Hip-hop mogul SHAWN 'JAY-Z' CARTER has laughed off any talk of entering politics - insisting he'd be assassinated if he ever tried to run for president.
The 99 Problems star has expanded his business empire to include music publishing, clothing and alcohol - as well as owning shares in basketball team the New Jersey Nets.
But he has dismissed the idea of turning his attentions to politics and the state of America, because he would face heavy criticism over his personal life and criminal history.
And he compares it to the backlash U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama experienced when his pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, was forced to step down from his White House campaign after making several controversial comments about 9/11 and Black America earlier this year (08).
Asked by London's Time Out magazine whether he'd ever stand for office, the rapper jokes, "No, they'll kill me in 30 seconds. 'S**t! This guy's in!' Bang! Ha ha! I won't make it past the primaries!
"They talk about Obama's priest - imagine what they'd do to me!"
Jay-Z has a criminal record from an incident in 1999, when he was accused of stabbing record executive Lance 'Un' Rivera. He denied the charge and reached a plea with prosecutors, which resulted in the star pleading guilty to a misdemeanour and sentenced to three years' probation
Monday, 30 June 2008
Leona Lewis - Lewis Fights Tears At Mandela Tribute
British chart sensation LEONA LEWIS fought back tears as she performed for NELSON MANDELA at the former South African President's 90th birthday tribute concert in London on Friday (27Jun08).
The singer joined an all-star line-up, including Amy Winehouse and Razorlight, at the concert in Hyde Park.
Lewis belted out singles Bleeding Love and Better in Time, and confessed to WENN, "It was a really emotional moment for me.
"There were definitely a few tears. My auntie and grandmother would tell me stories about Nelson Mandela. I never dreamed I would be up there singing at his birthday celebration. It was very emotional performing for him."
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Sunday, 29 June 2008
Saturday, 28 June 2008
Howlin' Wolf
Artist: Howlin' Wolf
Genre(s):
Rock
Blues
Other
Discography:
The Howlin' Wolf Album
Year: 2007
Tracks: 10
Howlin' the Blues
Year: 2006
Tracks: 41
Live and Cookin' at Alice's Revisited 1972
Year: 2004
Tracks: 11
Live and Cookin' at Alice's Revisited
Year: 2004
Tracks: 10
Mississippi Boy
Year: 2002
Tracks: 16
Chicago Blue
Year: 1995
Tracks: 8
Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog, Vol.2 (CD 1)
Year: 1994
Tracks: 22
Live and Cookin'
Year: 1992
Tracks: 10
The Chess Box CD3
Year: 1991
Tracks: 21
The Chess Box CD2
Year: 1991
Tracks: 28
The Chess Box CD1
Year: 1991
Tracks: 26
Howlin' Wolf Chess Box 1963 to 1973
Year: 1991
Tracks: 21
Howlin' Wolf Chess Box 1955 to 1962
Year: 1991
Tracks: 28
Howlin' Wolf Chess Box 1951 to 1955
Year: 1991
Tracks: 26
The Real Folk Blues-More Real Folk Blues
Year: 1990
Tracks: 12
The Power of the Voice
Year: 1990
Tracks: 22
Howlin' Wolf: Moanin' in the Moonlight
Year: 1990
Tracks: 24
The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions
Year: 1989
Tracks: 13
Moanin' In The Moonlight
Year: 1986
Tracks: 24
The London Sessions
Year: 1970
Tracks: 17
Muddy and The Wolf
Year: 1969
Tracks: 7
The Super Super Blues Band
Year: 1967
Tracks: 7
The Genuine Article
Year:
Tracks: 25
Smoke Stack Lightning
Year:
Tracks: 10
His Best
Year:
Tracks: 20
Going Down Slow Disc 3
Year:
Tracks: 21
Death Row Bought By Global Music Group
Death Row Records has been bought out after going to auction this week (Tuesday June 24th), with the winning bid coming from the Global Music Group.
The group bought the majority of the collapsed label's publishing and recorded music assets, which were sold for $25 million in a Los Angeles auction.
