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American Gangster

Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, a disciplined and intelligent black gangster, runs much of Harlem and imparts his wisdom onto his former driver turned right hand man, Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington). When Johnson dies of a heart attack in 1968, the power vacuum attracts many who seek a piece of the pie. Frank dislikes the new, flashy gangsters and decides to take control. To gain money and power, he travels to Southeast Asia, and strikes a deal with a Chinese (Kuomintang) general who supplies him with pure heroin, which Frank then transports back to America.

Frank’s unique drug supply enables him to sell potent drugs (“Blue Magic” heroin) at cheap prices. He quickly makes a fortune and buys several nightclubs and apartments. He travels back to his North Carolina home and buys his humble mother a large house. His six brothers are enlisted as his lieutenants in the NYC drug trade – forming “The Country Boys,” who work together to traffic and sell dope on Harlem streets. During his rise, Frank meets and falls in love with Eva, a Puerto Rican beauty queen. Through his discipline, organization, and will to kill those in his way, Frank quickly rises to the top of the Harlem drug and crime scene.

Meanwhile, Jewish Essex County, New Jersey detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) is juggling a failing marriage, his late-night law school classes and his police career. When Richie and his partner discover $1 million in unmarked bills in a car, Richie resists temptation and turns the money in. His rare honest ways make him a hated member of the force, while his rampant womanizing leads his wife to seek a divorce and custody of their son. Richie catches a break when he’s put in charge of a newly-created task force to stop drug trafficking in New Jersey and New York City. He handpicks honest cops and gets to work.

Frank’s success selling drugs, naturally, draws unwanted attention. He must make deals with the Italian mafia and fend off corrupt NYC detectives such as Det. Trupo (Josh Brolin) who extort and threaten him. Unidentified assassins try to kill Frank’s wife, further destabilizing him and worsening his unsteady marriage. Richie catches another break when his men witness one of Frank’s top soldiers shooting a woman. They use the soldier’s bad predicament to get him to wear a wire. The wire allows Richie and his task force to discover when a plane carrying drugs is landing.

When the plane lands, Richie and his men follow the drugs into Harlem’s projects and obtain a warrant. A huge group of police and detectives attack the drug apartments en masse and a large shootout occurs. Many of Frank’s drug men are killed and others are arrested. Frank himself is at church when the bust goes down, but he is arrested after the service ends. Frank and Richie finally meet, and Frank’s attempts to bully and bribe Richie are unsuccessful.

With no other options, Frank decides to rat out numerous other criminals, including his and Richie’s common enemies: corrupt NYC detectives. Numerous corrupt cops are arrested; Det. Trupo kills himself to avoid arrest. Richie, who has passed the Bar Exam, is so impressed by Frank’s confessions that he decides to act as Frank’s new defense attorney. Because of his cooperation, Frank receives a relatively light sentence: 15 years. At the film’s end, he steps out of jail onto the street, but no supporters are around to cheer or even meet him. He enters a new life, alone.

SCARFACE

In July 1980, Cuban hitman Tony Montana (Al Pacino) claims political asylum in Florida in the United States after departing Cuba in the Mariel boatlift of 1980. At first Montana is held at a detention camp called 'Freedomtown' with other Cubans. To be released and given a green card Montana and his best friend Manny Ray (Steven Bauer) kill a former aide to Fidel Castro who has tortured to death the brother of a wealthy politically connected car dealer, Frank Lopez, who is also heavily involved in the cocaine trade. After getting their cards Montana and his friend Manny are set up to work at a corner sandwich shop when a Lopez henchman, Omar Suarez (F. Murray Abraham), offers Tony and Manny a job unloading marijuana.

Tony insults Omar by turning down the job so Omar sets him up to pick up a sample of coke from a colombian dealer, Hector. Tony, Manny, and two other Marielitos in his crew, Angel Fernández (Pepe Serna), and Chi Chi (Angel Salazar) then set out to meet Hector (Al Israel) at a seedy motel on the beach. The meeting does not go smoothly, as Tony grows irritated with Hector, who is slow to give him the cocaine in exchange for money. Suddenly, Montana and Angel are double-crossed in a rip off move by the Colombian. To convince Tony to give over the cash, Angel is dismembered in a shower stall with a chainsaw by Hector. After Angel is dead, Montana, about to suffer the same fate, is saved by Chi Chi and Manny who arrive in the nick of time to gun down Hector's henchmen in the hotel's room. Hector escapes but Tony vengefully confronts him in the street and shoots him dead in the middle of Ocean Drive, the now famous Miami South Beach boulevard. Tony and his crew then get away with both the coke and the money before the police arrive. Montana then impresses the money's owner, López (Robert Loggia), with not only the return of his cash but with a gift of the coke, a prize from the botched rip off. Frank immediately hires Tony's crew into his criminal hierarchy. But during this initial get together Tony also meets Lopez's lady, the blonde and beautiful Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer), who will eventually become the source of tension between the two men. Thus, Montana begins his rise through the ranks of the Miami cocaine underworld.

While on business in Bolivia to help Omar set up a new distribution deal for Lopez, Montana, feeling that Frank is "soft," begins to show his defiance to López's authority when he negotiates a deal with Alejandro Sosa (Paul Shenar), the ruthless and powerful Bolivian drug lord. Sosa finds out that Omar is an informant during the trip and has him murdered to show Tony his intolerance for disloyalty. Upon his return to Florida Tony gets into trouble with Frank over the deal, who accuses him of "stealing" it. Montana then leaves López to strikes out on his own. This allows him to seek out Elvira to whom he makes an unexpected marriage proposal. Lopez is none too happy and decides to take out Tony.

But his move to assassinate Tony fails as two hitmen, hired by Lopez to kill Tony at the Babylon Club, cannot get it done. A vengeful Montana decides to take over Frank's business. That same night he and Manny kill both Frank and the cop on his payroll, Miami Chief of Narcotics Mel Bernstein, who had already shaken down Tony for a hefty monthly payment and airline tickets to London. His problems apparently solved, Tony begins a profitable relationship with Sosa, marries Elvira, buys a new mansion, and sets his sister Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) up in business with her own beauty salon.

But as Montana's business grows, so does his cocaine addiction and paranoia. It is the beginning of the end. His wife, now hopelessly addicted herself, becomes distant. His banker informs him that he will be charging higher fees for washing the increasing flow of drug money. After Manny convinces him that he has a way to save money on the laundering of the coke cash, Montana is arrested in a sting operation by Manny's contact, an undercover cop. He is charged with tax evasion.

Sosa, not wanting to lose his main distributor, steps in to intervene by offering Tony a way out of going to prison. He introduces Montana to his cocaine "board of directors" a group that includes Bolivia's military chief and a mysterious American, known only as being "from Washington." We assume he is a CIA officer because Sosa guarantees that the IRS will not be able to send Tony to jail. In exchange, Montana must assist in the assassination of a journalist attempting to expose Sosa, his partners, and the ongoing corruption in the Bolivian government. Montana agrees but later has second thoughts backs when the journalist, now in New York to expose the cartel at the UN, unexpectedly picks up his wife and children. Tony, saying that the team was only supposed to kill the journalist, instead then shoots the assassin to prevent the journalist's family from being killed. Thus he seals his fate with Sosa.

Returning to Miami, Tony discovers that both his sister Gina and right-hand man Manny have disappeared. Tony has long harbored an apparent unnatural obsession for his sister and is overly protective of her for reasons that he may not understand himself. After getting Gina's address from his mother, who doesn't know who lives there, Tony goes to the house. Manny unexpectedly opens the door. Tony then sees Gina in a night gown at the top of the stairs. Enraged that another man has obviously slept with his sister, Tony kills Manny. Hysterically, Gina reveals that they had just been married. Tony has Gina taken back to his mansion where all hell is about to break loose.

In revenge for the missed opportunity to kill the journalist, who has now exposed him to the world as a drug lord, Sosa sends an assassination team to Montana's mansion to kill him. Sitting at his desk snorting from an enormous pile of cocaine, Tony realizes and regrets what he has done to his best friend. Suddenly Gina enters his office armed with a pistol to confront him with the truth about his feelings for her. She now realizes that Tony loves her in an unnatural way and demands, at gun point, that he make love to her. She begins to shoot at him while demanding he take her. A Sosa assassin hiding on the balcony, thinking Gina is shooting at him, leaps in and riddles her with bullets. Tony, enraged, throws the man off the balcony and kills him.

As his men are being killed in a gunfight inside the mansion, Tony kneels over Gina's dead body and begs forgiveness. With the assassins just outside his door, he then arms himself with an M16 assault rifle and an M203 grenade launcher, shouts the often imitated quote "Say hello to my little friend!" and single-handedly takes on Sosa's men, who by now have killed all of Tony's crew. Though extremely high on cocaine and able to take dozens of bullets, he is eventually killed when Sosa's chief assassin shoots him from behind with a shotgun.


Production and controversy
Scarface was directed by Brian De Palma, produced by Martin Bregman, and written by now famed director Oliver Stone while he battled a cocaine addiction. Stone consulted the Miami police and the Drug Enforcement Agency while writing the film, incorporating many true crimes into the film, including using crime scene photos to inspire the infamous chainsaw scene. Stone also admitted in an interview, first featured on the Collector's Edition DVD release, that he took the character's last name from his favorite football player at the time - Joe Montana of the San Francisco 49ers thus explaining why Tony does not have a traditionally Hispanic surname.

The film was originally to be filmed in Florida but it received criticism from the Cuban community, which objected to the film's representation of Cubans as drug dealers. Also, leaders in the Cuban community wanted additions to the script which would have made Tony a Castro spy and depict subsequent Anti-Castro activity against him in Miami as part of the movie's plot. After protracted negotiations over the script, the producers ultimately refused to give in to their demands, saying that the film was about cocaine and not the politics of Castro's Cuba. In order to ensure the safety of the crew and to avoid confrontations, with the exception being obvious exterior shots, the movie was filmed in and around Los Angeles.

When the film was submitted to the MPAA, it was rated X for its extreme violence and graphic language, with the chainsaw scene the primary object of concern. DePalma cut the film twice, but it still received an X-rating. After the film was rejected for the third time, DePalma, with the help from a panel of experts including real narcotics officers, told the MPAA that the violence in DePalma's film was an accurate portrayal of real-life drug dealers and that the film should be released with its violence intact to show viewers how violent the drug trade was. With a third vote of 18 to 2 in favor of an "R," the MPAA agreed. But DePalma, who felt that the differences between the two "clean" cuts he put together were insignificant, arranged to have the uncut version released to theatres with an R-rating.

The word "fuck" was used 207 times in the film.


Critical reception
Scarface held its premiere on December 1st, 1983 in New York City where it was initially greeted with mixed reaction. Among those in attendance were the film's two stars; Al Pacino and Steven Bauer as well as Burt and Diane Lane, Melanie Griffith, Raquel Welch, Joan Collins, her then-boyfriend Peter Holm and Eddie Murphy among others. According to AMC's "DVD TV: Much More Movie" airing: Cher loved it; Lucille Ball, who came with her family, hated it because of the graphic violence and language; Dustin Hoffman was said to have fallen asleep; writers Kurt Vonnegut and John Irving were among those who were said to have walked out in disgust after the notorious "chainsaw" scene. At the middle of the film, Martin Scorsese turned behind to Steven Bauer and told him "You guys are great - but be prepared, because they're going to hate it in Hollywood. . . because it's about them". Scarface, upon its first release, drew controversy regarding the violence and graphic language in the film, and received many negative reviews from movie critics. Despite this, the film grossed $65 million worldwideand has since gathered a large cult following. On the 2 Disc Special Edition, director Brian De Palma said that the film was well received by only one notable critic, Vincent Canby of The New York Times. However, Roger Ebert rated it four stars out of four in his 1983 review and he later added it to his "great movies" list

City of God

Taking place over the course of a decade, City of God tells the story of Cidade de Deus (Portuguese for City of God), a lower class quarter west of Rio de Janeiro. Told from the viewpoint of a boy named Rocket who grows up there as a fishmonger's son, demonstrates the desperation and violence inherent in the slums. Based on a real story, the movie depicts drug abuse, violent crime, and a boy's struggle to free himself from the slums' grasp.

The movie begins cinematically depicting chickens being prepared for a meal. A chicken escapes and as an armed gang chases after it bumps into Rocket who believes that the gang wants to kill him. The movie then flashes back ten years earlier, to tell the story of how he got himself into that position.

Three "hoodlums", "The Tender Trio", one being Rocket's brother, Goose, are terrorizing local businesses with armed holdups. In Robin Hood fashion they split part of the loot with the citizens of City of God and are protected by them. Li'l Dice is a hanger-on who convinces them to hold up a motel and rob its occupants. Li'l Dice, serving as lookout, fires a warning shot, then proceeds to slaughter the inhabitants of the motel. The massacre brings on the attention of the police forcing the three to quit their criminal ways. Each meets an untimely end, except one who decides to join the church. Goose, Rocket's brother, is slain by Li'l Dice after robbing the younger boy and his friend Benny who have been hiding out and committing crimes themselves.

Fast forward a number of years and Li'l Dice now calls himself, Li'l Zé, and along with his childhood friend Benny establish a drug empire by eliminating all of the competition except for a drug dealer named Carrot. Meanwhile, Rocket has become a part of the "Groovies" a hippie like group of youth that enjoy smoking pot. He begins his photography career shooting his friends, especially one girl that he is infatuated with, but who is dating another boy.

A relative peace has come over City of God under the reign of Li'l Zé who plans to eliminate his last rival, Carrot against the judgment of his best friend Benny, who is keeping the peace. At one point, his best friend and partner in crime Benny has decided to become a "playboy" and the "coolest guy in City of God". Eventually, along with the girl that he has wooed away from Rocket, he decides to leave the criminal life behind to live on a farm. However, he is gunned down at his going away party by former drug dealer, Blackie, who is actually aiming for Li'l Zé. Benny was the only thing keeping Li'l Ze from taking over Carrot's business, so now Carrot is in danger.

Li'l Zé humiliates a peace loving man Knockout Ned at the party and afterwards rapes his girlfriend and kills Ned's uncle and younger brother. Ned turns violent and sides with Carrot and after killing one of his men and starts a war between the two rival factions. The ensuing war creates a "Vietnam" of City of God. Jealous of Ned's notoriety in the newspapers, Li'l Zé has Rocket take photos of himself and his gang which are unbeknown to Rocket published in the daily paper. Rocket then mistakenly fears for his life believing that Li'l Zé will want to kill him for it. In actuality, he is pleased with his newfound fame.

Coming full circle, a gunfight ensues between the two gangs and Rocket is caught in the middle after being startled by Li'l Zé's request that he take a picture of the gang which had been chasing the chicken at the beginning of the film. Ned is killed by a boy who has infiltrated his gang to avenge his father who Ned killed during a bank robbery. Li'l Zé and Carrot are captured by the police. Rocket then captures on film the police shaking Li'l Zé down for money and releasing him.

The story ends with Li'l Zé being killed by a group of his own young gang members who stroll off listing people to kill and Rocket gets famous off of the photograph of Li'l Ze shot up with bullets.

Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta

Geto Boys

Stomp the Yard

Stomp the Yard is a 2007 drama film produced by Rainforest Films and released through Sony Pictures' Screen Gems division on January 12, 2007. Directed by Sylvain White, Stomp the Yard centers around DJ Williams, a college student at a fictional historically Black university who pledges to join a fictional Greek-letter fraternity. The film's central conflict involves DJ's fraternity competing in various stepping competitions against a rival fraternity from the same school. The film's script was written by Robert Adetuyi, working from an original draft by Gregory Ramon Anderson. The film was originally titled Steppin', but to avoid confusion over the 2006 film Step Up, the title was changed.

The film stars Columbus Short, Meagan Good, Darrin Henson, Brian White, Laz Alonso, and Valerie Pettiford, with Harry Lennix and, in their film debuts, R&B singers Ne-Yo and Chris Brown. Stomp the Yard was filmed in Atlanta, Georgia on the campuses of Morris Brown College, Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University, and in the MAK Historic District of Decatur, Georgia.

DJ Williams (Columbus Short) is a krump dancer in inner-city Los Angeles. He and his younger brother Duron (Chris Brown) compete in local dance competitions as members of a team known as the "Goon Squad". Primarily due to one final dynamic step from Duron, the Goon Squad win a cash-prize battle held one night at an underground krumping competition, and the losing home team responds by ambushing DJ and his teammates after the show. A fight breaks out, and the leader of the rival shoots Duron and kills him.

Arrested for assault, DJ is subsequently sent by his mother to live with his aunt Jackie (Valerie Pettiford) and uncle Nate (Harry J. Lennix) in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is to attend historically black Truth University. Nate, the physical plant director at Truth, aims to teach DJ responsibility, and puts the boy to work doing maintenance as part of a work-study program.

While waiting in the line to register for classes, DJ meets a fellow student named April Palmer (Meagan Good), whom he is immediately attracted to. After registration, he moves into his dorm room, where he meets his new roommate Rich Brown (Ne-Yo). Rich takes DJ to a stepping competition on the green between the Truth chapters of rival fraternities Theta Nu Theta and Mu Gamma Xi. The Mu Gamma Xi team, seven-time national stepping champions, easily steals the show until DJ sees April across the way and runs right through the Gammas' step line in an attempt to speak to her. A fight nearly breaks out between the freshman and the Gamma steppers, whose best stepper Grant (Darrin Henson) is April's boyfriend.

That night, Rich and his friends go out to a local club called the Phoenix and invite DJ along. DJ takes to the dance floor, hoping to impress April and upstage Grant and the Gammas, all of whom are also in attendance. Despite the animosity between DJ and Grant, the Gammas recognize DJ's skills as a dancer, and the Gamma chapter's president Zeke (Laz Alonso) invites DJ to pledge for Mu Gamma Xi. DJ turns down both Zeke's offer as well as an offer from the Theta Nu Theta chapter's leader Sylvester (Brian White).

After learning that April is a student history tutor, DJ signs himself up for tutoring so that he can spend time with her. The two slowly begin a friendship, and DJ takes April out to dinner. During their date, April discusses the importance of black fraternities and sororities with the clueless DJ, and tells him to visit Heritage Hall on the campus' Greek Row. At Heritage Hall the next day, DJ learns about the significant number of African-American historical figures and celebrities who were members of various Greek-letter organizations, and decides to pledge for the Theta chapter along with Rich and their friend Noel (Jermaine Williams). April eventually leaves Grant for DJ, angering her father, Dr. Palmer (Allan Louis), the school's dean and a Gamma brother himself.

After "crossing over" to become official Theta members, DJ, Rich, and Noel join the Thetas' step team. Dismissing their traditional step moves as old-fashioned, DJ teaches his frat brothers a few of his old krumping moves. DJ does not notice that, while he is practicing a few of his brother's old dance moves, one of the Gammas is secretly videotaping him so that their team can learn DJ's steps.

Sly disapproves of DJ's attempts to modernize the Thetas' steps, and challenges DJ to a battle at the Phoenix between his line brothers and DJ's; the new moves against the old. DJ's line brothers lose the competition due to DJ's show-boating, although Sly agrees to let DJ teach the team some new moves as a compromise.

A few of the Gammas' run a background check on DJ, and learn about his criminal past. This information is forwarded to Dr. Palmer, who has the school's Ethics Committee suspend DJ for the remainder of the year, preventing him from stepping at the nationals. Dr. Palmer later offers to reinstate DJ, with the provision that he stop seeing April, an offer DJ refuses. When April learns from her father why DJ has been suspended, she confronts DJ and learns first-hand the story behind his arrest. DJ's aunt Jackie, an old girlfriend of Dr. Palmer's, intervenes and confronts the dean herself.

The final round of the nationals stepping competition ends in a tie between the Thetas and the Gammas, and each team is required to choose a dancer for a head-to-head competition. The Gammas have secretly recorded DJ's practices, and choose Grant, who has learned all of DJ's steps, as their dancer. However, DJ, reinstated thanks to his aunt's help, shows up in time to be chosen as the Thetas' dancer. Going first, Grant does DJ's exact routine from the tape. After Grant finishes, DJ matches Grant move for move, tossing in something the Gammas didn't get on tape: the move Duron performed to win his last competition with the Goon Squad.

The Theta Nu Theta team is declared the winners of the competition, and DJ is mobbed by his frat brothers as April runs out to kiss him. The scene is captured in a still black and white photo, which is added to the wall at Heritage Hall.

New York Subway breakdance

Take the Lead

Take the Lead is a movie starring Antonio Banderas, Rob Brown, Alfre Woodard, Dante Basco, Marcus T. Paulk, Jenna Dewan, Lauren Collins and also features America's Next Top Model's third-season runner-up, Yaya DaCosta. The film was released in mainstream cinema on April 7, 2006. It was filmed in Toronto, and at a number of local schools, including UTS.

Rock, the film's underdog protagonist, arrives at a school dance with a water-damaged ticket and is denied entrance by Mr. Temple (John Ortiz) and Principal James (Alfre Woodard). Rock leaves and encounters some thugs, who lead him to vandalize Principal James's car. Pierre Dulaine (Antonio Banderas), a classical dance instructor, catches Rock in the act, but Rock runs away before Pierre can question him further.

The next morning at the school, Pierre waits to see the principal as Mr. Temple discusses the detention program with Principal James. Pierre explains to the principal that he was a witness to the vandalism on her car, and eventually offers to take over Mr. Temple's detention shift, to which Principal James agrees, although she is sure that he will not last more than a day.

Pierre is led to the basement where the students who have earned detention for the remainder of the year, including Rock, are kept. His first class is disastrous due to the uncooperative personalities of the students, all of whom scoff at his efforts to teach them classical dance.

The next morning Pierre returns, much to the surprise of Principal James who later explains that Rock’s brother was involved with a gang war, and one of the casualties was a brother of LaRhette, who had refused to dance with Rock the day before. Later in detention, Rock has forged a doctor’s note excusing him from dancing.

At Pierre's dance studio, Caitlin is a student who is under pressure to learn to dance because her cotillion is fast approaching. Pierre invites Morgan, a highly trained but haughty student, to his detention session for a demonstration of the tango, which inspires the detention students to be more willing to learn. Caitlin decides to join the detention students for dance class and practices with Monster, another student struggling to learn.

Rock, who still refuses to dance, makes it clear to Pierre that he attends detention not to dance, but to be able to graduate. Later he is fired from his job for being late. He goes home and confronts his parents, who have been unable to provide him food since Rock's brother's death. His ailing father kicks him out of the house and he finds a new albeit dangerous job with some street thugs.

LaRhette, whose mother is a prostitute, cares for her younger siblings while her mother works. One night, LaRhette runs out of the apartment and to the school after one of her mother's clients attempts to rape her. She practices her dancing in the basement, and runs into Rock. They fight and are caught by security. Principle James wants to suspend LaRhette and Rock, but instead agrees to give them extra detention hours with Pierre at 7 AM each day. Pierre tells the class about a dance competition which he wishes them to enter, and this is further inspiration for the detention students to learn.

The detention basement is flooded, so Pierre takes the detention students to his dance studio to practice. They are confronted by Morgan and some of Pierre's other students. The detention students are further disenchanted by the skills of Pierre's students as well as the $200 entrance fee for the contest. However, Pierre manages to provide funds for the detention students to enter.

Caitlin is unable to enter in the competition, as her cotillion is the same night, to Monster's disappointment. The two still practice together. LaRhette and Rock will compete in waltz, and Ramos and Danjou learn to share Sasha during practice.

Mr. Temple complains about the supposed waste of resources on the dance program. He brings Pierre to a meeting with the parents' association, but Pierre convinces them to keep the dance program going.

On the night of the contest, Rock has to work. He is told that he must shoot anyone who approaches the theft operation. He shoots the sprinkler system instead, setting off the alarm and causing the thugs to run away.

At the cotillion, Caitlin makes her grand entrance down the staircase and dances with Monster, surprising her mother. After they dance they make their way to the dance competition.

LaRhette is disappointed that Rock has not arrived at the competition, where a $5000 prize is at stake. Sasha, Danjou, and Ramos perform an impressive three-person tango but are disqualified for it. Surprisingly, Morgan calls it a tie and gives Sasha her trophy.

Principal James, thrilled with the success of the program, insists on making the program permanent and expanding it to more schools. Rock arrives at the last minute to dance the waltz with LaRhette, whom he kisses at the end of the waltz.

PIMP MY RIDE

Pimp My Ride is a TV show produced by MTV. Each episode consists of taking one car in poor condition and restoring it, as well as customizing it. The original American version is hosted by rapper Xzibit. Recently, MTV2 has begun airing episodes from Pimp My Ride UK hosted by DJ Tim Westwood, which features cars being customised in the UK, and Pimp My Ride International, featuring cars in central Europe, hosted by hip hop artists Fat Joe and Lil' Jon as well as the related CMT series Trick My Truck. This year, Pimp My Ride will be produced in Brazil.

The show picks young car owners (requirements limit participants to ages 18–28, according to the recent audition rules on the GAS website — see below) living in Los Angeles or elsewhere in Southern California. An episode of Pimp My Ride generally begins with the participant showing his or her car off, and convincing MTV why it needs to be "pimped". After this segment, the host (normally rapper Xzibit, but there are occasionally guest hosts such as Chamillionaire) shows up at the participant's house, takes a look at the car himself, makes wisecracks about the particular things that are wrong with it, and promises the owner a complete makeover of the vehicle.

After examining the car, Xzibit takes it to a custom body shop (West Coast Customs (WCC) in Seasons 1–4; replaced by Galpin Auto Sports (GAS) starting Season 5), where the shop team generally replaces most of the components and rebuilds the interior and exterior from scratch.

Each car is a custom "pimp", tailored to the personalities and interests of the owners. For example, a Need for Speed: Underground fan had his car painted to look like one specially customized in the Need for Speed: Underground 2 game, while a bowler had a ball washer installed in his trunk, and a surfer got a clothes dryer in the back of his Volkswagen van. Work usually includes new paint, accessories, chrome, tires and rims, and internal electronics (DVD players, video games, large TFT screens, and other cutting-edge accessories). Most changes are only cosmetic, and mechanical work is generally only done to enable the car to run; the show has replaced entire engines with new engines. Both WCC and GAS are well-known for putting their own whimsical touches in their work, such as the aforementioned dryer, or an electric fireplace in the trunk of another vehicle.

At the end of the show, the car is revealed to its owner, as well as all the details of the renovation and the custom features; in addition, the participant is usually given a gift somehow related to the car or the owner's hobby.

In 2007, co-creators Beresford-Redman and Hurvitz joined IMG World [1], an international sports and entertainment marketing company based in New York City, to "develop and produce non-scripted television shows, branded programming and other multi-platform entertainment content." They will report to Olivier Gers "IMG's newly appointed Senior Vice President, Global Head New Media and Co-Head IMG Entertainment and London-based Alastair Waddington, Executive Vice President—IMG Media and Co-Head IMG Entertainment."

Seasons 1–4
Much of the appeal of the show comes from the personalities involved. The WCC employees are an eclectic mix of outgoing personalities, such as:

Owner Ryan (who was preceded by the good-natured manager Q)
The appropriately named Big Dane
Electronics (and outrageous engineering) expert Mad Mike
Tough-looking interior and fabric maven Ish
The heavily pierced tire-specialist Alex
Paint and body expert Buck (Earlier episodes feature paint and body work by Aren Fanning)
Both host Xzibit and West Coast Customs have experienced boosts in business due to the show: Xzibit has gained wider attention for his music career (as well as hosting and movie gigs), and WCC had to expand their facilities, due to the international exposure Pimp My Ride gave their work. After the third season however, WCC manager "Q" announced that he would not be willing to take a role in the show anymore. It is also shown that Paint & Body's Buck was replaced by another person named 2Shae. Q cited a desire to expand the company's business with a customs shop in St. Louis, Missouri. Ryan Friedlinghaus, the owner of WCC, was featured in Season 4 as the "lead" for discussions on what customizing will be done on the incoming cars.

Some of the show's pimped rides have found their way onto eBay, including, but not limited to, Ezra's Nissan Maxima Station Wagon,Krissy's Volkswagen Baja Bug,Jake's Buick Century,and Cristi's Chevrolet Panel Van [citation needed].

During most of the television seasons, mostly Season 2, there have been many mistakes added in the television show. Instances where they are easily noticed even to the naked eye. People walking backwards in Chevy Blazer, the Ford Escort/BMW conversion having the skinned hood already done on the headlights and then discussed moments later, Mitsubishi Mirage having XZIBIT's jacket TIBIZX, and many other bloopers.


Seasons 5–7
Beginning with the fifth season, the show moved to another garage, Galpin Auto Sports (GAS), as Ryan, the WCC Owner, moved his shop to Corona, California and has signed a deal with another television production company. However, the show retains Mad Mike (who apparently is a free agent who freelances with other customizers), now dubbed a "car customization specialist". The new cast includes the employees of GAS:

"Owner" Beau Boeckmann (In reality, Vice President of Galpin Auto; the owner of Galpin Auto is his father, Bert Boeckmann)
Electronics Expert And "The Wizard of Wiring" Mad Mike,
The Wheels & Tires Specialist Gyasi,
Paint & Body Luis,
Accessories specialist Diggity Dave,
Interiors Rick.
Fabricator Cabe.

Replacement vehicles
On only three occasions — all season finales — did the show not "pimp" the original automobile. In the first instance,the car to be pimped was actually two halves of Ford Escorts welded together to make one car, a "cut and shut" job, and was considered unsafe. In the second instancethe participant was studying to be an auto mechanic, and WCC decided to let him "pimp" his car as a study project. In the most recent such incident,Xzibit felt the owner's car, a Nissan Pulsar, was not worth fixing, as heat from the car's engine was leaking into the cab. In all these instances, the vehicles of the participants were replaced with brand new cars, with extensive modifications made to customize each new car for the owner.


Worldwide popularity
Pimp My Ride is one of MTV's most popular shows in nearly all of its worldwide subsidiaries (numbering nearly 100), and also in the U.S., where it is second place to The Real World (which is generally much less known outside of the United States). Country Music Television, also owned by MTV parent Viacom, has a show called Trick My Truck that operates on the same principle, but only customizes semi-trailer trucks.

Canada's music network, MuchMusic, also aired the show until MTV Networks signed a deal with CTV, which resulted in MuchMusic losing their rights to MTV programs. MuchMusic's sister station in Quebec, MusiquePlus, airs the show subtitled in French under the title Pimp mon char ("char" is Quebec French slang for "car").

A UK version of the show launched on 26 June 2005, presented by the DJ Tim Westwood. Carisma Automotive are the customisers for the UK version. The employees in Charisma Automotive are:

A legendary boss Jamie Shaw
Old man bald head paint expert Ronnie
Bodywork king Martin
Designer chick Pinky
Accessories brawn Richie
Audio and Multimedia punk Bluey
Wheels and tires prince Junior (Actually, Junior's first name is Stuart)
The German-language MTV Central Europe has three adaptations of the show called Pimp My Fahrrad (English: "Pimp My Bicycle") and Pimp My Whatever. On Pimp My Fahrrad , the bike shop Elbcoast Psycles redoes almost the entire bicycle, usually leaving only the frame intact. While the show could be seen as a parody of the American original, it is also a loving tribute, using all the elements of the American show with a bicycle twist (Germany's safety guidelines are among the strictest in the world, and getting a road permit for thoroughly customized vehicles borders on the impossible. Similar rules apply in most of continental Europe). It is hosted by German actor Oliver Korittke. In Pimp My Whatever ElbCoast Psychos return once more to pimp anything from a bathroom and a doghouse to a Birthday party or even someone's brother. Pimp My Whatever is hosted by MTV presenter Patrice Bouédibéla. Both shows are located in Hamburg.
The original United States Pimp My Ride is shown in English language with German subtitles.

MTV Italy also features a different version of Pimp My Ride, called Pimp My Wheels. Hosted by the Italian hip hop group Gemelli DiVersi, Pimp My Wheels turns old rusty motorscooters or motorcycles into brand-new shiny vehicles.

Pimp My Ride is currently broadcasting in almost all European countries with Pimp My Ride International, a European version of the show where cars are pimped from all over Europe in the Netherlands at All Stoff. The show is hosted by Lil' Jon and Fat Joe.

Pimp My Ride broadcasts on weekdays in the Middle East in the channel MBC Action

ِAn Arabic version has started broadcasting on MBC 1 called Dale' Sayaratak (Arabic: دلع سيارتك "Spoil Your Car").

A Maori language version airs in New Zealand.

MTV Brazil have started the Brazilian Pimp My Ride version, presented by the rock singer Jimmy London, from the group Matanza.

Juice

DrumLine

While Morris Brown is a real and prestigious college in Atlanta, there is no real Atlanta A&T. The filming was done at Clark University in Atlanta and at Morris Brown. The performers (aside from those from Morris Brown) were recruited from high school and university bands all over the Atlanta and Metro Atlanta area. High school band director Don Roberts was recruited to turn the performers into real, convincing bands.


One of the bands performing at the "BET southern classic" is Clark Atlanta University, whose campus is used as the setting for Atlanta A&T University in the movie.


One of the bands performing in the "BET Southern Classic" was Grambling State University's Tiger Marching Band in Grambling, Louisiana, home of the legendary Coach Eddie Robinson.


The fraternity featured throughout the film is Kappa Kappa Psi, the national honorary band fraternity. The actual Kappa Kappa Psi flag, colors, and symbols, and customary shouts and chants are used in the film. Symbols and letters for their sister organization, Tau Beta Sigma, the national honorary band sorority, can also be seen throughout the film.

You Got Served

You Got Served is a 2004 film written and directed by Chris Stokes, manager of its stars, recording artist Marques Houston and the members of boy band B2K. The plot concerns a group of friends, participating in a breakdancing crew, who take part in a street dancing competition. It was released by Columbia Pictures' Screen Gems division on January 30, 2004, during the Super Bowl XXXVIII weekend and was produced by Billy Pollina. It was the most-seen movie during the Super Bowl weekend with $16 million USD grossed in its first week, a record until late 2005; the movie went on to gross over $40 Million USD, but has ultimately been featured on numerous "worst movies" lists, including the IMDB's "Bottom 100" list since its release. It was filmed in Los Angeles, California from May 1 - June 25, 2003. Despite poor reviews, the film's choreographers, Dave Scott, Shane Sparks, and Robert James Hoffman III earned a prestigious American Choreography Award in 2004 for "Outstanding Achievement in Choreography - Feature Film",and the film was also nominated for Best Dance Sequence at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards. According to Sparks, a sequel, Backdown, is scheduled to start shooting in July 2007.

There has been some attempt to break the titular expression into the mainstream. The expression "you got served" has been used to describe someone or something that has either lost badly or been humiliated (or possibly both). Also, "to be served" is legalese for facing litigation, i.e. being officially warned that the process is pending against you (see Service of process); or, a reference to serving food, or one's head on a platter. The key concept is that to be "served" is against one's will - to be given something that is undesirable.

David (Omarion) and Elgin (Marques Houston) lead a promising hip-hop/streetdancing/breakdancing crew in Southern California, who participate in street dancing battles produced by a local club owner (Steve Harvey). All is well, until Sonny, a member of the crew, expresses dissatisfaction over the subordinate role the other members of the crew play.

When David and Elgin are challenged by "some rich kids out of Orange County" for five thousand dollars, they think it's easy money. They deal drugs for Emerald (a local drug lord) to cover their half, never dreaming they would lose the battle.

When Sonny (Young Rome) sells them out by going to the other side ("Wade's crew"), he teaches his new companions moves from the David and Elgin group, and in the battle they are badly defeated. Wade, crowing over his success, delivers the titular line, "You're just mad... 'cause tonight you suckas got served!"

Meanwhile, David and Liyah (Jennifer Freeman), Elgin's sister, are falling in love. At a restaurant, Liyah turns off David's cell phone immediately before Elgin attempts to call him to say that Emerald has given them a job earlier than expected. David fails to show up for the job, and Elgin is beaten and robbed.

Consequently, Elgin gets very angry at David for attempting to "hook up with his sister when he should have been taking care of business," and is also annoyed at his sister for "acting like a ho". Elgin is also worried, since he owes Emerald money to cover for the loss of his goods.

Each split up and form their own crew, but neither is as good as the original. They learn about the "Big Bounce," a $50,000 dance competition purportedly sponsored by MTV which will provide the winning crew the opportunity to perform in a Lil' Kim video. Elgin sees this as a good way to pay back Emerald.

Attempts to bring Elgin and David together, particularly by Liyah, are fruitless, and twice they nearly come to blows and have to be separated. One of the younger members of the crew dies prior to the competition; while all are saddened it is not enough to bring the warring enemies back together yet.

At the "Big Bounce" competition, Elgin's crew beats David's crew in semifinals, and then ties the finals against Wade's crew. Lil' Kim, guest referee, on advice from Harvey's character, declares a playoff competition, "straight hood," with no rules, even allowing other people to join the battling crews.

