/01/20/22100063.aspx MC Hammer: Still Hurtin' 'Em Wednesday, January 20, 2010 9:10 AM | 2 comments History has finally vindicated MC Hammer. The rapper holds the honor of being one of the top selling artists in history (Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em was Hip-Hop's first diamond-selling album). He's got an indelible, enduring fashion status that continues to march through the decades (Hammer Pants live). Hammer's even got hits that can rock any party, anywhere if you put them on ("Cant' Touch This"). Fast Forward to present day. Hammer is an icon. He's got almost 2 million followers on Twitter. He a pioneer in technology (dancejam.com), business (equity stake in Cash4Gold) and social media. He even has a reality show (Hammertime) that's introduced him to a totally new market and a record label rooted in the internet. And everything that he ever was is coming back like it never left. The laugh laugh was never so respectful as Hammer (nee Stanley Burrell) remains humble. AllHipHop and Hammer hold conversation as he scuttles about New York...handing business. AllHipHop.com: I have to ask you about when you stood up to New York on "Turn This Mutha Out." and then what happened after that with Run DMC, 3rd Bass and things of that nature? From a Hip Hop competitive stand point, to call New York out at that point in the late 80's and 90's was very gutsy and surprising to say the least. MC Hammer: You have to understand, there has always been a difference between the perception and the reality of who I am. It has always been that way. That's just the way it is. Because I chose to be positive, get my groove on. But as you just stated, you have to keep in mind that it has never been done before. I didn't say, "Here comes me and 10,000 people or me and my crew coming." I had an issue myself because one I respected where the art form was coming from and I wanted that stamp of approval from where the artist was coming from. New York at that particular time was all of Hip Hop. The other places where we was doing Hip Hop, we were trying to get in and get our issue. So my thing was first of all, I flew out on a plane by myself- '86 went to the Latin Quarters (historic New York club), there was a lot of cats in Hip-Hop that been around that all. I jumped up on stage by myself and said, "I'm MC Hammer" and put my record on "Go Hammer go Hammer go." I went- by myself. When I went back after I started releasing some singles, I came to the conclusion that I wasn't being embraced just yet by the market that I want that respect from. Everything in life when you want respect- I don't care if it's music, sports, whatever it is, you want to go against the best, you want to go against whoever it is at the top. From my perspective, I'm doing good, I'm hitting hard in Dallas, I'm hitting hard in Cleveland, I'm hitting hard in Chicago, Miami, but they still saying I ain't hitting in New York. Well that's a problem. So I'm going to address that and I did it in a way where it wasn't disrespectful. I'm trying to get ya'll attention so I can come up here and let the people in New York know "It's Hammer time." So that's what that's all about. I had to figure out a way to come in and carve out my niche in this area where I wanted to gain that respect and that validation from. Subsequently down the road, just in New York alone, on one of my albums I sold 1.8- almost 2 million records just in New York without even going anywhere else. So the point of strategy worked. Play a little chess you know. AllHipHop.com: I heard 3rd Bass had some problems when they came out to Cali. MC Hammer: It's just ironic that even today- 20 years later, the [MC] Serch cat, he wants his claim to fame to be "I'm telling you Hammer was going to have me putting the dirt somewhere." That's ridiculous. It's ridiculous that you want that to be your claim to fame. But when you only sold about 300,000 something records, you have to grab something. So the only conversation that man can really have with me is to say he was really going to do something to me one time. But other than you can't even say anything because... 300,000 records? Even now, you still ain't even go wood today- you're under gold so the only thing I can say is wood. Even 20 years later you still really can't address me. The conversation we have is only because he can come talk to you as you gon' do an interview but relevantly speaking the groups that I've created sold more records than him. All of them. Oaktown's 357. B. Angie B. Sold more records than that cat. It's the only time I've addressed it and it's going to be the last time I addressed it. It's ridiculous. I didn't know who that dude was. Put your foot in your mouth, said a couple of things, you let your smooth taste fool you, you thought the running man was more than a dance, whatever it was and I addressed it the way I always address it with any and everybody historically. Just addressed it and kept it moving. That's all. mc-hammer AllHipHop.com: You mentioned sales. You are the firs rap artist to go diamond [10 million sales]. What are your thoughts on the state of the industry now? Sales are very shaky now and diamond sales are a thing of the past pretty much- for any artist just not Hip Hop. MC Hammer: The price point of music is not correct relevant to the system. We need to adjust that because the cats who actually control this business are going in the wrong direction. If everybody is seeing music is assemble, they can download it for free or whatever the case is, how are we going to raise the price? We have to keep a hustler's mentality with this, we don't even have to get all complex. The product's price... man keys are going for less now. They're going to get you customers. It's the same thing here. The price should be going the other way. If we let them continue to dictate the terms ain't nobody really going to make any paper. So it's time to make an adjustment and I"m going to participate with a few people in trying to re-adjust the model. That's the bottom line. To make it more in line with 2010, 2011. You should be able to get X amount of records for X amount is price. I also want to help people to get in album mentality again and move them away from just the single mentality. It's just not price points, but the quality in the product is going to help dictate that. So that's my thoughts on that. AllHipHop.com: From what I understand you have a label now, correct? MC Hammer: It's a social media