Posted by
Kat – April 4, 2010
Last time I had checked on the front of Erykah Badu’s controversial new music video shoot, where she was walking naked through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, TX, she wasn’t going to be charged. In fact, the Dallas police had stated that because no one actually called in a complaint at the time of the video shoot, they weren’t going to slap a charge on her. But, of course, leave it to someone to take things too far and to whine. A Texas woman has now filed a complaint of indecency with the Dallas police and they will be charging her with disorderly conduct. That means that in the mail, Badu’s about to get a citation for a $500 fine. Now, I have issue with this for more than one reason.
First of all, the video was shot completely in one take, and it involves her actually stripping down until she’s completely nude, where a gunshot then rings out and she crumples to the ground while what looks like blue blood then spills down onto the ground until it forms the word “groupthink.” So, you’re talking about maybe a minute of time where she is actually nude, and it was in one take. One minute, people. In my opinion, that’s guerilla theatre, and this should fall under artistic license. Regardless of if she warned the public of it, given that she didn’t and it was only her and a cameraman, she wasn’t walking around for hours on end with no clothes on shouting “Look at my boobies, children! Look at my boobies!” In fact, I’m more stuned that someone filed an indecency complaint against a woman who bared all in what is a very beautiful and non-sexual way, when it’s not like anyone files complaints against Usher for having a single where he drops the F-bomb throughout the entire chorus.
What does Badu have to say about this? She’s stunned, too. She says she’s been more naked in her lyrics and her words, and that’s where real vulnerability lies.
Posted by
Kat – March 23, 2010
The circumstances surrounding Michael Jackson’s death was nothing short of tragic, and it’s only gotten even more convoluted. Jackson’s doctor, Dr. Conrad Murray, has now been accused of behavior that is reprehensible: he supposedly stopped performing CPR on Jackson and then didn’t call the paramedics so that he could stop and go collect different drug vials. This seems to be yet another block stacked against the doctor, as the prosecution will be following this particular trail of evidence in the involuntary manslaughter case that could really turn the tide. After all, hiding evidence is a serious offense, and the prosecution won’t be letting it go.
Alberto Alvarez, the logistics director for Jackson himself, was the one to give this statement, a full account of the events as he saw them. Coupled with two other employees of Michael Jackson who also were called and arrived at the scene, the events seem pretty damning.
According to Alvarez, he had bolted to Jackson’s room and could see Jackson lying down on the bed with an IV in his leg. His eyes were open, his mouth was slack and he didn’t seem to be coherent. Murray was performing CPR until Alvarez took over. It was after he was declared dead that Alvarez claims Murray stated he needed to go back to Jackson’s home to collect items so that no one would know what Jackson had.
Granted, this certainly isn’t set in stone. The defense lawyer for Murray has already tried to rebuke this argument, especially since Alvarez allegedly has given different accounts now of what had happened, and in that first interview, Alvarez apparently did not tell the police that Murray tried to hide things. The trail itself is going to be messy, clearly, and the evidence seems to change day by day, but one thing’s for sure, this allegation isn’t going to be the last.
Posted by
Kat – March 9, 2010
Considering I’ve been covering the ongoing circus that has been Lil Wayne’s quest to avoid his sentencing trial, it seemed only right to finally finish that particular tale as yesterday, March 8th, Lil Wayne attended his hearing and was finally sentenced. His term for having pled guilty for attempted criminal possession of a weapon? A year in jail in New York City. It seems more than a little lax, considering he had admitted to having .40-caliber semiautomatic guns that were loaded and on his tour bus, but he was taken away and ordered to begin his sentence immediately. Born with the name Dwayne Carter, he is going to be serving his sentence in city jails, as opposed to a state prison, and with good behavior, he may be out in as soon as eight months.
If you’ve been following this story, then you already know that trying to get Lil Wayne to actually go to his sentencing hearing has been a bit of a pain for all involved. First, it was necessary surgery on his blinged out teeth, and then a fire broke out at the main criminal courthouse in Manhattan. Finally, though, after a very public appearance earlier at
Jay-Z’s concert, Lil Wayne did make his court appearance and hsa now been sentenced.