This proves the catalyst for Elgin's feud with David to end (though only after prodding by crew members and threats of forfeiting the competition to Wade), and together they defeat Wade's crew in a mesmerizing final battle using advanced powermoves of professional breakdancers like air flares, flares, split mills, and runners. They shout the "You Got Served" line in retaliation to Wade after he claims the battle settled nothing. The partisan crowd, elated, begins chanting "Served! Served! Served! Served!" getting louder and faster. Elgin accepts David's relationship with Liyah at picture's end.

DMX

Earl Simmons (born on December 18, 1970), better known by his stage name DMX, is an American rapper and actor who rose to popularity in the late-1990s.

Earl Simmons was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the second of three children. He grew up in the housing projects on School Street, in Yonkers, New York. He began rapping around the age of 13,[citation needed]. A local rapper eventually asked Simmons to beatbox for him. Simmons took the professional name DMX, after the Oberheim DMX, an early drum machine. He later adapted the name to mean "Dark Man X".He honed his skills during a stint at a group home. As a teenager, Simmons was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.He spent much of his adolescence and early adulthood in and out of jail.

In the beginning, Earl Simmons (DMX) had already established a reputation on the underground scene long before any record label signed him. He battled rappers from town to town and had his own group called Gangsters of the Ghetto (G.O.G) with his best friend DJ Superior and Big Jinx the third member of the team. They did a lot of live shows in the legendary school'12 and around Yonkers. This Crew created tons of mix CDs in the early 90's. Later Simmons was first signed to Columbia Records in 1992. He released one single, "Born Loser", which did not get much airplay. He was soon dropped from the label. He linked up with Pete McCormick Schaub, an A&R for Small Island Records. Eventually, he signed a management deal with Ruff Ryders. They negotiated deals with both Bad Boy and Death Row Records, but he eventually landed at Def Jam.

In 1997, Simmons earned a second major-label shot with Def Jam, and made a successful guest appearance on LL Cool J's "4, 3, 2, 1." Additional guest spots on Ma$e's "24 Hours to Live" and The LOX's "Money, Power & Respect" created an even stronger buzz. In early 1998, he released his debut Def Jam single, "Get At Me Dog". The song went gold.

It's Dark and Hell Is Hot earned Simmons numerous comparisons to Tupac Shakur for his presence on the mic, which is quite ironic because the original version of "Get At Me Dog," which eventually leaked to the internet, featured a direct diss to K-Solo. The album sold over four million copies

Simmons completed his second album before the end of 1998, and a pending buyout of Def Jam pushed the record into stores on December 15. Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood entered the charts at number one (670,000 sold in its first week) and eventually went triple platinum according to RIAA. This album made DMX the first artist to debut two albums at number 1 in a single calendar year. The single "Slippin'" became his first chart hit in the UK.

Simmons hit the road with Jay-Z, Method Man and Redman and Shaggy, on the blockbuster Hard Knock Life tour the following year. He had a song called "Jack Moves" with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, but the song never appeared on the album.

Simmons released his third album, ...And Then There Was X, on December 21, 1999. It debuted at number one on the pop charts, his third straight album to do so. "Party Up" was his biggest single since "Get at Me Dog", and became his first Top Ten hit on the R&B charts. His lead single off the album, "What's My Name?", and third single "What These Bitches Want" (featuring Sisqo) were also popular. .....And Then There Was X is Simmons' best-selling album to date, going six times platinum. Def Jam urged him to release the tracks within a month. The album sold 698,000 copies in its first week.

After resolving his legal problems, Simmons returned to the studio and completed his fourth album, The Great Depression. Released October 3, 2001, it was his fourth straight album to debut at number one. The Great Depression went platinum quickly, but was not as commercially or critically successful as its predecessors.

In 2003, Simmons released Grand Champ, his fifth straight album to debut at number one. This extended DMX's position as the only artist in history to have 5 albums (and his entire album catalog) debut at #1. After its release, he informed the public that he planned to retire, and that Grand Champ would be his final album. He later ended his brief retirement and announced his plans to record another album.

Simmons recorded his next album while switching record labels, causing numerous delays. The album was finally released on August 1, 2006 under the title Year of the Dog...Again. It missed the number one spot in the charts by only a few thousand sales. When Simmons switched to Sony, Def Jam allowed him to keep all of the tracks he had created for the album. It was reported that most of the tracks were being reworked, with updated production, but the reworked album has also been leaked.[citation needed] Simmons has appeared on a remix of Busta Rhymes' "Touch It". He has also released two more singles, "Lord Give Me A Sign" and "We In Here", which are included in Year of the Dog...Again.

The Definition of X: The Pick of the Litter was rumored to be the 7th solo album by DMX but instead it is a greatest hits album signed under Def Jam records. Def Jam still owns the rights to every DMX song with the exception of the songs on his Year Of The Dog... Again album.

Still after a few months of a no show, DMX still has no media updates on the internet nor does he have any news listed about his next albums (Definition of X) and (The Resurrection Of Hip-Hop). The Definition of X was released on June 12, 2007.

DMX has confirmed he has begun working on his upcoming seventh studio album. Possible guests include Eminem, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Eve, Mary J. Blige, The Game,Jahad,Nas and Swizz Beatz with production coming from Swizz Beatz, Scott Storch, J. R. Rotem and The Alchemist. He is also currently working with DJ/Producer DJ GQ on his upcoming album DJ GQ "Let Em Know".Simmons made his film debut in Belly, co-starring fellow rappers Method Man and Nas. He returned to the big screen with a minor supporting role with close friend Aaliyah and actor Jet Li in Romeo Must Die. Soon after DMX's release from jail, he starred in the Steven Seagal action film Exit Wounds, which opened at number one at the box office.[5] He contributed the hit single "No Sunshine" (based on a rework of the Bill Withers classic) to the soundtrack. He signed a multi-picture deal with Warner Bros. in the wake of the film's success. He worked with Jet Li again in Cradle 2 the Grave, which opened at number one upon its release in March 2003. He contributed several compositions to the soundtrack, which debuted in the Top Ten with hits such as "X Gon' Give It to Ya" and "Right/Wrong."

He also starred in Never Die Alone, which was based on street novelist Donald Goines' book. He is also set to star in three upcoming films. He was set to star in Marble City, but was replaced by Ving Rhames.[6] He has finished filming another action thriller called Last Hour which should see a release at the end of 2007. He also had a reality show on BET called DMX: Soul of a Man. He will also star in the 2007 Beast, the sequel to Belly. He is also currently shooting an upcoming film with Kris Kristofferson titled Jump Out Boys, the release date has yet to be set. He is also set to star along side Clifton Powell & Vivica A. Fox in a film titled "Father of Lies".

In 1999, during a blockbuster 'Hard Knock Life' tour stop in Denver, a warrant for his arrest was issued in connection with a stabbing and shooting of a man that attended one of the concerts, of which Simmons was later cleared; another incident occurred in May, when he was accused of assaulting a Yonkers man who had allegedly harassed his wife and stabbed her in the neck (the charges were once again dropped). More serious charges were brought that summer when Earl's uncle/manager was accidentally shot in the neck at a New Jersey hotel. Police later raided Earl's home and filed animal cruelty, weapons, and drug possession charges against the rapper and his wife; he eventually plea-bargained down to fines, probation, and community service.
In March 2000, he was arrested for aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle, speeding, failure to signal, driving without a license, failure to notify the DMV of an address change, and possession of marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, and Percocet while driving on New York State Route 33 in Cheektowaga, New York, following a concert in Buffalo, New York. He was then scheduled to appear in Cheektowaga Town Court on March 21, but failed to appear, resulting in a warrant being issued for his arrest.[7] He later turned himself in, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of driving without a license and was sentenced to 15 days in jail and fined $400.[8] He was also charged with marijuana possession, after turning himself in, when authorities found marijuana in a pack of his cigarettes; he was fined an additional $250.
In 2002, he pled guilty to animal cruelty for having 13 neglected pit bulls in his possession. [9]
In June 2003, he was arrested for using indecent language during a performance at St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean. The country's Information Minister alleged that a contract signed before the concert stipulated the show would be with out indecent language on stage. Earl was released on bail. ($376)[10]
In June 2004, he was arrested at JFK airport on charges of cocaine possession, criminal impersonation, criminal possession of a weapon, criminal mischief, menacing, and driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol while attempting to carjack a vehicle claiming to be a federal agent. [11]
In April 2005, Simmons was arrested in The Bronx for driving with a suspended license after his car crashed into a police cruiser.[citation needed]
In May 2006, Simmons was arrested at a London airport for causing a disturbance after he refused to put on a seat belt and became abusive on a flight from New York to London. He was released with a caution.[12]
On February 2, 2007 he was arrested for driving on an expired license charge, and scheduled an appearance in a Yonkers courtroom on March 6, 2007 on that and other minor infractions.[13]
On 23 July 2007 Simmons was stopped by police after trying to get away on an illegal motorbike without a license. Officers gave him a Section 15 warning and was scheduled to appear in court on August 1, 2007 for further questioning. [citation needed]
On 31 July 2007 Simmons was stopped by police for driving an illegal motorbike and he has been reported for driving without a license and without insurance. A court date has not been set as of August 1, 2007.[citation needed]
On 24 Aug 2007 Acting upon an animal cruelty tip, Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies reported to having removed 12 emaciated pit bulls from Simmon's Cave Creek home. None of these dogs had access to food or water. Deputies also found the bodies of 13 dead dogs. Simmons was not at home when the raid occurred. Sources reported the deputies also removed a large cache of weapons in addition to drug paraphernalia and a large quantity of suspected drugs. At this time, DMX has not been charged with animal cruelty.[1]
As a response to his criminal history, comedian Carlos Mencia made a sketch called Bow Down in the tv show Mind of Mencia in which he does a parody of jailed rappers DMX, Snoop Dogg, Mystikal, and Lil Kim.

JIN

Jin Au-Yeung (traditional Chinese: 歐陽靖; Pinyin: Ōuyáng Jìng; Cantonese Yale: Au Yeung Jing) also known as Jin, Jin tha MC, The Emcee, and 100 Grand Jin is an Chinese American rapper born on June 4, 1982. He is the first Asian American rapper to be signed to a major record label.

Jin was born in Miami, Florida and was raised in Miami by his Chinese immigrant parents who ran their own restaurant. In junior high, he became fascinated with hip-hop music and dreamed of becoming a professional rapper. He was inspired by artists such as Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, The Notorious B.I.G., LL Cool J, Jay-Z, Big L and other New York rappers from the early 1990s, an era now referred to as The Golden Age. When first taking up rapping, he struggled with the form of music but with much practice he realized he had talent for freestyle rap. He soon began performing for his classmates, co-workers and whoever would listen. Jin began entering freestyle battles in local hip-hop clubs where he was usually the only Asian around. He was often underestimated due to his ethnicity. Jin's talent won crowds over, and he went on to win many battles. He quickly developed a reputation as Miami's most clever freestyler. But in the hip-hop world, Miami is better known for bass music than clever lyrics. He knew this would be another obstacle to overcome in order to gain acceptance.

In 2001, he decided to move his family to Flushing, Queens, New York City. He began performing freestyles and selling his own mix tapes on the streets, in hip-hop clubs and wherever else possible. He quickly gained a huge following, just as he had done in Miami. His big break came when the BET program 106 & Park began inviting local rappers to hold battles in a segment known as "Freestyle Friday." Ready for the national exposure, he auditioned and again was underestimated due to his ethnic background. Although he lost to Diabolic, he kept his head and proved everyone wrong by winning the battles week after week. His first battle was against Hasan, who had six straight victories and was one victory away from being inducted into the hall of fame. Jin began the competition by delivering strong rhymes during his round. Hasan countered during his thirty second round with rhymes; however, with ten seconds left in the battle, Hasan lost his focus and was unable to deliver any more lyrics and stopped his performance. Jin was then declared the new champion. After winning for seven weeks straight, Jin was inducted into the show's Hall of Fame. The MCs he battled against during that period were:

That same night of his Hall of Fame induction, he announced that he had signed a deal with the Ruff Ryders. His first single under Ruff Ryders was titled "Learn Chinese". It took a sample from the 1992 song "They Want EFX", from rappers Das EFX. The second and final single for the album was originally supposed to be "I Got a Love" featuring Kanye West, but was later changed to "Senorita" because Roc-A-Fella Records didn't want to over-expose Kanye West. The album was originally scheduled to be released in the summer of 2003, but was delayed for over a year by the label. In October 2004, Jin released his debut album, The Rest Is History, which reached number 54 of the Billboard Top 200 albums chart.[1] It sold 26,000 copies in the first week.[citation needed] To date, the album has sold more than 200,000 units[citation needed], and both of his singles, "Learn Chinese" and "Senorita", failed to be major mainstream successes. Nonetheless, Jin's music video "Learn Chinese" was the first video ever to be played on MTV Chi.

In 2003, Jin made an appearance in the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious as a mechanic named 'Jimmy'. His song "Peel Off" was featured on the 2 Fast 2 Furious soundtrack. Jin was also featured on the American-born Taiwanese pop artist Lee-Hom Wang's 2005 album Heroes of Earth. He also collaborated with UK Bhangra artist, Juggy D, in the song "Kohl Aaja (Come Closer)", when he was in London to do some promo for The Rest Is History.

Jin held the Fight Klub battle championship until he lost the title and a $10,000 purse to challenger Serius Jones. Although often thought to have been a racially-driven battle and mass speculation of using prewritten lines by Serius, Jin lost the title. Two weeks later, Jin defeated all contestants in the Fight Klub Championship held in the Bahamas for $50,000 (Serius Jones also entered the contest, but was defeated in the 1st Round by U.K rapper Professor Green). Jin challenged Serius that same night to a rematch after the tournament was over for $10,000, but Serius was disappointed with his loss and "lack of crowd" and therefore, did not participate in the battle.

On January 17, 2005, a New York-based radio station, Hot 97, caused controversy when they released a song, "USA for Indonesia," making a joke out of the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, which was notably offensive, especially to Asian Americans. The incident was followed by an argument between shock jock Miss Jones and co-host Todd Lynn, and Asian American co-host Miss Info, who was attempting to avoid the joke. Jin immediately wrote a song in protest, to Miss Jones, titled "Fuck the Tsunami Song."

Due to the long delay on the album, sales and where the contract was going to lead him, he decided with his manager to leave. When he left the Virgin label, he also left the Ruff Ryder label. Ruff Ryders is still active to date and Jin is in good terms with them.

On May 18, 2005, Jin revealed that he would be putting his rap career on hold in order to explore other options. To make this clear, he recorded a song titled "I Quit." The announcement was widely misunderstood to have marked the end of Jin's rap career. However, he later re-emerged under a different alias, The Emcee, and freestyled over such songs as Jay-Z's "Dear Summer." He released a single called "Top 5 (Dead or Alive)" where Jin displays his lyrical talent in explaining the history of hip-hop's greatest artists. The legendary DJ Kool Herc, who is credited as the founder of hip-hop, appears in Jin's music video. After signing with an independent label, CraftyPlugz/Draft Records, Jin released his second album, The Emcee's Properganda on October 25, 2005. Though it failed to reach the Billboard 200 charts, the album sold 7,000 copies in its first week[citation needed], though it had better reviews than his debut album The Rest Is History.

The rapper was featured in the NBA Ballers: Phenom video game, where players are given the chance to battle him in a freestyle contest.

Jin had returned to battle rapping, being featured on a few Smack DVD battles. Some of his most notable battles since his return were against Shellz, Verse, Serious Jones, Professor Green and Iron Solomon. He has also performed stand-up comedy.

Jin released two albums in 2006. The first one, 100 Grand Jin is a mixtape/album that was released on August 29, 2006. The single released off the album is "FYI", for which the rapper shot and released a music video. The second album released in 2006 is Jin's third LP, I Promise. Instead of releasing the album in stores, Jin released it on November 1, 2006 through his MySpace, with the first batch being autographed by himself. It was then sold on CDBaby.com with limited copies being pressed and not autographed for people who were unable to purchase it before. The first single for this album is titled "36-24-36 ( Apple Bottom Jeans )", a song in which Jin gives praise to Asian girls. Jin shot a music video for the song in December, but it has yet to be released.

Jin was a guest judge on BET's Freestyle Friday on December 15, 2006. Jin has stated that he doesn't like Rosie O'Donnell because of her "ching chong" incident. He has also recorded a song that insults Rosie titled "You're Fired." The song features voice clips of Donald Trump and uses the beat from famous Nas diss song "Ether". The song can be found on Jin's Xanga page and the website for his ABC Jin album.

During the end of 2006, Jin worked on another album called ABC. The album was recorded almost in entirely in Cantonese. Jin officially launched his ABC Jin website on January 10, 2007. Jin premiered his music video for the first single, "ABC" on MTV Chi on January 26, 2007. The album was produced entirely by the Far*East Movement and features guest appearances from Hong Kong actor Daniel Wu and Ken Oak Band.

Recently, on Jin's MySpace, Jin mentioned that he is working on another English album. Jin premiered a song called "Open Letter to Obama" on April 24, 2007, which made him become 1st on Barack Obama's Top 8 list on MySpace.

On April 16, 2007, Jin made a tribute song to the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre called "Rain, Rain Go Away".

Jin posted October 5, 2007 his most recent song World Premier (Produced by DJ Premier), which can be found on his myspace page. (Jinspace.com)

Recently Jin has decided to make his November 1, 2006 Internet album, I Promise, available in retail stores. It will be out on October 23, 2007

Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bean Bryant (born August 23, 1978(1978-08-23)) is an American All-Star shooting guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA) who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant is the only son of former Philadelphia 76ers player and former Los Angeles Sparks head coach Joe "Jellybean" Bryant.

Bryant rose to national prominence in 1996 when he became the first guard in league history to be drafted out of high school. Bryant and then-teammate Shaquille O'Neal led the Lakers to three consecutive NBA championships from 2000 to 2002. Since O'Neal's departure following the 2004 season, Bryant has become the cornerstone of the Lakers' franchise, and was the NBA leading scorer during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons.

In 2003, Bryant made headlines when he was accused of sexual assault. The charges were dropped after Bryant's accuser declined to testify, and the two sides ultimately settled the matter outside of criminal court.

Kobe Bryant was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the youngest child and only son of Joe and Pam Bryant (they also have two daughters, Shaya and Sharia). His parents named him after the famous beef of Kobe, Japan, which they saw on a restaurant menu.[1]

When Bryant was six, his father left the NBA, moved his family to Italy, and started playing professional basketball there. Bryant acclimated to the lifestyle there and became fluent in Italian. At an early age, he learned to play soccer and at first his favorite team was AC Milan. He has said that if he had stayed in Italy, he would have tried to become a professional soccer player, and that his favorite team is FC Barcelona. Bryant is a big fan of FC Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard and Barça star Ronaldinho.[citation needed]

Kobe Bryant briefly attended the International School of Basel, in Switzerland.

In 1991, the Bryants moved back to the United States. Kobe earned national recognition during a spectacular high school career at Lower Merion High School in the Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion. His SAT score of 1080[2] would have ensured his basketball scholarship to various top-tier colleges. Bryant has stated that had he decided to go to college after high school, he would have attended Duke University.[3] Ultimately, however, the 17-year-old Bryant made the decision to go directly into the NBA.

1996 Draft
Before he was chosen as the 13th overall draft pick by the Charlotte Hornets in 1996, the 17-year-old Bryant had made a lasting impression on then-Lakers general manager Jerry West, who immediately foresaw potential in Bryant's basketball ability during pre-draft workouts. He went on to state that Bryant's workouts were some of the best he had seen. Immediately after the draft, Bryant expressed that he did not wish to play for the Hornets and wanted to play for the Lakers instead. Fifteen days later, West traded his starting center, Vlade Divac to the Hornets for the young Kobe Bryant.


First two seasons
During his first season, Bryant mostly came off the bench behind guards Eddie Jones and Nick Van Exel. Initially, he played limited minutes, but as the season continued, he began to see some more playing time. He earned himself a reputation as a high-flyer and a fan-favorite by winning the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest.

In Bryant's second season (1997-98), he received more playing time and began showing more of his abilities as a talented young guard. He was the runner-up for the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year Award, and through fan voting, he also became the youngest NBA All-Star starter. While his statistics were impressive for his age, he was still a young guard who lacked the experience to complement Shaquille O'Neal and significantly help the team contend for a championship. The 1998-99 season marked Bryant's emergence as starting guards Nick Van Exel and Eddie Jones were traded at Shaq's request. The result was no better as the Lakers were swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference semi-finals.


Championship years
Bryant's fortunes would soon change when Phil Jackson became coach for the Los Angeles Lakers in 1999. After years of steady improvement, Bryant had become one of the premier shooting guards in the league, a fact that was evidenced by his annual presence in the league's All-NBA, All-Star, and All-Defensive teams. The Los Angeles Lakers became perennial championship contenders under Bryant and O'Neal, who formed an outstanding center-guard combination. Jackson utilized the triangle offense he used to win six Championships with the Chicago Bulls which helped both Bryant and Shaq rise to the elite class in the NBA. Their success gave the Lakers three consecutive NBA championships in 2000, 2001, and 2002.


End of a dynasty
In the 2002-03 NBA season, Bryant averaged 30 points per game and embarked on a historic scoring run, posting 40 or more points per game in nine consecutive games while averaging 40.6 in the entire month of February. In addition, he averaged 6.9 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 2.2 steals per game, all career highs up to that point. For the first time in his career Bryant was voted on to both—All-NBA and All-Defensive 1st teams. After finishing 50-32 in the regular season, the Lakers floundered in the playoffs and lost in the Western Conference Semi-finals to the eventual NBA champion San Antonio Spurs in six games.

In the following 2003-04 NBA season, the Lakers were able to acquire NBA All Stars Karl Malone and Gary Payton to make another push at the NBA Championship. With a starting lineup of four future Hall of Fame players in Shaquille O'Neal, Malone, Payton, and Bryant, the Lakers were able to reach the NBA Finals. In the Finals, they were eliminated by the Detroit Pistons in 5 games. In that series, Bryant averaged 22.6 points per game, shooting 35.1% from the field, and 4.4 assists per game.


Conflicts and turmoil
Main article: Kobe Bryant sexual assault case

Bryant, following his arrest in 2003In 2003, Bryant's reputation was tainted by a sexual assault case in which Katelyn Faber, a young woman from Colorado, accused him of rape. With his image badly tarnished, the public's perception of Bryant plummeted, and his endorsement contracts with McDonald's, Nutella, and Ferrero SpA were terminated. Sales figures from NBA merchandisers indicated that sales of replicas of Bryant's jersey fell far off of their previous highs.

During the rape investigation, Kobe told police that "he should have done what Shaq does ... that Shaq would pay his women not to say anything" and that Shaq already had paid up to $1 million "for situations like this." This was controversial because Kobe and Shaq were teammates at the time and many thought that Kobe broke "locker-room code" by revealing confidential information, or worse, by falsely accusing a teammate to deflect attention from himself.

The rape investigation was resolved when Kobe agreed to apologize to the victim for the incident, including his public mea culpa: "Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual, I recognize now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did." Details of financial compensation to the victim were not made public.

In 2004, a dispute between Bryant and former teammate Malone became public prior to Malone's expected re-signing with the Lakers. Bryant claimed Malone had made inappropriate comments to Bryant's wife. Malone claimed the comments were in jest and that Bryant was overreacting.In the subsequent months, rather than re-join Bryant and the Lakers, Malone turned his attention to the possibility of joining another team, but ultimately decided to retire.


2004-2005 season
When O'Neal was traded, Bryant became the Lakers' leader of the team going into the 2004-05 season. As it turned out, however, his first season without O'Neal would prove to be a very rocky one. With his reputation badly damaged from all that had happened over the previous year, Bryant was closely scrutinized and criticized during the season.

A particularly damaging salvo came from Phil Jackson in The Last Season: A Team in Search of Its Soul. The book detailed the events of the Lakers' tumultuous 2003-04 season and has a number of criticisms of Bryant. In the book Jackson also calls Bryant "uncoachable."

Then, midway through the season, Rudy Tomjanovich suddenly resigned as Lakers coach, citing the recurrence of health problems and exhaustion. Without "Rudy T," stewardship of the remainder of the Lakers' season fell to career assistant coach Frank Hamblen. Despite the fact that Bryant was the league's second leading scorer at 27.6 points per game, the Lakers floundered and missed the playoffs for the first time in over a decade. This year signified a drop in Bryant's overall status in the NBA by not making the NBA All-Defensive Team and being demoted to All-NBA Third Team.


2005-06 season

Kobe Bryant defending Michael Redd in December 2005.The 2005-06 NBA season would mark a crossroads in Bryant's basketball career. Despite past differences with Bryant, Phil Jackson returned to coach the Lakers. Bryant endorsed the move, and by all appearances, the two men worked together well the second time around, leading the Lakers back into the playoffs. Bryant also resolved his conflict with former teammate Shaquille O'Neal. The team posted a 45-37 record, an eleven-game improvement over the previous season, and the entire squad seemed to be clicking.

In the first round of the playoffs, the Lakers played well enough (3-1 series lead) to come within six seconds of eliminating the second-seeded Phoenix Suns. Despite Bryant's remarkable game winning shot in Game 4, the Lakers broke down, and ultimately fell to the Suns in seven games. In the following off-season, Bryant had knee surgery, preventing him from participating in the 2006 FIBA World Championship tournament.

Bryant's individual scoring accomplishments posted resulted in the finest statistical season of his career. The season included many spectacular individual performances including a game on December 20 in which Bryant scored 62 points despite playing only three quarters against the Dallas Mavericks. Entering the fourth quarter Bryant had, by himself, outscored the entire Mavericks team 62-61, the only time a player has done this through three quarters since the advent of the 24-second shot clock. When the Lakers faced the Miami Heat on January 16, 2006, Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal made headlines by engaging in handshakes and hugs before the game, signifying the end of the feud that had festered between the two players since O'Neal's acrimonious departure from Los Angeles. A month later, at the 2006 NBA All-Star Game, the two laughed and joked together on several occasions. On January 22, Bryant scored 81 points in a 122-104 victory against the Toronto Raptors. In addition to breaking the previous franchise record of 71 set by Elgin Baylor, his point total in that game was the second highest in NBA history, surpassed only by Wilt Chamberlain's legendary 100-point game in 1962.

Also in January, Bryant became the first player since 1964 to score 45 points or more in four consecutive games, joining Chamberlain and Baylor as the only players ever to do so.For the month of January, Bryant averaged 43.4 per game, the eighth highest single month scoring average in NBA history, and highest for any player other than Chamberlain. By the end of the season, Bryant had also set Lakers single-season franchise records for the most 40-point games (27) and most points scored (2,832), among others. Bryant won the league's scoring title for the first time, posting a very high scoring average (35.4), second only to Michael Jordan's 37.1 average in 1986-87. Bryant finished in fourth-place in the voting for the 2006 NBA Most Valuable Player Award, but also received 22 first place votes — second only to winner Steve Nash, and by far the highest number of first-place votes Bryant had ever received in his career.

Late in the season, it was reported that Bryant would change his jersey number from 8 to 24 at the start of the 2006-07 NBA season. 24 was Bryant's first high school number, before he switched to 33.After the Lakers' season ended, Bryant said on TNT that he wanted 24 as a rookie, but it was unavailable, as was 33, retired with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Bryant wore 143 at the Adidas ABCD camp, and chose 8 by adding those numbers. He had also worn number 8 as a child in Italy,as a salute to Mike D'Antoni, who was one of his early idols and wore number 8 as a professional basketball player in Italy.


2006-07 season

Bryant scored 50 points or more in four consecutive games in 2007.During the 2006-07 season, Bryant was selected to his 9th All-Star Game appearance, and on February 18, he logged 31 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, and 6 steals, earning his second career All-Star Game MVP trophy.

Over the course of the season, Bryant became involved in a number of on court incidents. On January 28 while attempting to draw contact on a potential game winning jumpshot, he flailed his arm striking San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili in the face with his elbow. Following league review, Bryant was suspended for the subsequent game at Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks, the basis given for the suspension was that Bryant had performed an "unnatural motion" in swinging his arm backwards. Later, on March 6, he seemed to repeat the motion this time striking Minnesota Timberwolves guard Marko Jarić. On March 7 the NBA handed Bryant his second one-game suspension, leading several commentators in the media to call recent happenings into question. In his first game back on March 9, he elbowed Kyle Korver in the face which was retrospectively re-classified as a Type 1 flagrant foul.

On March 16, Bryant scored a season-high 65 points in a home game against the Portland Trail Blazers, which helped end the Lakers 7-game losing streak. This was the second best scoring performance of his 11-year career. The following game, Bryant recorded 50 points against the Minnesota Timberwolves, after which he scored 60 points in a road win against the Memphis Grizzlies - becoming the second Laker to score three straight 50-plus point games, a feat not seen since Michael Jordan last did it in 1987. The only other Laker to do so was Elgin Baylor, who also scored 50+ in three consecutive contests in December 1962. On March 23, in a game against the New Orleans Hornets, Bryant scored 50 points, making him the second player in NBA history to have 4 straight 50 point games behind Wilt Chamberlain, who is the all-time leader with seven consecutive 50 point games twice. Bryant finished the year with ten 50-plus point games becoming the only player other than Chamberlain in 1961-62 and 1962-63 to do it in one season, and won his second straight scoring title.

During the 2006-07 season, Bryant's jersey became the top selling NBA jersey in the United States and China.A number of journalists have attributed the improved sales to Bryant's new jersey number, as well as his continuing All-Star performance on the court.In the 2007 NBA Playoffs, the Lakers were once again eliminated in the first round by the Phoenix Suns.


2007-08 season

Taipei Store Launch.On May 27, 2007, ESPN reported that Bryant stated that he wanted to be traded if Jerry West did not return to the team with full authority.Bryant later confirmed his desire for West's return to the franchise, but denied stating that he would want to be traded if that does not occur.However, three days later, on Stephen A. Smith's radio program, Bryant expressed anger over a Lakers "insider" who claimed that Kobe was responsible for Shaquille O'Neal's departure from the team, and publicly stated, "I want to be traded." Three hours after making that statement, Kobe stated in another interview that after having a conversation with head coach Phil Jackson, he has reconsidered his decision and backed off his trade request.

Player profile
Bryant is a shooting guard who plays small forward on some occasions. He is considered one of the most complete players in the NBA,and has been elected to every All-NBA Team from 1999 on and featured in the last nine NBA All-Star games. Bryant was a vital part of the three most recent Lakers' championships. He is a prolific scorer, averaging 24.6 points per game for his career, along with 4.5 assists, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game. He is known for his ability to create shots for himself, and is an adept outside shooter, sharing the single-game NBA record for three pointers made with twelve. Aside from this, he is also a standout defender having made the All-Defensive 1st or 2nd Team 7 of the last 8 seasons.


Personal life
In November 1999, 21 year old Bryant met 17 year old Vanessa Laine while she was working as a background dancer on the Tha Eastsidaz music video G'd Up.[18] Bryant was in the building working on his debut musical album, which was never released.

The two began dating and became engaged just six months later in May 2000,[18] while Laine was still a senior at Marina High School in Huntington Beach, California. To avoid media scrutiny, she finished high school through independent study.[18] According to Vanessa's cousin Laila Laine, there was no prenuptial agreement. Vanessa said Kobe "loved her too much for one".

They married on April 18, 2001 in Dana Point, California. Neither Bryant's parents, his two sisters, longtime advisor and agent Arn Tellem, nor Bryant's Laker teammates attended. Bryant's parents were opposed to the marriage for a number of reasons. Reportedly Bryant's parents had problems with him marrying so young, especially to a woman who was not African-American.This disagreement resulted in an estrangement period of over two years, during which Kobe Bryant did not have any contact with his parents.

The Bryants' first child, a daughter named Natalia Diamante Bryant, was born on January 19, 2003. The birth of Natalia influenced Bryant to reconcile his differences with his parents. Vanessa Bryant suffered a miscarriage due to an ectopic pregnancy in the Spring of 2005. In the Fall of 2005 the Bryants announced that they were expecting their second child. Their second daughter, Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant, was born on May 1, 2006. Interestingly, Gianna was born 6 minutes ahead of former teammate Shaquille O'Neal's daughter Me'arah Sanaa, who was born in Florida.

Hip Hop Mega-Mix (Music Video Mix)

Nasty Girl

SEAN JOHN

Sean John is a clothing line founded by hip-hop mogul Sean Combs A.K.A Diddy,in 1998. The name is taken from Combs' first and middle given names.

People representing the brand include Combs himself, rappers T.I., Fabolous, The Game, basketball star Dwyane Wade, and models Tyson Beckford and Kevin Navayne.

In 2006, Sean John also launched its first fragrance, a men's scent called Unforgivable manufactured by Estée Lauder.

In late 2006, after allegations of raccoon dog fur being used in two styles of jackets, Sean John, together with Macy's, pulled all of the garments from the department stores where this product was shipped.[1]

Cassie and Lauren London are spokesmodels for the Sean John women's collection, which Diddy said would be released in July 2007.

Rappin'4 Tay

Rappin' 4-Tay (born Anthony Forté on March 2, 1968) is an American rapper who grew up in the crime and drug infested Fillmore District of San Francisco, California.

4-Tay made his debut on the Too $hort album Life Is...Too Short, but was arrested sometime after his 21st birthday on drug charges and served 6 months in prison. Upon his release from prison he issued Rappin' 4-Tay Is Back in 1992, and followed up in 1994 with Don't Fight the Feeling, which produced the hits "Playaz Club" (which sampled the song "Private Number" by William Bell and Judy Clay), the "Dank Season" featuring Seff Tha Gaffla and "I'll Be Around".

Rappin' 4-Tay's mainstream success has been scarce since then, but he was featured in 2Pac's All Eyez on Me album on the single "Only God Can Judge Me" and Master P's West Coast Bad Boyz II compilation in 1996 and 1997, respectively. 4-Tay was also an original member of Bay Area supergroup T.W.D.Y. in 1999. In 2003 Rappin 4-Tay dropped "Gangsta Gumbo" with the single "Burning, Burning" gaining much popularity around the Bay Area. He has recently released his latest album "That's What You Thought" in 2007.

The Spinners

The Spinners are a Detroit, Michigan-based soul vocal group active since 1954 (see 1954 in music), and most popular during the 1970s. The group still tours as of 2006.

The Spinners are known in the United Kingdom as The Detroit Spinners or The Motown Spinners because a Liverpool-based folk band had taken the name "The Spinners" in Britain during the 1960s.

In 1954 a group of friends in Ferndale High School in Ferndale, Michigan, just outside Detroit, came together to make music. Billy Henderson, Henry Fambrough, Pervis Jackson, C.P. Spencer, and James Edwards called themselves The Domingoes. James Edwards lasted only a few weeks; he was replaced by Bobbie Smith, who sang lead on most of the Spinners' early records. C.P. Spencer left the group shortly afterwards, and would later go on to be a member of the Voice Masters and The Originals. He was replaced by George Dixon. The group would also rename themselves The Spinners at this time.


1961-1971: A decade in the wilderness
The Spinners first hit the charts in August of 1961 on Harvey Fuqua's Tri-Phi Records, with "That's What Girls Are Made For," peaking at number 27. Bobby Smith sang lead vocal on this track, coached by Fuqua (legend has it that Fuqua sang the lead, but that legend has been debunked by both Fuqua and Smith). The group's followup, "Love (I'm So Glad) I Found You" (with lead vocals by Smith), would reach number 91 that November, but none of their other Tri-Phi singles charted.

James Edwards' brother, Edgar "Chico" Edwards, would replace Dixon in the group in 1963, at which time Tri-Phi and the entire artist roster was bought out by Berry Gordy of Motown Records. The Spinners were then assigned to the Motown label.

In 1964, they made their debut at the Apollo Theater and won instant acclaim, a rare feat at the time. But with the exception of "I'll Always Love You," which hit #35 in 1965, success mostly eluded them during the 1960s. After "I'll Always Love You", they released one single a year from 1966-1969 inclusive, but none charted on the Billboard Hot 100.

With commercial success virtually non-existent, during much of this decade the Spinners would be used by Motown as road managers, chaperones and chauffeurs for other groups, and even as shipping clerks. G.C. Cameron replaced Edgar "Chico" Edwards in 1967, and in 1969, the group switched to the Motown-owned V.I.P. imprint. (The label name is somewhat ironic, given that V.I.P. was generally considered a substandard imprint behind Motown, Gordy, Tamla, and Soul).

In 1970, after a five-year chart absence they hit #14 with writer/producer Stevie Wonder's composition, "It's A Shame", and charted again the following year with another song Wonder wrote and produced, "We'll Have It Made" from their new album Second Time Around. However, these were their last two singles for V.I.P.