driven label so the whole concept was before there was a Facebook, before there even was a YouTube. I used to go and meet with certain individuals to say "I want to build a community around the music it's self." So take a music product and build a community as we know today around the content of a song. So if you have a song about whatever it is, then build a conversation and a community around that song, make the interface friendly, grow that community and then serve the people the music at the right price point. So I've been trying to do that for about 5 or 6 years. That's why I got ahead of the curve on social media because I was trying to figure this out. I saw the direction we were going in and I realized that we needed to make some adjustments. AllHipHop.com: What are thoughts on skinny jeans being that your Hammer pants were super baggy? MC Hammer: Skinny Jeans (laughs). My thoughts on skinny jeans are you can wear whatever jeans you want to. I'm not a follower like that. I might have on my baggy jeans today and I'll have on skinny jeans tomorrow- I do me. Cats don't dictate what I wear and what somebody else should wear. So whatever you want to wear, do you. I wear everything. It's according to how I feel. If I want to have on some skinny jeans, I'll put them on. Fat jeans, I'll put them on. I'm not attacking anybody based on their exterior because I'm really about what's in your heart. I don't care how you dress yourself up, do you. AllHipHop.com: I asked you that because the commercial you guys had was hilarious. MC Hammer: Yeah we're poking fun, we're poking fun. We're not clowning skinny jeans, we're just having fun with that on that commercial. I have some straight leg skinny jeans myself. But no doubt I love all jeans. I like them both. AllHipHop.com: Everybody wants to go pop now it's across the board now for the most part. Those that don't are probably in a funny predicament from a sales and even fan base stand point. From a historical stand point, how do you feel about that? Do you feel vindicated in some way? MC Hammer: I would say that's the beauty of time. If we are granted time things seem to work them self out. The time allowed them to work them self out. You didn't see me and haven't seen me in any interviews historically saying "Oh I was right." Man I don't have time for all that. Even from my perspective, it is what it is. The fact is that early on I thought it would be important to diversify. I thought it would be important that if you have the opportunity to do other things outside your core, in other words, instead of just saying "I'm only getting the best dollar right here from this", instead of letting the label and others get all the dollars everything else and only leaving the artist a dollar, and they're walking away with 9 or 10, taking endorsement money, taking the tour support money, and leaving you saying you don't participate in that stream, but you old. So early on, I diversified. I got involved with endorsement deals, cartoons, toys- everything that I could because I realized that it's my brand, my music, my marketing and promotion that's creating the value for someone else to get that revenue. So why not me get it myself? Early on, there was a lot of talk about that but it was more about envy and jealously more than anything. It wasn't every cat wanted to make as much paper as they can, but it was Hammer versus four different marketing machines. Keep in mind, I'm on one label. There were four other labels at that time trying to get their artist to number one or make a impact big enough to make it on that level. Keep in mind that one of my albums went number one in January. If you understand this you'll really get what I'm saying here. My album went number one in January and then in July, I was still number one. So six months plus a cat had to go every Tuesday and report to his boss. From all the other labels, from all the other marketing budgets. So it's me, my team, and my marketing budget against four other marketing budgets- literally millions of dollars. "How do we dislodge Hammer from number one? I have some paper, I have some paper. I'm buying ads." Let's say AllHipHop is a physical magazine, I'm buying a whole lot of ads at AllHipHop. "Come on Chuck I'll buy an extra page when you review Hammer's record and say it's hot and the momentum has changed." So I had to go against four machines at one time because of the impact that I was making. So naturally some of things they would point out was like "You know what, dude's a sell out and get that money." He literally repeated that and said "Yeah he's a sell out for getting money." Then we know down the road cats were saying "Man getting money, that's called ballin'." And then the rest of history. You'll never hear me cry or none of that about it, but when we talk about it. You have to understand in it's proper perspective it wasn't nothing but some envy and some hate. A lot of hate. I wasn't never really mad about it. I understood it when you get on top, you're going to be the champ. You have to deal with all the dudes who want the belt. Even if their employees or they work on the staff, they still have to answer because if they can't get the belt then they're going to lose their jobs. So how are you going to keep explaining every week? I caused a lot of cats a lot of problems and I enjoyed that too by the way. AllHipHop.com: So a lot of people forget where your hustle game started, they just see the end result of what it was. Can you speak on that just a little bit? MC Hammer: The whole get down started in my trunk, pressing my own records, riding to LA, getting into the clubs, dealing with KDAY (Los Angeles radio station that was first to play Hip-Hop), (DJ) Greg Mack back then and the whole Get Down and really trying to create the buzz necessary to make records sell. AllHipHop.com: A lot of people talk about grinding is there any way to sort of grind backwards? Can the hustle work against you? MC Hammer: Can a hustle work against you? Only to the extent of your success. I never met 50 [Cent]. All this time we've passed, we haven't really crossed. He would be the perfect example of a cat who hustles- I have a lot of respect for him all the way around. When I do see him I'm going to say it him. I have respect for his hustle. He's not overrated, but even after all his success, he's underrated. I study people in the game. 50 is a smart cat. As a man who understands his Hip-Hop, the sport that this is, and