Also included in the purchase were twenty unreleased records by deceased rapper Tupac Shakur, the original master tapes for the back catalogue, videos, merchandising and digital recording rights.
The auction occurred as label boss was forced to declare the company bankrupt in 2006.
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Jay Z - Festivalgoers Urged To Go Green This Summer
Music fans attending this summer's festivals have been reminded to keep climate change in mind as they enjoy their favourite bands.
While watching the likes of Jay-Z and Kings of Leon on the main stage could be your highlight of the summer months, the ecological impact could be more than you realise.
The sheer size of Glastonbury and the other UK festivals require an extraordinary amount of organisation, as well as using terrifying amounts of electricity and water.
But by keeping recycling in mind, music lovers can have the time of their lives without impacting on the planet, Beverage Can Makers Europe (BCME) have recommended, with BBC Radio 1 DJ Reggie Yates lending his support to the campaign.
While festivals such as Glastonbury are helping out by reducing their carbon footprint - with free, biodegradable potato-starch tent pegs to campers and all food outlets asked to use wooden cutlery - you too can be green this summer by recycling your drinks cans, he explained.
"Not only is the drinks can 100 per cent recyclable but it is also infinitely recyclable, meaning it can be recycled again and again," Reggie continued.
"It's so easy to get involved in recycling and is important for us all to do our bit.
"So don't forget to pack your drinks cans for the journey and enjoy a couple of refreshing beers with your mates while setting up your tent."
If each of the 20,000 attendees at the O2 Wireless Festival recycled a drinks can, it would save energy to power the stage for 34 hours, BCME revealed.
Every part of a drinks can is recyclable and as the recycled metal be used repeatedly, there is no wastage from the process, the non-profit making organisation explained.
And Reggie added: "Just please remember to recycle them as just one recycled drinks cans can save enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for two hours - it makes a difference!"
20/06/2008 00:02:01
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Mira Calix
Artist: Mira Calix
Genre(s):
Dance
Pop
Experimental
Rock: Punk-Rock
Industrial
Electronic
Discography:
Eyes Set Against the Sun
Year: 2007
Tracks: 10
3 Commissions
Year: 2007
Tracks: 6
Skimskitta
Year: 2003
Tracks: 21
Nunu
Year: 2003
Tracks: 1
Prickle
Year: 2001
Tracks: 2
Peel Sessions
Year: 2000
Tracks: 5
One On One
Year: 2000
Tracks: 18
We Are Reasonable People
Year: 1998
Tracks: 12
Pin Skeeling
Year: 1998
Tracks: 4
A impresario, DJ and formerly a publiciser at Warp Records, Mira Calix was signed to her possess Warp squeeze in 1996 to record abstract ambience that relies on a full variety of sound sources, organic or differently. Born and raised in South Africa, she stirred to London in 1991 and began working at the Ambient Soho fund on Berwick St., spell DJing and throwing parties with her flatmate, Solid Steel mixer Strictly Kev. She began working at Warp, and recorded a single ("Llanga," featuring a Gescom co-production credit) and an EP (Pin Skeeling) before making her full-length debut with 2000's One on One. The fruits of her low gear Peel Session appeared later that year, and second LP Skimskitta followed in early 2003. Calix has often teamed up with Andrea Parker and Mark Clifford (ex-Seefeel) for productions.
South Korean film 'Crossing' tells tragic story of North Korean defectors
SEOUL, South Korea - Oh Yon Jong fled North Korea in 1998 to seek food for her family, promising her son as he lay asleep and unaware of her departure that she would soon return. She never saw him again.
Instead, what began as a planned three-month trip led to her leaving her communist homeland forever to seek refuge in prosperous South Korea. Her story, one of the many painful tales of separation for thousands of North Korean refugees, is among the real-life accounts that served as the basis for the new film "Crossing" - an emotional dramatization of the plight of the refugees that opens Thursday in South Korea.
"My heart was broken when I left behind my son ... but couldn't we die by sitting idle?" Oh said in an interview posted on the filmmakers' website.
Director Kim Tae-kyun said he hoped the film would help draw international attention to the dire human rights situation in the North.