Shortly after the release of Second Time Around, legend has it that Atlantic Records recording artist Aretha Franklin suggested the group finish out their Motown contract, and sign with Atlantic. The group made the switch -- except for Cameron who elected to leave the group and remain with Motown as a solo artist. Singer Philippé Wynne then joined The Spinners as Cameron's replacement and the group's new lead singer.


The Hit Years with Philippe Wynne
When The Spinners signed to Atlantic in 1972, they were a respected but commercially unremarkable singing group who had never had a top-ten pop hit -- despite having been a recording act for over a decade. But under the helm of producer and songwriter Thom Bell, The Spinners would chart five top 100 singles (and two top tens) off their album The Spinners , released in 1972, and go on to be one of the biggest soul groups of the 1970s.

"I'll Be Around" was their first top ten hit, but it was actually the B-side of the first single, "How Could I Let You Get Away". Radio airplay for the B-side led Atlantic to flip the single over, with "I'll Be Around" hitting #3 and "How Could I Let You Get Away" reaching #89.

Follow-up singles "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love" (#4, March 1973), "One of a Kind (Love Affair)" (#11, June 1973), and "Ghetto Child" (#29, September 1973) would cement the group's sudden hit-making reputation -- as well as that of Bell, who was beginning to be recognized for his contributions to Philly soul or "Philadelphia Sound", a precursor to disco.

Following their Atlantic successes, Motown also issued a "Best of the Spinners" LP which featured selections from their Motown/V.I.P. recordings. They also remixed and reissued the 1970 B-Side "Together We Can Make Such Sweet Music" as a 1973 A-Side. In the midst of all their Atlantic hits, it crawled to number #91 US.

The group's 1974 followup album, Mighty Love, would contain three Top 20 hits, "I'm Coming Home," "Love Don't Love Nobody," and the title track. Their biggest hit of the year, however, would be a collaboration with Dionne Warwick (then billed as "Dionne Warwicke"). Their joint effort "Then Came You" would reach #1 in October -- the first chart-topper for either artist. Bell later noted, "Dionne made a face when we finished [the song]. She didn't like it much, but I knew we had something. So we ripped a dollar in two, signed each half and exchanged them. I told her, 'If it doesn't go number one, I'll send you my half.' When it took off, Dionne sent hers back. There was an apology on it."

The band would hit the Top 10 twice in the next two years with "(They Just Can't Stop It) Games People Play" (which would lead to a nickname of "12:45" for bass singer Jackson, after his signature vocal line on the song), and "The Rubberband Man."


[edit] The Post-Wynne Years
Wynne left the group in 1977, to be replaced by Jonathan Edwards. Though this version of the group had minor hits from 1977-79, they failed to hit the pop Top 40 for two years, and parted ways with producer Bell.

The group did manage several big hits in 1980, charting with medleys of "Working My Way Back to You/Forgive Me, Girl" (#2 in March) and "Cupid/I've Loved You for a Long Time" (#4 in July), but a third trip to the well proved one time too many, when "Yesterday Once More/Nothing Remains the Same" failed to break Top 40. The group's last Hot 100 pop hit was a remake of Willie Nelson's "Funny How Time Slips Away," peaking at #67 in 1983. The following year, the group had their last R&B hit with "Right or Wrong".

After some years spent collaborating with Parliament/Funkadelic and working solo, former Spinners member Philippé Wynne would die of a heart attack while performing in Oakland in 1984.


The Spinners now

The Spinners in concert at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez, California on March 18, 2006.After their chart career ended, The Spinners continued touring for decades. Even though their last hits were over 20 years ago, the bright lights of their 1972–1976 run of the charts continues to provide for the current members. They are big draws on the oldies and nostalgia concert circuits, and continue to play the music that made them famous.

A voice from their past, G. C. Cameron, would rejoin the group as lead vocalist from 2000 to 2002, (replacing Jonathan Edwards, who left due to illness) but he left them in 2003 to join The Temptations. Frank Washington, formerly of The Futures and The Delfonics, is now the lead vocalist.

In 2004, original member Billy Henderson was dismissed from the group after suing the group's corporation and business manager to obtain financial records. He was replaced by Harold "Spike" Bonhart. Today, the group is actively touring with three of its original members (Jackson, Fambrough and Smith) along with Washington and Bonhart.

In their recently released box set The Chrome Collection, The Spinners were lauded by David Bowie and Elvis Costello. The Spinners were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999. On July 27, 2006, The Spinners performed on The Late Show With David Letterman to several standing ovations.

Original member Billy Henderson died due to complications from diabetes on February 2, 2007 at the age of 67.

PENNY HARDAWAY

Anfernee Deon "Penny" Hardaway (born July 18, 1971, in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American NBA basketball player specializing as a point guard and shooting guard. He is currently a member of the Miami Heat[1], who signed him August 9, 2007. Injuries have plagued his career and reduced his effectiveness over a decade of NBA service. His most productive years came in his days as a member of the Orlando Magic as well as the early portion of his stint with the Phoenix Suns. He as of the start of the 2007-08 NBA season signed with the Miami Heat, thus reuniting him with former teammate Shaquille O'Neal.

Early life
Hardaway adopted the nickname "Penny" from his grandmother who used to say that Anfernee was "pretty as a penny" and hence his friends began to call him by that name.Hardaway was raised by his grandmother while his mother was away working. His first love was football but his grandmother did not want him to get hurt.


High school career
Hardaway grew up playing basketball in Memphis for Treadwell High School, where he averaged 36.6 points, 10.1 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 3.3 steals, and 2.8 blocks as a senior and was named Parade Magazine National High School player of the year. He finished his high school career with 3,039 points.Hardaway then committed to Memphis State University (known as the University of Memphis since 1994).


College career
Hardaway had to sit out the 1990-91 season due to being academically ineligible. He wound up making the Dean's List with a 3.4 Grade Point Average as an Education Major. During his freshman season Hardaway was robbed at gunpoint and then struck by a stray bullet in the foot, putting his career in jeopardy. However, he was able to heal and resume his basketball career.


1991-1992
In Hardaway's sophomore season (1991-92) he led Memphis State with averages of 17.4 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 5.5 apg, 2.5 spg, and 1.3 bpg. He was named Great Midwest Conference Player of the Year as well as Conference Newcomer of the Year. He also lead Memphis State to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.

In the summer of 1992 Hardaway was selected to the 1992 USA Basketball Developmental Team that scrimmaged daily against the 1992 Olympic Team.Penny was teammates with Chris Webber, Bobby Hurley, Jamal Mashburn, Rodney Rogers, Eric Montross, Grant Hill, and Allan Houston. Amazingly, the Developmental team defeated the Dream Team, led by Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson, by a score of 62-54 in a 20-minute exhibition.


1992-1993
Hardaway returned for his Junior season (1992-93) and bettered his numbers from the previous season. He averaged 22.8 ppg, 8.5 rpg, 6.4 apg, 2.4 spg, and 1.2 bpg. He accumulated two triple doubles (a rarity in college basketball). He was again named Great Midwest Conference Player of the year and an All-American. He also was a finalist for the Naismith College Player of the Year and the John R. Wooden Award that are annually given the most outstanding player in college basketball.

Penny majored in Education at Memphis State, achieved a 3.4 cumulative GPA, but passed up his senior season to enter the 1993 NBA Draft. In 1994, Memphis State retired #25, Penny's number while playing for the Tigers.Penny returned to University of Memphis in May 2003 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in professional studies, 10 years after leaving school early to turn pro.

Hardaway was named #5 on the list of top 100 modern college point guards by collegehoopsnet.com.Additionally, he was a leading vote getter on ESPN Conference USA Silver Anniversary Team.


NBA career

Orlando Magic (1993-1999)

1993-1994
Penny was selected by the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the 1993 NBA Draft (third pick overall), but was traded along with three future first-round picks to the Orlando Magic for the rights to first overall pick Chris Webber. He started out the season at the shooting guard position while he learned the point guard position from veteran Scott Skiles. By mid-season he took over point guard duties from Skiles. He immediately made an impact on the league, winning the MVP award at the inaugural Schick Rookie Game. Hardaway helped the Magic to their first playoff berth and first fifty-win season. He averaged 16 points, 6.6 assists, 5.4 rebounds per game while his 190 steals ranked 6th in the league. He recorded his first career triple double on April 15 when he registered 14 points, 12 assists, and 11 rebounds against the Boston Celtics. For his efforts he was named to the NBA All-Rookie first team and was the runner-up for Rookie of the Year to the aforementioned Webber.


1994-1995
The 1994-95 NBA season saw Penny take his game to another level. The Magic won a franchise record 57 games while Penny averaged 20.9 points, 7.2 assists, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.7 steals per game. In fact he was the only player to average at least twenty points and five assists and shoot fifty percent on field goals during the regular season. He was named a starter in his first NBA All-Star game and was named All-NBA First Team. The highlight of the playoff run was the second-round defeat of the Chicago Bulls which marked the last time a Michael Jordan-led Bulls team would lose in the playoffs. Along with Shaquille O'Neal, he led his team to the NBA Finals in his second season, where they were swept by the Houston Rockets. Despite the sweep Hardaway averaged 24.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 8 assists, while shooting 50% from the field in the series.


1995-1996
An injury to star teammate Shaquille O'Neal at the start of the 1995-96 NBA season forced Hardaway to garner more of the scoring load during the first few months of the season. He responded by leading the Magic to a 17-5 start. He was named NBA Player of the Month for November by averaging 27 points, 6.5 assists, 5.8 rebounds, 2.2 steals, and 1 block per game.He was named a starter in the NBA All-Star Game for the second consecutive season while leading the Magic to a franchise record 60 wins. For the season he was named to the All-NBA First Team for the second consecutive year while averaging 21.7 points, 7.1 assists and 4.3 rebounds and capturing 166 steals which was good for 5th in the league. He also finished third in MVP voting.Hardaway was again the only player in the NBA who averaged at least twenty points and five assists and shot fifty percent on field goals during the regular season. The Magic's playoff run ended in the Eastern Conference Finals to the eventual champion Chicago Bulls. In the twelve-game playoff run Hardaway averaged 23.3 points, 6 assists, and 4.7 rebounds.

During the summer of 1996, Hardaway played on the 1996 US Olympic Games Basketball Team, which won a gold medal. Penny averaged 9 points, 4.4 assists, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.4 steals in the eight games.His two biggest contributions were in the quarterfinal game against Brazil where he chipped in 14 points and in the Gold Medal game against Yugoslavia where he scored 17 points.


1996-1997
The departure of O'Neal during the off-season to the Los Angeles Lakers left Hardaway as the lone star on the Magic heading into the 1996-97 NBA season. Hardaway struggled through an injury filled season but still managed to be named a starter for the third consecutive time in the NBA All-Star game. During the season Hardaway, being the team leader, led a coup to fire then coach Brian Hill with only 33 games left during the season, which damaged Hardaway's reputation in the league.[10][11] In 59 regular-season games he averaged 20.5 points, 5.6 assists, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.6 steals per game and was named to the All-NBA Third Team. The Magic managed to make the playoffs with a 47-win season. In the playoffs the Magic fell 0-2 to the Miami Heat in the first round. Hardaway then scored 42 points in game 3 and 41 in Game 4 to force a Game 5 in Miami(becoming the 1st player in NBA history to score 40 points in back to back playoff games when his team scores less than 100 while also being the first player to score 40 points back to back in the playoffs against a Pat Riley-coached team). Hardaway scored 33 points in Game 5 but the Magic fell short. Hardaway finished the playoffs with averages of 31 points, 6 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2.4 steals, and 1.4 blocks per game. His playoff scoring average finished a close second to Michael Jordan(31.1).


1997-1998
A devastating left knee injury incurred early in the 1997-98 NBA season required surgery and forced him to miss the majority of the season. Despite injury, he was voted to start NBA All-Star Game for fourth straight year, and had six points and three assists in 12 minutes at New York. However, he was criticized for attempting a comeback sooner than expected by playing in the All-Star Game. Played his last game a week after the all-star game and missed the remainder of the season (Hardaway has since endured another four surgeries on his left knee up to the present that have gradually deteriorated his explosive athletic abilities.) In 19 games he averaged 16.4 points, 4 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 1.5 steals.


1998-1999
Hardaway returned during the lockout-shortened 1999 season and managed to play in all 50 regular-season games to lead the Orlando Magic to a share of the best regular-season record in the Eastern Conference. He averaged 15.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists, and his 111 steals placed him 5th in the league. The Magic then lost a first-round series to the Philadelphia 76ers in which Hardaway averaged 19 points, 5.5 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2.3 steals. It would prove to be his final season in Orlando.

In the Summer of 1999, at the urging of Phoenix Suns' point guard Jason Kidd[12], Hardaway was traded to the Phoenix Suns for Danny Manning, Arsenio Patrick, Pat Garrity and two future first round-draft picks.

In 369 regular season games with the Magic, Hardaway averaged 19 points, 6.3 assists, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.9 steals per game. In 45 playoff games he averaged 21.8 points, 6.5 assists, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.9 steals.



1999-2000
Hardaway was dealt to Phoenix before the start of 1999-2000 NBA Season to team with fellow All-Star guard Jason Kidd to form what was called BackCourt 2000. Injuries to Hardaway's foot and Kidd's ankle allowed them to play just 45 games together (33-12 with both in lineup). In 60 games Hardaway averaged 16.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.6 steals with a 42-18 record. The Suns finished with a 53-29 record and a 5th seed in the Western Conference Playoffs. The ankle injury to Kidd forced him to miss most of the first-round series against the defending champion San Antonio Spurs. Hardaway stepped up and recorded a 17-point, 13-assist, 12-rebound triple-double in a crucial Game 3 win.The Suns disposed of the Spurs in four games. The Conference Semi-Finals pitted Hardaway against his former teammate Shaquille O'Neal and the Lakers. The Suns fell short to the eventual champion Lakers in 5 games. Hardaway averaged 20.3 points, 5.7 assists, 4.9 rebounds, 1.6 steals, and 1 block per game during the nine playoff games.


2000-2001
The outlook was optimistic heading into the 2000-01 NBA season but a dreaded microfracture surgery on his left knee forced Hardaway to miss all but four games during the season. In those four games he averaged 9.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.5 steals.


2001-2002
Hardaway entered the 2001-02 NBA season healthy and managed to play in 80 regular-season games. Kidd had been dealt for new point guard Stephon Marbury. Kidd's pass-first style was switched with Marbury's shoot-first style which led to Hardaway and Marbury butting heads. Hardaway managed to average 19.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 1.7 steals during the month of November. The team traded for guard Joe Johnson during the season which relegated Hardaway to the bench for the first time in his career. Despite this he averaged 12 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 1.5 steals during the regular season.


2002-2003
Hardaway entered the 2002-03 NBA season coming off the bench. Inconsistent play by young Joe Johnson allowed Hardaway to get back into the starting lineup early in the season. His steady veteran play was a key component to a team that had young stars such as Marbury, Amare Stoudemire, and Shawn Marion. Hardaway did miss 24 games with a hand injury in which the team went 10-14 in his absence. He returned in time to record a 10-point, 10-assist, 10-rebound triple-double on April 9 against the Dallas Mavericks. Hardaway finished the regular season averaging 10.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 1.1 steals. The Suns gave the eventual Champion San Antonio Spurs a scare in the first round before losing in six games. Hardaway averaged 12.7 points, 6 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 2.2 steals in the series.


2003-2004
The 2003-04 NBA season saw Hardaway shuffle in and out of the Suns starting lineup. He was traded to the New York Knicks January 6, 2004 along with Marbury and Cezary Trybanski. He averaged 8.7 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 2.9 assists in 34 games for the Suns.

In 236 regular season games with the Suns he averaged 12.4 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 1.3 steals. In 15 playoff games he averaged 17.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.8 steals.


New York Knicks (2004-2006)
Hardaway and Marbury helped lead the Knicks to the 2004 NBA Playoffs. In 42 regular-season games with the Knicks Hardaway averaged 9.6 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1 steal. In 76 total games during the season he averaged 9.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 2.3 assists. In the playoffs the Knicks lost in the first round to the New Jersey Nets. Hardaway led the Knicks in scoring in two playoff games while averaging 16.5 points, 5.8 assists, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.5 steals in the series.

Hardaway spent most of 2004-05 NBA season fighting various injuries. He averaged 11.9 points, 2.6 assists, and 2.5 rebounds in an 11-game span during the middle part of the season. He finished the season averaging 7.3 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 2 assists in 37 games.

Hardaway played just four games for the Knicks in the 2005-06 NBA season while trying to rehabilitate arthritic knees.He averaged 2.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 2 assists in those games.

In 83 games for the Knicks he averaged 8.2 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.9 assists.


2006 onwards
Penny was traded back to Orlando, along with Trevor Ariza, for Steve Francis on February 22, 2006, and waived by the Magic on February 27 to save money when his contract expired the following summer.

On August 9, 2007, Hardaway was signed by the Miami Heat for the veteran's minimum.He will wear jersey number 7 which will mark the 1st time in his pro career that he will not wear number 1

MC Hammer

MC Hammer (born Stanley Kirk Burrell on March 30, 1962) is an American MC who was popular during the late 1980s and early 1990s, known for his dramatic rise to and fall from fame and fortune, his trademark Hammer pants, and for leaving a lasting influence on hip hop culture and music. He became a preacher in the 1990s and now works as a television show host. He lives in Tracy, California with his wife Stephanie and six children, three boys and three girls.

Burrell was born in Oakland, California and graduated from McClymonds High School.

From 1972 to 1980, Burrell served as a batboy with the Oakland Athletics under colorful team owner Charlie Finley, who lived in the Midwest and for whom Burrell was his "eyes and ears."Reggie Jackson, in describing Burrell's role for Finley, took credit for the "Hammer" nickname:

Hell, our chief executive, the guy that ran our team, uh, that communicated [with] Charlie Finley, the top man there, was a 13-year old kid. I nicknamed him "Hammer," because he looked like [Hammerin'] Hank Aaron.
Ron Bergman, at the time an Oakland Tribune writer who covered the A's, recalled that:

He was an informant in the clubhouse, an informant for Charlie, and he got the nickname "Pipeline."
According to Hammer:

Charlie said, "I'm getting you a new hat. I don't want you to have a hat that says "A's" on it. I'm getting you a hat that says 'Ex VP,' that says 'Executive Vice President.' You're running the joint around here." . . . Every time I come down to the clubhouse, you know, Rollie would yell out "Oh, everybody be quiet! Here comes Pipeline!"
Burrell wanted to be a professional baseball player, but he did not catch on in any professional organization. He instead joined the Navy, where he served with Patron (Patrol Squadron) Forty Seven (VP-47) of Moffett Field in Mountain View, California, as a Petty Officer Third Class Aviation Store Keeper (AK-3) until his honorable discharge [citation needed]. Upon his return he began performing music in clubs and started his own record label, Bust It.

His debut album Feel My Power was released independently in 1988. It was produced by VEH (of Con Funk Shun), and sold over 60,000 copies. In the spring of 1988, a DJ played the track "Let's Get it Started"—a song in which he declared he was "...second to none, from Doug E. Fresh, Cool LL, or DJ Run"—after which the track began to gain popularity in clubs. Hammer received several offers from major record labels.

Hammer initially refused to sign a contract with Capitol Records, but after a substantial signing bonus was added to his contract, he did. His debut album was then re-released as Let's Get It Started. A new video was shot for "Let's Get it Started," and another video was produced in fall of 1988 called "Pump It Up" (a new track added to Let's Get It Started). The "Pump It Up" video was added to the roster of "new wave" hip-hop videos that premiered or re-aired on the premiere season of Yo! MTV Raps. It depicted hip-hop legends Run-DMC getting disrespected by Hammer. The album eventually went triple-platinum (more than 3 million units sold). "Turn This Mutha Out" (the album's biggest hit), "Feel My Power", and "They Put Me in the Mix" saw heavy rotation on R&B/Hip-Hop radio stations throughout late 1988 into 1989.

His second album, 1990s Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em, included the smash single "U Can't Touch This", which sampled Rick James' 1981 hit "Super Freak". Interestingly, despite heavy airplay, "U Can't Touch This" stopped at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart due to the fact that it was released only as a twelve-inch single. Follow-up hits included "Have You Seen Her" (cover of the Chi-Lites); and "Pray", which had a beat sampled from Prince's "When Doves Cry." The album went on to become the first hip-hop album to reach diamond status, selling more than 10 million units.[3] During 1990 Hammer toured extensively in Europe which included a sold-out concert at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. With the sponsorship of PepsiCo, PepsiCo International CEO Christopher A. Sinclair went on tour with him in 1991. At the same time, he also appeared in The West Coast Rap All-Stars posse cut "We're All in the same Gang".

A critical backlash began brewing over the repetitive nature of his lyrics, his clean-cut image, and his perceived over-reliance on sampling others' hooks for the basis of his singles. He was mocked in music videos by 3rd Bass, The D.O.C., DJ Debranz, and Ice Cube. Oakland hip-hop group Digital Underground mocked him in the CD insert to their Sex Packets album when placing his picture in with the other members and referring to him as an "Unknown derelict". In fact, LL Cool J mocked him in "To tha Break of Dawn," a track on his Mama Said Knock You Out album, calling Hammer an "...amateur, swinging a Hammer from a bodybag (his pants)," and saying, "my old gym teacher ain't supposed to rap." However Ice-T came to his defense on his 1991 album OG: Original Gangster: "A special shout out to my man MC Hammer; A lot of people diss you, man, but they just jealous. Fuck 'em!" Ice-T later explained that he had nothing against people who were pop rap from the start, as Hammer had been, but only against rappers who switch from being hardcore or dirty to being pop-rap so that they can sell more records.

Despite the criticisms, MC Hammer's career continued to be highly successful. Soon, MC Hammer dolls, lunchboxes, and other merchandise was marketed. He was even given his own Saturday morning cartoon, Hammerman.

After dropping the "MC" from his stage name, Burrell released Too Legit to Quit (again, produced by Felton Pilate) in 1991. Burrell took the opportunity to answer his critics on certain songs on the album. Though the album was, by and large, no better accepted (critically) than his first, sales were strong and the title track was a hit. Another hit came soon after, with "Addams Groove" (which appeared on both The Addams Family motion picture soundtrack and the vinyl version of 2 Legit 2 Quit).

Later, Hammer parted ways with Pilate, switched record labels and signed with Giant Records. To adapt to the changing landscape of hip-hop, his next album was a more aggressive, gangsta rap album entitled The Funky Headhunter. The accompanying video to The Funky Headhunter's first single, "Pumps and a Bump", was banned from heavy rotation on MTV with censors claiming that the depiction of Hammer in Speedos and with what appeared to be an erection was too graphic.This led to an alternative video being filmed (with Hammer fully clothed) that was directed by fellow Bay Area native Craig S. Brooks, who also helmed the video of rap group D.R.S.' only hit single "Gangsta Lean."

In 1995, Hammer released the album Inside Out, which critics claimed was unfocused. The album sold poorly (peaking at 119 on the Billboard Charts) and Giant Records dropped him from their roster.[6] Because of dwindling album sales and a lavish lifestyle, Hammer, who was $13 million in debt, filed for bankruptcy on April 3, 1996.

Hammer next signed with Death Row Records, then home to gangsta rap stars Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur. The label did not release any of Hammer's music while he was with them. However, Burrell did record music with Shakur, and the album he recorded leaked onto the internet some years later. Their collaborative efforts are yet to be released. After the death of Shakur in 1996, Burrell left the record company. In 1996, Burrell signed with EMI, which saw the release of a compilation of Hammer's chart topping songs. The album, Greatest Hits, featured 12 former hits and was released in October, only six months after his bankruptcy.[8]

In 1997, MC Hammer (who by that time had readopted the "MC") was the subject of an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show and the VH1 series Behind the Music. In these appearances, Burrell admitted that he had already used up most of his fortune of over $20 million.

Due to the success of the Please Hammer Don’t Hurt Em album, Hammer had amassed approximately USD$33 million.

$12 million of this total was used to have his home built in Fremont, California, 30 miles south of where he grew up. Among the documented features this house had included:
Recording studio
33-seat theater
2 swimming pools (one indoor/one outdoors)
Tennis courts and a baseball diamond
Waterfalls, ponds, and aquariums
Mirrored Bathroom (at least $75,000 (£35,000) in mirrors throughout the house)
$2 Million of Italian marble floors and a floor-to-ceiling gray marble office with customized marble niches for awards.
Marble countertops in the kitchen (the house was heavily decorated in marble)
Massive gold and black marble jacuzzi in the master bedroom
Basketball courts
Bowling alley
17 car garage
Two gold-plated “Hammertime” gates for entrance to the property
A dishwasher installed in his master bedroom for the purpose of “cleaning up after a midnight snack” (as told in the VH1 movie about his life, entitled Too Legit: The MC Hammer Story).
Many of these amenities did little to improve the value of the home.

After the purchase of the home, it left approximately $20 million, the money that was supposedly squandered. After the home, his money went into other things (much described as frivolous):

A fleet of 17 automobiles, including a Lamborghini, a stretch limousine, a Range Rover, and a De Lorean.
Two helicopters.
Investments up to $1 million in Thoroughbred racehorses.
Careless spending on high-priced items like antique golf clubs, Etruscan sculpture, and gold chains for his 4 pet rottweilers.
Extravagant parties financed by Hammer himself.
The huge entourage of over 200 people, most of whom were on his payroll, for total monthly wages of $500,000.
Leased Boeing 727.
In 1991, MC Hammer established Oaktown Stable that would eventually have nineteen Thoroughbred racehorses. In 1991, his outstanding filly Lite Light won several Grade I stakes races including the prestigious Kentucky Oaks. His D. Wayne Lukas-trained colt Dance Floor won the Grade II Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes and the Lane's End Breeders' Futurity in 1991 then the following year won the Fountain of Youth Stakes and finished 3rd in the 1992 Kentucky Derby.

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Hammer released the patriotic album Active Duty on his own WorldHit label. He donated portions of the proceeds to 9/11 charities. In 2004, he released the Full Blast album. Neither album managed to make the Billboard Charts.

In 2003, Hammer appeared on the first season of The Surreal Life, a reality show known for assembling an eclectic mix of celebrities to live together.

In the 2005 MTV Music Video Awards, MC Hammer made a surprise appearance in the middle of the show with best friend Jeremiah Jackson.

In February 2006, the first single off Hammer's new album Look Look Look was released. The Scott Storch-produced title track was released as a single and a music video.

Hammer now frequently posts about his life on his blog "Look Look Look."

After his rapid fall from fame and subsequent bankruptcy, MC Hammer spent most of the latter half of the 1990s as a punch line in the music business. In 2000, Nelly, in his breakthrough hit "Country Grammar", announced his intention to "blow 30 mill[ion] like I'm Hammer".

However, he has also influenced the industry. Hammer's sampling of large portions of well-known pop oldies (as opposed to short James Brown or George Clinton funk riffs) has increasing popularity among mainstream rappers, particularly Diddy's Bad Boy Records stable. Other examples include Eminem's Like Toy Soldiers which samples nearly the entire chorus from Martika's similarly-named 1989 hit.

Hammer's catchphrase, "Stop! Hammer time!" is considered something of an Internet phenomenon, appearing in various spoofed error messages in the Windows XP operating system [citation needed]. Notoriously, British TV presenter Mark Lamarr interrupted Hammer repeatedly with this phrase in an interview filmed for "The Word", much to Hammer's annoyance. The phrase also appeared as graffiti on Stop signs.

Hammer recently performed a self-parody role in a television ad for Lay's potato chips. Some kids lose their baseball over the fence of a neighbor apparently infamous for not returning lost toys, so they throw him a bag of chips to appease him. He throws back their ball, their dog, a car belonging to one kid's dad, and MC Hammer, still dressed in golden sparkle shirt and parachute pants. MC Hammer instantly breaks into the chorus of "U Can't Touch This." The kids then toss Hammer back over the fence. He also appeared in an ad for Nationwide Insurance which made fun of his sudden fall from fame and wealth. In 2004, "U Can't Touch This" was licensed by Purell for a series of commercials.

Hammer also began the trend of rap artists being accepted as mainstream pitchmen. Prior to Hammer, it was virtually unheard of for a hip-hop artist to be seen in a major commercial spot. Hammer appeared in major marketing campaigns for companies such as Pepsi and Taco Bell to the point that he was criticized as a "sell-out"Today, many rappers appear in various major commercials and market their own clothing lines, such as Jay-Z, Nelly, and P. Diddy. Ironically, two of Hammer's biggest detractors, LL Cool J and Run D.M.C., appeared together in a Dr Pepper ad during Super Bowl XXXVIII. Dr. Dre appeared in a Heineken commercial in 2001, and Ice Cube, another one of Hammer's biggest detractors, filmed St. Ides malt liquor ads in the early 1990s and has since become an actor and producer.

Hammer reaffirmed his Christian beliefs in October 1997and now has a television show on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.Hammer has officiated at the celebrity weddings of actor Corey Feldman and Susie Sprague on 30 October 2002and Mötley Crüe's Vince Neil and Lia Gerardini in January 2005.

Wu Tang Clan

Wu-Tang Clan is a New York-based rap group, consisting of nine American rappers. Among its members are multi-platinum selling solo artists, multi-platinum record producers, Grammy winners, TV and film stars, screenwriters, product spokespersons, business owners and, most recently, major motion picture composers. The Clan featured nine MCs until the death of Ol' Dirty Bastard in 2004. One of the most critically and commercially successful hip hop groups of all time, Wu-Tang Clan shot to fame through their uncompromising brand of hardcore rap music. Since their debut, they have introduced or launched the careers of numerous other artists and groups, and already in 1994 there were credited to be over 300 Wu-Tang Clan affiliates,[1] known as the Wu-Tang Killa Bees, consisting of rappers, producers, and record label CEOs.

The founders of the Wu-Tang Clan were RZA, GZA, and Ol' Dirty Bastard, who had previously formed the group Force of the Imperial Master (later known as All in Together Now after the release of a popular single by that name). The group attracted the attention of some notable figures in the industry, including Biz Markie, but did not manage to secure a record deal. After the crew dissolved, GZA (then known as The Genius) and The RZA (then known as Prince Rakeem) embarked on their solo careers with Cold Chillin' Records and Tommy Boy Records respectively, but to little success. Their frustration with the workings of the hip hop music industry would provide the main inspiration to Wu-Tang Clan's revolutionary business plan. According to The Wu-Tang Manual, at the group's inception, RZA promised the members that if he had total control of the Wu-Tang empire, it would conquer the hip-hop world within a dynastic cycle, after which he would relinquish his total control.

Wu-Tang Clan was gradually assembled in late 1992 from friends and accomplices from around Staten Island, with The RZA as the de facto leader and the group's producer.Two of the cousins, GZA (pronounced Jizza) and The RZA (pronounced Rizza), created their new Wu-Tang aliases by mimicking the sound that the words "genius" and "razor" would make when scratched on a turntable.

The word Wu-Tang comes from the name of the Taoist holy mountain Wu Dang in northwest Hubei Province in central China; it was also the site of the Ming Dynasty Purple Imperial City built during the reign of the Yongle Emperor in the early 15th century. The RZA and Ol' Dirty Bastard adopted the name for the group after seeing the Kung fu film Shaolin and Wu Tang, which features a school of warriors trained in Wu-Tang style. The group's debut album loosely adopted a Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang theme, dividing the album into Shaolin and Wu-Tang sections and using dialogue excerpts as skits.

The group have also developed various backronyms for the name (as hip hop pioneers like KRS-One and Big Daddy Kane did with their names), including "We Usually Take All the Niggas' Garments," "Witty Unpredictable Talent And Natural Game" and "Wisdom, Universe, Truth, Allah, Nation, and God".

Method Man has also mentioned that the "Wu" is the sound a sword makes when cutting through the air, and "Tang" is the sound it makes against a shield

The Clan first became known to hip hop fans, and to major record labels, in 1993 (see 1993 in music) following the release of the independent single "Protect Ya Neck", which immediately gave the group a sizeable underground following. Though there was some difficulty in finding a record label that would sign Wu-Tang Clan while still allowing each member to record solo albums with other labels, Loud/RCA finally agreed, releasing their debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), in late 1993. This album was popular and critically-acclaimed, though it took some time to gain momentum. Though hip hop had long had a gritty texture, the surreal aggression and minimalist production of 36 Chambers nevertheless had a huge impact on the genre, and was to prove massively influential over the next decade. By the beginning of the 21st century, the album had become a regular fixture on "Best Albums Of The 90s" lists as well as a frequent choice for "Best Albums Of All Time" lists.The success of Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers established the group as a creative and influential force in early 1990s hip hop, allowing GZA, The RZA, Raekwon,Ghostface Killah, Method Man, and Ol' Dirty Bastard to negotiate solo contracts.

The period between the release of Enter the Wu-Tang and Wu-Tang Clan's second album is considered to be "the greatest winning streak in rap history"The RZA was the first to follow up on the success of Enter the Wu-Tang with a side project, founding the Gravediggaz with Prince Paul and Frukwan (both of Stetsasonic) and Poetic. The Gravediggers released 6 Feet Deep (known as NiggaMortis in Europe) in August 1994, which became one of the best known works to emerge from hip hop's small sub-genre of horrorcore.

It had always been planned for Method Man to be the first breakout star from the group's lineup, with the b-side of the first single being his now-classic eponymous solo track. In November 1994 his solo album Tical was released. It was entirely produced by The RZA, who for the most part continued with the grimy, raw textures he explored on 36 Chambers. The RZA's hands-on approach to Tical extended beyond his merely creating the beats to devising song concepts and structures. The album also won a Grammy for the song "All I Need".[clarify] This approach would continue throughout the first round of solo projects from the Clan members. Ol' Dirty Bastard found success in early 1995 with Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, which saw the 36 Chambers sound become even rawer and rougher-edged.


Raekwon's solo debut, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...Late 1995 saw the release of the group's two most significant and well-received solo projects. Raekwon the Chef's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... was a diverse, theatrical criminological epic that saw The RZA move away from the raw, stripped-down beats of the early albums and towards a richer, cinematic sound more reliant on strings and classic soul samples. Lavish living and the crime underworld are referenced throughout, with the mystique of the Wu-Tang Clan deepened by the adoption of crime boss aliases and the crew name Wu-Gambinos. The album introduced a flurry of slang words to the rap lexicon, and many artists have gone on to imitate its materialism. It featured Nas, who was the first non-Clan MC to appear on a Wu-related album. GZA's Liquid Swords had a similar focus on inner-city criminology akin to Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, but it was far darker, both in GZA's grim lyrics and in the ominous, foreboding production that saw The RZA experimenting more with keyboards than ever before. The two 1995 solo albums remain widely regarded as two of the finest hip hop albums of the nineties.

Ghostface Killah released his own debut, Ironman, in 1996. It struck a balance between the sinister keyboard-laden textures of Liquid Swords and the sentimental soul samples of ...Cuban Linx, while Ghost-face himself explored new territory as a lyricist. It was critically acclaimed and is still widely considered one of the best Wu-Tang solo albums. Although the 1994-1996 albums were released as solo albums, The RZA's presence behind the boards and the large number of guest appearances from other Clan members (Raekwon and Ghostface's albums only had two or three actual solo tracks each and both included many tracks that included other Clan members) means they are usually considered as to be all-round group efforts.

With their solo careers firmly established, the Wu-Tang Clan reassembled to release the highly-anticipated Grammy-nominated multiplatinum double album Wu-Tang Forever in June 1997. It debuted at number one on the Billboard Charts, by a large margin after selling 600,000 in its first week[citation needed]. This event was featured in a CNN roundup for the extraordinary sales the group achieved without a mainstream sound or commercial appeal. The album's first single, "Triumph," was over five minutes long, featured nine verses (one from each member plus Cappadonna), and no hook or a repeated phrase. The sound of the album built significantly on the previous three solo albums, with The RZA using more keyboards and string samples, as well as, for the first time, assigning some of the album's production to his protégés True Master and 4th Disciple. The group's lyrics differed significantly from those of 36 Chambers, with many verses written in a dense stream-of-consciousness form heavily influenced by the teachings of the Five Percent Nation. Around the same time, the group's participation in the highly-controversial joint 1997 summer tour with Rage Against the Machine was cut short after numerous legal problems and amid rumors of internal disputes[citation needed]. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the album has sold over 8.3 million copies to date worldwide.

Wu-Tang Forever also marked the end of The RZA's "five year plan". After ...Forever's success, The RZA ceased to oversee all aspects of Wu-Tang product as he had done previously, delegating much of his existing role to associates such as Oli "Power" Grant and his brother Mitchell "Divine" Diggs. This move was designed to expand Wu-Tang's reach in the industry and take advantage of financial opportunities for the group. In keeping with this move, an array of Wu-Tang products (both musical and otherwise) was to be released over the next two years.