the business that this is, I'm not talking bout the one thing that everybody would say he took the stock in Vitamin Water. That was obviously a good move, but 50 made a lot of good moves before that and after that. This game is really complex and the inter workings of this game is not necessarily for public consumption. When I see a young cat like 50 and I watch him make his moves and I watch him survive, I have to say I respect his hustle. The only time the hustle works against you means you're winning. There ain't no grinding backwards and losing. The only way we can say that is that you're so much on top, here they come. The champ has to defend the throne. Somebody wants the belt, but that doesn't mean you have to give it to them. You have to keep grinding. You have to keep reinventing and you have to stay sharp. This game can drain you. You have to stay sharp. AllHipHop.com: You were primarily a positive Hip Hop artist. What are thoughts on Hip Hop now? You gave up a little bit of everything, but for the most part positive with songs like "Pray." MC Hammer: I did songs like "Pray" because that's who I am. Cats Whoodni, LL [Cool J], they'll tell you that they knew me as the holy ghost boy before I was MC Hammer. In the midst of my life in Oakland, in the middle of all that hell, I always wanted a piece of heaven so I believe in God, Jesus and the power of prayer. I don't believe that no man, no style of music, no movie can ever get me to bow down and say I don't. If I want to make a record and say "We have to pray," I say from my perspective. "What are you going to do about it? I'm going to do a record called 'Pray' and I'm going to put on a robe and have people from the choir. If you have a problem with it, see me after the song and I'll see you outside. I'll get down with you then pray for you." That's how it went. I just didn't say this is what I do. This s what I've actually done. So those records came as I reflection of the spirit man of my heart. I think that there has been other artist who have done some similar things. Tupac would make a song that might be abrasive while making a point, and turn around and say "Dear Mama" or "I shed so many tears." So To have these contrasting emotions from a public stand point, they're real because nobody is in one mood all day long. There are some people who are atheist and don't believe in God and that's alright as long as that's your belief. If you wanted to express that in a record, that's your right. Nobody really has the right to say that you can't express it. It's a great opportunity right now, for a rapper, an artist, a movement to come along that will address the pain of the nation. Cats that are going to address with those clever rhymes, great hooks and melodies that are going to express what the world is going through- in particular with losses of jobs, foreclosures, a perspective on life, romance, fathers, death, incarceration. Done in a way that's clever. The game is in a severe decline. They can pull the cord on the game right now. Music ain't gon' never stop- of course we gonna keep making music and it's gonna be out there. But if the business model doesn't exist, what is it? What do we have? Because this is just business. These cats aren't going to support what we do as a art form if they can't make any money off of this. Let's increase the creativity. AllHipHop.com: We have a running serious where it's the Top 5 Dead or Alive rappers. Can you give us your top five, do you have a top five? MC Hammer: I don't really have a top 5. What I'll say is the number one and the number two spots for me personally- every time I hear a song from Pac it goes right to my heart. That's gonna always be number one. When I hear Biggie [The Notorious B.I.G.] spit, I can never deny that man's metaphors and delivery and it's crazy. So if there is a one and a two, there it goes right there. The rest of the cats, I respect everybody. There's some cats with some lyrics, but there's also some cats out there who didn't sell a lot of records, who could be on that same list. So when we same Top 5, we're really saying Top 5 cats who had visibility, marketing opportunity to be heard. You know there's a lot of factors that go into that. I keep mines at that top two right there. I'm West Side for life. AllHipHop.com: Did you have any influences in Hip Hop? You were always in a vacuum as far as what your style was like- lyrically and the way you dressed. Obviously James Brown... MC Hammer: There you go. You also know that early on, if you can remember Grand Master Flash and Melly Mel- the way they dressed, very flamboyant. It's funny how cats that came after cats who laid it down first try to tell them how they should have dressed before they even got there. It's ridiculous, it's nonsense. When I came along, I already seen Grand Master Flash and Melle Mel. I flew to New York myself and literally walked the streets with Melle Mel. He saw me at the Latin Quarters and yelled out to me in The Marriott, "Go Hammer, go Hammer go!" I went over to him and said "What's up Mel" and he said "Man I was Latin Quarters last night and that thing you were doing that 'Go Hammer go Hammer.' Man If that market that right you can be big man." I was so gassed up behind that, but what I was saying is they had a flamboyant style- they dressed a lot like Parliament Funkadelic. I'm a showman. So I was definitely influenced by the freedom, the way they dress, and to be honest- because I approached it a little differently at the time and I was trying to make my mark, but I would not be who I am if Run DMC wasn't one of my greatest influences. I hate to say this because he's not even that far away from me but LL Cool J- that's my man. That cat used to inspire me because keep in mind, he didn't talk about killing anybody, but he was hard without saying he had to kill anyone. Without him saying in his lyrics that he has to kill anybody, he was aggressive and he had that fire. I can feel him. So LL and Run DMC were some of my greatest influences. There's a whole other group of cats that I balled inspiration from just by the way they carry their self, their swagger. Whoodni's swagger was second to none. Them cats put on some leather, tilted them hats to the side, and got at them women. I subsequently made records like "Have You Seen Her" and all that because they already paved the road saying you can be romantic with this here. So there's a lot of cats that I balled different abilities from.