As for what’s going to happen while he’s in jail, the man has already filmed several music videos that are going to premiere over the next several months while he’ll be in jail. And while he’s behind bars, he plans on continuing to write and work on new numbers by the time he comes back home. On top of that, he’s hoping to be in protective custody while behind bars, so it looks like his next year in jail won’t be the worst it could be.
Posted by
Kat – March 3, 2010
Okay, okay, seriously? Wait… SERIOUSLY? First it’s the dental work that he needed so terribly badly that he couldn’t go to trial until it was taken care of. Then, it was a courthouse fire that took place yesterday that made it impossible for him to have his sentencing done then. I understand that there was a fire and that that isn’t exactly an easy or quick fix, but putting all that aside… the guy’s then able to go and perform at the
Jay-Z concert last night in New York. I am aware that we have due process and that he is not in custody and that means he should be allowed to about as if he is doing business as usual. In this case, it meant being at Jay-Z’s “Blueprint 3″ tour, while Young Jeezy had a set during the performance. BUT. If he had gone to his sentencing the last TWO times, he would be currently serving a very real sentence for a very, very real crime.
That being said, the performance was just as much of a surprise for the concert-goers as well. Jeezy and Jay-Z had performed a collaboration “Real As It Gets” onstage, then Jay-Z said he was leaving Jeezy to a solo performance. After leaving the stage, Jeezy performed a couple of verses on his own before ushering in the surprise guest of Lil Wayne. And that surprise performance was one that completely set the audience on fire, as it were. The number didn’t just have Lil Wayne, either. It also featured Nicki Minaj and Drake, and “I’m Goin’ In” wound up being one of the major highlights of the night.
Of course, when it came to an end and Wayne left, Jeezy made sure to give him his “we’re with you 100 percent” vote before they left. And not to sound cynical or like an old fogey, which I’m not, but doesn’t SOMETHING seem off about letting someone whose new sentencing date is Monday, March 8th, be allowed to go pop into a concert when he’s supposed to be preparing for a sentence?
Ahhh, entertainment industry, how you love to treat your stars.
Posted by
Kat – February 9, 2010
For Lil Wayne, famous rap star who hit the news junket last year over a arrest for gun possession, seems to have been spared his sentencing for that particular offense for another two months. The reason? Dental surgery. Of course, for Lil Wayne, this reprieve is going to be temporrary, because once these multiple, urgent surgeries are completed, he’ll still have to face sentencing for his conviction of illegal possession of a firearm. It certainly seems convenient, though, that it’s his teeth are such a health risk that he needs to have surgeries before he can be sentenced for an offense he was convicted of.
All the weirdness and bias aside, the sentencing has now been changed to be on March 2nd and it looks like the Supreme Court Justice that needs to sentence him, Charles Solomon, has no more patience for him. There will be no other delays in the sentencing, according to the justice. And what sentence is Lil Wayne looking at? Well, with good behavior, he might be able to get out in eight months, but he’ll be looking at around a year in jail, and that was with a plea deal.
Oddly enough, Lil Wayne was silent on Tuesday, when he stood in court with his dreadlocks and was later brought out of court and immediately into a black SUV. Of course, people were curious as to why exactly he needed this surgery and why it hadn’t been done sooner, but all that his defense lawyer Stacey Richman could say was that it was a medical concern and that had his dentist not been out of the country with charity work, he would have had it done sooner. Sounds a little fishy, and it’s only delaying the inevitable.
Posted by
Kat – February 5, 2010
When you think of “Down Under,” the famous song by the Aussie 80s band Men At Work, there’s no way that you can’t think of that telltale flute riff. Here’s the tricky part, though. According to lawyers in Australia, that riff is a plagarism of the song sung by Girl Guides everywhere, “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree.” The song about that native bird of Australia was written by Marion Sinclair over 70 years ago, who was a teacher who wrote it for a Girl Guides competition. But, it turns out that the music publishing company Larrikin Music has own the copyright to the song since Sinclair passed away in 1988 and they finally filed for a copyright lawsuit in the last year.