Following Wu-Tang Forever, the focus of the Wu-Tang empire largely shifted to the promoting of emerging affiliated artists (referred to by the fanbase as "Wu-Family"). The group's close associate Cappadonna followed the group project with March 1998's The Pillage. Soon after, Killah Priest (as with Cappadonna, a close associate of the Clan, though not an official member) released Heavy Mental to great critical acclaim. Affiliated groups Sunz of Man (of which Killah Priest was a member) and Killarmy (which included The RZA's younger brother) also released well-received albums, followed by Wu-Tang Killa Bees: The Swarm - a compilation album showcasing these and more Wu-affiliated artists, and including new solo tracks from the group members themselves. The Swarm sold well and was certified gold.

There was also a long line of releases from secondary affiliates such as Popa Wu, Shyheim, GP Wu, and Wu-Syndicate. Second albums from Gravediggaz and Killarmy, as well as a greatest hits album and a b-sides compilation also eventually saw release.

While this round was very commercially successful, it was not as critically acclaimed as the first. The second round of solo albums from the Clansmen saw second efforts from the four members who had already released albums as well as debuts from all the remaining members except Masta Killa. In the space of two years, The RZA's Bobby Digital In Stereo, Method Man's Tical 2000: Judgement Day and Blackout! (with Redman), GZA's Beneath the Surface, Ol' Dirty Bastard's Nigga Please, U-God's Golden Arms Redemption, Raekwon's Immobilarity, Ghostface Killah's Supreme Clientele and Inspectah Deck's Uncontrolled Substance were all released (seven of them being released in the space of seven months between June 1999 and January 2000). The RZA also composed the score for the film Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, directed by Jim Jarmusch, while he and other Wu-Tang members contributed music to a companion "music inspired by the film" album. Wu-Tang branded clothing and video games were marketed as well. The Wu Wear clothing line in particular was massively influential on hip hop culture; initially started as merely a way to make money from the demand for bootleg Wu-Tang shirts, it evolved into an extensive collection of designer garments. Soon, other hip hop artists were making similar ventures and by the mid 2000s a clothing line was almost a prerequisite for hip hop superstardom, with clothing lines launched by Ludacris, Jay-Z, Puff Daddy, Busta Rhymes, Nelly and more.

The avalanche of Wu-Tang product between 1997 and 2000 is considered by some critics to have resulted in an oversaturation that was responsible for Wu-Tang's drop in popularity, or at least in critical regard, during that time.Reviews such as Melody Maker's writeup on Ghostface Killah's Supreme Clientele in January 2000 which began "Another month, another Wu-Tang side project" revealed critics' exhaustion at the Clan's prodigious output. The overall reception for the second round of Clan member solo albums was decidedly mixed if largely positive, and they did not live up to their pre-...Forever forebears critically; however, the Wu was selling more albums than ever.

Occasional albums would still receive critical acclaim (Ghostface Killah's Supreme Clientele for one, which is regarded as one of the best solo efforts from the Clan) while Method Man and ODB remained popular in their own right as solo artists, and Wu-Tang remained as a well known force, but they had seemingly lost the ability to excite the music world in the way they had throughout the 90s.

Many fans and critics also bemoaned the lack of The RZA's input on the post-...Forever solo albums, which were mostly produced by the Wu-Element producers, other lower-ranking affiliates, or by outside producers such as the Trackmasters or the Neptunes.

The group reconvened once again to make The W, though without Ol' Dirty Bastard, who was at the time incarcerated in California for violating the terms of his probation[citation needed]. Though incarcerated, ODB managed to make it onto the track "Conditioner" which also featured Snoop Dogg. ODB's vocals were recorded via the telephones used for inmates to talk with visitors.[citation needed] The W was mostly well-received by critics,particularly for The RZA's production, and also gave the group a hit single with the uptempo "Gravel Pit", part of a trilogy of videos where the group would visit different eras with a time traveling elevator, which also included "Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)" and the internet exclusive (due to excessive gun violence) "Careful (Click, Click)", which were then followed by "I Can't Go to Sleep" featuring Isaac Hayes. The album would go on to reach double platinum status.

Shortly before the release of The W, ODB escaped custody while being transported from a rehab center to a Los Angeles court and was considered a fugitive. At a record release party for The W, ODB, his face hidden by an orange parka, was not recognized until introduced to the crowd. With police officers present outside, ODB performed briefly and then fled, fearing capture. Six days later ODB caused a commotion signing autographs in a McDonald's in South Philadelphia. Unaware of who was causing the ruckus, the manager called the police. When the cops arrived, ODB mistook them for fans until they drew their guns. ODB fled the restaurant but was stopped while trying to start his vehicle. After presenting a fake ID, he admitted who he really was and was arrested.

In 2001, Wu-Tang Clan released their fourth album, Iron Flag, to luke-warm reception. It contained hit single Uzi (Pinky Ring) and guest appearances by artists such as Public Enemy's Flavor Flav. Its production was not completely handled by The RZA and had a less gritty sound than previous Wu-Tang albums.

RZA's release of Digital Bullet (as Bobby Digital) in 2001 marked the beginning of a small wave of solo releases in between The W and Iron Flag which also included Ghostface Killah's Bulletproof Wallets and Cappadonna's The Yin and the Yang. GZA's release of Legend of the Liquid Sword in late 2002 marked yet another wave that continued for the next two years. The wave included Cappadonna's The Struggle, Method Man's Tical 0: The Prequel, Raekwon's The Lex Diamond Story, Ghostface Killah's The Pretty Toney Album, Inspectah Deck's The Movement, and Masta Killa's No Said Date. It was perhaps the least successful wave yet, with only No Said Date and The Pretty Toney Album gaining any significant attention. Ghostface's album continued the trend of his releases each selling less than the one before it[citation needed] despite mostly good reviews.Masta Killa's album was well received by both the hardcore fanbase and critics for its attempt to return to the classic Wu sound, though as an independent release, it expectedly did not catch on commercially.

As the case usually is, Method Man's album sold very well despite both critics and fans bashing it. Even Method Man himself went on to bash the album, stating that the situation (management transition) going on at the time with Def Jam caused the poor outcome.

In early 2004 U-God, long one of the least renowned members of the Clan,[neutrality disputed] apparently left the group in disgust. A DVD titled Rise of a Fallen Soldier was released detailing his problems, which were mostly with his treatment by The RZA, who he claimed had hindered his success as a solo artist.[citation needed] He also formed a new group of young protegés called the Hillside Scramblers, with whom he released the album U-GODZILLA presents the Hillside Scramblers in March 2004. The dispute culminated in a heated phone conversation between The RZA and U-God on live radio, which ultimately saw the two reconcile.[citation needed] U-God later rejoined the group.

2004 also saw the unexpected return of the Clan to the live stage. They embarked on a short European tour before coming together as a complete group for the first time in several years to headline the Rock the Bells IV festival in California. The concert was released on DVD shortly afterwards under the name Disciples of the 36 Chambers: Chapter 1. They also soon released a music-video greatest hits album named Legend of the Wu-Tang Clan.

Ol' Dirty Bastard collapsed at approximately 5:29 p.m. on November 13, 2004 at Wu-Tang's recording studio, 36 Chambers on West 34th Street in New York City.He was pronounced dead less than an hour later, just two days shy of his 36th birthday. His funeral service was held at Brooklyn's Christian Cultural Center.

ODB was scheduled to perform in a Wu-Tang reunion concert at Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey on the night of his death. The members were unaware, as was the audience at the concert, that he was dead; it was assumed that ODB was a no show once more. Wu-Tang has paid homage to their member on more than one occasion. In August 2006, one of his sons came out at a Wu-Tang concert at Webster Hall and rapped "Brooklyn Zoo", along with his mother, who was also present.

ODB's career in Wu-Tang was marked by wild and criminal behavior. At the 1998 Grammy Awards, he protested the Clan's loss (in Best Rap Album) by interrupting Shawn Colvin's acceptance speech for her Song of the Year award. ODB was also arrested several times for a variety of offenses, including assault, shoplifting, wearing body armor after being convicted of a felony, and possession of cocaine.He was also in trouble for missing multiple court dates. In late 2000, Ol' Dirty Bastard unexpectedly escaped near the end of his rehab sentence, spending one month on the run as a fugitive before showing up on stage at the record release party for The W in New York City. Ol' Dirty Bastard managed to escape the club but was later captured by police in a McDonald's parking lot in South Philadelphia and sent to New York to face charges of cocaine possession.In April 2001, he was sentenced to two to four years in prison.

Once released from prison, he signed to Roc-a-Fella Records. A posthumous official mixtape titled Osirus featuring many new songs was released in March 2005, while ODB's Roc-A-Fella album A Son Unique was originally to be released in 2005, but had numerous delays. It was to be released on November 7, 2006 to commemorate the second anniversary of ODB's death, which occurred on November 13, 2004, but was delayed again.


Resurgence and 8 Diagrams
Further information: 8 Diagrams
2005 saw the release of RZA's first book, The Wu-Tang Manual, plus the release of U-God's second album Mr. Xcitement and GZA's collaboration with DJ Muggs, GrandMasters.

On March 28, 2006, Ghostface Killah released the cocaine-oriented Fishscale to critical acclaim.[14] The whole Clan, including Cappadonna and the deceased ODB, appeared on "9 Milli Bros." Much acclaim was also directed towards the variety of topics Ghost addresses, from grand crime dramas based on the lives of drug kingpins (as in "Kilo"), to the frantic lives of street hustlers ("Shakey Dog"), childhood ("Whip You With a Strap"), love ("Back Like That", "Jellyfish"), and pure surreality ("Underwater"). The album also ventures into genre exercises, approximating a club banger with "Be Easy" and battle rhymes with "The Champ." Ghostface also released More Fish in December of 2006 to decent reception.

Method Man came back with his critically acclaimed 2006 album 4:21...The Day After. He was heavily featured in the media due to his displeasure with Def Jam's handling of his project, and despite not having any promotion or airplay the album still debuted in the Billboard Top Ten. Method Man also made the decision to fall back from Hollywood, and now only does acting work for projects being handled by close friends. 2006 also saw the release of Masta Killa's second studio album, Made in Brooklyn, to lukewarm reviews. Ol' Dirty Bastard's posthumous album, A Son Unique, is scheduled to be released on the Damon Dash Music Group in 2007 as well. On June 25, 2006 Inspectah Deck released an official mixtape titled The Resident Patient, a prelude to his soon to be released album, tentatively titled The Rebellion.

The summer of 2007 should see the release of Raekwon's long-delayed sequel to his 1995 debut Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, named Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II. The album will be released on Dr. Dre's Aftermath Records.It will be executive produced by Busta Rhymes (informally) and the RZA, with RZA handling most of the production, including the first single, as well as tracks from Dr. Dre, among others. Raekwon credits Busta Rhymes for getting his head back in the zone to write "Cuban Link material", as well as getting RZA, Dr. Dre and himself in the same studio together. In addition to signing with a new label, Raekwon remains one of the most active members of the Clan. He continues to put out material via mixtapes and the internet. Raekwon has also assembled a crew of up-and-coming Staten Island rappers called Ice Water.

RZA explained the collaboration between he and Dr. Dre is like "yin and yang" when it comes to their styles."The album is gonna attract all the gangstas, nigga; all the thugs and everybody is going to be listening to this shit," says RZA of the album.

In the process of recording and dropping these projects, Wu-Tang has networked with several outside producers and artists as of late: DJ Muggs through GZA; MF DOOM through Ghostface Killah; Pete Rock through several of the members; Erick Sermon and Redman through Method Man, the former of which co-executive produced 4:21; the now-deceased J Dilla through Ghostface and Raekwon, and Busta Rhymes and Dr. Dre through Raekwon, during his tenure on Aftermath.

In December 2006, Wu-Tang Clan signed a one-album deal with Steve Rifkind's SRC Records,whose now-defunct Loud Records released the group's four previous albums. This album's title will be 8 Diagrams and is slated for release on December 11th 2007.RZA announced January 2007 that he will be releasing another Bobby Digital album this summer as well, which he has already begun work on. He will be using the album primarily to put over lesser-known Wu-Tang Clan affiliates such as Freemurder, Killa Sin, Black Knights and others. The album is tentatively titled DigiSnacks.

Raekwon had a major presence on mixtapes and hit single remixes such as Fabolous's Make Me Better and Wyclef Jean's Dolla Bill featuring Akon and Lil Wayne for which a video was shot with all four rappers. His highly anticipated Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II album has yet to hit shelves, but he insists that he is just waiting for the right time to drop his masterpiece. In a recent interview with Billboard.com, Raekwon said that though the album was "99% complete", he had put everything on pause to work on the Wu-Tang album 8 Diagrams.

GZA will be releasing a tell-all DVD named Wu Tang Revealed, featuring footage of the Clan dating back to the nineties,[21] as well as his sixth album, More Words from the Genius, which will be released by Babygrande Records.


Influence
Wu-Tang has influenced many current-day hip-hop acts in the areas of rapping, production technique, subject matter and image. Among these contributions have been RZA's sampling style, certain Clan members' mafioso rap personas, usage of slang terms, and the tendency of artists to run in tightly-knit groups.


Production
According to himself, RZA tries to have no more than 20-25% sampling on any given record, something starkly different from many other major hip hop groups. He uses "the sampler more like a painter's palette than a Xerox. Then again, I might use it as a Xerox if I find rare beats that nobody had in their crates yet." He played much of the piano himself, with Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk as major influences; for instance, he created the piano part to "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'" after watching the Thelonious Monk documentary, Straight, No Chaser.[22]

RZA's production technique, specifically the manner of chopping up and/or speeding or slowing soul samples to fit his beats, has been picked up by currently popular producers, most notably Kanye West and Just Blaze, the two main producers behind Roc-A-Fella Records. West's own take on RZA's style[23] briefly flooded the rap market with what was dubbed "chipmunk soul," the speeding of a vocal sample to where it sounded as though the singer had inhaled helium. Several producers at the time copied the style, creating other offshoots. West has admitted that his style was distinctly influenced by the RZA's production,[24] and RZA has acknowledged his influence in an issue of Scratch magazine, saying he wished he had produced "Jesus Walks" and "Breathe", two 2004 hits produced by Kanye West and Just Blaze, respectively.[citation needed] Said by Kanye West:

Wu-Tang? Me and my friends talk about this all the time... We think Wu-Tang had one of the biggest impacts as far as a movement. From slang to style of dress, skits, the samples. Similar to the [production] style I use, RZA has been doing that.[25]


Lyrics
Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx helped (with the likes of Kool G Rap) popularize the Mafia theme in rap music that remained widespread for more than half a decade. The landmark album touted a lifestyle patterned on drug dealing, regrets of living in harsh conditions, and partying (including popularizing the Cristal brand of champagne) which Nas, Mobb Deep, Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, No Limit Records, and other popular artists all borrowed and/or expanded upon these themes at points in their respective careers.

The Wu-Tang Clan's slang has long been a staple of their music, wherein members would blend Five Percenter terms, Kung Fu/oriental words, and comic book and street terms to create their own nicknames for actions, people, places and things (such as the christening of Staten Island as "Shaolin" and money as "C.R.E.A.M."). Though all the members indulge in this, Raekwon and Ghostface have been the most notorious for it.


Image
Before the Wu-Tang Clan's debut in 1993, few popular rap music acts operated in groups, and at nine main members with several affiliates, the Wu was the largest around at that point; the only popular groups coming close to that size at the time were Public Enemy and the Death Row Records roster. Since that time, several collective-sized groups have gained popular status, including Dipset, the Dungeon Family, D12, and No Limit Records; though the Wu-Tang Clan may not have been directly responsible for the formation of these groups, they helped encourage popular acceptance of the idea. They were also among the first to start the trend in hip-hop of diversification; specifically, the hip-hop clothing line with Wu-Wear, which was later picked up by Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z and Puff Daddy, among others.


Syndication

Wu Tang Management

Raekwon (left), Mike Tyson and Oli "Power" GrantOli "Power" Grant and RZA's brother Mitchell "Divine" Diggs are the controversial executives who have been handling the business side of the Wu Tang empire since 1997, and are responsible for large amounts of products such as Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style and Wu Wear which were released in the late 90's and early 2000s. The two stay behind the scenes for the most part but do occasionally step into the public eye. Oli "Power" Grant is a childhood friend of several clan members.

Oliver "Power" Grant has also acted in numerous films including Belly, Black and White, When Will I Be Loved and others. He also won the 24th Annual Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race in Long Beach, beating out seventeen other celebrity and professional drivers. "Power" was mentioned in Raekwon's lyrics in the street anthem "Incarcerated Scarfaces", saying "Peace to Power and the whole unit."

Mitchell "Divine" Diggs has been mentioned in several songs by Wu-Tang members, such as by RZA in his song "Brooklyn Babies" with "My big brother Divine he push the Benz well", and Raekwon in the song "The Turn" with "Divine got me, nigga, the boss, he pop me".

Method Man however has voiced his displeasure with Mitchell "Divine" Diggs of the Wu-Tang management, "Number 1 on my shit list right now is Divine from Wu-Tang management. He took something major from me that he had no intention of giving back."


Collective appearances

The RZA and GZA appearing on the Chappelle's Show sketch Wu-Tang FinancialMembers of the group have appeared in several Comedy Central shows, most notably two appearances on Chappelle's Show. The first was in episode 107, in a sketch titled "Wu-Tang Financial," in which The RZA and GZA run an investment firm, lampooning the over-saturation of hip-hop endorsed brands (which Wu-Tang were guilty of at one point). The second appearance was in episode 201, in the sketch "Racial Draft 2004," in which the group is drafted to become ethnically Asian. Various members have also appeared in episodes of Upright Citizens Brigade and Crank Yankers. On the latter, they performed "In The Hood" in puppet form.

Several members appeared in Scary Movie 3 (with many other rappers) in a scene where, originally coming to save the day, they end up arguing with other rappers until guns are drawn and everyone shoots each other to death.

Several members, including Raekwon and Method Man, appeared as themselves in the movie Black and White.

The RZA, Cappadonna and affiliate group Killarmy made an appearance in the "Adolf Hankler" episode of the HBO sitcom The Larry Sanders Show. In the episode, the group are booked to perform on the show-within-the-show by guest host Jon Stewart, who then comes into disagreement with the show's network over whether or not the Clan are "too urban" for the show's audience. In one of their two scenes, the group is seen rehearsing the song "And Justice For All" and in the other scene, they are awkwardly conversing with the show's sidekick character Hank Kingsley, who asks where 'Dirty Old Bitch' is.

In 2003, The RZA and GZA appeared in the Jim Jarmusch movie Coffee and Cigarettes, in the sketch "Delirium" with Bill Murray.

In the Fall of 2006, Wu-Tang was honored as one of the premier and influential rap groups by VH1's 2006 Hip Hop Honors with other influential performers: Afrika Bambaataa, Beastie Boys, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Lyte, Rakim and Russell Simmons. During their performance, Lil Jon portrayed the late Ol' Dirty Bastard.


The RZA
In 1999, The RZA made a brief appearance in Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, a film he also scored. RZA starred with fellow rapper Xzibit in the movie Derailed.

The RZA scored the first film of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill saga. RZA has gone on to score several more productions including Blade: Trinity, Afro Samurai, The Protector, Freedom Writers and several others.

RZA has appeared in American Gangster, a 2007 crime drama film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.


Method Man
Method Man
Method Man has had recurring roles in critically acclaimed television shows such as HBO's The Wire in which he plays the character Cheese, HBO's Oz, The Twilight Zone, and CSI. He hosted a series on MTV for a brief period called Stung and has made numerous appearances as himself on TV shows such as Mind Of Mencia, Chappelle's Show, and others.

He also co-starred with Redman in his own Fox sitcom called Method & Red in late 2004, however after only a short time on the air the show was put on hiatus and never returned. Method Man later complained in the press about Fox's influence on the show's style, claiming that "there's been too much compromise on our side and not enough on their side" and bemoaning the network's decision to add a laugh track. Before the show even aired, he told fans not to bother watching it.

Meth plays the recurring character Drops on CSI.

His first prominent role came in 1998 with the film Belly along with fellow rappers Nas and DMX. He has since added many credits to his name, including roles in the films Garden State and One Eight Seven, with starring roles in the feature films such as How High, Soul Plane and others.

On March 27, 2007 Redman confirmed on BET Rapcity that the sequel to the movie How High is currently being written, by Dustin Lee Abraham, who also wrote the first movie.

He had a guest appearance in the music video for the 2003 "If I Ain't Got You" by Alicia Keys, where he played the role of her boyfriend. Beanie Sigel also called upon Meth's acting skills for his 2005 video "Feel It in the Air", where Method Man played an undercover cop leading an operation against Sigel.

Meth has fallen back from pursuing more acting roles after the situation with his sitcom on Fox left a bad taste in his mouth, and now mostly just acts if the project is being handled by a friend of his, as was the case with CSI and The Wire.


Raekwon
Raekwon has appeared in a number of movies. He was recently the focus of a VH1 "RockDoc" about blood diamonds, where he along with Paul Wall and others visited Sierra Leone, West Africa. During the shooting of the documentary, Raekwon became the first American rapper to perform in Sierra Leone.

NAS

Nasir Jones (born September 14, 1973), known simply as Nas, formerly Nasty Nas, is an American rapper.

Son of jazz musician Olu Dara, Nas is well known for his 1994 debut album Illmatic, which many consider to be one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time.This album established Nas as one of hip-hop's most profound lyricist, introducing his signature poetic style. Raised in the notorious Queensbridge housing projects in New York City, he represents a continuation of a hip-hop tradition in Queensbridge that has spanned through early hip-hop, including the Juice Crew, Marley Marl, and MC Shan.

Following Illmatic with It Was Written, Nas pursued a more mainstream direction, which resulted in wider success but decreased artistic credibility among critics and hip-hop purists. Nas increased commercial success was accompanied by stylistic changes that fostered accusations of giving in to corporate wishes and compromising the style that had enamored his fans. Nevertheless, the album Stillmatic is often credited for restoring Nas credibility among fans. Since the success of Stillmatic, Nas has continued to maintain a high profile within the hip-hop community and has pursued a decidedly personal aesthetic

Nas, whose given name Nasir means "one who creates victories" in Arabic, spent the first years of his life in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.His father, Olu Dara was a jazz trumpeter and his mother Fannie Ann Jones was a Postal Service worker. He has one sibling, a brother named Jabari who assumes the alias Jungle. While in Brooklyn, Nas would listen to his father's trumpet on his house's stoop at age four.The family soon after moved to the Queensbridge Houses, the largest public housing project in the United States. Olu Dara left the household in 1986, when Nas was 13, and Ann Jones raised her two boys on her own. Nas soon dropped out of school in the ninth grade.He educated himself, reading about African culture and civilization, the Bible and the Qur'an . He also studied the origin of hip hop music, taping records that played on his local radio station. Nas interests moved away from playing the trumpet as a child to being a comic book hero artist.

Nas had settled on pursuing a career as a rapper, and as a teenager enlisted his best friend and upstairs neighbor Willy "Ill Will" Graham as his DJ. Nas first went by the nickname Kid Wave before adopting his more commonly known alias of Nasty Nas. Nas and Graham soon met hip-hop producer and Queens resident Large Professor (William Mitchell), who introduced Nas to his Toronto-based group, Main Source. In 1991, Nas made his on-record debut with a verse on "Live at the BBQ's", from Main Source's LP Breaking Atoms. Despite the substantial buzz for Nas in the underground scene, the rapper was rejected by major labels and was not signed to a recording deal. Nas and Graham continued to work together, but their partnership was cut short when Graham was shot and killed by a gunman in Queensbridge on May 23, 1992.


Illmatic received the first 5 mics rating from The Source.In mid-1992, Nas was approached by MC Serch of 3rd Bass, who became his manager and secured Nas a record deal with Columbia Records the same year. Nas made his solo debut on the single "Halftime" from Serch's soundtrack for the film and became part of the chang gang productions with Freshy C Zebrahead. The single increased the buzz surrounding Nas and when MC Serch’s solo album is released later in the year, Nas’ standout appearance on "Back To The Grill" only intensified interest. Hailed as the second coming of Rakim, his rhyming skills attracted a significant amount of attention within the hip-hop community.

In 1994, Nas's debut album, Illmatic was finally released. Critically acclaimed and widely regarded as one of the best hip-hop albums of all time,[9] Illmatic featured lyrics that portrayed stunning visual imagery. It also featured production from Large Professor, Pete Rock (one half of legendary group with C.L. Smooth), Q-Tip (frontman for A Tribe Called Quest), L.E.S. and DJ Premier (one half of Gang Starr) as well as guest appearances from Nas friend AZ and his father Olu Dara. Aside from Halftime, three moderately popular singles were released in order to promote Illmatic. However, due to widespread bootlegging and a lack of corporate appeal, the album did not do well in terms of record sales.

Following Illmatic, Nas appeared on AZ's Doe or Die album, and collaborated with his Queensbridge-associates, Mobb Deep, on their album, The Infamous. One notable achievement during this period was Nas verse on "Verbal Intercourse" on Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. It earned Nas a Source Quotable, and gave him the distinction (at the time) of being the only non-Wu-Tang Clan member to be featured on one of their songs. It also continued his "Nas Escobar" persona, in keeping with the Mafioso-theme of the album (the alias was introduced on Mobb Deep's "Eye for an Eye" from "The Infamous" album.


[edit] 1996–1998: From It Was Written to The Firm
Columbia began to press Nas to work towards more commercial topics, such as that of the rapper The Notorious B.I.G., who had become successful by releasing street singles that still retained pop-friendly appeal. Nas traded manager MC Serch for Steve Stoute, and began preparation for his second LP, It Was Written, consciously working towards a crossover-oriented sound. It Was Written, chiefly produced by Tone and Poke of Trackmasters, was released during the summer of 1996. Two singles, "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" (featuring Lauryn Hill of The Fugees) and "Street Dreams" using the same sample as Tupac Shakur's All Eyez on Me base track and a remix with R. Kelly were instant hits. These songs were promoted by big-budget music videos directed by Hype Williams, making Nas a common name among mainstream hip-hop. It Was Written featured the debut of The Firm, a super group consisting of Nas, AZ, Foxy Brown, and Cormega. The album also expanded on Nas Escobar persona, who lived more of a Scarface/Casino-esque lifestyle. On the other hand, Illmatic, which, while having numerous references to Tony Montana and the theatrical hit featuring Al Pacino, was more about Nas life as a teenager in the projects.[4]

The Firm signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment label, and began working on their debut album. Halfway through the production of the album, Cormega was fired from the group by Steve Stoute, who had unsuccessfully attempted to force Cormega to sign a deal with his management company. Cormega therefore became one of Nas most vocal opponents, releasing a number of underground hip hop singles "dissing" Nas, Stoute, and Nature, who was Cormega's replacement in The Firm. [10]Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature Present The Firm: The Album was finally released in 1997 to mixed reviews and lackluster sales (though still reaching platinum) and the members of the super group went their separate ways.

At about this time, Nas became a spokesperson for the Willie Esco urban clothing line, but had no other connection with the clothing line. He stopped promoting Willie Esco in 2000, dissatisfied with the company's operations. During the same period, Nas co-wrote and starred in Hype Williams' 1998 feature film Belly

In 1998, Nas began work on a double album. It was to be entitled I Am…The Autobiography, which he intended as the middle ground between the extremes of Illmatic and It Was Written. The plans were for it to be a double album autobiography of Nas with each track detailing a part of his life. The album was completed in early 1999, and a music video was shot for its lead single, "Nas Is Like." It was produced by DJ Premier and contained vocal samples from "It Ain't Hard to Tell." Much of the LP was leaked into MP3 format onto the Internet and Nas and Stoute quickly recorded enough substitute material to constitute a single-disc release. Those leaked tracks include "Amongst Kings," "Blaze a 50," "Drunk By Myself," "Hardest Thing to Do Is Stay Alive," "U Gotta Love It," "Find Ya Wealth," "Project Windows," "Fetus," "Wanna Play Rough," "Sometimes I Wonder," and "Daydreamin, Stay Scheming."


The second single for I Am… was "Hate Me Now," featuring Diddy, which was used as an example by Nas critics of him moving towards commercial themes. Hype Williams shot an allegorical video for the single, which featured Nas and Diddy being crucified in a manner similar to Jesus; after the video was completed, Diddy, a Catholic, requested his crucifixion scene be edited out of the video. However, the unedited copy of the "Hate Me Now" video made its way to MTV, and was premiered on April 15, 1999 on TRL. Within minutes of the broadcast, a furious Combs and his bodyguards allegedly made their way into Steve Stoute's office and assaulted him, at one point apparently hitting Stoute over the head with a champagne bottle[11] Stoute pressed charges, but he and Combs settled out-of-court that June.

Columbia had scheduled to release the pirated material from I Am… under the title Nastradamus during the latter half of 1999, but, at the last minute, Nas decided that he should record an entire new album for the 1999 release of Nastradamus. Nastradamus was therefore rushed to meet a November release date. Though critics were not kind to the album, it did result in a minor hit, "You Owe Me." It was produced by Timbaland and featured R&B singer Ginuwine. The only pirated track from I Am… to make it onto Nastradamus was "Project Windows," featuring Ronald Isley. A number of the other bootlegged tracks later made their way onto The Lost Tapes, a collection of underground Nas songs that was released by Columbia in September 2002. The collection saw decent sales and received glowing reviews.

The highly publicized feud between Nas and Jay-Z started when Nas failed to show up to a scheduled recording session to record the hook on Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt track, "Dead Presidents".

Even though it was obvious to most hip hop heads that a rivalry existed between Nas and Jay-Z, the rivalry wasn't made known to the general public until a rivalry between Nas, and Jay-Z's protégé, Memphis Bleek. On his debut album, The Coming of Age, Bleek made a song entitled "Memphis Bleek Is," which was similar in concept to Nas single "Nas Is Like." On the same album, Bleek recorded "What You Think Of That," featuring Jay-Z. This contains the refrain, "I'ma ball 'til I fall/What you think of that?". In retaliation, "Nastradamus," the title track from Nas second 1999 album, featured the quote, "You wanna ball till you fall, I can help you with that/You want beef? I could let a slug melt in your hat." Memphis Bleek perceived the reference on "Nastradamus" as an insult, and retaliated against Nas on the lead single for his next album, The Understanding. That single, "My Mind Right," stated "And only a few fit in, your lifestyle's written/So who you supposed to be, play your position".

In 2000, QB's Finest was released on Nas Ill Will Records. QB's Finest is a compilation album that featured Nas and a number of other rappers from Queensbridge projects, including Mobb Deep, Nature, Capone, the Bravehearts, Tragedy Khadafi, Millennium Thug and Cormega, who had briefly reconciled with Nas. The album also featured guest appearances from Queensbridge hip-hop legends Roxanne Shanté, MC Shan, and Marley Marl. Shan and Marley Marl both appeared on the lead single "Da Bridge 2001," which was based on Shan & Marl's 1986 recording "The Bridge."

"Da Bridge 2001" also featured a response from Nas to Memphis Bleek, in which Nas retaliated with "Oh you didn't, wanna know whose life was written/The life I'm livin" and "Jaws is broke, your whole crew is coffin bound/Your ho, your man, lieutenant, your boss get found".

Jay-Z responded to Nas songs with an on stage swipe during the 2001 Hot 97 Summer Jam concert in New York City, when he premiered his song "Takeover". Initially, the song was to only be a Mobb Deep diss it only included a single line about Nas near the end. Nevertheless, Nas recorded the "Stillmatic Freestyle", an underground single which sampled Eric B. and Rakim's "Paid in Full" beat, and attacked Jay-Z and his Roc-A-Fella label. On his 2001 album, The Blueprint, Jay-Z added a third verse to "Takeover" dissing Nas, claiming that he had "...one hot album every ten year average" record (referring to Illmatic), that his flow was weak, and that he had fabricated his past as a hustler.

Nas responded with Ether, which begins with gunshots and a repeated, slowed-down sample from "Fuck Friendz" of Tupac Shakur rapping "Fuck Jay-Z." In "Ether," Nas accuses Jay-Z of stealing ("biting") lyrics from The Notorious B.I.G., getting the name "Blueprint" from a previous KRS-One album of the same name, and brown-nosing Nas and other rappers for fame. Nas also claimed that all of Jay-Z's raps on The Blueprint were inferior to the one guest verse on the album (Eminem's on "Renegade"): Eminem murdered you on your own shit. Ether was included on Nas fifth studio album, Stillmatic, released in December 2001. Stillmatic managed to be not only a critically-acclaimed comeback album, but a commercial success as well, albeit not on the level of It Was Written and I Am…, the album debuted at #7 on the Billboard album charts and featured the singles "Got Ur Self A..." and "One Mic."

Jay-Z responded to Ether with a song entitled "Supa Ugly," going into detail about how he had sex with Carmen Bryan, the mother of Nas daughter Destiny. This wasn't the first time Jay-Z alluded to his relationship with Nas daughter's mother in the song "Is That Your Chick" the lost verses addition was said to be all about Jay-Z, Carmen and Nas. Nas dismissed the track by claiming that he was no longer with Bryan during the time the affair took place.In a recent interview, however, New York radio station Hot 97 settled the battle taking votes comparing "Ether"/"Stillmatic" and "Takeover"/"Supa Ugly," and Nas won with 58% while Jay-Z got 42% of the votes.

Jay-Z also responded to Nas on Jay-Z's 2002 album, The Blueprint²: The Gift & the Curse on the track named "Blueprint 2." On that track, Jay-Z says that no matter what happened in the battle, he's never been phony and that Nas is hypocritical for recording songs like 'Black Girl Lost" and then turning around and taking advantage of those same lost black girls on tracks like 'You Owe Me'. Jay-Z also claims that he single handedly revitalized Nas career by dissing him in the first place.

Nas spoke about the battle once more on the track "Last Real Nigga Alive" from the album God's Son. On this track Nas breaks down how the battle went down. He raps about coming up in the game with fellow artists like the Wu-Tang Clan, Biggie Smalls and others. Nas raps how Jay-Z came in the mix with this line: "Jigga started to flow like us, but hit with 'Ain't No Niggas'", how Jay-Z tried to attack when Nas and his mother went through a difficult time: "I gave it all up so I can chill at home with mama/She was getting old and sick so I stayed beside her/We had the best times, she asked would I make more songs/I told her not till I see her health get more strong/In the middle of that, Jay tried to sneak attack/Assassinate my character, degrade my hood/Cause in order for him to be the Don, Nas had to go". And on the track Nas had claimed victory, "I was Scarface, Jay was Manolo/It hurt me when I had to kill him and his whole squad for dolo".

By October 2005, the two rappers had eventually ended their feud without violence or animosity. During Jay-Z's I Declare War - Power House concert, Jay-Z announced to the crowd, "It's bigger than 'I Declare War'. Let's go, Esco!" Nas then joined Jay-Z onstage, and the two then performed "Dead Presidents" together, which Jay-Z had sampled from Nas song The World Is Yours. The two also collaborated on a song called, "Black Republican" which can be found on Nas most recent CD, "Hip Hop Is Dead."

In December 2002, Nas released the God's Son album including its lead single, "Made You Look" which utilized a pitched down sample of the Incredible Bongo Band's "Apache". The album peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts despite widespread internet bootlegging.[16] Time Magazine named his album best hip-hop album of the year. Vibe gave it four stars and The Source gave it four mics. The second single, "I Can", which reworked elements from Beethoven's "Für Elise", became Nas biggest hit to date during the spring and summer of 2003, garnering substantial radio airplay on urban, rhythmic, and top 40 radio stations, as well as on the MTV and VH1 music video networks. God's Son also includes several songs dedicated to memory of Nas mother, who died of cancer in 2002, including "Dance". In 2003, Nas was featured on the Korn song "Play Me", from Korn's Take a Look in the Mirror LP. Also in 2003, a live performance in New York City, featuring Ludacris, Jadakiss, and Darryl McDaniels (of Run-D.M.C. fame), was released on DVD as Made You Look: God's Son Live.


Nas performing in 2004.Nas released his seventh studio album, the critically acclaimed double-disc Street's Disciple, on November 30, 2004. The album's first singles were "Thief's Theme" and "Bridging the Gap", which features his father Olu Dara on vocals. The album also includes "These Are Our Heroes", which accuses prominent sports stars and actors such as Kobe Bryant and O. J. Simpson of not setting good examples for the kids that look up to them and neglecting their heritage and background in favour of white values. The videos for "Bridging the Gap" and "Just A Moment" received moderate airplay on MTV and BET. Although the album went platinum, its commercial profile was relatively low compared to the rapper's previous releases.

Nas was featured on Kanye West's album Late Registration on a song titled "We Major". West said the song was Jay-Z's favorite on the album, but West was unable to get Jay-Z to record a vocal for the final mix of the song. He also appeared on Damian Marley's song "Road to Zion" and several other songs such as "Death Anniversary" and "It Wasn't You" (featuring Lauryn Hill). In addition, Nas married R&B singer Kelis on January 8, 2005 in Atlanta, Georgia, after a two-year engagement.