Yeah that Back To The Crib is crazy!! Ghostface feat. Kanye & Ne-Yo "Back Like That"(Remix)

I read online at allhiphop.com that Rick Ross of all rappers is doing a blood drive for Haiti, it's about time somebody else in hip hop is getting involved and doing something positive to help out besides the ones that usually do

Like AJ I haven't yet seen NCIS, I see it advertised on CBS whenever I watch NFL games on there, usually there's a game on ESPN I'm watching whenever it's on so I end up forget about watching it

When it comes to rappers getting airplay Jay-Z' is one of the rare few left that're actually bearable to listen to, he's far superior to Lil' Wayne, yes 2009 was a dissapointment for radio hip hop but there was still some good stuff out there that got little or no airplay

I don't like he talks about doing music in the past tense, sounds like he's been hanging out with Will, lol: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-interviews/2010/01/17/ll-cool-j-i-m-as-serious-about-being-an-actor-as-i-was-when-i-was-a-rapper-86908-21974631/ LL Cool J: I'm as serious about being an actor as I was when I was a rapper Jan 17 2010 Jenny Eden, Sunday Mail LL COOL J may have become an actor but as he walks into the room it's hard to forget he is rap royalty. His diamond earrings are the size of small marbles, he's wearing a chunky gold wedding ring with rows of diamonds and his diamondencrusted watch is so blingtastic it almost looks like it cost a tenner down the market. And he's got a trademark hat firmly in place - today it's a dark woolly beanie. Then, while most US actors are tiny and perfectly formed, LL Cool J is big. His biceps and shoulders are huge - if he flexed them you get the feeling his long-sleeved T shirt might be ripped asunder Incredible Hulk style. But despite appearances, he and Batman and Robin star Chris O'Donnell have teamed up to have the biggest hit of last year in the US with NCIS LA. Despite two decades on top of the hip-hop world, two Grammys and enough platinumselling albums to cover the walls of a very big room, he decided it was the right time to leave music behind and concentrate on acting. "When I was a little younger I might have showed up here with a red mink on, four hours late and pouring everyone champagne," he laughs. "It took a little maturity to do this. The beauty of everything that I went through in the rap and the hip-hop genre is that it gives me the ability to be humble - and confident because I've already had success." He's anxious people understand he's taking being a TV star just as seriously as he took being a rap star - he's not just another musician dabbling. So the music has gone on hold, there are no albums in the pipeline, no gigs being planned and the rap song he wrote that ended up being used on NCIS LA promos in the US was a one-off, knocked out in his trailer between scenes. He says: "I'm already like the elder statesman, the godfather of rap and kind of have done most of what I can do in it in terms of achievement. I wanted to challenge myself and do something new. It's nice to be the new guy, allowing myself to grow again. That feels good. It's fun." LL is obviously full of enthusiasm for his new direction. He starred in a sitcom in the 90s playing a down-on-his-luck American footballer, appeared in the Oliver Stone American football movie Any Given Sunday with Al Pacino and landed a string of small movie roles. But it was a guest starring part as a death row inmate in House, opposite Hugh Laurie, that made him decide he wanted to work in TV. He says: "It really got me excited. I'm not abandoning music. There are people who really supported my music for many years and continue to and who still appreciate me performing. I love it. But it's nice to go to another level. I'm not doing concerts on the weekend and trying to wake up on Monday and do the show." NCIS La proved the perfect opportunity for LL to move into TV drama - the spin-off of the military whodunnit hit series that had guaranteed success written all over it. NCIS, starring Mark Harmon, is one of the few shows that have grown in popularity. The spinoff takes the story into the world of undercover agents. LL plays former Navy SEAL Special Agent Sam Hanna, an expert in Middle Eastern relations. It meant he could make the most of his impressive physique and there was plenty of action written into the script. But no one expected it to be the number one hit of 2009 in the US, with 18 million viewers tuning into the first episode. LL is still obviously thrilled by its success. He says: "This is the first time I've done something mainstream, it's touching." Knowing there were going to be people out there gunning for him, LL was determined to make the show as good as possible - that meant meeting real life NCIS officers and Navy Seals, and a punishing workout routine. He says: "I work out four times a week. My trainer comes to set and brings me the worst chicken and tuna fish in history. But I've just got to stay right. "I went down to Camp Pendleton and met a lot of Marines and Navy guys and behavioural analysts. The thing I took away from the people I met was that they were all really committed to the job, the principle of democracy and the idea of people being free. It's wonderful for me to play a character who believes in that. "And our technical advisor is a master guns in the Marine Corps. We talk constantly about his tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. I had to learn different ways to hold a gun, what stance to take, how to clear a room and interrogation techniques - it was pretty intense." And he knows that no matter how successful the show is, there will be people criticising him for wanting to have a second career as an actor. LL says: "We always run into people who tell us we can't do things. I just never believed that dreams had deadlines. I don't think you should limit yourself. I did my first film in 1985. The way hip-hop grew, there were certain agencies we were involved in who always had a film here and there. You could try it. You take it seriously, you don't. But for some of us, we actually enjoyed acting. I still go to an acting teacher." It's a long way from his beginnings, growing up in a tough neighbourhood in New York. At four he saw his mum and grandfather shot by his dad. When his mum recovered she fell for her hospital physiotherapist who physically and verbally abused her son. LL escaped from the abuse by falling in love with hip-hop. At 16 he was making demos on a turntable bought by his grandad and bombarding big record labels with demos. It was Rick Rubin, who was still a student at NYU, who gave him his big break when he founded Def Jam Records with Russell Simons and made LL his first signing. Def Jam released his first 12in single, which sold 100,000 copies. That led to a deal with Def Jam and Columbia and he dropped out of high school to record his first record. By then he had already gone from James Todd Smith to LL Cool J. He says: "One day I was walking down the street with a friend, Playboy Mikey D. I told him, 'Hey, if your name is Playboy Mikey D, I'm going to be the Ladies Love Cool James,' because I wanted to be cool too. I was 16 so Ladies Love was wishful thinking. Then when I got with Rick Rubin Ladies Love started looking a little long on the label, so we made it LL." Despite what he says his wife Simone Johnson was his childhood sweetheart. The couple, who married in 1995, have four children - Najee, 20, Italia, 19, Samaria, 14, and Nina, nine. LL says: "I don't know if my kids think the music or acting is cooler. My older two are in college and grew up with my music, the younger two are totally into acting so they are, 'wow, daddy is in NCIS'." But his kids could be forgiven for struggling to keep up with their dad's achievements. He's written four books, a biography, a history of hip-hop, a fitness guide and a children's book. He's launched his own clothing line called Todd Smith and dabbled in the fashion business. He was once part-owner of Def Jam and has had two records labels of his own - the latest Platinum Harvest works with up-and-coming rap artists. While most actors are busy learning their lines, his head is buzzing with ideas. Not that there's time for anything apart from NCIS. And even his old friends in the hip-hop world aren't too cool to admit they are fans of the hit show. He says: "I got a lot of slaps on the back. A lot of guys emailed me and said, 'Hey, congratulations. It's exciting to see you doing well. We're happy for you,' he says. "Usually they only give you feedback about the terrible album you put out."