Now, if you didn’t know the tune of both songs really well, you probably wouldn’t even realize that it had similarities. And as far as similarities go, I have to say that the Vanilla Ice sample of “Under Pressure”‘s guitar riff seemed like a more blatant rip-off than the flute from Kookaburra. But, the Federal Court Justice Peter Jacobson says differently and has determined that the flute is taking a significant amount of the original music and replicated it for “Down Under.”
Earlier, the justice had already given both of the parties the orders to start looking into what kind of compensation Larrikin should receive from the record companies for Men at Work, EMI Songs Australia and BMG Music Entertainment, as well as Ron Strykert and Colin Hay, the songwriters of the band. And we’re talking MILLIONS here, as the settlement could end up giving up to 60 percent of all of “Down Under”‘s royalties since it was released back in 1983.
As for Men At Work? Well, Colin Hay has gone on record saying that he realized he was borrowing from the tune but thought that it was as generic and public domain as Ring Around the Rosy. Talk about an expensive blunder.
Posted by
Kat – December 24, 2009
Who would have thought two years ago that when the rapper T.I. had tried to buy unregistered silencers and machine guns from some undercover federal agents that he’d be getting out almost four months early? It seems that T.I. wasn’t even expecting it, but it looks like his behavior made enough of an impression that the holidays have come to him early.
At the moment, though, he’s sitting in a halfway house in Atlanta, Georgia, on his way to go back home soon. He could have served up to 10 years in prison for trying to buy those weapons, but instead, he had only been given a year and one day sentence and only served seven months of that. It doesn’t sit well that a man calling himself the “King of the South” didn’t even get remotely close to a full sentence for trying to pick up machine guns, and now he’s got out early.
But, then again, T.I. has actually done a great job of actually holding up to the plea deal he’d made, which would mean he’d be on house arrest before he actually went to his sentence, and he would also be speaking to communities in the hopes of discouraging the use of guns or violence, and telling them of the dangers of using drugs.
T.I. hasn’t actually dicussed what this means for his career, but he probably has plans to come back to the spotlight as soon as possible, but first he wants to spend time with his family for the holidays. Or at the very least, spend his holiday not behind bars. He’s been incredibly popular as a rapper for this generation, so it’s not hard to imagine that people would like him back, but it seems to go without saying that everyone wants T.I. to keep his act together first.
Posted by
Kat – December 16, 2009
Buju Banton has been known as one of the top Jamaican Reggae stars with a strong presence and a power for song. Unfortunately, it seems that the talents that had gotten him up in the spotlight won’t really be helping him much anytime soon. In what seems almost a little too cliche for that particular genre of music, this reggae star is about to be attending a bail hearing that’s scheduled for today, Wednesday, December 16th in Miami. And why exactly is Buju Banton trying to get out on bail at the moment?
For Buju Banton, it seems that even stardom can’t keep them away from the lure of illegal drugs. Banton and two other associates are charged with allegedly trying to buy a substantial amount of cocaine in Florida. Unfortunately, they tried to buy it off of an undercover police officer in Sarasota. While he was originally held in Miami Thursday of last week, he has since been transferred to Tampa, as the actual trial will be conducted there.
The crime isn’t exactly a small one, either. The federal officials have officially decided to try him with criminal conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine. In layman’s terms, you’re talking about a lot of cocaine that most likely would not have been for personal use, and so the federal forces have ever intention of making sure that they have a solid case.
But what will that mean for Buju Banton himself? If convicted, it would most certainly be the end of his career as a reggae artist. He could be facing up to a maximum 20 years in prison, and even if he doesn’t get that, he will be spending a few years there at least. As for Banton’s statement on the whole thing, he’s denying the charges.
Hopefully, Banton’s career won’t be lost because of it.