Nas performing in Ottawa, 2007.At a free concert in Central Park, New York, Nas made a statement regarding the quality of 50 Cent's music; "this is the real shit, not that 50 Cent shit!"50 Cent responded on his single "Piggy Bank" by speaking negatively about Nas’ wife, Kelis; implying that she was promiscuous and calling Nas a "sucker for love." Nas eventually decided to retaliate, and in July 2005 released "MC Burial (Don't Body Ya Self)", a song which taunts 50 Cent and his G-Unit crew, stating that 50 was "a sucka for death if I'm a sucka for love." and "They say Jada defeated him, Joe too street for him/What's next? I guess it's for Nas to ether him" also, "Niggas don't want beef, they vegetarian/Scared of pussy, you climbed out of cesarean/I'll push your grown ass back in your mother's womb". However, despite all of this, Nas still claims to "have a lot of love towards 50", claiming 50 didn't understand his moves when they both were together at Columbia Records.

After rap duo Mobb Deep signed to G-Unit, they decided to diss Nas since G-Unit had beef with Nas. They released a diss song targeting Nas and the Bravehearts sometime in 2005 titled "It's That..."[
In January 2006, Nas signed a label deal with Def Jam, emphasizing collaboration over competition with former rival Jay-Z.Nas original title for his next album was Hip Hop Is Dead...The N(shortened to Hip Hop Is Dead), though the UK release features a bonus track at the end called "The N." The album featured production from will.i.am, Kanye West, Dr. Dre, Scott Storch, and NBA All Star Chris Webber, as well as longtime Nas collaborators L.E.S. and Salaam Remi. A street single named "Where Y'all At" was released in June of 2006. It was produced by Salaam Remi, and contained a sample from Nas "Made You Look," but it did not make Hip Hop Is Dead's final cut.

The title record and first single was produced by will.i.am, and contains the same melodic sample ("In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida") as Nas 2004 single "Thief's Theme." The album debuted on Def Jam and Nas new imprint at that label, The Jones Experience, at number one on the Billboard 200 charts, selling 355,000 copies--Nas's third number one album, along with 1996's It Was Written and 1999's I Am….A music video for "Can't Forget About You" premiered on February 5, 2007. "Can't Forget About You" featuring Chrisette Michele boasts a sample from Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable." Another video, Hustlers, featuring The Game, would follow. Also, Nas has stated in an interview with MTV that a video for "Black Republican" featuring Jay-Z is also underway and is being directed by an unknown director. A reality series on MTV entitled Me and Mrs. Jones will feature the lives of Nas and Kelis.Vibe magazine has reported that the show will premiere in 2008.

The title of the album generated controversy, as many fans and artists (particularly those of Southern origin) began to debate over the actual state of rap music's vitality. With this album Nas became kind of the leader of the "Hip Hop Is Dead" movement. Ghostface Killah, on his album Fishscale seemed to agree with Nas and cited Southern crunk and snap music as the primary reasons for why hip-hop was "dead". Many Southern acts, such as rappers Lil Wayne, Lil Boosie, Young Jeezy, Dem Franchize Boyz, and D4L took offense to the title, taking it to be directed at their region in particular.

Nas worked on a song called "Shine On 'Em" for the film Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou, which opened in US theatres on December 8, 2006. His song "Thief's Theme" was featured in one of the scenes in the Academy Award-winning movie The Departed directed by Martin Scorsese

Nas is preparing to release a Greatest Hits album this November through his former label, Columbia Records. This compilation will feature 12 songs from his seven first studio LPs under the label, plus two newly recorded songs. One of the tracks, "Less Than An Hour," debuted on AOL Music on August 10, and features Cee-Lo Green of Goodie Mob and Gnarls Barkley fame. The track is a new take on the theme to the hugely successful Rush Hour film trilogy starring Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan, and will appear on the upcoming Rush Hour 3 soundtrack.

Nas recently stirred up controversy when he announced the title of his new album, Nigger . Reverend Jesse Jackson criticized him, saying "The title using the 'N' word is morally offensive and socially distasteful. Nas has the right to degrade and denigrate in the name of free speech, but there is no honor in it. Radio and television stations have no obligation to play it and self-respecting people have no obligation to buy it. I wish he would use his talents to lift up and inspire, not degrade."Nigger is set to be released on December 11, 2007 and will be his second album released under Def Jam.
Nas performed at a free concert for the Virginia Tech student body and faculty on September 6, 2007. Nas was joined by John Mayer, Phil Vassar, and Dave Matthews Band.When announced that Nas was to perform, Bill O'Reilly and Fox News Channel denounced the concert and called for the removal of the rapper citing "violent" lyrics on songs including "Shoot 'Em Up", "Got Urself A Gun", and "Made You Look". During his Talking Points Memo segment for August 15, 2007, an argument erupted in which O'Reilly claimed that it was not only Nas lyrical content that made him inappropriate for the event, but claimed repeatedly that Nas also had a "gun conviction" on his criminal record . In the midst of his debate with author Bakari Kitwana ("The Hip Hop Generation"), who defended Nas claimed that Fox News had "cherry picked" select fragments of the songs to make their case, O'Reilly shouted, "Even in his personal life, man, he's got a conviction for weapons, all right? He's got a weapons conviction, sir! On his sheet! This is a school that had a mass murderer with a pistol gunning down people—this guy has got-a-a-conviction for weapons, and you say he's appropriate? Come on!" O'Reilly repeated the claim another four times before cutting the segment short.

Responding to O'Reilly, Nas in an interview with MTV News said:

He doesn't understand the younger generation. He deals with the past. The people he represents are Republican, older, a generation that has nothing to do with the reality of what's happening now with my generation. ... He's not really on my radar. People like him are supposed to be taught and people like me are supposed to let niggas like him know. I don't take him serious. His shit is all about getting ratings or whatever. I wouldn't honor anything Bill O'Reilly has to say. It just shows you what bloodsuckers do: They abuse something like the Virginia Tech [tragedy] for show ratings. You can't talk to a person like that.

On September 6, 2007, during his set at "A Concert for Virginia Tech," Nas twice referred to Bill O'Reilly as "a chump", prompting some members of the crowd to cheer in agreement, yet many other audience members gave no positive reaction at all. About two weeks later, Nas was interviewed by Shaheem Reid of MTV News, where he criticized O'Reilly, calling him uncivilized and willing to go to extremes for publicity.

2Face Idibia

Innocent Ujah Idibia (born in Jos, Plateau State) best known as 2face Idibia is a Nigerian hip hop musician and songwriter. He was a member of the defunct R&B/hip hop group Plantashun Boyz.

Idibia hails from Idoma tribe in the southern part of Benue State, in central Nigeria.He started calling himself "2Face" in 1996. "The name to me just refers to the outside and inside: when you first see me you see the outside but when you get to know me, you see the inside" he said in an interview with the BBC.

In 1997, together with Blackface and Faze, Idibia formed the group Plantashun Boyz. The group was brought to the lime light when they were featured on Tony Tetuila's song, "Omode meta".

His massively popular song "African Queen" was the first ever video to be played on Pan African channel MTV Base. 2face was the recipient of awards such as the 2005 Channel O Best Male Music Video award and the first award given for Best African at the MTV Europe Awards held in Lisbon, Portugal in November 2005. "African Queen" has been featured as one of the soundtracks of a movie called Phat Girlz.

Shortly after returning to Nigeria from London, where he accepted the Best African Art MOBO Award, armed robbers shot him in the thigh. Idibia was taken to Cedar Hospital in Festac Town

Aaliyah

Aaliyah Dana Haughton(January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001), better known as Aaliyah, was an American singer, dancer, actress, and model. Introduced to audiences by R&B singer R. Kelly, Aaliyah became famous during the mid-1990s with several hit records from the songwriting/production team of Missy Elliott and Timbaland and their associate Steve "Static" Garrett. Aaliyah soon joined Timbaland's R&B and hip hop collective, the Superfriends Clique.

She is notable for recording several hit records, including several number one R&B hits, a number one pop hit, and five top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. She has sold 32 million records worldwide. She also modeled for Tommy Hilfiger and starred in two motion pictures before dying tragically in a plane crash in the Bahamas.

Aaliyah was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City, New York to Michael and Diane Haughton, and was raised in Detroit, Michigan. Her name means "Highest, Most Exalted, The Best" in Arabic language.[4] Aaliyah was brought up as a Catholic with her older brother Rashad Haughton. Her grandmother, Mintis L. Hicks Hankerson, was of African American and Native American descent. Diane Haughton, Aaliyah's mother, also a vocalist, encouraged her daughter's career.

She appeared on the TV talent show Star Search at age ten, singing her mother's favorite song, "My Funny Valentine". Although she did not win, Aaliyah worked with an agent in New York and began to attend auditions for TV shows, including "Family Matters".

Following her appearance on Star Search Aaliyah performed on stage in Las Vegas, Nevada with Gladys Knight. In her early teens, Aaliyah attended the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts, and graduated as a Dance major with a 4.0 GPA.

Aaliyah signed with her uncle Barry Hankerson's Blackground Records label in 1993 at the age of 14. She released her debut album, titled Age Ain't Nothing but a Number, in 1994 at the age of 15. R. Kelly, was a leading songwriter and producer on her debut album. The album displayed her smooth and velvety vocals and the production work was said to be original and innovative.[citation needed] The album went platinum within months. The album featured the gold-selling singles "Back and Forth", "At Your Best," "Down With The Clique," and the album-title single "Age Ain't Nothing But A Number."

One In A Million, Aaliyah's second album, was chiefly written and produced by then-unknowns Missy Elliott and Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley. One in a Million was released on August 27, 1996 when Aaliyah was 17 years of age. The album became a landmark in Aaliyah's career, garnering her mass critical acclaim. The album was certified double-platinum within a year, making Aaliyah a major R&B and igniting the successful careers of Missy Elliott and Timbaland. One in a Million featured the international smash hits; "If Your Girl Only Knew", "One In A Million", "Got to Give It Up", "4 Page Letter", "Hot Like Fire", and "The One I Gave My Heart To".

To date, One in a Million has sold over 3.7 million copies in the U.S. and over 11 million worldwide.

"We Need a Resolution," the first single from Aaliyah's third studio album, was released April 24, 2001 (see 2001 in music). The self-titled Aaliyah was released three months later on July 17, 2001. The album was an instant critical success. Aaliyah introduced a darker and edgier side to Aaliyah's music and was noted as having showcased her growth as an artist. Around the time of the album's recording and release she had been filming Queen of the Damned, which helped her show a dark and edgy side as her character was a deadly villain. The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 186,000 copies in its first week, and was certified gold (526,000 copies sold) within four weeks before her death. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails was to produce a song on the album but scheduling conflicts did not permit the collaboration. I Care 4 U is the fourth and final single from the album.

There was no shortage of confusion at the label regarding the next single from the Aaliyah album. Aaliyah had been promoting "More Than a Woman", having performed it twice and shooting a video with director Dave Meyers in the summer of 2001. According to Blackground, a remix featuring State Property and Jay-Z was also planned, but was scrapped due to her death. The video was to be released but "Rock the Boat" began receiving huge amounts of radio-play, so she was immediately sent to the Bahamas to shoot the video. The "Rock the Boat" music video was put in the 106 & Park: BET's Top 10 Live hall of fame, making the countdown over 65 times and landed in second place on BET's Top 100 videos of 2001. The album went on to sell over 8 million copies worldwide.

I Care 4 U was released on December 10, 2002. Along with her hit singles, a number of previously unreleased tracks were included on the album, including "Erica Kane", "Don't Worry" and "All I Need" and the new singles "Miss You", "Don't Know What to Tell Ya", and "Come Over." I Care 4 U debuted at an impressive #3 on the Billboard 200 and #1 on the R&B album charts (where it remained for 7 weeks). The album went on to sell over 2.6 million in the U.S. and 5 million worldwide.

The video for "Miss You" features Missy Elliott, Toni Braxton, Lil' Kim, Dallas Austin, MTV presenter and close friend Ananda Lewis, actor/singer Jamie Foxx, AJ Calloway, Free, Quddus, Missy's recent protegé and longtime friend Tweet, U-God (of the Wu-Tang Clan) and DMX, Rosario Dawson, among others, paying tribute to Aaliyah. Following her death, her single "Miss You" made it to #1 on the US R&B Charts. The album earned Aaliyah a posthumous Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)

In 1995, at age 16, Aaliyah performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" live at an Orlando Magic basketball game. She performed on nickelodeon's former show "All That" performing "Age ain't nothin but a number". Also during that year, she appeared in the movie and on the soundtrack for A Low Down Dirty Shame with the minor international hit "The Thing I Like" (#33 UK). The song was also included on international versions of Age Ain't Nothing But A Number.

In 1996 she appeared on "All That" again and performed her hit song "One in a Million".

In 1997, Aaliyah appeared on the soundtrack album for the Fox Animation Studios animated feature Anastasia, singing the pop version of "Journey to the Past". The song was nominated for an Academy Award, and Aaliyah performed the song at the 1998 Academy Awards ceremony, becoming the youngest female recording artist to perform at the ceremony.

Aaliyah had a hit in 1998 with "Are You that Somebody" (#4 airplay U.S. and #1 R&B airplay for eight weeks), the main single from the Dr. Dolittle soundtrack. Its video was the third most-played on MTV that year, and the song's success helped make Aaliyah a household name and crowned Her as Queen of Urban Pop.

In 2000, she co-starred with Jet Li in the martial arts film Romeo Must Die, which debuted at number one at the box office. Aaliyah and Timbaland executive produced the film's soundtrack album and Aaliyah contributed four songs: "Are You Feelin' Me?," "I Don't Wanna", "Come Back in One Piece," a duet with DMX, and the international number one hit "Try Again." Aaliyah made history once more when "Try Again" became the first song to ever reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 based solely on the strength of its radio airplay, without any single sales factored in. After the huge success of "Try Again" at radio, a 12" maxi single was released for consumer purchase. The radio-only single, "I Don't Wanna", (which was also featured on the soundtracks for the films Next Friday and Romeo Must Die) peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop Singles & Tracks chart.

In 2001, Aaliyah went to Australia to co-star with Stuart Townsend in the film Queen of the Damned, an adaptation of the Anne Rice novel of the same name. Aaliyah also recorded most of her third studio album, Aaliyah, during this time.

In 2004, The Matrix was released to DVD, inside the special features and documentaries are tributes and footage of Aaliyah.

Aaliyah had a supporting role as Zee, the wife of Harold Perrineau Jr.'s character, Link, in the two sequels to The Matrix. The directors initially tried to find a way to incorporate her footage into the movies but decided against it due to lack of material available. The role was recast with Nona Gaye playing the character. Other films in which Aaliyah was signed to star in were Honey (which instead was filmed with Jessica Alba as the main character), and a Whitney Houston-produced remake of the 1976 film Sparkle (now in the works with Raven-Symoné as the main character).

On August 25, 2001, at 6:49 pm (EST), just after wrapping up filming of the "Rock The Boat" video, Aaliyah and various members of her record company boarded a twin engine Cessna 402B (N8097W) at Marsh Harbour, Abaco Island, Bahamas to travel to Opa-locka Airport near Miami, Florida. The crew had another flight scheduled 3 days ahead, but wrapping for the video ended early. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff about 200 feet (70 m) from the runway. Pilot Luis Morales III and all eight passengers, including Aaliyah, were killed in the aviation accident. According to findings from an inquest conducted by the coroners office in the Bahamas, Aaliyah suffered from "severe burns and a blow to the head," in addition to severe shock. The coroner theorized that, even if Aaliyah had survived the crash, her recovery would have been virtually impossible given the severity of her injuries.

Aaliyah's funeral was held on August 31 at Saint Ignatius Loyola Roman Catholic Church in Manhattan, NYC. She is interred in the Rosewood Mausoleum at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

The NTSB report states "The airplane was seen lifting off the runway, and then nose down, impacting in a marsh on the south side of the departure end of runway 27."

It also indicates that the pilot, Luis Morales III, was not approved to pilot the plane he was attempting to fly. Morales falsely obtained his FAA license by showing hundreds of hours never flown, and he may also have falsified how many hours he had flown in order to get a job with his employer, Blackhawk International Airways. Additionally, an autopsy performed on Morales revealed traces of cocaine and alcohol in his blood.

Further investigations determined the plane was over its total gross weight by several hundred pounds.

Eddie Golson, president of Pro Freight Cargo Services at Opa-locka Airport, said workers carted "a pickup truck of freight" from the crash site. "That's absurd to think that this pilot got in this airplane with eight other people and a truck full of freight and expected this thing to fly," Golson said. Two of the passengers, members of Aaliyah's entourage, weighed in the region of 300 pounds and sat in the rear of the plane, where the baggage was also stored.

Planes are designed to fly significantly over their rated weight limit, but with heavy passengers and cargo in the back, the center of gravity was pushed too far aft. This caused an uncontrollable nose-up attitude, leading to a stall.

The day of the crash was Morales' first official day with Blackhawk International Airways, a FAA Part 135 single-pilot operation. In addition, Luis Morales III was not registered with the FAA to fly for Blackhawk. As a result of the accident, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed by Aaliyah’s parents and was later settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

Barry & Sons, Inc., a corporation formed in 1992 to develop, promote and capitalize on the musical talents of Aaliyah and to oversee the production and distribution of her records, tapes and music videos, brought an unsuccessful lawsuit in the Supreme Court of the State of New York against Instinct Productions LLC, (a company hired by Barry & Sons, Inc. in August, 2001 to produce the "Rock the Boat" music video). The case was dismissed since New York State's wrongful death statute only permits certain people to recover damages for wrongful death.

"Rock the Boat" went on to become a posthumous hit on radio (reaching number two on Billboard's Hot R&B Singles charts, number 14 on the Hot 100, and number 12 in the UK) and video channels, and the news of Aaliyah's death gave her album a notable sales boost, pushing it to number one on the Billboard 200. The album produced two other singles. "More than A Woman" reached number 7 on Billboard's Hot R&B singles chart, number 25 on Hot 100, and number one in the UK. "I Care 4 U" reached number three on Billboard's Hot R&B singles chart and number 3 on the Hot 100, the latter attaining success even without the promotional push of a music video. The Aaliyah album went on to sell over 3 million copies in the U.S.

Her second and last film Queen of the Damned was released in early 2002. Before its release, Aaliyah's brother Rashad was called upon to re-dub several of his sister's lines during the post-production ADR process. Upon its release, the film debuted at number one. The film was also dedicated to her memory.

In 2001, Missy Elliott released her video for "Take Away". The video contained words and images about Aaliyah. The single also featured Ginuwine and was the debut of Elliott's recent protégé, Tweet.

Aaliyah and former Beatle George Harrison made UK Chart history in January 2002 when they scored the first, and to this date only, back-to-back posthumous number one hits (aside from the Elvis Presley re-releases in 2005). Aaliyah's "More than a Woman", released on January 7 and topped the chart on January 13, was followed by Harrison's "My Sweet Lord", re-released on January 14 and topped the chart on January 20. Aaliyah was voted one of "The Top 40 Woman of the Video Era" in VH1's The Greatest, also ranked #36 on their list of the 100 Sexiest Artist. Aaliyah also made E!'s list on the 101 Most Shocking Moments in Entertainment, Juciest Hollywood Hookups, and Best Kept Hollywood Secrets. Aaliyah recently ranked at #18 on BET's "Top 25 Dancers of All Time" and ranked at #4 on BET's "Top 25 Sexiest Women of all Time". In 2005, former Co-Star Jet Li as reported from CNN stated the memory of Aaliyah had haunted him in Vancouver, where he and the late songstress shot the film Romeo Must Die.

In addition Aaliyah has been the topic of five books: Aaliyah: More than a Woman (2001) by Christopher John Farley, Aaliyah: An R&B Princess in Words and Pictures (2002) by Kelly Kenyatta, Aaliyah by Tim Footman (2003), and Aaliyah Remembered: Her Life & The Person behind the Mystique (2005) by William Sutherland.

Another way Aaliyah's legacy will live on, is through The Aaliyah Memorial Fund. The money donated goes to charities Aaliyah supported. Aaliyah's Cancer Awareness Angels participate in a Revlon Run Walk in which Aaliyah herself once participated.

The Emotions

The Emotions comprised of:

Sheila Hutchinson (b. 17th December 1953, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A., lead vocal)

Wanda Hutchinson (b. 17th December 1951, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.)

and Jeanette Hutchinson (b. February 1951, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.)

The Emotions were formed in 1968 in their hometown of Chicago, Illinois.

Initially, when four and six years old respectively, they began singing Gospel in the mid 1950's.

Their father, Joe Hutchinson, taught the girls how to play and sing music.

Prior to that incarnation they went under the names of the Heavenly Sunbeams (making an guest appearance in 1958, on television, on the Jerry Van Dyke show).

Later they were known as the Hutchinson Sunbeams up until 1968.

Their admirers included the Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson.

Their father re-titled the girls as Three Ribbons And A Bow, however they were soon to become the Emotions.

As a group they recorded in their hometown up until a chance recommendation of the late Pervis Staples of the Staple Singers, they found a recording home at the Stax Record label.

Pervis had recorded with the group previously for the Twin Stacks imprint.

Whilst the girls were children they had some local success locally before signing with the Memphis-based Volt imprint.

Here they worked alongside the producers Isaac Hayes and David Porter.


The Emotions first release, 'So I Can Love You' was released in 1969.

The song reached the U.S. Top 40.

They toured with many of the Stax artists, including The Staples Singers and others including The Jackson 5, Sly and the Family Stone, The O'Jays and Stevie Wonder.

Other singles followed in 1971, 'Show Me How', and in 1972, 'I Could Never Be Happy'.

Jeanette, at one time, was replaced by her cousin, Theresa Davis.

She later returned to the group, while a fourth sister, Pamela, joined the group when Theresa Davis departed.

By 1976, the Emotions had relocated to the Columbia imprint, where they began a fruitful liaison with Maurice White of Earth, Wind and Fire.

Here their 1976 debut for the label, 'Flowers', title track, has become a Soul Classic amongst purists.

In 1977, the group enjoyed their most successful moment to date, with the release of 'Best Of My Love', which hit the number one spot in the States.

The parent album 'Rejoice' included the songs 'Don't Ask My Neighbours', 'Blessed' (an Anita Baker favourite) and 'A Feeling Is'.

Two years later and a collaboration with Earth, Wind and Fire, continued their chart success.

'Boogie Wonderland' hit the top spot again and maintained the high profile of both groups.

Three more albums followed on Maurice White's ARC label between 1979 to 1981.

The Emotions then relocated to the Red label for the 1984 LP, 'Sincerely'.

The album included the single "All Things Come in Time.'

They issued three other singles from the album.


They then signed with Motown Records, and released one album, entitled 'If I Only Knew'.


Sheila Hutchinson was a featured vocalist on the late Garry Glenn's 'Feels Good to Feel Good' offering in 1987.


Pam and Jeanette Hutchinson recorded background vocals on Helen Baylor's gospel song 'There's No Greater Love' in 1990.


Wanda Hutchinson and Jeanette contributed to Earth, Wind & Fire's 'Heritage' set in 1990.

Sheila Hutchinson released a solo single entitled 'Keep A Little Lovelight Burning' / 'Ill Be There For You' the same year, that became a popular song with the U.K.'s Soul purists.

The song was distributed by Soul Bowl Records.

The following year, the sisters released the song 'I Want To Thank You For Your Love' for the movie soundtrack 'BeBe's Kids'.

The Emotions were inducted into the R & B Hall of fame on the 4th October 2001, at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem.

Canon

Micheal Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson (born August 29, 1958), commonly known as MJas well as "The King of Pop",is an American musician, entertainer, and pop icon whose career and controversial personal life have been a part of pop culture for almost 40 years.

Michael Jackson is widely regarded as one of the greatest entertainers and most popular recording artists in history, displaying complicated physical techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, that have redefined mainstream dance and entertainment.His achievements in the music industry have included a revolutionary transformation of music videos,establishing high-profile album releases and sales as a new trend for record companies to generate profits,dominating pop music during the 1980s,and becoming the first black entertainer to amass a strong following on MTV while leading the relatively young channel out of obscurity.His distinctive style, moves, and vocals have inspired, influenced, and spawned a whole generation of hip hop, pop, and R&B artists. He has been named the "Most Successful Entertainer of All Time" by Guinness World Records.

Jackson began his musical career at the age of five with the Jackson Family vocal group. He released his first solo recording, Got to Be There, in 1971, while remaining a member of the group.In his solo career, Jackson recorded and co-produced the best-selling album of all time, Thriller, which has worldwide sales exceeding 104 million. After Thriller, Jackson continued to release internationally chart-topping albums like Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), HIStory (1995), and Invincible (2001), his latest album of fully original material. Michael Jackson has received thirteen Grammy Awardsand charted thirteen #1 singles in the United States, more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era.In November 2006, the World Music Awards announced that Michael Jackson had sold over 750 million units worldwide and given $300 million to charity,making Jackson one of the best-selling music artists and one of the most charitable humanitarians of all time, whose efforts on the latter front have been acknowledged with a Nobel Peace Prize nomination.

From 1988 to 2005, Jackson lived on his Neverland Ranch property, where he built an amusement park and private zoo that was frequently attended by disadvantaged and terminally ill children. Rumours of sleepover parties received negative media coverage after it was revealed that children frequently slept in his bed or bedroom. These first came to light when he was accused of child sexual abuse in 1993. Michael Jackson's relationship with children was brought into the spotlight again in 2003 when the TV documentary Living with Michael Jackson was broadcast. This resulted in Jackson being tried, and later acquitted, of more child molestation allegations and several other charges in 2005. Since then, Michael Jackson has lived in countries such as Bahrain and Ireland, but has since returned to the United States.

Main article: The Jackson 5
Michael Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana to a working-class family, the second-youngest brother of seven and the eighth of ten children of Joseph (Joe) and Katherine Jackson. Katherine, a Jehovah's Witness, raised the children in that faith, while Joe, who initially started studying with the Witnesses, eventually decided not to join.Jackson's father was a steel mill employee who often performed in an R&B band called "The Falcons" with his brother Luther. The father was a strict disciplinarian, and many of the Jackson children recall being spanked or whipped by their father for misbehaving.

Jackson showed musical talent early on and joined his brothers when they formed a group in 1964. Rolling Stone says of his early years: "First he was a prodigy" who had "...overwhelming musical gifts," and notes that after Jackson joined the Jackson Family vocal group at age five, "he quickly emerged as the main draw and lead singer." Even though he sang with a "child's piping voice, he danced like a grown-up hoofer and sang with the R&B/gospel inflections of Sam Cooke, James Brown, Ray Charles, and Stevie Wonder." During this period, the boys toured Indiana extensively, and after winning a major local talent show in 1966 with a rendition of The Temptations' "My Girl", led by Michael, they began playing professional gigs in Chicago, Illinois and across the mid-eastern U.S. Many of these gigs were in a string of black clubs and venues collectively known as the "chitlin' circuit," and the young kids sometimes had to open for strip teasers and other adult acts in order to earn money.

The young Jackson had taken co-lead singing duties with brother Jermaine when the group's name changed from "The Jackson Brothers" to "The Jackson 5" in 1966. The group eventually auditioned for, and signed a contract with, Motown Records in 1968. They hit stardom with their first four singles, "I Want You Back", "ABC", "The Love You Save", and "I'll Be There", which charted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the first time ever a group had pulled off that feat. As a solo artist, Jackson released a total of four studio albums with Motown, among them Got to Be There in 1971 and Ben in the following year. These were released as part of the Jackson 5 franchise and produced successful singles such as "Got to Be There", "Ben", and a remake of Bobby Day's "Rockin' Robin". Between 1971 and 1975, Jackson's voice "descended ever so slightly from boy soprano to his current androgynous high tenor."

The group's sales declined after 1973 and they chafed under Motown's strict refusal to allow them creative control or input. In 1976, the group signed a new contract with CBS Records (first joining the Philadelphia International division and then Epic Records). When this became apparent to Motown Records, they sued the group for breach of contract.

As a result of the legal proceedings, which were complicated further by the fact that Jermaine Jackson was married to the daughter of Motown president (Berry Gordy), the Jacksons lost the rights to use the "Jackson 5" name and logo.Jermaine left the group, choosing to stay at Motown. They changed their name to "The Jacksons", featuring youngest brother Randy in Jermaine's place, and continued their successful career, touring internationally and releasing six more albums between 1976 and 1984, with Jermaine eventually re-joining in 1983, making them a sextet. From 1976 to 1984, Michael was the lead songwriter of the group,laying down such hits as "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)", "This Place Hotel", and "Can You Feel It". In 1978, Jackson starred as the scarecrow in The Wiz with former-label mate Diana Ross playing Dorothy.The songs for the musical were arranged by Quincy Jones, who established a partnership with Jackson during the film's production and agreed to produce his first solo album in four years

Main article: Off the Wall
Off the Wall, released in 1979, was a worldwide success story that made music history, becoming the first album ever to spawn four top-ten hits, including the number-one hits, "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Rock with You".It reached #3 in the Billboard album charts, spending 48 consecutive weeks inside the Top 20.Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson jointly produced the album, with lyrics and music by Jackson, Heatwave's Rod Temperton, Stevie Wonder, and Paul McCartney, among others. The album signaled the arrival of a new Michael Jackson, one not reliant upon his brothers to further his career.Off the Wall, buoyed by its catchy dance rhythms and avoidance of the "shallow excesses...of the period's disco,"eventually sold some 20 million copies worldwide.Despite its commercial success, Jackson felt the album should have made a much bigger impact and was determined to exceed expectations with his next release.

In January 1980, Jackson won his first awards for his solo efforts at the American Music Awards. He won "Favorite Soul/R&B Album" (for Off the Wall), "Favorite Male Soul/R&B Artist" and Favorite Soul/R&B Single (for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough").Later that month, he also won two Billboard Awards (for "Top Black Artist" and "Top Black Album").On February 27, 1980, Jackson won a Grammy Award for "Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male" (for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough").In 2003, the TV network VH1 named Off the Wall the thirty-sixth greatest album of all time.Rolling Stone ranked it #68 in their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Main articles: Thriller (album), We Are the World, and Captain EO
In November 1982, the storybook for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was released. It included Jackson reading the story as well as one original song ("Someone in the Dark"). The album later won a Grammy for "Best Album for Children".On the first day of the following month, Jackson released his second Epic album, Thriller. Thriller became by far the biggest selling album of all time with worldwide sales reaching over 104 million copies.

The album also became the first in history to spawn seven top-ten Billboard Hot 100 hit singles,including "Billie Jean", which was the first music video by a black artist to receive regular airplay on MTV,"Beat It", and the album's title track, which was accompanied by a revolutionary music video. The thirteen-minute "Thriller" video was critically acclaimed and massive airplay lead to it being packaged with the featurette Making Michael Jackson's Thriller on VHS, where it became the best-selling music home video ever.Thriller spent 37 weeks at #1 and remained on the Billboard album chart for 122 weeks. It was eventually certified 27x Platinum in the U.S.

In 1983, while performing "Billie Jean" at the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever concert, Jackson debuted what can be regarded as his signature move: the moonwalk.The performance sparked a new wave of interest in Thriller, which continued to sell well throughout the year. In 1983, he started a sponsorship deal with Pepsi-Cola, and, as part of the deal, he agreed to star in a commercial. While filming the commercial in front of 3,000 fans the following year, a fireworks display behind him malfunctioned, shooting a shower of sparks down upon the singer’s head and setting fire to his hair. He suffered second-degree burns and later wore a hairpiece when collecting Grammys that year.

In February 1984, Jackson was nominated for twelve Grammy awards - of which he won eight- breaking the record for the most Grammy awards won in a single year.Seven were for Thriller and the other for the E.T.: The Extra-terrestrial storybook. In 1984, he also won eight American Music Awards and the "Special Award of Merit" and three MTV Video Music Awards.

Thriller was a gigantic hit that made Michael Jackson the seminal icon of American culture at the time. At the age of 25, the New York Times called him a "musical phenomenon", further commenting that "in the world of pop music, there is Michael Jackson and there is everybody else".Time magazine explained that "the fallout from Thriller has given the [music] business its best years since the heady days of 1978, when it had an estimated total domestic revenue of $4.1 billion."Thriller also helped to bring music from African-American artists back into mainstream radio for the first time since the mid-1970s.

The album dominated much of the world's conscience in its heyday; as one Soviet high school senior put it, "[Michael Jackson's] music is electrifying. His beat is the music of today."The Kremlin disagreed with their citizen, denouncing Michael Jackson as a "great show-biz swindle known as 'The Thriller'" and accusing the singer of serving the Reagan administration by taking the American people's minds off the country's problems.In May 1984, stores across the country started selling dolls of the superstar, who also became something of a sexual symbol, as he was described by TIME magazine: "Undeniably sexy. Absolutely safe. Eroticism at arm's length".
Additionally, Michael Jackson's rhinestone glove and Thriller jacket became iconic aspects of his outfits which American youth sported all too eagerly. As a sign of his stature at the time, Republican officials considered inviting Jackson to their national convention, in 1984, where they would renominate Reagan, but a change of plans left Ron Walker, the convention manager, stating that "We never thought we had a ghost of a chance."


Jackson (middle) with the Reagans in 1984. This was Jackson's first trip to the White House; in his second, six years later, he would meet with then President George H. W. Bush.After reuniting with his brothers, he helped to write and produce the Victory album. He then performed and starred in the Victory Tour, which started on July 6, 1984 and lasted for five months.That year, Jackson was invited to the White House and was thanked by President Ronald Reagan at a White House ceremony for allowing the song "Beat It" to be used in drunk driving prevention television and radio public service announcements.

Jackson continued his charity work in 1985 by co-writing with Lionel Richie the hit song "We Are the World", and singing a featured solo on the charity single. The record helped to raise money and awareness for the famine in East Africa and was one of the first instances where Jackson was seen as a humanitarian. The song also won a Grammy for "Song of the Year"."We Are the World" became one of the top five best-selling singles of all time and the best selling single of the 1980s

Controversy began when Jackson purchased shares in ATV Music Publishing (a company which owned the publishing rights to most of the Beatles' songs), making himself the majority shareholder. This move angered close friend and songwriter Paul McCartney, who had also made a bid for the company.Ironically, it had been McCartney who advised Jackson on the merits of song ownership.Their creative co-writing ended after this event. Following this controversial business deal, tabloid stories of Jackson sleeping in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to stall the aging-process, and an allegation claiming Jackson attempted to purchase the bones of the Elephant Man inspired the pejorative sobriquet "Wacko Jacko" (wacko meaning eccentric or irrational). The name "Wacko Jacko," first used by British media, would come to be detested by Jackson.

In 1986, Jackson starred in the George Lucas-produced, Francis Ford Coppola-directed 3-D film Captain EO. The film lasted 17 minutes but had costs estimated at $17 million. At the time, it was the most expensive film produced on a per-minute basis. In the U.S., the Disney theme parks hosted Captain EO. Disneyland featured the film in Tomorrow-Land from September 18, 1986 until April 7, 1997.It was also featured in Walt Disney World in Epcot from September 12, 1986 until July 6, 1994.Two new songs featured in the film. These were "Another Part of Me", which later appeared on Bad, and "We Are Here To Change The World", which was officially released in 2004 as part of Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection.

In october 2007, Sony/BMG Internation france released a statement saying it will release a CD/DVD to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Thriller, containing previously unreleased material.

In 1987, Jackson released Bad; his third album for the Epic record label, and final album with producer Quincy Jones.He initially wanted to make the album 30 tracks long, but Jones cut this down to 11. According to Jones, Jackson wanted the title track to be a duet with Prince who later declined the duet.Jones said the reason given by Prince was that he thought the song would be a hit whether he was in it or not.With the industry expecting another monster hit, the release was heavily anticipated as it was Jackson's first album in five years.The album had over two million advance orders.

Bad had lower sales compared to Thriller, but it was still a huge commercial success. In the U.S. it spawned seven hit singles,five of which went to #1: "I Just Can't Stop Loving You","Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel","Man in the Mirror"," and "Dirty Diana".Two decades after it was released, Bad still holds the record for generating more #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 charts than any other album.It went on to sell over 32 million copies worldwide and the RIAA certified Bad at 8x Platinum. In 1993 at the grammy awards it was acknowlegded as the second best selling album of all time but has since been overtaken.

In September 1987, Jackson embarked upon his first solo world tour, the Bad World Tour, which was greeted with worldwide mania and record-breaking attendance figures. In Japan alone, Jackson had 14 sellouts and drew 570,000 people, nearly tripling the previous record of 200,000 in a single tour.The tour lasted sixteen months and saw Jackson perform in 123 concerts to over 4.4 million fans worldwide. Jackson had a personal bus, plane, and helicopter to be available to him all at the same time throughout the tour.

Jackson hired film director Martin Scorsese to direct the video for the album's title track.When the 18-minute music video debuted on TV, it sparked a great deal of controversy as it became apparent that Jackson's appearance had changed dramatically.