Props to real brothas like Sam Dalembert of the Philadelphia 76ers, check out this story: Haiti in need of Dalembert’s greatest assist Adrian Wojnarowski By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports Jan 14, 6:59 am EST PHILADELPHIA – They were bouncing on one of those narrow dirt roads, pushing out of the cluttered downtown of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and out to the central plateau, the poorest part of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The Philadelphia 76ers’ Sam Dalembert traveled home to Haiti over the summer to scout a location for a children’s academy on the outskirts of the city. Sam Dalembert grew up in Haiti before becoming a first-round draft pick of the 76ers in 2001. (Scott Cunningham/NBAE/Getty) This was the country where Dalembert walked barefoot as a boy, where his grandmother used to invite his starving, homeless friends for a scrap of food and a night’s sleep on sheets strewn on the floor. This is the most improbable birthing place of an NBA millionaire, the against-all-odds story in a sport where those sprout off trees. A mayor had delivered Dalembert a plot of land for the construction, and the Samuel Dalembert Foundation and a non-profit partner, Mediashare, intended to soon commission an architect to make plans. He wanted it to be a place where the most determined, driven children could aspire to come to take academic and art classes and play sports. Here, there were no roads. No irrigation. People traveled miles to reach drinkable water. Dalembert didn’t return to be a savior, just a loyal Haitian son. “I know I can’t save the world,” Dalembert said late Wednesday in a private moment. “I know I can’t save my country. “But I thought I could save some kids there. …I thought I could give some hope, where there really isn’t any.” Dalembert’s friend Emmanuel was of Haitian descent, but had never visited the island of his ancestors. Apparently, this reaction comes with everyone who visits Haiti. No one is ever prepared for what they witness. How could somewhere so close to the United States be so impoverished, so third-world? Over the summer, Emmanuel walked the neighborhood in Port-au-Prince where Dalembert lived as a child, and his eyes grew wide with the poverty, the hunger, the sickness. More From Adrian Wojnarowski * Divorce could prove tough for Arenas, Wizards Jan 15, 2010 * Wolves offered Pacers Jefferson for Granger Jan 10, 2010 Who could survive this? Who could go to a fine American university, make it to the first round of the NBA draft, to an eventual $64 million contract? Beyond the streets of Port-au-Prince, all the way out to the central plateau, Emmanuel kept asking: “Sam, how did you ever get out of here?” Here Dalembert was, 28 years old, and that question washed over him with this odd mix of wonderment and confusion, of gratitude and guilt. “And it made me think … why me?” Dalembert said. “Of all the people … why me? All these countries in the world where they play basketball, where they produce players and this skinny boy from Haiti… “Why me?” He was almost sheepish retelling the story, because it seems silly to ask now. Why him? Well, now Sam Dalembert knows. For this earthquake, this devastation, has sobered him in a way nothing else ever could. Why did he get out, and make it big? Because they would need him now, because they need everyone. He’s never been so sure of anything. This had been the most tortured, cruelest day of Dalembert’s life. He wanted to charter a flight to Port-au-Prince, but it wasn’t possible. His family has mostly moved to the United States through the years, but there are still so many relatives, so many friends. He used his platform to tell the story of Haiti, and he did an endless run of interviews and pleaded for support. In something of a daze, Dalembert played in the Sixers’ 93-92 loss to the New York Knicks and delivered 12 points and 21 rebounds. The game had been over an hour now, and Dalembert had slipped on an “NBA Cares” gold shirt to tape a public service announcement in a side room of the Wachovia Center. When tragedy hits, the NBA is good this way. It had Yao Ming(notes) tape a message when an earthquake hit China, and now the league wanted Dalembert to do it for Haiti. Within hours, the PSA will play everywhere. It will reach the corners of the globe, and in a lot of places, for a lot of people, Sam Dalembert will be the face, the voice, of his anguished, suffering people. Hundreds of thousands could be dead in Haiti, and millions more will need help for sheer survival. “We’re tough people at heart,” he said. “We deal with things the best we can. These people, they don’t do anything to deserve this.” Dalembert left Haiti for Montreal at 14, moved to New Jersey to play high school basketball and ended up earning a scholarship to Seton Hall. His