"North Korea is perhaps the most hidden country in the world and is in a situation where people are starving to death again, but there is no channel to show the facts" to the world, Kim said at a recent press screening for the movie. "I hope that people around the world will watch this movie and their interest will be used to change North Korea."
Filmmakers will screen the drama for the European Parliament next month, and push to distribute the movie in the U.S. and Japan this year. The film was already shown at special screenings in Washington during an April event highlighting the human rights situation in North Korea.
The movie tells the tear-jerking tale of Kim Yong Soo, a decorated soccer player-turned-coal miner who secretly crosses into China to get medicine for his tuberculosis-stricken wife. Like the real-life refugee Oh, Kim's promise to return home soon goes unfulfilled after he is pursued by Chinese police. He eventually storms a foreign embassy in Beijing along with several other defectors and later winds up receiving asylum in South Korea.
Kim then tries to bring his family to the South, but a Hollywood ending is not meant to be.
Filmmakers sought the advice of North Korean refugees like Oh to help make the movie more authentic, and some also play roles.
"I could not forget any scenes because the story line is the same with what I lived," said Oh, who played the role of a broker who bribes border guards and arranges transport to sneak people across the loosely controlled Chinese-North Korean frontier.
Thousands of North Korean refugees are believed to be living in China in constant fear of being repatriated to their homeland, which Beijing is obligated to do under a bilateral treaty, drawing criticism from human rights activists.
The refugee issue has drawn little attention in South Korea - now home to more than 13,500 North Korean defectors - as Seoul sought reconciliation with Pyongyang over a decade of liberal rule in the South, which abstained from publicly criticizing its neighbour.
Suzanne Scholte, chairman of the North Korea Freedom Coalition in the U.S., said the movie could raise awareness about the suffering of North Koreans so that pressure can be brought against the Pyongyang regime for its treatment of its people.
"This film has the potential to move the hearts and minds of the South Korean people as 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' moved the hearts of the American people on the horrors of slavery," she said.
Actor Cha In-pyo, who plays the title role of Kim, also said South Koreans should become the "voice of North Koreans to the world" as people living in the isolated country have no way to reach the outside world to talk about their dismal human rights situation.
But Shin Dong Hyok, a North Korean refugee who was born in a political prison camp and spent 23 years there before escaping in 2005 and coming to the South in 2006, doubts the movie will raise any interest among South Koreans.
"South Koreans only care about their safety and they don't care at all about starving North Koreans," Shin said, referring to the weeks of anti-government protests against plans to resume imports of U.S. beef.
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Britney: Silent Afterbirth
Britney Spears may have had words of encouragement for Jamie Lynn before her sis went into labor -- but she had none for the paps who caught her hanging around a gas station (naturally) after her niece was popped out.
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Fred: the puzzle of a YouTube hyper sensation
It has come to my attention that kids love Fred.
Who is Fred?
If you're like me, you've never heard of Fred. And if you're like me -- or hell, even if you're not like me -- you will not understand why Fred is getting 3 million to 4 million hits every time he posts a video on YouTube.
That is an absolutely stratospheric, TV-viewership-like repeat audience size. His YouTube channel is the 5th most subscribed of all time, with 200,000 subscribers -- meaning every time he puts out a new episode, that many people are alerted to it. To advertisers, tween traction like this is worth more than two trips to Chuck E. Cheese.
I'm going to embed one of his videos below. I don't want to, but I feel I have to out of pure journalistic necessity. You see, usually one can find an inkling of a tincture of a shadow of reason for something's popularity. But in this case, I cannot. So I would like to share this with a broader audience in the hopes that perhaps some Fred-positive readers might be able to enlighten the rest of us.
Is it that our over-medicated, under-exercised, camera-toting youth see a bit of themselves in this hyper-hyper-character? If so, we're in for a very annoying future.
If you click through to this video's YouTube "watch" page, you'll see it has an astonishing 30,000 comments, making it the 30th most discussed comedy video in YouTube's history. Yes, 30,000 people took the time to comment on this -- a clear indicator that there is something to comment on. The mystery continues ...
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