The success Jackson achieved during this period in his career led to him to be dubbed the "King of Pop",a nickname which he continues to be referred to by fans and the media.The nickname was conceived by actress and friend Elizabeth Taylor when she presented Jackson with an "Artist of the Decade" award in 1989, proclaiming him "the true king of pop, rock and soul." In 1990, recognizing Michael Jackson's musical influence in the 1980s, the White House presented the singer with its own special "Artist of the Decade" award, delivered to Jackson by President George H. W. Bush, who commended Jackson for acquiring a "tremendous following", among other things.This period saw Jackson enjoy "a level of superstardom previously known only to Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Frank Sinatra."

In November 1991, Michael Jackson released Dangerous, which, at roughly 30 million copies worldwide,registered sales figures almost identical to those of Bad and became one of the most successful New jack swing albums of all time. Dangerous featured several major worldwide hits, including "Black or White", "Remember the Time", "In the Closet", "Give In To Me", and "Heal the World". Dangerous was heavily anticipated, as highlighted by an incident at the Los Angeles International Airport that witnessed a group of armed robbers stealing 30,000 copies of the new album before its official release.

The biggest hit single in the United States from the album was "Black or White", which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained there for seven weeks,with similar performances around the world. The single was accompanied by a controversial video, premièring as a simulcast on the Fox network, MTV and BET, which featured scenes construed as having a sexual nature as well as depictions of violent behavior. The offending scenes in the final half of the fourteen minute version of "Black or White" were edited out to prevent the video from being banned.Controversial entertainment has always attracted the masses, and on November 14, 1991, the video for "Black or White" simultaneously premièred in 27 countries with an estimated audience of 500 million people, the largest viewing ever for a music video.

The second single released from Dangerous was "Remember The Time" which spent 8 weeks in the top 5 in the U.S.The song hit a peak at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and #1 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart. In 1993 Jackson performed the song at the Soul Train Awards in a wheel chair saying he had an injury in rehearsalsand at the ceremony he was given three awards Best Male Single of the year for "Remember The Time", Best R&B Album for Dangerous and a Humanitarian Award for his charitable contributions to date.

In the UK as well as other parts of Europe "Heal the World" was the biggest hit from the album. In Britain, it sold 455,000 copies alone and spent 5 weeks at #2. It was the christmas #2 of 1992 and because of extra seasonal sales it outsold "Black or White.

On February 10, 1992, MTV kicked off its first global sweepstakes with "My Dinner with Michael". Winners from around the world attended a dinner party hosted by Michael Jackson on the set of his "In the Closet" music video.Later that year, a biopic, The Jacksons: An American Dream, debuted on ABC; it was based on the true story of the rise of The Jackson 5.

The year 1992 also witnessed one of Jackson's most high-profile international visits: a trip to Africa in which he visited several countries, among them Gabon and Egypt.This was the singer's second arrival on the continent, his first having occurred as a 14-year-old with the Jackson 5.His first stop to Gabon was greeted with a sizable reception of more than 100,000 people in "spiritual bedlam", some of them carrying signs that read, "Welcome Home Michael".In his trip to the Ivory Coast, Jackson visited the gold-mining village of Krindjabo, populated by the Agni tribe and located near the capital of Abidjan, and was crowned "King Sani" by a tribal chief.He then thanked the dignitaries in French and English, signed official documents formalizing his kingship, and sat on a golden throne while presiding over ceremonial dances.Jackson finished his stay in Africa by going to Egypt and promoting the Dangerous album. In January 1993, he performed during the halftime show at Super Bowl XXVII. It drew one of the largest viewing audiences in the history of American television.Jackson was given the "Living Legend Award" at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.

In June 1995, Jackson released HIStory: Past, Present And Future - Book I,which went on to sell 18 million copies (36 million units) worldwide,making it the greatest selling multiple-disc album of all time.To promote the album, Jackson embarked on the successful HIStory World Tour,which was attended by more than four and a half million people, a record for concert attendance outside of the United States that still stands. Jackson also made a promotional "teaser" music video showing him marching with thousands of military personnel as well as shipping statues of himself on boats around Europe.

The first disc, HIStory Begins, was a fifteen-track greatest hits album (this disc was later released as Greatest Hits - HIStory Vol. I, in 2001 selling an estimated 3 million copies).[80] The second disc, HIStory Continues, contained fifteen new songs. The first single released from HIStory was "Scream," sung and performed with his sister Janet Jackson. The single had the best ever debut at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. The music video for "Scream" is one of his most critically acclaimed winning three MTV awards in 1995 and a Grammy in 1996.[78] "Scream" is currently the most expensive music video ever made.[81] "You Are Not Alone" was the second single released from HIStory and would become the first song ever to debut at #1 on the Hot 100,[82] beating his previous single "Scream". It reached #1 in various international markets, including Britain. It was seen as a major artistic and commercial success.[17]

"Earth Song" was the third single released from HIStory and was accompanied by one of the most expensive and lavish videos of Jackson's career. The song topped the U.K. singles chart for six weeks over Christmas in 1995 and sold one million copies there, making it his most successful U.K. single, surpassing the success of "Billie Jean". At the 1996 BRIT Awards Jackson was awarded as the Artist of A Generation.[83] At the ceremony Jackson performed the track "Earth Song", dressed in white and surrounded by children and an actor portraying a rabbi. During the performance it was alleged that Jackson was making Christ-like poses while being lifted into the air by a crane. Pulp lead singer Jarvis Cocker and his friend Peter Mansell mounted a stage invasion in protest. Cocker leapt onstage, pretended to expose his rear and danced around. In the ensuing scuffle to remove Cocker from the stage, it was claimed that up to three children received minor injuries.[84] The British Phonographic Industry (BPI), who ran the awards, qualified this by stated that "We are extremely concerned that Jarvis Cocker's actions last night resulted in injury to three children who were performing with Michael Jackson".[84] Cocker responded, "My actions were a form of protest at the way Michael Jackson sees himself as some kind of Christ-like figure with the power of healing".[84] A spokesperson for Jackson and Sony said that "Michael feels sickened, saddened, shocked, upset, cheated [and] angry".[84] Cocker's actions were met with mixed reactions from the British press.

"They Don't Care About Us" was the fourth single released from HIStory and caused controversy over alleged anti-Semitic lyrics. The song contained the lyrics "Jew me, sue me" and "kick me, kike me." After significant pressure from the Jewish community, later releases changed the verse to the same-sounding "do me, sue me" and "kick me, strike me" or censored it with a thumping sound.

In 1997, Jackson released an album of new material titled Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix with remixes of hit singles from HIStory;[78] it sold six million copies worldwide and became the greatest selling remix album ever, reaching #1 in Britain. The album's five original songs were named "Blood On The Dance Floor", "Is It Scary", "Ghosts", "Superfly Sister", and "Morphine". Of the new songs, three were released globally: the title track, "Ghosts", and "Is It Scary". The title track reached #1 in the UK. The singles "Ghosts" and "Is It Scary" were based on a film created by Jackson called "Ghosts".[85] The short film, written by Michael Jackson and Stephen King and directed by Stan Winston, features many special effects and dance moves choreographed to original music written by Jackson.[86] The music video for "Ghosts" is over 35 minutes long and is currently the World's Longest Music Video.[87] Jackson dedicated the album to Elton John, who reportedly helped him through his addiction to painkillers and tranquilizers.

In October 2001, Invincible was released[88] and debuted at number-one in thirteen countries.[77] Invincible went on to sell nearly 8 million copies worldwide.[29] The album spawned three singles: "You Rock My World," "Cry," and "Butterflies." Around the same time that Invincible came out, Jackson and 35 other artists recorded a charity benefit single entitled "What More Can I Give", designed to raise money for 9/11 victims, which was never released.

Just before the release of Invincible, Jackson informed the head of Sony Music Entertainment, Tommy Mottola, that he was not going to renew his contract the contract was about to expire in terms of supplying the label with albums of full-new material for release through Epic Records/SME. In 2002, all singles releases, video shootings, and promotions concerning the Invincible album were canceled. As a result of this, Jackson made allegations about Mottola not supporting its African American artists.Jackson referred to Mottola as a "devil" and a "racist" who used black artists for his own personal gain.He cited that Mottola called Jackson's colleague Irv Gotti a "fat nigger".Sony issued a statement stating that they found the allegations strange since Mottola was once married to biracial pop star Mariah Carey. Carey herself seemed nonchalant about Jackson's claims when asked about them by Larry King on Larry King Live. Though Jackson claimed that the albums sales were poor compared to previous ones (less than half of HIStory his previous least-commercial album with the exception of remix album Blood on the Dance Floor), no concerts since 1997 (and no American concerts since 1989) and the album's generally weak response from critics probably contributed also. Few reviews were actually negative, but most felt it was Jackson's least impressive effort yet. Of those that were negative they were often unfair discussing the singers eccentric image rather than the music

On September 7 and September 10, 2001, Jackson organized a special 30th Anniversary celebration at Madison Square Garden for his 30th year of being a solo artist. Later, the show aired on November 13, 2001. It featured performances by Mýa, Usher, Whitney Houston, 'N Sync, the Jacksons, Slash, and a number of other artists.

In wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Jackson helped organize the United We Stand: What More Can I Give benefit concert at RFK Stadium in Washington D.C.. The concert was aired on October 21, 2001, and included performances from dozens of major artists, including Jackson, who performed his song "What More Can I Give" as the finale.

In November 2003, Michael Jackson and Sony Records released a compilation of his number-one hits on CD and DVD titled Number Ones. The compilation has sold over six million copies worldwide. On the album's scheduled release date, while Michael Jackson was in Las Vegas filming the video for "One More Chance" (the only new song included in the Number Ones compilation), the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department searched the Neverland Ranch and issued an arrest warrant for Jackson on new charges of child molestation. Jackson was accused of sexual abuse by Gavin Arviso, who appeared in the Living with Michael Jackson documentary earlier that year.

After being acquitted of the allegations, Jackson relocated to the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain, where he reportedly bought a house formerly owned by a Bahrain MP. Jackson allegedly spent his time in the Persian Gulf writing new music. In September 2005, Jackson's spokesperson Raymone Bain announced that Jackson was busy producing an all-star charity single — called "I Have This Dream" — to help raise relief funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Some of the artists initially announced by Bain as involved were never confirmed, and were omitted from later mentions of participants. After many delays, the single remains unreleased.

Since May of 2006, Jackson has been working on a new studio album, which consists of songs written since 2003. The as-yet untitled album has been recorded in Dublin, Ireland and Las Vegas by Jackson and executive producers William will.i.am Adams of The Black Eyed Peas, Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, Teddy Riley, Ron "Neff-U" Feemster, and many others. will.i.am has described the upcoming album as an "Off the Wall for today's generation. Some of the work in progress includes up-tempo, dance-floor ready tunes and 'great melodies' ". Insiders on the project are describing the tracks as 'perfect pop songs'.

The new album was expected to be released in late 2007. However. on September 17, 2007. Will.I.Am confirmed in an interview with Polish website INTERIA.PL that it will be released in 2008 and that it's not Jackson's 'comeback' album, because Michael never was finished and his music is played all around the world in every club. On the 22nd of September 2007, Jackson went to the Clinton Recording Studio in New York City to work on more tracks for the upcoming album with will.i.am.

In February 2006, Jackson's label released Visionary: The Video Singles, a box set made up of twenty of his biggest hit singles, each of which were issued individually week by week over a five-month period.Sony released the Visionary box set in the US on November 14, 2006.Jackson also visited the London office of the Guinness World Records. There, he received eight awards, among them the "First Entertainer to Earn More Than 100 million Dollars in a Year" and the "First Entertainer to Sell More Than 100 Million Albums Outside the US".

Michael Jackson was awarded the Diamond Award on November 15, 2006, for selling over 100 million albums, at the World Music Awards. This was his second public appearance at an awards show since the trial of 2005.[104] Despite tabloid rumors prior to the event,he did not perform "Thriller", instead joining a choir on stage for a verse of "We Are the World".

Following the death of James Brown, more than 8000 people – including family, friends and fans – watched as several artists, including Jackson, paid tribute to the 'Godfather of Soul' during his public funeral-turned-concert on December 30, 2006. Reverend Al Sharpton, who was close to Brown, delivered his sermon at the funeral, in which he stated that in the last conversation he had with Brown, he had said that artists like Jackson needed to continue to make positive music for all people.

In the fourth quarter of 2007, Jackson is expected to release a comeback album. There have been reports of collaborations with will.i.am (of The Black Eyed Peas), Teddy Riley, DJ Whoo Kid, Akon, Chris Brown and 50 Cent. Initially, it was thought that the Bahrain-based label Two Seas would release the album, but, in September 2006, it was made apparent that Jackson and Two Seas were no longer affiliated with each other.Consequently, Jackson formed The Michael Jackson Company which will oversee both his finances and the release of his new album. There may also be plans for a world tour to support the album. This would be his first live show since 2002 and first tour since 1997. Jackson has not toured in the states since the 1987-1989 Bad World Tour, considered a major reason for his decline in album sales there. Work began on the album in May of 2006. Also, in October 2007, Michael did a photoshoot with Bruce Weber in NYC to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of Thriller. The pictures were published in L'Uomo Vogue, the Italian men's version of Vogue magazine. Michael also did a photoshoot with photographer Michael Ralston for Ebony Magazine.

As the biggest solo star since Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson has had a notable impact on music and culture throughout the world while also tearing down social barriers and paving the way for modern pop music and the concept of the modern pop star in his own country. He has been described as an "extremely important figure in the history of popular culture,"a person with "planetary influence," and is one of the most famous living humans. Michael Jackson holds the record as the most awarded recording artist in history. Throughout his four-decade career, he has received numerous honors and awards, including the World Music Award's Best-Selling Pop Male Artist of the Millennium, the American Music Award's Artist of the Century Award,and the Bambi's Pop Artist of the Millennium Award. He is a double-inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (once as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1997 and as a solo artist in 2001) and an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame At his height, he was characterized as "an unstoppable juggernaut, possessed of all the tools to dominate the charts seemingly at will: an instantly identifiable voice, eye-popping dance moves, stunning musical versatility, and loads of sheer star power". In 1990, Vanity Fair magazine named him the "Most Popular Artist in the History of Show Business". Jackson's work has influenced and spawned a whole generation of a wide variety of artists, including Mariah Carey, Usher, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Omarion, Ne-Yo, and Chris Brown,among others

Michael Jackson is widely regarded as being the first artist to elevate music videos to a meaningful art form, setting off new trends of story-telling, mini-movies, and choreographed dance sequences that dominate the genre to this day. The concept of the short film, epitomized by 1983's "Thriller" but also seen in other Jackson videos such as "Ghosts", "Bad", "Smooth Criminal", and "Remember the Time", would largely remain unique to him, but the group-scene dancing pioneered by "Beat It" and popularized by "Thriller" has been a staple of music videos ever since. The dance sequence from "Thriller" has captivated popular culture worldwide, being replicated everywhere from Indian movies to Western wedding ceremonies.

Central to Michael Jackson’s success with music videos was the relatively young music channel MTV, created in 1981, which put Jackson’s videos in heavy rotation throughout the 1980s. Before the fruitful relationship materialized, however, Jackson struggled against the channel just to have his videos aired. In 1983, when Jackson came out with "Billie Jean", his first video from Thriller, MTV rarely aired videos by African-American performers and promptly refused Jackson’s requests for a running. Upon hearing the news, CBS Records President Walter Yetnikoff went livid, denouncing MTV and warning, "I’m pulling everything we have off the air, all our product. I’m not going to give you any more videos. And I’m going to go public and fucking tell them about the fact you don’t want to play music by a black guy". Yetnikoff's harsh stance and rhetoric worked; MTV retreated and started giving "Billie Jean" heavy coverage, laying the groundwork for a dynamic partnership with Jackson that would last for years. When the 14-minute long music video for "Thriller" came out in December 1983, it took MTV by storm, running as often as twice within an hour at its height. True to its name, the video also had the feeling of a psychological thriller, reportedly scaring viewers across the United States, especially young children. "Thriller" marked the beginning of a new era in music videos and is often cited as the greatest music video of all time.

Michael Jackson is often credited for putting MTV, initially a struggling cable channel, on the map "with pioneering videos such as "Thriller", "Billie Jean", and "Beat It"." In response to Jackson's influence, MTV shifted its musical focus as time went on, going from rock videos to more and more pop and R&B showings.

Released in 1982, Thriller became the most commercially successful album of all time and one of the most critically acclaimed, single-handedly transforming Jackson into his generation's Elvis or the Beatles and making him the "late 20th century's pre-eminent pop icon". It remains Jackson's most celebrated musical achievement and has acquired a prominent position in American culture. In the 1980s, it was an indelible part of American life, as described by TIME magazine, "The numbers, which are incredible, are also becoming indelible. How many Beatles were there? How many homers did Babe Ruth hit? How many Grammy Awards did Michael Jackson win on Feb. 28? How many copies of Thriller have been sold? Well, the Grammys are easy".

The second track released from the album and Jackson's highest-selling single ever, "Billie Jean", has been described as "one of the most sonically eccentric, psychologically fraught, downright bizarre things ever to land on Top 40 radio". Jackson's earlier solo work in Off the Wall had revealed a disco-funk combination, but "Billie Jean," edged onwards by a "pulsing, cat-on-the-prowl bass figure, whip-crack downbeat and eerie multi-tracked vocals ricocheting in the vast spaces between keyboards and strings", featured a new and revolutionary sound, one that made Jackson's idiosyncratic vocals a staple of pop music and established a sleek, post-soul tune "whose echoes can be heard to this day". Apart from the title track and the accompanying music video, the album's other memorable single was "Beat It", which Jackson described as "the type of rock song that I would go out and buy, but also something totally different from the rock music I was hearing on Top Forty radio". The song was a crossover hit, buoyed by a "watch-my-fingers-fly guitar solo provided by Eddie Van Halen".

Apart from establishing Jackson's iconic status and a new pop sound, Thriller revolutionized the music industry, which was watching in anticipation as the juggernaut comfortably and steadily broke record after record. Gil Friesen, President of A&M Records, stated that "the whole industry has a stake in this success". At its height, Thriller was an industry in and of itself, with the Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller, a videotape describing the secrets behind the new music video that was released in the Christmas of 1983, going on to sell 350,000 copies by March 1984.

The main influence Thriller had on the industry involved raising the importance of the album as a means of musical distribution. After Thriller, which, by posting seven top ten Hot 100 hits, had shattered traditional notions of how many singles an album could release before falling in popularity, record companies took an interest in following Michael Jackson's approach of releasing high-profile albums once every few years. Although the importance of singles relative to albums had started to wane before the 1980s, Thriller firmly established the album as the dominant force in the music industry, a status it retains to this day.

TIME magazine summed up the impact of Thriller as follows: "For a record industry stuck on the border between the ruins of punk and the chic regions of synthesizer pop, Thriller was a thorough restoration of confidence, a rejuvenation. Its effect on listeners, especially younger ones, was nearer to a revelation".Additionally, Thriller marked the return of black music to commercial radio for the first time in years, leading Quincy Jones to the following characterization of the doors opened by Michael Jackson: "No doubt about it, he's taken us right up there where we belong. Black music had to play second fiddle for a long time, but its spirit is the whole motor of pop. Michael has connected with every soul in the world". By overcoming what some have called the "apartheid of pop", Jackson paved the way for the success of future acts, most immediately and notably Prince, who had been confined to low levels of airplay before Thriller opened the floodgates.[

Among the most celebrated aspects of Michael Jackson's career have been his dance, fashion, and vocal styles, which have given rise to impersonators all over the world. In 1984, TIME magazine wrote the following on the singer's notable style: "His high-flying tenor makes him sound like the lead in some funked-up boys choir, even as the sexual dynamism irradiating from the arch of his dancing body challenges Government standards for a nuclear meltdown. His lithe frame, five-fathom eyes, long lashes might be threatening if Jackson gave, even for a second, the impression that he is obtainable".

Jackson's dancing abilities were always an important part of his life, and ones that he honed through constant training and dedication, manifested, according to TIME, by "[shutting] himself up at the house in a room that has no mirrors—"Mirrors make you pose," he has said—and [cutting] loose to his own music or to the Isley Brothers' Showdown, practicing what Dancer Hinton Battle calls "moves that kill. It's the combinations that really distinguish him as an artist. Spin, stop, pull up leg, pull jacket open, turn, freeze. And the glide, where he steps forward while pushing back. Spinning three times and popping up on his toes. That's a trademark, and a move a lot of professionals wouldn't try. If you go up wrong, you can really hurt yourself". Jackson has been described as an "avant-garde dancer" that allowed his techniques to acquire meaning through the "theatrical context" surrounding them. His dancing abilities, sometimes compared to past greats like Fred Astaire and Rudolf Nureyev, have contributed strongly to his perceived status as one of the greatest performers of all time.

Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" outing at Motown 25 on May 16, 1983 is widely regarded as one of the greatest performances of all time, despite the fact that Jackson lip-synched the song. More than 50 million viewers tuned in to see the special and Jackson perform his most popular song at the time. It marked a new height in his popularity, pushed forward by the publicly-dubbed "moonwalk," an illusory move designed to create the impression that the dancer is walking backwards. The moonwalk became Jackson's signature dance move and he would replicate it in all future performances of "Billie Jean." Jackson did not invent the move, but he was responsible for perfecting it, making it a household name, and enshrining it into the psyche of American culture, which witnessed kids and people of all age groups trying to do the move after the Motown special as well as earning a fitting peroration from the New York Times: "The moonwalk that he made famous is an apt metaphor for his dance style. How does he do it? As a technician, he is a great illusionist, a genuine mime. His ability to keep one leg straight as he glides while the other bends and seems to walk requires perfect timing".

Michael Jackson's outfits, everything from the sequined white glove, which has led to some dubbing him as "The Gloved One", to the jacket in the "Thriller" music video, have been essential components of his image and performance. The "Jheri-curled hair and single-gloved, zippered-jacket look" became a favorite for many people across the United States in the 1980s.Jackson has also made the fedora hat something of a trademark in his exhibitions, and many modern artists pay tribute to the look.

Michael Jackson's musical palette has covered everything from disco and pop to rock and R&B. Jackson's musical themes have been equally varied, featuring material on typical pop subjects like love and joy as well as more mature works on social justice and his convoluted relationship with the media. Jackson's solo career with Motown in the 1970s was largely unimaginative, dominated as it was by label-backed songwriters and producers intent on giving the young performer typical ballads and other similarly-styled melodious tracks. In his two-decade career with Epic, however, Jackson displayed extensive creativity, gradually evolving from compositions with mild, non-controversial messages to songs dealing with increasingly solemn and darker themes, a reflection of his personal struggles and his status as an international icon.

Off the Wall and Thriller showcased a Michael Jackson primarily focused on making dance hits and ballads with catchy tunes and rhythms. While this preoccupation would continue in his future work, it would also be colored by various shifts and improvisations. Even in this early material, however, Jackson displayed notable paradoxes, mixing the melodious and comfortable sounds of "Lady in My Life" with the haunting and terrorized environments of "Billie Jean" and "Beat It", where women accused him of fathering their children and the outside world seemed strange and hostile Bad was accused by some of not delivering the exciting lyrics evident in Thriller, being more intent on consolidating a traditional pop sound and defeating the records of Jackson's previous releases. The album left clues for future projects, however, mentioning in the tense intro to "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" that "A lot of people misunderstand me....because they don't know me at all".Bad included Jackson's first major inspirational song, "Man in the Mirror", which was praised for its message and captivating sound and also criticized as, among other things, "pure pabulum."

Jackson's work in the 1990s was characterized by more introspective material. Some have argued that the Dangerous album represented Jackson at a "near peak" in terms of musical quality and creativity and received more critical acclaim than his previous Bad album. Several things remained the same, with the title track to Dangerous ensuring another song about a "predatory lover". More and more of Jackson's music in the decade, like "Black or White", "Heal the World", "They Don't Care About Us", and "Earth Song", started addressing sociopolitical issues around the world. The music in Dangerous, described as a "a sonic machine world" with "synthetic basslines, swooshing scratched records, [and] clanking metallic noises", reflected old influences while absorbing new trends, made all the more pressing by Jackson's habit of releasing albums once every four or so years, time periods that allowed for significant development in the sound of pop music.

HIStory, arguably Jackson's most conflictive album, revealed a "furious" pop icon worn by years of superstardom, with Jon Pareles of the New York Times writing that "It has been a long time since Michael Jackson was simply a performer. He's the main asset of his own corporation, which is a profitable subsidiary of Sony".The album featured Jackson using profanity and other controversial lyrics, which forced him to modify some of the words to "They Don't Care About Us". Edged onwards by a quasi-messianic flair, he also railed against the media in "Tabloid Junkie", singing, "With your pen you torture me/You'd crucify the Lord" and that "Just because you read it in a magazine/ Or see it on a TV screen/ Don't make it factual".HIStory mostly encompassed reflective compositions, presenting only one conventional love song, "You Are Not Alone".

Jackson Five

The Jackson 5 (also spelled The Jackson Five or The Jackson 5ive, abbreviated as J5, and later known as The Jacksons) was an American popular music quintet (and briefly a sextet and quartet) from Gary, Indiana. The group, fully active from 1966 to 1990, regularly played from a repertoire of R&B, soul, funk, and later disco. Considered "one of the biggest phenomenons in pop music"[1] during the early 1970s, the Jackson 5 are also notable for launching the careers of their lead singers Michael Jackson and Jermaine Jackson.

The Jackson 5 were the eldest five sons of Katherine & Joseph Jackson: Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael. Joseph Jackson formed the early incarnation of the band in 1962 and served as its manager, with Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and unrelated youths Reynaud Jones and Milton Hite comprising its original lineup. Within a year, however, Michael and Marlon joined the band forming the principal lineup of the group.

Signed to the Motown label from 1968 to 1975, and to Epic/CBS Records (as "The Jacksons") from 1975 until their disbanding in 1990, the Jackson 5 were one of the most popular groups of the era and became the first recording act to have their first four major label singles ("I Want You Back", "ABC", "The Love You Save", and "I'll Be There") reach the top of the American charts. Several future singles, among them "Mama's Pearl", "Never Can Say Goodbye" and "Dancing Machine", were Top 5 pop hits and number-one hits on the R&B singles chart. Most of the early hits were written and produced by a specialized songwriting team known as The Corporation™; later Jackson 5 hits were crafted chiefly by Hal Davis.

Significantly, they were the first black teen idols to appeal equally to white audiences. Upon their departure from Motown for CBS in 1975, the Jacksons were forced to change their name and trade Jermaine (who remained at Motown) for Randy. The group took control of their songwriting, production, and image, and their success continued into the 1980s with hits such as "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" and "State of Shock", and the highly successful Victory Tour. The Jacksons officially disbanded in 1990, after the commercial underperformance of their 1989 album 2300 Jackson Street, recorded mostly without Michael.

The Jacksons were a working-class family from Gary, Indiana. Katherine, being a Jehovah's Witness, raised the children as such, while their father, Joe, who started studying with the Witnesses, instead decided he would not join that faith. Their father, a steel mill employee who often performed in an R&B band called "The Falcons" with his brother Luther, was a strict disciplinarian. Many of the Jackson children recall being spanked or whipped by Joe for misbehaving.

The children found an outlet in music, with elder brothers Jackie (born Sigmund Esco Jackson, 1951), Tito (born Toriano Adaryll Jackson, 1953), and Jermaine Lajuan (b. 1954) borrowing their father's guitar without his permission and playing along to the radio. Younger brothers Marlon David (b. 1957) and Michael Joseph (b. 1958) were allowed to watch as long as they did not tell. Joseph eventually discovered that the older three boys were playing his guitar when Tito broke one of the strings.[2] Although he was furious at first and punished Tito, Joseph realized the boys had talent and began making plans to create a musical act for them.

In 1962, Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine began performing around the Gary area with neighborhood children Milford Hite (on drums) and Reynaud Jones (on keyboards), in a group called The Jackson Brothers. Joe Jackson served as the manager, at first only part-time, and then eventually quitting his job at the steel mill. Jermaine sang lead and played bass, and Tito played guitar.

In 1963, younger brothers Marlon and Michael joined the group. Already showing talent as a singer and dancer,[3] Michael replaced Jermaine as lead vocalist by mid-1967. Shirley Cartman, Tito's junior high orchestra teacher, noticed the group's talents and served as an early mentor to the group, by then they called themselves The Jackson Five a name given to them by a lady in their neighborhood.

During this period, the boys toured Indiana extensively, and after winning a major local talent show in 1966 with a rendition of The Temptations' "My Girl", led by Michael, they began playing professional gigs in Chicago, Illinois and across the mid-eastern U.S. Many of these gigs were in a string of black clubs and venues collectively known as the "chitlin' circuit", and the young kids sometimes had to open for strip teasers and other adult acts in order to earn money.

Shirley Cartman got the Jackson Five a record deal with Gordon Keith's local Steeltown label, and the group began making their first recordings in 1967. Their first single, "Big Boy", became a regional hit. During this period, Johnny Jackson (no relation) on drums and Ronnie Rancifer on keys replaced Milford Hite and Reynaud Jones.

The Jackson Five had a number of admirers in their early days, including Sam & Dave, who helped the group secure a spot in the famous Amateur Night competition at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. The group won the August 13, 1967 competition during the Amateur Night showdown at the Apollo, impressing Motown Records artist Gladys Knight of The Pips. Knight recommended the group to Motown chief Berry Gordy, but Gordy, who already had teenager Stevie Wonder on his roster, was hesitant to take on another child act because of the child labor laws and other problems involved.

The Jackson Five's sound was influenced by many of the biggest stars of the 1960s, especially including family funk bands Sly & the Family Stone and The Isley Brothers, soul pioneer Marvin Gaye, doo-wop boy band Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, and soul shouters like Wilson Pickett, Jackie Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Joe Tex and James Brown.[4] At the time of their early success, soul and funk stars, especially coming from Motown Records, were among the most popular musicians; Motown had launched the careers of dozens of the decade's biggest stars, most notably Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, and Diana Ross & the Supremes.

From these sources, The Jackson Five developed many of their vocal arrangement styles and dance movements. The group's multi-lead vocal style was inspired by that of The Family Stone, while young Michael adapted Jackie Wilson and James Brown's impassioned singing and dancing styles into his own.

By 1968, the Jackson 5 were a headlining act for the All Star Floor Show at Chicago's The Guys' and Gals' Cocktail Lounge and Restaurant. From July 12–27, 1968, the Jackson 5 opened for Motown group Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers at Chicago's Regal Theater. Taylor was also very impressed with the boys, and he decided to make the commitment to bring them to Detroit and Motown. Joseph and the Jackson Five stayed on the floor of Bobby Taylor's Detroit apartment the night of July 22, while Taylor and Motown executive Suzanne de Passe arranged for the Jackson Five to audition for the label.

On July 23, the Jackson Five had their Motown audition, for which they performed James Brown’s then current hit "I Got the Feelin’". Berry Gordy was not in attendance, but the audition was videotaped and sent to him in Los Angeles. Gordy's initial reluctance to sign the group disappeared when he finally saw the boys perform. Gordy decided to sign the Jackson Five to Motown, and hosted a party at his Detroit mansion on November 25, 1968 to introduce them to the Motown staff and stars.

Motown began negotiations to buy out the Jackson Five's Steeltown contract, completing the deal in March 1969. By the summer, Bobby Taylor began producing the group's first recordings at Motown's Hitsville U.S.A. recording studio in Detroit. The early Taylor-produced Jackson Five records were all covers of both contemporary hits and Motown-standards, including Sly & the Family Stone's "Stand!" and their famous rendition of The Miracles' "Who's Lovin' You", written by Smokey Robinson.

Gordy moved the Jackson Five and Joseph to California, and he and Suzanne de Passe began the process of grooming them as the label's next big act, while the rest of the family remained in Gary. While looking for a house in California, Joseph, Jermaine, Tito, and Jackie lived with Berry Gordy, while Michael and Marlon lived with Motown star Diana Ross.

In the meantime, Motown's marketing team began preparing press kits and other promotion material to begin the Jackson 5's entrance into the mainstream music industry. Motown publicity significantly altered the group's history, reducing Michael's age from eleven to eight to make him appear cuter, identifying unrelated band musicians Johnny Jackson and Ronnie Rancifer as cousins of the Jacksons, and crediting Diana Ross with discovering the group.[5] According to their official Motown biography, referenced in several early interviews and liner notes, Diana Ross (and, in some versions of the story, Berry Gordy alongside her) was introduced to the Jackson 5 by Gary, Indiana's mayor, Richard G. Hatcher, at a benefit concert that the Jackson 5 were described as having played for the mayor in 1969. Impressed, Ross (and Gordy) had the act signed to Motown and Ross personally acted as their mentor.

The Jackson 5 practiced and rehearsed continuously during the late summer and early fall of 1969. Diana Ross formally introduced the Jackson 5 to the public on August 11, 1969, at a Beverly Hills, California club called The Daisy. Towards the end of August, the Jackson 5 made their first television appearance, singing The Isley Brothers' "It's Your Thing" at the Miss Black America Pageant in Madison Square Garden, New York City.

The Jackson 5's first single, "I Want You Back", was written and produced by four Motown songwriters and producers — Berry Gordy, Alphonzo Mizell, Deke Richards, and Freddie Perren — who were collectively billed as The Corporation™. "I Want You Back" was released as a single for The Jackson 5, as Motown decided to officially bill the group, on October 7. The group performed "I Want You Back", Sly & the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song", The Delfonics' "Can You Remember", and James Brown's "There Was a Time" as part of their appearance on The Hollywood Palace as special guests of Diana Ross & the Supremes. "I Want You Back" was the only single from the Jackson 5's first album, Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5, which was released in December 1969. The song reached number one in January, 1970.

Most of the early Jackson 5 singles were written and produced by The Corporation, who crafted for the Jackson 5 a sound that mixed the traditional "Motown Sound" with teenage-honed lyrics that they termed "bubblegum soul". The Jackson 5 became an instant sensation, with "I Want You Back" and its 1970 follow-ups "ABC", "The Love You Save," and "I'll Be There" all going to #1 on both the Billboard Pop Singles chart and the Billboard Soul Singles (R&B) chart. Other early Top 5 hits included "Mama's Pearl" and "Never Can Say Goodbye."

Now successful, Joseph was finally able to arrange to move Katherine and the rest of the family out to California in 1970. First moving into a two-story residence at 1616 Queens Road in Los Angeles, the Jackson family moved to a gated mansion they called "Hayvenhurst", which was purchased by Joseph in March 1971.

"Jacksonmania" swept the nation, and within a year of their debut the Jackson 5 were among the biggest names in popular music. The group essentially replaced The Supremes as Motown's main marketing focus, and, capitalizing upon the youth-oriented appeal of the Jackson brothers, Motown licensed dozens of Jackson 5-related juvenile products, including the now famous J5 Heart logo which appears on Johnny Jacksons drum kit and many of the Jackson 5's album covers, stickers, sewable patches, posters, and coloring books. A new teen magazine aimed at African-American youth, Right On!, began publication in 1971, and focused heavily on the Jackson 5; at least one Jackson adorned the cover of every issue published between January 1972 and April 1974. Animation producers Rankin/Bass produced The Jackson 5ive, a Saturday morning cartoon that debuted on September 11, 1971 and ran for two seasons on ABC. The Jackson 5 starred in two of their own television specials, Goin' Back to Indiana (aired September 16, 1971) and The Jackson 5 Show (aired November 5, 1972).


A scene from Rankin-Bass's The Jackson 5ive Saturday morning cartoon.In 1971, Motown began a spin-off solo career for Michael, whose first single, "Got to Be There," was a Top 5 hit. Michael also sang the title track for the 1972 motion picture Ben. His other successful solo singles included "Rockin' Robin" and "I Wanna Be Where You Are" (both 1972). Jermaine started a solo career of his own in 1972, and had a Top Ten hit with his Shep and the Limelites cover "Daddy's Home." Jackie also recorded a solo album, but his releases failed to chart. Despite fan rumors that all three Jacksons might leave the group as they released solo work, the solo careers of Michael, Jermaine, and Jackie co-existed alongside that of the group as a whole, allowing Motown to expand the success and sales of Jackson 5-related releases.

The Jackson 5 was also notable for its significant popularity with adolescent girls during the early 1970s. Thousands of young girls fell in love with the Jackson brothers, especially Jermaine and Michael. Michael Jackson's biographer, J. Randy Taraborrelli, has said that the elder brothers engaged in sexual relations with several of their female fans at hotels shared between them while younger brothers Michael and Marlon watched in the same room.[6] Michael himself, despite being the most popular member of the group, would remain shy about dating for most of his adolescence. Tito was the first Jackson brother to marry, marrying his high school girlfriend Dee Dee in June 1972.