parents and siblings live in Florida, where his grandmother is desperate to know if her old family and friends survived, if anything, or anyone, in their old neighborhood isn’t buried in the rubble. As a young boy in Port-au-Prince, Dalembert grew too fast to stay in shoes. Those feet blew through them, and so he would walk barefoot through jagged streets. He thinks about his grandmother, his parents, about the value they placed on education, about possibilities, and how they gave him a reason to dream even when such despair surrounded him. Throughout his childhood, there was something he always told his friends that made them laugh. Through the pain, he smiled for a moment on Wednesday night and remembered the way they roared at that goofy, gangly kid stumbling with those floppy feet when he’d tell them, “One of these days, I’m going to fit myself into a suitcase, go onto one of those planes, get out of the country and have a better life.” As much as he wanted something more, it still resonates within him that he never, ever thought they had it so bad there. “You would get used it,” Dalembert said. “You can be in a worse place, but have good people around you. You just think this is the way people live until you come to America and go to the market and the chicken is clean over here.” Dalembert didn’t have much in Port-au-Prince, but he always felt like he had a little more. As he rapidly grew, he passed his clothes to friends and watched as they proudly marched around with baggy shirts and pants. “We didn’t think there was anything wrong. …We thought, we have … life. “We were grateful we weren’t sick. We were able to eat at least one meal a day. As long as we have each other, as long as we were there for each other, that was enough.” Here’s the strange irony about Dalembert: Few players in the NBA have done more missionary work with the league. Every year, he travels to faraway places like Africa in the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders program. He’s a basketball missionary. The NBA calls, and he’s on his way. From Africa to New Orleans for Katrina relief, he gives of his time every offseason. When they ask, Dalembert goes. He has been that way for his eight seasons in Philadelphia. He had his agent, Marc Cornstein, on the phone with NBA officials Wednesday discussing ways to raise money and awareness for disaster relief. Dalembert has never been a photo-op do-gooder. He has always been there for the long haul, when the cameras aren’t there to record his every good deed. To say that Dalembert has always honored the most humble of beginnings with remarkable generosity is true, but sometimes his professional behavior could be less noble. He has grumbled about wanting trades. He has complained about his minutes, his role – all typical NBA frustrations. Dalembert played the part of the prima donna for the Canadian Olympic team, and they parted ways before the team ever left for the Beijing Games in 2008. He didn’t try to defend himself and says simply now, “This summer, I finally tried to realize that it doesn’t do me any good anymore to point fingers at anyone when something doesn’t go right.” It was something about that trip back to Haiti, that question that was raised with his buddy Emmanuel that stayed with him. Why him? For too long, it dogged him. As he has promised his friends, he had slipped himself into that suitcase, flown away and made an incredible life. All that, so he could come back again and again. Now, Dalembert desperately wants to get on a plane, and get over there, and that’ll happen eventually. For now, he’s going to be the face, the voice, of Haiti for millions of people, because his feet grew too fast to find shoes, his legs too long to wear his daddy’s old pants. Someday, he’s sure he’s going to build that children’s center, but now his mind, his heart, is on the short-term survival of his people: food, medicine and shelter. It was 10:15 p.m. on Wednesday, in this quiet room in the Wachovia Center, and Dalembert still had so much frustration about why this quake had to happen to a place, to a people, that never, ever stop suffering. Now, they dig them out of rubble, tens of thousands dead and a loyal son of Haiti watched from far away like everyone else. Why were they buried, and why was he an NBA millionaire? The answer will probably always confound him on some level, but this was too long of a day and night for guilt, for that question that chased him over the summer when he tried to make sense of it all amid the poorest of the poor in our part of the world. Why him? Now, he knows. Nothing’s ever been so clear. “I know what I have to do now,” Samuel Dalembert(notes) said. “I know why I’m here.” For more information on how to help with the relief effort in Haiti, visit Dalembert’s foundation at www.dalembertfoundation.org.