Against the wishes of his father, Jermaine began a relationship with Berry Gordy's daughter Hazel. Jermaine and Hazel Gordy's relationship was highly publicized in magazines such as Right On!, Ebony, and Jet, and the two were married at a gala wedding ceremony held on December 15, 1973 at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

After 1972, the Jackson 5's releases were less successful, but they still did very well. Later Top 20 hits, mostly written and produced by Hal Davis, included "Lookin' Through the Windows" (1972) and the disco-styled "Dancing Machine" (1974), which popularized the "Robot" dance routine. Jackson 5 albums declined somewhat in critical acclaim and financial success during the latter part of their Motown tenure, although LPs such as Lookin' Through the Windows (1972) and G.I.T.: Get It Together (1973) frequently included successful album tracks, including their version of "Hum Along and Dance", a popular number in their live act.

Critics, the Jackson 5, and Joseph Jackson agreed that the main reason for the group's declining success was Motown's refusal to update their image or allow them creative control. Although they played their own instruments on stage and had begun writing and producing songs in their own home recording studio, the Jacksons were not allowed to play on their own records or record their own material. Feeling that the Jackson 5 could be more of a success without Motown, which was by this time declining in success and popularity, Joseph began shopping for a new record deal for his sons.

In 1975, Joseph negotiated a new recording contract with CBS Records, who offered a royalty rate of 20% per record, compared to Motown's standard 2.8%; and would allow the Jackson brothers to write and produce their own records and play their own instruments. After unsuccessfully attempting to talk the group into staying on the label, Motown sued for breach of contract. Although Motown eventually let the group go, the Jackson 5 were forced to change their name to The Jacksons, because Motown retained the "Jackson 5" trademark during the settlement of the lawsuit. The Jacksons also replaced Jermaine with the youngest Jackson brother, 14-year-old Randy, since Jermaine chose to stay with Motown and the Gordys. Randy had been an unofficial member of The Jackson 5 since 1972, playing congas onstage as part of their live act.

After losing the Jacksons, Motown would not have another success of their caliber for the duration of Berry Gordy's ownership of the label. Gordy often said of the Jackson 5 that they were, coming after the label's most famous acts, "the last big stars to come rolling off the [Motown] assembly line."[7]

In summer 1976, CBS television signed the Jackson family (including Michael, Marlon, Tito, Jackie, Randy, Rebbie, LaToya, and Janet) to appear in their own variety show, to compete with ABC's The Osmonds. The Jacksons debuted on June 16, 1976, and ran on CBS until its cancellation the following March. The show was the first variety show hosted by an African American family.

At first, part of CBS's Philadelphia International Records division, and later moving over to Epic Records, the Jacksons continued releasing popular singles such as "Enjoy Yourself" (1976), produced by Philadelphia International's Kenneth Gamble & Leon Huff. After two LPs produced by Gamble and Huff, the Jacksons wanted artistic control, and produced their next LP, 1978's Destiny, on their own. The album included the Jacksons' biggest post-Motown single, "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)", which charted at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number three on the Billboard R&B Singles chart. "Shake Your Body", written by Michael and Randy, sold over two million copies, attaining double-platinum status. Destiny also went platinum, and peaked at number 11 on the Billboard 200 album chart and number three on the R&B album charts. In 1979, the Jacksons received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 1978, Michael starred alongside Diana Ross in the Motown/Universal Pictures motion picture The Wiz, an adaptation of the Broadway musical based upon L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Quincy Jones was the producer of the film's songs, and he and Michael began work on Michael’s first Epic solo album, Off the Wall, the next year. Off the Wall, released in 1979, sold 8 million copies and featured four Top 10 hit singles and two number-one singles, causing some speculation about whether Michael would leave the Jacksons.

Michael Jackson continued to perform with his brothers, Triumph in 1980, which featured the hits "Lovely One" and "Can You Feel It". 1981 saw the release of the gold-selling The Jacksons Live!, using recordings from the "Triumph" tour. In 1988, Rolling Stone magazine described the Triumph tour as one of the best 25 tours from 1967 to 1987. The Triumph LP and tour were successful, but were outperformed by Michael's 1982 LP Thriller. Thriller went on to become the second most successful album ever in the United States (after the Eagles' Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)), and to date stands as the world's best-selling album of all time.

The Motown 25 television special, broadcast on NBC on May 16, 1983, featured a reunion performance between Jermaine and the other brothers. Outside of one 1979 appearance on the TV show Midnight Special this was the original Jackson 5's first performance in nearly seven years. The Motown 25 Jackson 5 reunion was overshadowed, however, by Michael's landmark performance of "Billie Jean" on the same program, which introduced his trademark "moonwalk" dance.

The Jacksons released the album Victory in 1984, featuring the hit single "State of Shock" with guest star Mick Jagger, and supported the album with the massively successful Victory World Tour. The Victory album and tour marked the official return of Jermaine to the group's lineup, making them a sextet.

Shortly after the Victory Tour, Michael left the Jacksons, as his solo career had led to the success of Thriller and its singles. His name recognition as a solo act had also grown, despite touring as part of a group. The other brothers eventually drifted apart to take on solo projects (although most of them appeared with Michael on the U.S. For Africa single "We Are the World" in 1985). The Jacksons reunited for one last album, 2300 Jackson Street in 1989. While every Jackson sibling except for LaToya appeared on the title track, a #9 R&B hit single, most of the album featured Jermaine, Jackie, Tito, and Randy as the line up. Michael Jackson's fame as a solo act as well as the growing fame of the group's youngest sister, Janet Jackson, had overshadowed the group entirely. A CD compilation of hits from the CBS/Epic years, The Essential Jacksons, was released in 2004, as was a separate compilation assembled by Universal/Hip-O, The Jacksons Story.

Tito Jackson, like his father before him, organized his three sons into a musical group called 3T, who had a #2 UK hit, titled "Why?", in August 1996, (which featured a guest appearance from Michael Jackson). Soon afterwards, Tito began a low-key career as a blues musician. Randy Jackson remained out of the spotlight, mostly assisting his brothers in various ventures. For two years (2004/2005), Randy was the webmaster for Michael's last official website, MJJ Source, which is now closed.

The Jackson 5's influence on later performers has been profound, inspiring a number of performers from diverse fields, including indie rock band Dashboard Confessional,[4] R&B groups New Edition[8] and B5,[9] and boy band Hanson.[10] One of the most archetypal Jackson 5 followers were Five Star, a British black family act from the mid-80s comprising of siblings Stedman, Doris, Lorraine, Deniece and Delroy Pearson. The group were also managed by their father, Buster Pearson and began recording when youngest member Delroy was twelve years old. The group were often compared to the Jackson 5 by the press.

The Jackson 5 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999. In addition, two of their songs ("ABC" and "I Want You Back") are among The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

Main article: The Jacksons: An American Dream

Actors portraying The Jackson 5 and Joseph Jackson admire the walls of the Apollo Theater in 1967, in this scene from The Jacksons: An American Dream.In 1992, Suzanne de Passe and Jermaine Jackson worked with Motown to produce The Jacksons: An American Dream, a five-hour television miniseries broadcast based on the history of the Jacksons in two parts on ABC. The first installment of the miniseries covered the decades from Katherine and Joseph Jackson's first meeting in 1945 up until the first Jackson 5 releases on Motown in 1969, while the second part covered the years from 1970 to 1984, and the effects of the Jackson 5's phenomenal success on the family.

Among the actors featured in the miniseries were Angela Bassett as Katherine Jackson, Terrence Howard as an older Jackie, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs as Joseph Jackson, Billy Dee Williams as Berry Gordy, Vanessa L. Williams as Suzanne de Passe, Holly Robinson as Diana Ross, Bumper Robinson as teenage Jackie, Jason Weaver as pre-teenage Michael, and Wylie Draper as adult Michael. The miniseries was the highest rated show of the week, won an Emmy Award and was nominated for three more, and won two Young Artist Awards. The Jacksons: An American Dream was later rebroadcast on VH1 and released to VHS and DVD.

187 code meurtre

The screenplay for "187" (which is the California state penal code for murder) came to the attention of Icon Productions, the production company founded by Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey, when screenwriter Scott Yagemann saw Steve McEveety's credit in "The Man Without A Face." Yagemann wondered if this McEveety was the same one against whom he swam competitively as a youngster. He called the Icon offices and reacquainted himself with McEveety, who was indeed Yagemann's one-time competitor. McEveety connected with the idea of the story for "187," which was fueled by Yagemann's years as a substitute teacher with the Los Angeles public school system. "When we met up again," recalls McEveety, "Scott started talking about what he had done for a living and how frustrating it was teaching, and that was really what he wanted to write about."
The script was inspired by events that happened to Yagemann during his time as a teacher. "I had a kid threaten to kill me. I later found out that he had stabbed a teaching assistant the semester before, and I was never told anything about this kid," recalls Yagemann. Yagemann discovered that teachers must personally research every student's file to check for any violent history; the information is not forwarded to them as a matter of courtesy or safety. He notes, "The title is blunt, just numbers, the code for murder. It's impersonal and I think that's just what happens to some of those kids in the system. Their individuality, their personality, is just erased. And everything just becomes numbers to them."

McEveety presented the script to Icon President and C.E.O. Bruce Davey and Mel Gibson, Davey's partner and co-founder of Icon Productions. "Icon and Warner Bros. shared the vision that this story needs to be told," comments Davey.

When Director Kevin Reynolds, who had helmed such action-adventure movies as "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" and "Waterworld," read the script for "187," he was struck by "a ring of truth. When I met with Icon, I said to Mel, Bruce and Steve that it looked like a teacher wrote the script. And they told me that one did." Reynolds, following the physical demands of his previous projects, was eager to direct a more intimate film, bristling with intensity.

"The last few projects I had done were big, logistically monster pictures and I was getting tired of that. I wanted to do something that was dramatic and more of a performance piece," says the director.

Recalls Davey, "I think that Kevin was looking for a change of diet from the action genre, looking for something more contained, more character-driven, and he identified with the material and wanted to do it."

McEveety concurs, "Kevin had a passion for this material. Once we signed him, he worked with Scott and constructed a whole vision for the film that expanded on the script."

Once Reynolds was brought on board, the filmmakers began their search for an actor to play Trevor Garfield, the passionate teacher backed into a corner by the hostile circumstances confronting him in an inner-city classroom.

213

The 213 was a hip hop group from Long Beach, California, which began the careers of Snoop Dogg, Warren G (stepbrother to Dr. Dre) and Nate Dogg (Snoop Dogg's cousin).

In 2004, they reunited to release the album The Hard Way, which reached #4 in the U.S. Billboard 200 charts. It featured the singles, "Groupie Luv" and "So Fly". The band's name comes from the area code of Long Beach at the time.

Coolio

Coolio (born Artis Leon Ivey, Jr. on August 1, 1963 in Compton, California) is an American rapper and actor perhaps best known for the hit song "Gangsta's Paradise." The album Gangsta's Paradise is considered a classic west coast Gangsta rap album, thanks to songs like "Exercise Yo Game" and "Geto Highlites." Coolio has also made numerous television and film appearances. He got the name 'Coolio' after friends called him Coolio Inglesias because he played guitar. In high school, his nickname was 'Boo'.

Coolio started his career as a member of the rap group, WC and the Maad Circle, which included WC, Sir Jinx and DJ Crazy Toones. The group released two albums, Ain't a Damn Thang Changed in 1991 and Curb Servin' in 1995. The group disbanded shortly after the release of Curb Servin'. In 1994, Coolio released his debut album It Takes a Thief which featured the hugely successful singles, Fantastic Voyage and It Takes a Thief. In 1995 Coolio released his second and most successful album Gangsta's Paradise, which went 4X Platinum and featured the mega hit, Gangsta's Paradise and the popular party track, Sumpin New. However, Coolio's next three albums, 1997's "My Soul", 2002's "El Cool Magnifico" and 2006's "Return of the Gangsta", failed to live up to the success of his first two albums.

Coolio's recordings also appeared on the soundtracks to Clueless (1995) and Dangerous Minds (1995).

In 2005 he co-hosted the MOBO awards in the UK. The MOBO (an acronym for Music Of Black Origin) Awards, established in 1996 by Kanya King, are held annually in the UK to recognize artists of any race or nationality performing music of black origin. Coolio is a former Crip member. Coolio is also associated with Snoop Dogg.

He performed the theme song for the 1996 TV show Kenan and Kel, entitled "Awww Here It Goes" where he was featured in most of the song. Coolio also was in 2000 movie called Gangland.

In 2001 he was a special guest on Beat the Geeks. In 2002 Coolio guest starred in the hit series Charmed, as a Lazarus demon, in the episode Marry Got Found. He played himself in the episode Coolio Runnings of the animated comedy Duckman. He also voiced Kwanzaa-bot, a one-off character featured in the "A Tale Of Two Santas" episode of Futurama. In fact, according to the DVD commentary, the producers of Futurama were so impressed by his range of voices, that they said he could do voice-over work professionally.

In 2002, Coolio was a contestant on Celebrity Fear Factor. During the third round, he referred to himself as "El Cool Magnifico" (which would become the title of his fourth studio album). That same year, he appeared on Celebrity Bootcamp and won. Coolio starred in the 2003 made-for-TV movie Dracula 3000, in which he played a space-faring stoner named 187. Coolio played a role of US Navy sailor Franky in 2004 Croatian film Ta divna splitska noć (Wonderful night in Split), film is dealing with drug scene of that coast. He made another television movie appearance in 2005 as a military officer in the horror film Pterodactyl, which was a devastating disaster. That year, he also appeared in Joey on the episode "Joey and the Poker."

In 2006, Coolio appeared in the "Tanner's Ghost" episode of the Celebrity Paranormal Project and got insulted because of his horrifying breath, and yellow teeth.

Q-Tip

Q-Tip (born Jonathan Davis, April 10, 1970, in Harlem, New York), is an American hip-hop emcee, actor, and hip hop producer, and was the leader of the critically acclaimed group A Tribe Called Quest. He converted to Islam in the mid-1990s, and changed his name to Kamaal Ibn John Fareed. The Q in Q-Tip's stage name stands for Queens, the borough of New York City from which he hails. It is also said to be a name that represents his ability to get into one’s ears. He also refers to himself as The Abstract (originally The Abstract Poetic) and Kamaal the Abstract.

Q-Tip's first appearance on record was on the Jungle Brothers' Straight Out the Jungle. Besides performing with his popular and successful jazz-influenced hip hop group, Tip also did production work (under his production alias "the Abstract" or often — along with fellow Tribe member Ali Shaheed Muhammad and the late Slum Village member Jay Dee — as part of the Ummah) for artists such as Nas ("One Love," from Illmatic, 1994), Mobb Deep (co-producer on "Give up the Goods (Just Step)," "Temperature's Rising," and "Drink Away the Pain," from The Infamous, 1995) and even R&B divas Mariah Carey ("Honey," from Butterfly, 1997) and Whitney Houston ("Fine," from Greatest Hits). He has also made numerous guest appearances, including spots on songs by Nas, Mobb Deep, and Janet Jackson.

A Tribe Called Quest disbanded in 1998, after which Q-Tip pursued a solo career. His first solo singles, "Vivrant Thing" and "Breathe & Stop," were far more pop-oriented than anything he had done in A Tribe Called Quest, as was his solo debut LP for Arista Records, Amplified. His 2002 follow-up, Kamaal the Abstract, although critically acclaimed and issued a catalog number, was never released because the label believed that it did not have commercial appeal. His next album, The Renaissance, is scheduled to be released October 2007.

A Tribe Called Quest reunited in 2006 and played a limited number of dates. The group was composed of its original lineup, including Tip and occasional member Jarobi White. Early the next year, Tip signed a new solo deal with Motown/Universal Records.

As of late, Q-Tip has been very active, once again happily reunited with the full line-up of A Tribe Called Quest on the 2K7 NBA Bounce Tour and regaining control of his previously label-owned MySpace page. He has filled the page up with demos and rarities, (some of them from Kamaal the Abstract), and has announced he is negotiating for the ownership of the masters of earlier material from his previous labels and plans to release them independently. Currently, he resides in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Q-Tip has recently stated that he will be forming a hip hop group with fellow rapper Common, called "The Standard."

He also appeared in Chappelle Show skit "Knee High Park" as himself.

Mos Def

Mos Def (born Dante Terrell Smith on December 11, 1973 in Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.), is an American rapper and actor. Mos Def started his rap career as a member of the Native Tongue Posse collective and by guesting on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. He released a well-received album with Talib Kweli as Black Star, and was a major force in the late 1990s underground hip hop explosion spearheaded by Rawkus Records. His name comes from his frequent use of an abbreviated 'mos def' in place of the words "most definitely".

Initially recognized for his musical output, Def's screen work since the early 2000s has established him as one of only a handful of rappers who have garnered critical approval for their acting work. Def is also an outspoken critic in social and political issues, and was particularly vocal in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Dante Terell Smith was born to Sheron Smith and Abdul Rahman. He also has younger brothers: Abdul Rahman a.k.a. Gold Medal Man, who is Mos' full time DJ; Anwar Superstar, famous for his collaboration with world renowned electronica DJ's The Chemical Brothers on their 2006 Grammy winning album Push The Button, for the politically charged song "Left Right" (Astralwerks), and for his most recent collaboration with Mos Def on the song titled "Here Comes The Champ," featured on the critically acclaimed video game soundtrack for NBA 2K7 produced by Dan The Automator, (Dan The Automator Presents: NBA 2K7); DCQ (Medina Green, Cross Town Beef); and a younger sister, Ces. He grew up during the golden age of hip-hop and has been rapping and acting since he was 9 years old.

Mos Def began his music career in 1994 in the short-lived group Urban Thermo Dynamics with his younger brother DCQ and his younger sister Ces. Despite their contract with Payday Records, the group only released two singles, and their debut album Manifest Destiny was not released until 2004, when it was distributed by Illson Media. In 1996, he emerged as a solo artist and worked with De La Soul and da Bush Babees, before he released his own first single, "Universal Magnetic", which was a huge underground hit.

After signing with Rawkus Records, Mos Def and Talib Kweli formed the group Black Star, and released a full length album under the name, Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star. The album was released in 1998 and featured Hi-Tek as producer on most of the tracks.

Mos Def released his solo debut Black on Both Sides, in 1999 through Rawkus Records. Def was also featured on Rawkus' influential Lyricist Lounge and Soundbombing series of compilations. After the collapse of Rawkus, he signed to Interscope/Geffen Records, which released his second solo album The New Danger in 2004.

"The New Danger" received criticism from fans and critics for its eclectic mix of several musical genres, including soul, blues and rock and roll, performed with his rock band Black Jack Johnson. Black Jack Johnson contained members of the bands Bad Brains and Living Colour.

Mos Def has drawn some criticism from his fan base about "keeping it real" after he appeared in a commercial that endorsed the GMC Denali sport utility vehicle. Mos Def's final solo album for Geffen Records,True Magic, was quietly released on December 29, 2006. 2007 saw the release of another solo album: Mos Definite. This album was released under the Frequent M (Groove Attack) label.

Throughout his music career he has received several Grammy Award nominations, first for "Ghetto Rock" from his 2004 album The New Danger, and then in 2007, when "Undeniable" was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance.

Mos Def's background in film and theater date back to his days at New York University, studying experimental theater. He began his professional acting career at the age of 14, appearing in the TV movie God Bless the Child, starring Mare Winningham. He then played the oldest child in the short-lived family sitcom, You Take the Kids, starring Nell Carter and Roger E. Mosley. His most notable acting role before his music career was that of Bill Cosby's sidekick on the short-lived detective show, The Cosby Mysteries.

After brief appearances in Bamboozled and Monster's Ball, Mos re-invigorated his acting career with his performance as a talented rapper who is reluctant to sign to a major label in Brown Sugar. He was nominated for an Image Award and a Teen Choice Award.

In 2002, he played the role of Booth in Suzan-Lori Parks' Topdog/Underdog, a Tony-nominated and Pulitzer-winning Broadway play. He also received positive notices as the quirky Left Ear in the blockbuster hit, The Italian Job in 2003.

In television, Mos Def has appeared on Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show, and has hosted the award-winning HBO spoken word show, Def Poetry since its inception. The show's sixth season aired in 2007. He also appeared on the sitcom My Wife And Kids as the Uncle of Michael Kyle's (Damon Wayans) children.

Mos won Best Actor, Independent Movie at the 2005 Black Reel Awards for his portrayal of the skeptical Detective Sgt. Lucas in The Woodsman. For his portrayal of Vivien Thomas in HBO's film, Something the Lord Made, he was nominated for an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe, and won the Image Award. He then landed the role of Ford Prefect in the 2005 movie adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

In 2006, Mos Def appeared in Dave Chappelle's Block Party alongside fellow Black Star companion Talib Kweli, while also contributing to the film's soundtrack. Also, Mos Def was featured as the black banjo player in the infamous "Pixie Sketch" from Chappelle's Show: The Lost Episodes. He was later edited out of it on the DVD. Additionally, Mos Def is in the motion picture 16 Blocks along with co-stars Bruce Willis and David Morse. During the first season of Boondocks, Mos starred as "Gangstalicious". He is also set to be in Toussaint, a film about Haitian revolutionary Toussaint L'Ouverture, opposite Don Cheadle and Wesley Snipes. He made a cameo appearance playing himself in the movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

He is also in the new movie "Be Kind Rewind" with Jack Black.

Mos Def was first exposed to Islam at age 13 by his father. He became a Muslim at age 19 after getting to know Muslim rappers including Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Q-Tip of the group A Tribe Called Quest.

Mos Def was married to Maria Yepes-Smith for 9 years before filing for divorce in 2005. As part of the divorce settlement, he was to pay $10,000 a month (starting January 2006) in child support to his 7 and 8 year old daughters. On February 14, 2006 after paying $2000 less than the required value for two months in a row, a judge ordered him to pay the full amount. He reportedly has five children in total.

He has recently taken up skateboarding and said he's looking to host a skateboarding event in the United Arab Emirates.

Mos Def appears alongside Kanye West on the track "Drunk and Hot Girls" and the bonus track "Good Night" off the highly anticipated album, Graduation. It is unknown if he will be releasing another solo album. Mos Def is also releasing a pair of Converse shoes.Mos Def also appears on the debut album from fellow New Yorkers, Apollo Heights on a track titled, "Concern". In October, Mos signed a deal with Downtown Records and appeared on a remix to the song "D.A.N.C.E." by Justice.

On Wednesday November 7th, Mos Def performed live in San Francisco at a venue called The Mezzanine. This performance was recorded for an upcoming "Live in Concert" DVD. During this performance, he sang quite a few new tracks which may be appearing on an upcoming album.

By the early 1990s, a brand of socially conscious hip hop that had been popularized by A Tribe Called Quest, KRS-One, and many others had been eclipsed in popularity by gangsta rap. Mos Def, as well as Talib Kweli, Common, Little Brother, Quannum Projects and others helped socially aware rap music experience something of a comeback in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Mos Def's collaboration with Talib Kweli, Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star, was released during the aftermath of the deaths of 2Pac and The Notorious B.I.G. and focused on violence and deceit in hip-hop, in collaboration with other acts that did the same. Def's music also has references to his Islamic faith, and his contention that black artists receive little credit for their role in the birth of rock and roll music.

On Mos Def's 2004 album The New Danger, the rapper took his penchant for experimentation to a new level. Most of the songs were more hip-hop flavored stylings of blues and rock, with fewer raps thrown in. This threw off fans who were expecting another full-blown rap album. The New Danger also featured the controversial song, "The Rape Over", a parody of Jay-Z's The Blueprint hit "Takeover":

Old white men is runnin' this rap shit,
Corporate forces runnin' this rap shit,
Some tall Israeli is runnin' this rap shit,
We poke out our asses for a chance to cash in.
Cocaine, is runnin' this rap shit,
'Dro, 'yac and e-pills is runnin this rap shit,
MTV is runnin' this rap shit,
Viacom is runnin' this rap shit,
AOL and Time Warner runnin' this rap shit,
Quasi-homosexuals is runnin' this rap shit.
High-placed executives temporarily made Mos take the song off releases of the album, citing clearance issues with Jay-Z and The Doors, a band which the song samples. The song has been called anti-Semitic for its veiled reference to Israeli American record executive Lyor Cohen (the "tall Israeli" who then was head of the The Island Def Jam Music Group).

Mos and Immortal Technique released a similarly controversial song, "Bin Laden" in 2004, which blamed the Reagan Doctrine and President George W. Bush for the September 11, 2001 attacks. A club remix song, featuring Eminem, was released the following year, in 2005.

In September 2005, Mos Def released the single "Katrina Clap", renamed "Dollar Day" for True Magic, (utilizing the instrumental for New Orleans rappers UTP's "Nolia Clap"), a criticism of the Bush administration's response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. On the night of the MTV Video Music Awards, Mos Def pulled up in front of Radio City Music Hall on a flatbed truck and began performing the "Katrina Clap" single in front of a crowd that quickly gathered around him. He was subsequently arrested despite having a public performance permit in his possession.

On September 7, 2007, Mos Def appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher where he stated his belief that Al-Qaeda was not responsible for 9/11, that the Apollo Moon landings were a hoax and that Al-Qaeda is not responsible for as much terrorism as they are portrayed to be. When Bill Maher made a comment that there are places in the Qu'ran that allegedly support the forced converting and killing of infidels, Mos Def disagreed by stating that he has read the book and found no such parts. To this, Maher sarcastically replied "I must be reading from a bad translation". Mos Def also spoke about racism against African Americans citing the government response to Hurricane Katrina, the Jena Six and the murder conviction of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Mr. Capone - E

Mr. Capone-E is a rapper and producer from the Los Angeles, California. He records for the Thump Records and Hi-Power labels. According to his website, he has sold over 500,000 records. Capone-E has collaborated with such hip hop performers as Mr. Criminal, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, NB Ridaz, Lil Flip, and Nate Dogg.[citation needed] He is most noted for his integration of Motown Sound into the Chicano rap genre, the best known example of which is his rendition of the Rosie & the Originals song "Angel Baby". Although his style is generally considered Chicano rap,, preferring to style himself as a "Sureño rapper". "Rumors - MR. CAPONE-E LAST MAN STANDING?".

Back to 80s - Public Enemy

Developing his talents as an MC with Flav while delivering furniture for his father's business, Chuck and "Spectrum City", as they were called, released the record "Check Out The Radio", backed by "Lies", a social commentary - both of which would influence RUSH Productions' Run D.M.C. and Beastie Boys. They were signed to the still developing Def Jam record label after co-founder Rick Rubin heard Chuck D freestyling on a demo.

Around 1986, Bill Stephney, the former Program Director at WBAU, was approached by Rubin and offered a position with the label. Stephney accepted, and his first assignment was to help Rubin sign Chuck D, whose song "Public Enemy Number One" he had heard from Doctor Dre. According to the book The History of Rap Music by Cookie Lommel: "Stephney thought it was time to mesh the hard-hitting style of Run DMC with politics that addressed black youth. Chuck recruited Spectrum City, which included Hank Shocklee, his brother Keith Shocklee and Eric "Vietnam" Sadler, collectively known as 'The Bomb Squad,' to be his production team and added another Spectrum City partner, Professor Griff, to become the group's Minister of Information. With the addition of Flavor Flav and another local mobile DJ named Terminator X, the group Public Enemy was born."

It then took roughly one year before their debut, Yo! Bum Rush The Show, was released in 1987 to critical acclaim. They went on to release the revolutionary It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back in 1988, which performed better in the charts than their previous release, and included the hit single "Don't Believe the Hype" in addition to "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" chronicling a daring prison break.

Epic samplers, Public Enemy saw Madonna and Lenny Kravitz, lift the beat for Madonna's hit "Justify My Love" from PE's instrumental "Security of the First World." Nation of Millions... was voted Album of the Year by the The Village Voice Pazz and Jop Poll, the first rap album to be ranked number one by predominantly rock critics in a major periodical. It is also ranked the 18th best album of all time by Acclaimedmusic.net. [4]

They also went on to release Fear of a Black Planet, which was considered to be just as militant and controversial as their first two releases. It was also the most successful of any of their albums to date and in 2005 was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress. It included the singles "911 (is a Joke)", which criticized emergency response units for taking longer to arrive at emergencies in the black community than those in the white community, and "Fight the Power", which is considered by many to be the group's anthem. The song is regarded as among the most popular and influential in Hip Hop history and was the theme song for Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing. It is ranked the 84th best song of all time by Acclaimedmusic.net [5] "Fight the Power" contains the classic lines: "Elvis was a hero to most but he never meant shit to me/Straight-up racist that sucker was simple and plain/MuthaF*ck him and John Wayne"

Their next release, Apocalypse '91...The Enemy Strikes Black, continued this trend, with songs like "Can't Truss It" and "# I Don't Wanna Be Called Yo Nigga". The album's influence could be seen and heard in the controversial song and video "By the Time I Get To Arizona" which chronicled the black community's frustration that some states did not recognize the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The video featured members of Public Enemy taking out their frustrations on politicians in the states not recognizing the holiday.

Public Enemy were pioneers in many ways. Some of Terminator X's most innovative scratching tricks can be heard on the song "Rebel Without a Pause". The Bomb Squad offered up a web of innovative samples and beats; Critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine declares that PE "brought in elements of free jazz, hard funk, even musique concrète, via their producing team, the Bomb Squad, creating a dense, ferocious sound unlike anything that came before." [1]

PE revolutionized the rap world with their political, social and cultural consciousness, which infused itself into skilled and poetic rhymes with raucous sound collages as a foundation. Prior to PE, political rap was confined to a few tracks by Ice-T and KRS-One, as well as prototypical artists such as Gil Scott-Heron and The Last Poets; PE were the first hip hop act to base their entire image around a political stance. With the success of Public Enemy, hip-hop was suddenly flooded with new artists that celebrated Afrocentric themes, such as Kool Moe Dee, Gang Starr, X Clan, Eric B. & Rakim, Queen Latifah, the Jungle Brothers and A Tribe Called Quest. [citation needed]

They were the first rap-group to make extended world tours, which led to huge popularity and influence in Hip-Hop communities in Europe and Asia. They also changed the Internet's music distribution capability by being one of the first groups to release MP3 albums,[6] a format virtually unknown at the time.

Public Enemy helped to create and define the so-called "Rap-Rock" or "Rapcore" genres (rap combined with hard rock or metal) by collaborating with New York Thrash Metal outfit Anthrax in 1991. The single "Bring Tha Noize" was a mix of semi-militant "black power" lyrics, grinding guitars and sporadic humor. The two bands, cemented by a mutual respect and the personal friendship between Chuck D and his Anthrax counterpart Scott Ian, introduced a hitherto alien genre to rock fans, and the two seemingly disparate groups even toured together. Flavor Flav's pronouncement on stage that "They said this tour would never happen" (as heard on Anthrax's Live: The Island Years CD) has become something of a legend in both rock and rap circles. Metal guitarists Vernon Reid (of Living Color) contributed to Public Enemy's recordings, and PE sampled a riff by guitarist Kerry King (of Slayer).

Members of the Bomb Squad produced or remixed works for other acts such as Bell Biv DeVoe, Ice Cube, Vanessa Williams, Sinéad O'Connor, Blue Magic, Peter Gabriel, LL Cool J, Paula Abdul, Jasmine Guy, Jody Watley, Eric B & Rakim, Third Bass, Big Daddy Kane, EPMD and Chaka Khan. According to Chuck, "We had tight dealings with MCA and were talking about taking three guys that were left over from New Edition and coming up with an album for them. The three happened to be Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins and Ronnie DeVoe, later to become 'Bell Biv DeVoe'. Ralph Tresvant had been slated to do a solo album for years. Bobby Brown had left New Edition and 'blew up' in 1988 and Johnny Gill had just been recruited to come in, but Johnny Gill had come off a solo career and could always go back to that. At MCA, Hiram Hicks, who was their manager, and Lowell Silas, who was running the show, were like, 'Yo, these kids were left out in the cold, can y'all come up with something for them.' It was a task that Hank, Keith, Eric and I took on to try to put some kind of Hip-Hop flavored R&B shit down for them. Subsequently, what happened in the four weeks of December (1989) was that the bomb Squad knocked out a large piece of the production and arrangement on Bell Biv DeVoe's three-million selling album, Poison. In January (1990), they knocked out Fear of A Black Planet in four weeks, and PE knocked out Ice Cube's album AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted in four to five weeks in February."[7] They have also produced local talent such as Son of Bazerk, Young Black Teenagers, Kings of Pressure and True Mathematics and gave producer Kip Collins his start in the business.

Chuck D had put out a tape to promote WBAU (the radio station where he was working at the time) and to fend off a local rapper who wanted to battle him. He called the tape Public Enemy #1 because he felt like he was being persecuted by people in the local scene. This was the first reference to the notion of a "Public Enemy" in any of Chuck D's songs. The single was created by Chuck D with a contribution by Flavor Flav, though this was before the group Public Enemy was officially assembled.

Public Enemy is also the name of one of the first film noir gangster movies, a 1931 classic starring James Cagney.

According to Chuck, The S1W, which stands for "Security of the First World", "represents that the Black man can be just as intelligent as he is strong. It stands for the fact that we're not Third World people, we're First World people; we're the original people (of the earth)."[8]

On the track "Louder Than a Bomb", from It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, Chuck D reveals that the D in his nickname stands for "dangerous".

Chuck D had put out a tape to promote WBAU (the radio station where he was working at the time) and to fend off a local rapper who wanted to battle him. He called the tape Public Enemy #1 because he felt like he was being persecuted by people in the local scene. This was the first reference to the notion of a "Public Enemy" in any of Chuck D's songs. The single was created by Chuck D with a contribution by Flavor Flav, though this was before the group Public Enemy was officially assembled.

Public Enemy is also the name of one of the first film noir gangster movies, a 1931 classic starring James Cagney.

According to Chuck, The S1W, which stands for "Security of the First World", "represents that the Black man can be just as intelligent as he is strong. It stands for the fact that we're not Third World people, we're First World people; we're the original people (of the earth)."[8]

On the track "Louder Than a Bomb", from It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, Chuck D reveals that the D in his nickname stands for "dangerous".

Several members of P.E. were also notorious for their alignment with the Nation of Islam and its leader, Minister Louis Farrakhan, whose remarks and speeches they have sampled along with Malcolm X's on several of their recordings. Professor Griff (after reading the book The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, which was published by the Historical Research Department of the Nation of Islam and consisted almost entirely of citations concerning Jewish involvement in the slave trade) asserted in an interview with David Mills of The Washington Times that most Jews are responsible for "the majority of the wickedness that goes on across the globe."[9]According to Chuck D's book Fight The Power, after Griff cited several Jewish sources in a follow-up interview, Mills regretted writing the story and apologized to Griff. The story later surfaced in a Village Voice article. It resulted in Griff leaving Public Enemy and founding his own group, Last Asiatic Disciples, whose lyrics were even more politically and racially charged than Public Enemy's.[10][11]
Chuck has stated in the songs "Bring the Noise" and "Don't Believe the Hype" that you should not judge people who you hear on the news in sound-bites like Farrakhan "until you hear the man".
One of their singles was named "Swindler's Lust", twisting the title of Schindler's List. Upon release of the single, the group was condemned by the Anti-Defamation League,[2] though the group stated that they were not trying to diminish the events of the Holocaust, but were drawing a comparison between the events of the Holocaust and slavery.
Sister Souljah, a then little-known rapper and writer who had made guest appearances on several Public Enemy tracks, surprisingly became an issue in the 1992 Presidential campaign when Bill Clinton denounced the racial views she expressed in an interview with David Mills, then at The Washington Post.

Moka Only

Moka Only (born Daniel Denton, November 14, 1973), is a Canadian hip hop artist from Vancouver, British Columbia who grew up in Langford, BC. Graduating from high school in 1989 from Stratford Central Secondary School, Moka Only started freestyling at house parties and ciphers with K-Prevail, now known as Prevail from Swollen Members. They recorded a few demos that were released as an album called Splitspheres. They moved to San Diego later in 1994 to hook up with other rappers. In 1995, Moka returned to Vancouver and met Mad Child, an upcoming MC in the Vancouver music scene. The three of them formed the group Swollen Members late night at a Denny's after a party. This marked the beginning of Battleaxe Records as well. Moka started his solo career in 1994 and has released over 15 albums independently since, gathering huge credibility in the underground hip hop scene. He is also a producer/singer and a songwriter and is in many other groups such as Perfect Strangers, Swollen Members, Code Name Scorpion, Cryptic Souls Crew, The Dominant Mammals, City Planners, Nowfolk, and much more. Moka also goes under many different aliases such as Ron Contour, TJ Slim, Mr. Behaviour, Torch, Him Himself and The Durable Mammal. Moka Only has now left Swollen Members and Battleaxe Records to pursue a solo career on Camobear Records (Josh Martinez's record label).