Chris Brown "Changed Man"

Word, I don't know what's up with all these celebrity deaths, it's disturbingly sad...

R&B singer Teddy Pendergrass dies at 59 In an Aug. 1, 2000, file photo Teddy Pendergrass, right, performs at the Good AP – In an Aug. 1, 2000, file photo Teddy Pendergrass, right, performs at the Good Neighbor Community Outreach … * Singer Teddy Pendergrass dies at 59 Slideshow:Singer Teddy Pendergrass dies at 59 * Talented Musician Killed In I-80 Shooting Play Video Music Video:Talented Musician Killed In I-80 Shooting CBS 5 San Francisco * ShowBiz Minute: Cowell, Maguire, Dixie Chicks Play Video Music Video:ShowBiz Minute: Cowell, Maguire, Dixie Chicks AP By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, AP Music Writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody, Ap Music Writer – Thu Jan 14, 12:13 pm ET NEW YORK – R&B singer Teddy Pendergrass, who was one of the most electric and successful figures in music until a car crash 28 years ago left him in a wheelchair, has died of colon cancer. He was 59. Pendergrass died Wednesday in suburban Philadelphia, where he had been hospitalized for months. The singer's son, Teddy Pendergrass II, said his father underwent colon cancer surgery eight months ago and had "a difficult recovery." Before the crash, Pendergrass established a new era of R&B with an explosive, raw voice that symbolized masculinity, passion and the joys and sorrow of romance in songs such as "Close the Door," "It Don't Hurt Now," "Love T.K.O." and other hits that have since become classics. He was an international superstar and sex symbol. His career was at its apex — and still climbing. Friend and longtime collaborator Kenny Gamble, of the renowned production duo Gamble & Huff, teamed with Pendergrass on his biggest hits and recalled how the singer was even working on a movie. "He had about 10 platinum albums in a row, so he was a very, very successful recording artist and as a performing artist," Gamble said Thursday. "He had a tremendous career ahead of him, and the accident sort of got in the way of many of those plans." Pendergrass, who was born in Philadelphia in 1950, suffered a spinal cord injury in a 1982 car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down — still able to sing but without his signature power. The image of the strong, virile lover was replaced with one that drew sympathy. But instead of becoming bitter or depressed, Pendergrass created a new identity — that as a role model, Gamble said. "He never showed me that he was angry at all about his accident," Gamble said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "In fact, he was very courageous." Pendergrass left a remarkable imprint on the music world as he ushered in a new era in R&B with his fiery, sensual and forceful brand of soul and his ladies' man image, burnished by his strikingly handsome looks. Gamble said Pendergrass was one of a kind as an artist and boasted a powerful voice and "a great magnetism." "He was a great baritone singer, and he had a real smooth sound, but he had a real rough sound, too, when he wanted to exert power in his voice," Gamble said. But it wasn't Pendergrass' voice that got him his break in the music business — it was his drum playing abilities. He met Harold Melvin, who was looking for replacement members for his group, the Blue Notes, and signed on to be the drummer. Later, he became the lead singer of the group, which became known as Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. The band started working with Gamble and Leon Huff and had signature hits in the early 1970s with "Wake Up Everybody" and "If You Don't Know Me by Now." But Pendergrass had creative differences with Melvin and soon left for a solo career, according to his Web site. It was then he would become a sex symbol for the R&B genre, working women into a frenzy with hits such as "Only You" and concerts dedicated for ladies only. "The females," Gamble said, "loved Teddy Pendergrass. The females were very attracted to him and his music." Unlike the songs of many of today's male R&B crooners, Pendergrass' music bordered on eroticism without explicit lyrics or coarse language — just through the raw emotion in his voice. "Turn Off the Lights" was a tune that perhaps best represented the many moods of Pendergrass — tender and coaxing yet strong as the song reaches its climax. Fans were devastated when, at age 31, Pendergrass was critically injured after his Rolls-Royce hit a tree. He spent six months in a hospital and returned to recording the next year with the album "Love Language." He continued to sing and recorded several albums, receiving Grammy nominations. "To all his fans who loved his music, thank you," his son said. "He will live on through his music." It was 19 years before Pendergrass resumed performing at his own concerts. He made his return on Memorial Day weekend in 2001, with two sold-out shows in Atlantic City, N.J. Gamble noted Pendergrass' charitable work for people with spinal cord injuries, his performances despite pain and his focus on the positive in the face of great challenges. "He used to say something in his act in the wheelchair, 'Don't let the wheelchair fool you,' because he still proclaimed he was a lover," Gamble said. But his career was never the same. Gamble said it was difficult for Pendergrass to project vocally like he once did: "The breathing aspect of it, he wasn't really able to deal with it." And while he had albums, he was no longer seen as the sex symbol but more of a sympathetic, tragic figure, even though he still had a strong following among his core female fans. After the accident, he dedicated much of his life to helping others with spinal cord injuries and founded the Teddy Pendergrass Alliance to do just that. Gamble said he wanted to help others. "In his quiet moments, he probably did a lot of reflection. But I never saw him pity himself. He stayed busy," Gamble said. "(But) I feel that he's in a better place now. ... He doesn't have to go through that pain or whatever he was going through anymore."

Thousands feared dead in Haiti quake; many trapped AP Haiti quake could affect 3 million: official Play Video CBC.ca – Haiti quake could affect 3 million: official * Strong earthquake hits Haiti Slideshow:Strong earthquake hits Haiti * Haiti quake rescue escalates Play Video Video:Haiti quake rescue escalates Reuters * Haitian Americans React to Devastating Earthquake Play Video Video:Haitian Americans React to Devastating Earthquake AP A man gestures behind a person trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building in AP – A man gestures behind a person trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building in Port-au-Prince Wednesday, … By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press Writer Jonathan M. Katz, Associated Press Writer – 13 mins ago PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haitians piled bodies along the devastated streets of their capital Wednesday after a powerful earthquake crushed thousands of structures, from schools and shacks to the National Palace and the U.N. peacekeeping headquarters. Untold numbers were still trapped. President Rene Preval said he believes thousands of people were dead from Tuesday afternoon's magnitude-7.0 quake. "Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed," Preval told the Miami Herald. "There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them." Even the main prison in the capital fell, "and there are reports of escaped inmates," U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva. The Roman Catholic archbishop of Port-au-Prince was among the dead, and the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission was missing. The international Red Cross said a third of Haiti's 9 million people may need emergency aid and that it would take a day or two for a clear picture of the damage to emerge. At first light Wednesday, a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter evacuated four critically injured U.S. Embassy staff to the hospital on the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the military has been detaining suspected terrorists for the last seven years. President Barack Obama promised an all-out rescue and humanitarian effort, adding that the U.S. commitment to its hemispheric neighbor will be unwavering. "We have to be there for them in their hour of need," Obama said. Other nations — from Iceland to Venezuela — said they would start sending in aid workers and rescue teams. Cuba said its existing field hospitals in Haiti had already treated hundreds of victims. The United Nations said Port-au-Prince's main airport was "fully operational" and open to relief flights. Aftershocks continued to rattle the capital of 2 million people as women covered in dust clawed out of debris, wailing. Stunned people wandered the streets holding hands. Thousands gathered in public squares to sing hymns. People pulled bodies from collapsed homes, covering them with sheets by the side of the road. Passers-by lifted the sheets to see if loved ones were underneath. Outside a crumbled building, the bodies of five children and three adults lay in a pile. The prominent died along with the poor: the body of Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot, 63, was found in the ruins of his office, said the Rev. Pierre Le Beller of the Saint Jacques Missionary Center in Landivisiau, France. He told The Associated Press by telephone that fellow missionaries in Haiti had told him they found Miot's body. Preval told the Herald that Haiti's Senate president was among those trapped alive inside the Parliament building. Much of the National Palace pancaked on itself. The international Red Cross and other aid groups announced plans for major relief operations in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. Many will have to help their own staff as well as stricken Haitians. Taiwan said its embassy was destroyed and the ambassador hospitalized. Spain said its embassy was badly damaged. Tens of thousands of people lost their homes as buildings that were flimsy and dangerous even under normal conditions collapsed. Nobody offered an estimate of the dead, but the numbers were clearly enormous. "The hospitals cannot handle all these victims," said Dr. Louis-Gerard Gilles. "Haiti needs to pray. We all need to pray together." An American aid worker was trapped for about 10 hours under the rubble of her mission house before she was rescued by her husband, who told CBS' "Early Show" that he drove 100 miles (160 kilometers) to Port-au-Prince to find her. Frank Thorp said he dug for more than an hour to free his wife, Jillian, and a co-worker, from under about a foot of concrete. An estimated 40,000-45,000 Americans live in Haiti, and the U.S. Embassy had no confirmed reports of deaths among its citizens. All but one American employed by the embassy have been accounted for, State Department officials said. Even relatively wealthy neighborhoods were devastated. An AP videographer saw a wrecked hospital where people screamed for help in Petionville, a hillside district that is home to many diplomats and wealthy Haitians as well as the poor. At a destroyed four-story apartment building, a girl of about 16 stood atop a car, trying to see inside while several men pulled at a foot sticking from rubble. She said her family was inside. "A school near here collapsed totally," Petionville resident Ken Michel said after surveying the damage. "We don't know if there were any children inside." He said many seemingly sturdy homes nearby were split apart. The U.N.'s 9,000 peacekeepers in Haiti, many of whom are from Brazil, were distracted from aid efforts by their own tragedy: Many spent the night hunting for survivors in the ruins of their headquarters. "It would appear that everyone who was in the building, including my friend Hedi Annabi, the United Nations' secretary-general's special envoy, and everyone with him and around him, are dead," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on RTL radio. But U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy would not confirm that Annabi was dead, saying he was among more than 100 people missing in its wrecked headquarters. He said only about 10 people had been pulled out, many of them badly injured. Fewer than five bodies had been removed, he said. U.N. peacekeeping forces in Port-au-Prince are securing the airport, the port, main buildings and patrolling the streets, Le Roy said. Brazil's army said at least 11 of its peacekeepers were killed, while Jordan's official news agency said three of its peacekeepers were killed. A state newspaper in China said eight Chinese peacekeepers were known dead and 10 were missing — though officials later said the information was not confirmed. The quake struck at 4:53 p.m., centered 10 miles (15 kilometers) west of Port-au-Prince at a depth of only 5 miles (8 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. USGS geophysicist Kristin Marano called it the strongest earthquake since 1770 in what is now Haiti. Video obtained by the AP showed a huge dust cloud rising over Port-au-Prince shortly after the quake as buildings collapsed. Most Haitians are desperately poor, and after years of political instability the country has no real construction standards. In November 2008, following the collapse of a school in Petionville, the mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated about 60 percent of buildings were shoddily built and unsafe normally. The quake was felt in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, and in eastern Cuba, but no major damage was reported in either place. With electricity out in many places and phone service erratic, it was nearly impossible for Haitian or foreign officials to get full details of the devastation. "Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken," said Henry Bahn, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official in Port-au-Prince. "The sky is just gray with dust." Edwidge Danticat, an award-winning Haitian-American author was unable to contact relatives in Haiti. She sat with family and friends at her home in Miami, looking for news on the Internet and watching TV news reports. "You want to go there, but you just have to wait," she said. "Life is already so fragile in Haiti, and to have this on such a massive scale, it's unimaginable how the country will be able to recover from this."

Game Feat. Keyshia Cole "Game's Pain", "Blaze The Philly, It's Summertime, Shout Out To Will Smith!"

50 Cent "I Get Money"

Nice mix

DMX "Where The Hood At", it don't get no harder

Good music don't sell these days so of course it'll work Craig Mack feat. Biggie, LL, & Busta "Flava In Ya Ear"(Remix), probably the best remix ever

Fat Joe & P. Diddy Feat. Dre "Girl I'm A Bad Boy"