E - 40

After a talent show at Grambling State University, E-40 and his cousin B-Legit decided to attempt a career in rap. They moved back to Vallejo and teamed up with D-Shot, E-40's brother, to form the group Most Valuable Players. E-40's gospel singing uncle (see "I got the game from my Uncle Saint Charles") helped them put out the record. E-40 says "Oooh" in many of his songs. E-40's sister, Suga T, was then added to the group to form The Click.

The "40" in "E-40" was chosen by Earl as a reference to "40s" - 40 ounce bottles of malt liquor. The "E" was simply derived from Earl's first name. His mother gave him this idea.

After the release of The Click's first album, Down and Dirty, E-40's local solo debut was released.

E-40 has released over ten albums, including those with The Click. He has also appeared on numerous movie soundtracks and has guest appearances on a host of other rap albums. His distinctive voice and rapid lyrical delivery have resulted in collaborations with many hip-hop stars.

After completing a deal with Jive Records he signed with Lil Jon's BME Recordings and Warner Bros. Records. His single "Tell Me When To Go," featuring Keak Da Sneak, became popular throughout the United States, and E-40 appeared on MTV's Direct Effect and BET's 106 & Park. Publicity for E-40 and the greater Hyphy Movement was achieved through the MTV special My Block: The Bay. He later released "U And Dat" in April 2006, featuring T-Pain and Kandi Girl and produced by Lil Jon. His album My Ghetto Report Card debuted at #1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 on March 14th, 2006. Released through Sick Wid It/BME/Warner Bros. Records, the album was produced by Lil Jon, Rick Rock, and E-40's son, Droop-E.

He is also featured on DJ Shadow's new album The Outsider, on a track called "Dat's My Part". In 2006, he also appeared on Tech N9ne's Everready: The Religion CD on a track titled "Jellysickle." In that same year, he contributed a verse to the official remix of "It's Okay (One Blood)" by fellow West coast rapper The Game along with 24 other prominent MCs including Slim Thug, Jim Jones, Jadakiss, Nas, Snoop Dogg, Fat Joe, Twista and Ja Rule among various others.

E-40 hosts a weekly radio show on San Francisco hip-hop radio station KMEL on most Sunday afternoons. The show focuses on local talent and interviews with celebrities and also has a segment called "Movie Week" where E-40 reviews the week's releases. Currently, E-40 is working on his new album The Ball Street Journal initially being set for an August 2007 release. In September 2007, Warner Bros. Records announced that the album would be released in early 2008. Kanye West produced a new track that is likely to be included in The Ball Street Journal titled "Get Deleted", featuring singer Bosko on the chorus.

While many rappers vary the speed at which they rap by song, E-40 often changes pace several times during one song. E-40 also varies the pitch of his voice very often, and is able to raise his voice very high.

An E-40 staple is the use of similes and metaphors in his rap. This technique can be seen in lines such as: "Fools be tryin' to hit me, like a porno website.", "Like McCormicks, I'm seasoned.", and "My yayper is long and lengthy, like Peja Stojakovic"

In addition to record sales E-40 has ventured into other business opportunities. Along with former NFL player Chester McGlockton, E-40 has opened a Fatburger franchise in Pleasant Hill, California. E-40 recently authored the book, E-40's Book of Slang to be published by Warner Books. He also has his own line of liquor called Cloud 9, and he opened the now-defunct Ambassador's Lounge, a nightclub in Downtown San Jose

Snoop Dogg

Snoop Dogg attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School, and was later convicted for cocaine trafficking. Snoop Dogg was a member of a local Crips gang in Long Beach. Snoop Dogg's conviction caused him to be in and out of prison for the first three years after he graduated from high school. Older Crips members and prison inmates affiliated with the Crips gang had a long-standing pattern of recognizing talent (particularly musical or sports talent) among their membership, and Snoop Dogg was pushed to make something of himself as a rapper rather than as a street hustler. Snoop thus followed up on the homemade rap tapes that he had made with his cousin Nate Dogg and best friend Warren G (stepbrother of Dr. Dre of N.W.A.). Originally, Snoop's and Nate's cousin Lil' 1/2 Dead was also part of the group, called 213, named after the Long Beach area code at the time. This was largely in homage to Richie Rich's group 415, which was named for the (then) area code of Oakland, California (now the area code of San Francisco and its northern neighbor Marin County). Several of his cousins also became hip hop artists and Aftermath collaborators, including RBX, Joe Cool, and his cousins, Nate Dogg and Daz Dillinger. He's also the nephew of Soul/Gospel singer Willie Norwood and cousin of his R&B singing children Ray J and Brandy and he recently released "Smokin Trees" with Ray J and a duet with Brandy was pre-recorded for Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, but was not part of the album.

Dr. Dre began collaborating with Snoop Dogg, first on the theme song of the feature film Deep Cover, and then on Dr. Dre's debut solo album The Chronic with the other members of his former starting group, Tha Dogg Pound. Snoop Dogg's contribution to The Chronic was considerable; the rapper's rhymes were as present as Dr. Dre's. The huge success of Snoop Dogg's debut Doggystyle was partially due to this intense exposure.

While recording Doggystyle with Dr. Dre in August 1993, Snoop Dogg was arrested in connection with the death of Phillip Woldermarian, a member of a rival gang who was fired at and killed in a gang fight. Snoop Dogg was defended by David Kenner, with his bodyguard McKinley Lee, while Sean Abrams (accompanying member in the jeep) was defended by Johnnie Cochran.Both Snoop Dogg and McKinley Lee were acquitted; Lee was acquitted on grounds of self-defense, but Snoop Dogg remained entangled in the legal battles around the case for three years. His video "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted" with Tupac Shakur chronicled the difficulties each rapper was dealing with as a result of their unrelated but concurrent criminal prosecutions.

The Doggystyle album was released in November 1993 on Death Row Records and became the first debut album ever to enter the charts at #1, helping to fuel the ascendance of West Coast "g-funk" rap. The singles "Who Am I (What's My Name)?" and "Gin and Juice" reached the top ten most-played songs in the United States, and the album stayed on the Billboard charts for several months. Gangsta rap became the center of arguments for censorship and labeling, with Snoop Dogg often used as an example of violent and misogynistic musicians.

Doggystyle, much like The Chronic, featured a host of rappers signed to or affiliated with the Death Row label including Daz Dillinger, Kurupt, Nate Dogg and others. In 1995 Snoop Dogg and the Dogg Pound were featured on the Los Angeles Based hip-hop show "Street Vibe '95, produced and directed by Edmund Darris . This show a spin off of the St. Louis Based show "Eddie D Live" that promoted heavily rap and hip-hop artist on midwestern television. Snopp Dogg was reported as being a king among men, according to Edmund Darris, who interviewed him and the Dogg Pound exclusively. Darris reported that despite what the media portrays Snoop Dogg, he is a talented genius and has the power of words...he is our modern day Shakespere with raging skills and charisma.

A short film about Snoop Dogg's murder trial called Murder Was the Case, was released in 1994, along with an accompanying soundtrack.

However, by the time Snoop Dogg's second album, Tha Doggfather, was released in November 1996, the price of imitating (or sometimes just living) the "gangsta" life had become very evident. Among the many notable rap industry deaths and convictions were the death of Snoop Dogg's friend and label-mate Tupac Shakur and the racketeering indictment of Death Row co-founder Suge Knight. Dr. Dre had left Death Row earlier in 1996 due to a contract dispute, so Snoop Dogg co-produced Tha Doggfather with Daz Dillinger and DJ Pooh.

This album featured a distinct change of style as compared to Doggystyle. While the album sold reasonably well, it was not as successful, and it was widely believed that its quality suffered from Dr. Dre's lack of involvement. However, Tha Doggfather had a somewhat softer approach to the G-funk style, and Snoop Dogg used a less energetic and more charismatic type of rhyming style, which would be more widely incorporated and exercised later on in his career.

In the immediate aftermath of Dr. Dre's withdrawal from Death Row Records, realizing that he was subject to an iron clad time-based contract (i.e., that Death Row practically owned anything he produced for a number of years), Snoop Dogg refused to produce any more tracks for Suge Knight, other than the insulting "Fuck Death Row", until his contract expired.


Post-Death Row (1998-2003)
Upon leaving Death Row Records Snoop was approached by a number of record labels. He eventually signed a contract with Master P's No Limit Records. No Limit was quite popular at the time, as Southern Hip Hop was going through a revival and beginning to dominate the charts in a way which had not been seen since Florida rap dominated the charts in the early 1990s, thanks to 2 Live Crew and Luke. Snoop shortened his name from Snoop Doggy Dogg to Snoop Dogg, and received a great deal of criticism for signing to the label.

Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told was the first album Snoop released at No Limit. It received negative reviews, yet still sold well. Snoop put his stamp of the now ubiquitous "Dirty South" sound on this album. Similar to the group focus of Death Row Records, many other No Limit Records artists appeared on the album, and it was produced mostly in-house by Beats By The Pound. Snoop's next effort, No Limit Top Dogg would re-unite Snoop with his mentor Dr. Dre for some highlight tracks and see a return to the G-funk style of his Death Row days; it proved to be a success in both ratings and sales, as the album embraced both old and new styles of West Coast hip hop along with assorted guests from the No Limit roster. Snoop Dogg followed this up with his last album on No Limit Records titled Tha Last Meal, which built upon the mixture of styles on No Limit Top Dogg. Later that year, he collaborated again with his old friends Nate Dogg and Warren G as part of 213. They released an album The Hard Way, which featured the single "Groupie Luv", and reached #4 in the U.S. Billboard 200 album charts.

Snoop Dogg released an autobiography in 2001 titled Tha Doggfather: The Times, Trials, and Hardcore Truths of Snoop Dogg, co-written with Davin Seay. In 2002, Snoop announced that he was giving up women and drugs. Later that year he released the album Paid tha Cost to Be da Bo$$, on Capitol Records which featured the hit singles and videos "From tha Chuuuch to da Palace" and "Beautiful" featuring guest vocals by Pharrell Williams.

On May 21, 2004, Snoop Dogg filed for divorce from his wife Shante Broadus, citing irreconcilable differences and seeking joint custody of their three children, Corde, Cordell, and Cori; they have since reconciled. At the age of 30, Snoop gave up smoking weed.

In 2004, Snoop signed to Geffen Records/Star Trak Entertainment both of which are distributed through Interscope Records; Star Trak was headed by the Neptunes, who produced several tracks for Snoop's 2004 release R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece. "Drop It Like It's Hot" (featuring Pharrell), the first single released from the album, was a hit and became Snoop Dogg's first single to reach number one. His third release was "Signs", featuring Justin Timberlake & Charlie Wilson, which entered the UK chart at #2. This was his highest entry ever in the UK chart. The album sold very well, and most of its singles were heavily played on radio and television.

Snoop Dogg's latest music is being featured on West Coast rap albums such as Laugh Now, Cry Later by Ice Cube and Cali Iz Active by Tha Dogg Pound. He is featured on 2 tracks from Cube's album including the single "Go to Church", and several tracks on Cali Iz Active. Also, his latest song, "Real Talk", was leaked over the Internet in the summer of 2006 and a video was later released on the Internet. "Real Talk" is a dedication to Tookie Williams and a diss to Arnold Schwarzenegger. His two other new songs are "Keep Bouncing" by Too $hort, Snoop Dogg & will.i.am; and "Gangsta Walk" by Coolio & Snoop Dogg.

Snoop Dogg's 2006 release, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, did well on its first week, debuting at #5, which has been his highest since 2000's The Last Meal. The album, and the second single "That's That Shit" featuring R. Kelly have been received good critical response so far. In the album, he collaborated in a video with E-40 and other West Coast rappers for his single "Candy (Drippin' Like Water)", the first Snoop Dogg song to contain elements of the hyphy sound from E-40.

In July 2007, Snoop Dogg also made history by becoming the first artist to release a track as a ringtone prior to its release as a single, "It's The D.O.G.". Currently Snoop Dogg is working with producer JT the Bigga Figga on a documentary DVD entitled Mandatory Business, which will feature the likes of Russell Simmons, Spike Lee, Xzibit, Young Buck and 50 Cent. There will also be a soundtrack released for the documentary. On 7 July 2007 Snoop Dogg performed at the German leg of Live Earth in Hamburg

In 2000, Snoop (as "Michael J. Corleone") directed Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle, a pornographic film produced by Hustler. This film, combining hip-hop with X-rated material, was a huge success and won "Top Selling Release of the Year" at the 2002 AVN Awards. Driven by this success, Snoop directed Snoop Dogg's Hustlaz: Diary of a Pimp in 2002 (this time using the nickname "Snoop Scorsese").

Perhaps in conjunction with his entry into the x-rated world, Snoop claimed in a 2006 interview with Rolling Stone magazine that unlike other hip hop artists who've superficially adopted the pimp persona, he was an actual professional pimp in 2003 and 2004, saying "That shit was my natural calling and once I got involved with it, it became fun. It was like shootin' layups for me. I was makin' 'em every time." He goes on to say that upon the advice on some of the other pimps he knew, he eventually gave up pimping to spend more time with his family.

Snoop founded his own production company, Snoopadelic Films, in 2005. Their debut film was Boss'n Up, a film inspired by R&G starring Lil Jon and Trina.

In 2004, Snoop appeared on the Showtime series The L Word as the character "Slim Daddy", a portmanteau of Slim Shady and Puff Daddy. He also notably played the drug dealer-turned-informant character of Huggy Bear, in the 2004 remake film of the 70's TV-series of the same name, Starsky & Hutch. He also appeared as himself in an episode of the Showtime series "Weeds."

He also made an appearance on the hit TV shows Entourage and Monk in July 2007.

On Aug. 25, 1993, Snoop Dogg was arrested on suspicion of being an accomplice in the killing of reputed gang member Philip Woldemariam in Woodbine Park in the Palms district of West Los Angeles. Broadus' bodyguard actually pulled the trigger and claimed self-defense at the trial. Both were acquitted.

A woman named Kylie Bell claimed that she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Broadus and four others. In December 2004, one month before Bell filed her suit against him, Snoop sued her, accusing her of extortion. Bell eventually dropped her lawsuit, and Snoop dropped his US$5 million countersuit against her. Snoop's publicist said "absolutely no money" was paid by the rapper in reaching a settlement.

On April 26, 2006, Snoop Dogg and members of his entourage were arrested being turned away from British Airways' first class lounge. Snoop and his party were not allowed to enter the lounge because some of the entourage were flying first class, other members of the party were flying economy class. After the group was escorted outside, they vandalized a duty-free shop by throwing whiskey bottles. Seven police officers were injured in the fracas. After a night in prison, Snoop Dogg and the other men were released on bail on April 27, but he was unable to perform at the Premier Foods People's Concert in Johannesburg on the same day. As part of his bail conditions, he had to return to the police station in May. The group has been banned by British Airways for "the foreseeable future."

On May 11, when Snoop Dogg appeared at a London police station, he was cautioned for affray under Section 4 of the Public Order Act for use of threatening words or behavior . On May 15, the Home Office decided that Snoop Dogg should be denied entry to the UK for the foreseeable future due to the fracas at Heathrow as well as his previous convictions in the United States for drugs and firearms offenses.http://uk.news.launch.yahoo.com/dyna/article.html?a=/060516/340/gbrj1.html&e=l_news_dm

Snoop Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound, and The Game have been sued for assaulting a fan on stage at a May 2005 Auburn concert at the White River Amphitheatre. The accuser claims he was beaten by the artists' entourage while he was running up to touch Snoop. He alleges that he reacted to an "open invite" to come on stage. Before he could, Snoop’s bodyguards grabbed him and he was beaten unconscious by crew people, including the rapper and producer Soopafly. Snoop and The Game were included in the suit for not intervening to hold the fight. The lawsuit focuses on a pecuniary claim of $22 million in punitive and compensatory damages, battery, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

On September 27, 2006, Snoop Dogg was detained at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California by airport security, after airport screeners found a collapsible police baton in Snoop's carry-on bag. The baton was confiscated but Snoop was allowed to board the flight. He has been charged with various weapons violations stemming from this incident. When arrested, he told deputies the baton was a prop for a movie. Bail was set at $150,000, which Snoop has paid.

Snoop Dogg was arrested again on October 26, 2006 at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California while parked in a passenger loading zone. Approached by airport security for a traffic infraction, he was found in possession of marijuana and a firearm, according to a police statement. He was transported to Burbank Police Department Jail, booked, and released on $35,000 bond. He faced firearm and drug possession charges on 12 December at Burbank Superior Court.

He was again arrested on November 29, 2006, after performing on The Tonight Show, for possession of marijuana and a firearm.

Snoop Dogg was arrested again on March 12, 2007 at 1:25 a.m CET after performing in a concert with P.Diddy in Stockholm's Globe Arena, Sweden. Snoop Dogg was arrested along with a woman after the pair reportedly "reeked" of marijuana. They were arrested and released 4 hours later after providing a urine sample. Pending results on urine will determine whether charges will be pressed. However the rapper denied all charges.

Snoop Dogg's visa request to enter the United Kingdom was rejected by local authorities because of the Heathrow incident on March 24, 2007. A planned concert at London's Wembley Arena on 27th will go ahead with Diddy (with whom he toured Europe) and the rest of the show. However the decision affects four more British performances in Cardiff, Manchester, Nottingham and Glasgow and Budapest (due to rescheduling).

On April 12, 2007, Snoop Dogg was sentenced to five years of probation for gun and drug charges. He is expected to continue touring.

On April 26, 2007, the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship banned him from entering the country on character grounds, citing his prior criminal convictions. He had been scheduled to appear at the MTV Australia Video Music Awards on April 29, 2007. The ban was not lifted and Snoop Dogg was not able to attend. MTV Australia currently has a petition going to get him Australian citizenship.

Snoop Dogg's many legal issues forced San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom to withdraw his plan to issue a proclamation to the rapper.

Back to 80s - The Sugarhill Gang

This pioneering group inaugurated the history of recorded hip-hop with their single "Rapper's Delight", a multi-platinum seller and radio hit in 1979. The group was created to profit on a supposed novelty item. New Jersey-based producer and indie label owner Sylvia Robinson had become aware of the massive hip-hop block parties occurring around the New York City area during the late '70s, so she gathered three locals from her town of Englewood, New Jersey: Guy O'Brien, who was the original Master Gee; another local rapper, Michael Wright, who called himself Wonder Mike, and non-rapper Big Bank Hank. The vocalists were then teamed up with three session musicians, including future Living Color bassist Doug Wimbish. Together, they recorded all of the Sugarhill Gang’s work.

"Rapper's Delight" was a #36 hit on the US pop chart and a #4 hit on the US R&B chart in 1979, though hip hop was dismissed as a fad.

Some claim that "Rapper's Delight" is the first hip hop single ever, but it was actually preceded by "King Tim III (Personality Jock)" by the Fatback Band. The Sugarhill Gang's place in music history seems secure as the first hip hop group to have a gold single.

"Rapper's Delight" borrowed the main bassline from Chic's "Good Times" and became a worldwide hit, reportedly selling more than eight million copies. For some time, the trio developed a poor reputation within certain social circles: The fact that they were essentially amateurs assembled by Sugar Hill Records upset many hip-hop pioneers who had been paying dues in the street party circuit. Chic’s Nile Rodgers filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement over “Rapper's Delight” (the first of many such legal battles for rap); it was settled out of court, leaving Rodgers with a large cut of all future royalties. Despite the embarrassment, the group endured.

The Sugarhill Gang never again topped the charts, though they had a few minor hits, such as "Apache", "Eighth Wonder" (which was performed on the American music show Soul Train in 1981), "Rapper's Reprise [Jam Jam]", and "Showdown" (with the Furious Five). In 1999, they reunited and recorded Jump on It, a hip hop children's album. They continue to tour.

Suge Knight

Marion Knight was born April 19, 1965, in the Compton area of Los Angeles; his trademark nickname was short for "Sugar." As a youth, he was involved with the Mob Piru Bloods street gang, and during his later years was frequently seen wearing their colors. However, he remained an excellent student and athlete, so much so that he won a football scholarship to University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he also made the dean's list. After school, he played professionally for the Los Angeles Rams for a short time, but couldn't quite make the grade. Instead, he found work as a concert promoter and a bodyguard for celebrities including Bobby Brown. Knight's legal problems began in 1987 when he faced auto theft, concealed weapon and attempted murder charges, ultimately receiving probation. Two years later, he formed his own music-publishing company, and allegedly made his first big fortune in the business by coercing Vanilla Ice into signing over royalties from his smash hit Ice Ice Baby owing to material that he supposedly sampled from one of Knight's company associates. (The apocryphal story holds that Knight held Ice by his ankles off of a 20th-floor balcony, though in Ice's version, the threat was more implied.) Knight next formed an artist management company and signed prominent West Coast figures The D.O.C. and DJ Quik. Through the former, he met several members of the seminal gangsta rap group N.W.A.

Suge Knight motivated Dr. Dre, co-owner of Death Row Records, to come out behind the boards as not just a producer, but a solo rap artist. Knight and Dre wanted to get all the new Death Row acts on the album to give them a chance to showcase their talent and piggyback their opportunity with an album of their own in the future. Knight secured a distribution deal with Interscope through Jimmy Iovine and Ted Fields (Time Warner), at the time, making history as the biggest joint venture between a rap label and a major distributor in the history of music. Dre's solo debut, The Chronic, became one of the most influential rap albums of all time selling over 6 million copies to date. It also made a star of Dr. Dre's protégé, Snoop Doggy Dogg, whose debut album, Doggystyle, went on to sell over 5 million copies and secured the label as being the biggest force in rap music. As Death Row's signature G-funk production style took over hip-hop, Death Row became a reliable brand name for gangsta rap fans, and spawned a massive G-Funk movement on the West Coast in which other artists such as Warren G, The Twinz, The Dove Shack, and many veterans such as DJ Quik, Too Short, Ice Cube, and E-40 would adopt as the signature West Coast sound. Through Death Row's success, the door opened up for West Coast artists as they dropped platinum and gold albums and dominated the rap industry. Knight had an unfortunate run-in with the law in the recording sessions for The Chronic in which he was arrested for assaulting two aspiring rappers who allegedly used a phone without his permission, and was placed on probation and given a suspended sentence. Meanwhile, Death Row had begun a public feud with Miami rapper Luke (The 2 Live Crew's Luther Campbell), and when Knight traveled to Miami for a hip-hop convention in 1993, he was allegedly seen openly carrying a gun. Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg created controversy when they began a beef with Dre's former label-mate Eazy-E. On the popular track, "Fuck Wit Dre Day", Dre and Snoop dissed Eazy-E, Luke, and rapper Tim Dog. In the classic video they parody Eazy and Luke and openly brandish a gun and represent Death Row not just as a label but as a crew. In 1995, he ran afoul of activist C. Delores Tucker, whose criticism of Death Row's glamorization of the "gangsta" lifestyle helped scuttle a lucrative deal with Time Warner. Despite the setback, Knight presevered through the controversy and released Tha Dogg Pound's debut album Dogg Food on Halloween 1995. By early 1996, Knight's label dominated the entire rap industry selling more records than any other label and the West Coast set record numbers for album sales. He opened a private, by-appointment-only nightclub in Las Vegas called Club 662, so named because the numbers spelled out "MOB," Knight's gang affiliation, on telephone keypads. He also pleaded no contest to firearms trafficking charges, and was sentenced again but placed on probation. Additionally, Knight's feud with East Coast impresario Sean Combs took a nasty turn when Knight insulted the Bad Boy label honcho on air. Knight mocked Bad Boy CEO Sean 'Puff Daddy' Combs at the Source Awards in August 1995, announcing to the assembly of artists and industry figures: "Anyone out there who wanna' be a recording artist and wanna stay a star, but don't have to worry about the executive producer trying to be all in the videos, on all the records, dancing, come to Death Row," a reference to Puffy's tendency of ad-libbing on his artists' songs and dancing in their videos.

In 1995, Suge Knight, as mentioned in several interviews, said that he felt sorry that Tupac was imprisoned and none of his close friends helped him out or publicly supported him as he sat behind bars. Knight posted the $1.4 million bail and signed Tupac with a cash bonus of 1 million. Allegedly the three album contract Tupac signed in prison was written on a napkin by Death Row attorney David Kenner. Tupac began recording "All Eyez On Me", the first double album in the history of rap music. The album, which was largely produced by Daz Dillinger and Johnny J only featured two Dr. Dre produced tracks and went on to sell over 10 million albums to date and is considered by many to be the greatest rap album ever in the history of Gangsta Rap.

In 1995, Tha Dogg Pound was in a trailer getting ready to shoot their video for "New York, New York", a video which would feature Kurupt, Daz, and Snoop stomping down on buildings in Times Square. Tupac went on a local New York radio station and called out many mainstream rappers in New York and made threats. Several bullets were fired at Tha Dogg Pound's trailer, none which caused harm, but served as a notice that Suge Knight's label was not welcome on the East Coast with open arms. Tupac later claimed that he was mad at Snoop Doggy Dogg for not defending him publicly and having his back dissing the East Coast with him. Snoop refused to record diss records towards the Notorious B.I.G. and backed off in his involvement with the Death Row vs. Bad Boy feud. Knight claimed in a post-prison interview that the reason Tupac did not appear on Snoop's 1996 "Tha Doggfather" album and Snoop did not appear on Tupac's The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory was because Tupac had an in-house beef with Snoop Dogg.

Tupac became the lead act on Death Row Records in a marketplace that was dominated by West Coast rap. Knight's co-owner and business partner, Dr. Dre, decided that he did not like the direction that the company was going and wanted to produce rap in a positive direction and left Death Row Records in 1995. Dre later went on to say in an interview that the one incident that pushed him over the top to make his decision was when he witnessed a producer get beat down for rewinding the tape too far. Dr. Dre forfeited his half of the company and his master recordings for his "Chronic 2" release to Suge Knight. Tupac went on KMEL radio in the Bay Area and dissed Dre stating that he was a bomb producer but he never produced any tracks. Tupac claimed that he had grown tired of waiting for beats from Dre and that's why there was only two tracks produced by him on his album ("California Love" was actually a duet with Ice Cube and intended for Dre's "Chronic 2" but Knight and Tupac decided to erase Cube's vocals use it on "All Eyez On Me"). Death Row recorded and released many diss tracks implying Dre was a homosexual and used ghost producers. Some of these songs included Tupac's "To Live And Die In L.A.", "Toss It Up", "Fuck Friendz", and "Against All Odds". "Toss It Up" had a similar beat to Dr. Dre's track he produced for Blackstreet titled "No Diggity". Dr. Dre's image was tarnished by the label he helped create and it was not until his 1999 smash release "Dr. Dre 2001" that he was able to redeem his character.

Death Row moved along smoothly without Dr. Dre as they dominated the industry and released hit records including a diss record titled "Hit Em Up" which was aimed at the entire East Coast including rival rapper Notorious B.I.G., Puff Daddy, Lil Kim, Mobb Deep, and Nas. They had announced plans two weeks before Tupac died of forming a Death Row East. Tupac stated that they would overthrow the rappers like Nas and Bad Boy Records, and bring a "new government" to the East Coast. Knight and Tupac had an altercation with Crips members in the lobby of the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino after a boxing match in Las Vegas. After the fight, Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight were leaving in a vehicle driven by Knight when a white car drove up on the side and sprayed the vehicle with bullets in a drive-by shooting. Tupac was hit by several bullets and bleeding internally and Suge Knight claimed he was struck in the head by a bullet and it was lodged in his skull, although reports from medical examiners on-scene deemed it to be a scratch from broken glass. Suge Knight rushed Tupac to the hospital and claimed that Tupac was joking with him, asking him why he was asking if he(Tupac) was okay when it was Knight who was shot in the head.. Although the murder is unsolved to this day, many on the West Coast speculate that the gunman was Orlando Anderson, the individual who was involved in the earlier altercation. Orlando Anderson was gunned down in 1998 in a car wash in Compton, California. There was speculation that Bad Boy Entertainment CEO Puff Daddy and the Notorious B.I.G. ordered the hit through rival gang members as a retaliation to "Hit Em Up", where Tupac claimed he had slept with Biggie's wife, Faith Evans. When Shakur's East Coast rival, Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie Smalls), was murdered in a similar fashion in early 1997, speculation immediately arose that Knight was involved and that the killing was revenge. Others claim that Suge owed Tupac millions of dollars in royalties, and that Tupac was about to leave and start his own label, prompting Suge to have Tupac killed. To date, both murders remain unsolved, but the investigations exposed a web of connections between Death Row Records, gang members who worked there, and LAPD officers who sometimes worked security for the label and its artists during off hours.

Knight would later be sentenced to prison for violating his probation from the 1992 assault on the two aspiring rappers as he was caught on casino security cameras fighting and he would have to attempt to run Death Row Records from prison. Moreover, Bad Boy and Death Row, who were the elite labels on their respective coasts in 1996, had lost their top recording acts due to the violence. As this occurred, Interscope Records wanted to distance itself from Death Row Records and Knight moved to Priority Records.

Snoop Doggy Dogg, who saw the demise of the label, the departure of Dr. Dre, and the death of Tupac, told the Long Beach Press-Telegram that he was leaving the label because he was scared for his life. Snoop Doggy Dogg headed south to join Master P's No Limit Records. Tha Dogg Pound, Daz Dillinger and Kurupt, stayed on the label in hopes to release their second group album. In 1998, Kurupt would briefly leave on good terms with the blessing of Suge Knight to form his own label and drop his debut album "Kuruption" before later returning. Daz stayed on the label and released his debut album in 1998 "Retaliation, Revenge And Get Back," which went Gold. Daz was promoted as the lead producer, the role once held by Dr. Dre, and recorded and produced several tracks and maintained a relationship with Knight, visiting him in prison and talking to him on the phone.

In 1999, the label released "The Chronic 2000: Suge Knight Represents," a double disc to introduce Suge's second generation. The album featured tracks from Suge's new rappers and Tha Dogg Pound. Kurupt was the only rapper to appear on both Dr. Dre's "2001" album and Suge Knight's "The Chronic 2000: Suge Knight Represents." Knight and Dre battled in court over the rights to the "Chronic" title and Knight would win the rights of the "Chronic" title only if he agreed not to put unreleased Dr. Dre tracks on it. On the album, Knight pushed Top Dogg who had beef with Snoop Dogg, and released the track "Top Dogg Cindafella" in which Snoop would release an identical track and a title that mocked the Death Row rapper's name on his release called "No Limit Top Dogg". While Knight's album was certified platinum, Dr. Dre's went on to sell over 8 million copies and is regarded as equal to if not better than the original. Suge Knight released Tha Dogg Pound's second album in 2000 titled "Tha Dogg Pound 2002" which was basically unreleased material from Tha Dogg Pound. Daz left the label in 2001 because of a dispute with Suge Knight. Kurupt would work with Knight's label briefly on and off until officially returning as the companies president in 2002. The label failed to release any solo albums of its much anticipated new acts, specifically Crooked I, Eastwood, Tha Realest, Top Dogg, and Soopafly.

Videotape at the Las Vegas MGM Grand Hotel where Knight and Shakur had attended a boxing match prior to the shooting showed an altercation with Crips gang member Orlando Anderson, who some believe was the eventual shooter. Knight's involvement in the fight violated the terms of his probation. Moreover, it was revealed that Knight's light sentence may have involved a conflict of interest on the part of prosecutor Lawrence Longo, who rented out a Malibu home to Knight and even had his teenage daughter sign a recording contract with Death Row. Knight was sentenced to nine years in prison, which effectively spelled the end of his Death Row empire. Knight's home was also burglarized, and a search warrant was issued at his office and police seized a vehicle thought to be the batmobile in the Batman movies.

In 2001, Suge Knight was released from prison and tried to re-start his label by pushing new artists such as Crooked I, Top Dogg, Soopafly, Tha Realest, and later, Eastwood, Ray J, and, under the pseudonym "N.I.N.A.", the late Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes of TLC, before her untimely death in a car accident in 2002. However, in December 2002 he was jailed again for violating his probation by associating with gang members. After his release, he was arrested and jailed yet again in 2003, for assaulting parking lot attendant Mehdi Lazrak.

Knight was released from jail April 23, 2004. Original artist Kurupt is now the label's headliner, and his album, Against Tha Grain, was released in 2005. After his release, Knight announced Death Row Records would join with other labels to produce a Christmas hip-hop album to benefit both the families of soldiers serving in Iraq and the relatives of those who died. However, no such album has been released.

Suge Knight has a son who goes by the name Taj Knight who lives in Atlanta. He was born on September 30, 1991, in Los Angeles, California. He lives with his mother Davina Barnes.[citation needed]

Suge is said to be developing an autobiography entitled "American Dream/American Nightmare". However, a targeted release date of fourth-quarter 2005 came and went with no book being released. He has hinted that he will describe his experiences as a bodyguard and rap impresario and relate stories about John F. Kennedy, Jr., Jennifer Lopez, and the "scoop" on Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, as well as his first public statement about the deaths of Tupac and Biggie. Suge also claims to be planning a movie to tell the "real story" of Death Row. [1]

In October 2004, despite having not been formally invited, Suge attended the VIBE Awards, ostensibly to support Petey Pablo, whom he manages. That night Dr. Dre was to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award. With Suge in the audience, a man approached Dr. Dre shortly before Dre was called up for the award and feigned interest in an autograph before punching Dre. In the resulting scuffle, G-Unit rapper Young Buck stabbed the man. Immediately, stories pointed fingers at Suge, who went on The Late Late Show and insisted he supports Dr. Dre. The man, Jimmy James Johnson, faces life in prison due to the three strikes law in California, after Dre insisted he be charged. Johnson is now claiming that Suge paid him $5,000 to punch Dre in order to humiliate him before Dre received his Lifetime Achievement Award from Quincy Jones and Snoop Dogg.

On the evening of February 5, 2005, Knight was arrested in Barstow, California, after police pulled him over for making an illegal U-turn. They found marijuana in his Ford pickup truck. He was booked on suspicion of violating his parole. Sheriff's officials detained Knight pending his transfer to state prison, where it was to be decided whether Knight would be charged or released. He was released shortly thereafter. [2]

Early Sunday morning on August 28, 2005, the day of the MTV Video Music Awards, Knight was shot in the leg in Miami Beach, Florida during a party held in honor of Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music record label. He was taken to Mount Sinai Medical Center and treated for the gunshot wound. Police say they have not been able to identify the assailants, but they are still talking with eyewitnesses.

On April 4, 2006, Suge Knight filed bankruptcy due to civil litigation against him in which Lydia Harris claimed to have been cheated out of a 50% stake in Death Row Records. Prior to filing, Knight had been ordered to pay $107 million to Lydia Harris. [3] Under questioning by creditors, he denied having money tucked away in foreign countries or in an African company that deals in diamonds and gold. Bankruptcy documents filed showed Knight had no income this year from employment or operation of a business. His bank account contained just $11, and he owned clothing worth $1,000, furniture and appliances valued at $2,000, and jewelry worth $25,000, according to the records. He had testified that the last time he checked the label’s financial records was at least 10 years ago. Knight’s lawyer said that his client was still “at the helm” of Death Row and had been working on securing distribution deals for the label’s catalog. Knight had also testified that he had reached an agreement with Lydia Harris, saying "I settled for a million and signed off on it." Harris told reporters she had received a $1 million payment but had not agreed to settle the matter. "I'm telling you, I didn't do a settlement for $1 million. That's ridiculous. Let's keep it real," she said.

Knight skipped a meeting with his creditors after injuring himself in a motorcycle accident. Another scheduled meeting with the creditors had been missed after Suge said he had experienced a death in his family. Finally, the federal judge Ellen Carroll on July 7, 2006 ordered a bankruptcy trustee takeover of Suge Knight's Death Row Records, saying the record label has undergone gross mismanagement. She commented that "apparently there's no one at the helm of Death Row".

He filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which allows a company to continue business operations while restructuring. Death Row is currently being operated by Neilson during the bankruptcy proceedings, while Knight oversees his bankruptcy estate as a debtor in possession.

Recently he was engaged again in a feud with his archrival Snoop Dogg after Snoop disrespected him in Rolling Stone magazine. Suge responded on Pagesix.com calling Snoop Dogg "a rat" and "a crybaby", accusing him of not serving time in prison (due to his close relations with the police) and running away from "real" fights.[1]

In the 2006 movie The Hard Corps (starring Jean-Claude Van Damme), the character of Terrell Singletery (a violent rap mogul with criminal intentions who was released from prison) is loosely based on Suge Knight's profile.

Knight is also featured in the 2007 movie Reno 911!: Miami, though off-camera, as Lieutenant Jim Dangle and Deputy Travis Junior investigate a noise complaint at Knight's Miami home during Knight's birthday.

In June 2007 he placed his seven-bedroom, 9 1/2-bath home in Malibu on the market for $6.2 million as part of his financial makeover.

During Dr.Dre’s defection from Ruthless Records there was a fear of further violence. Ruthless Records executives, Mike Klein and Jerry Heller sought assistance from the Jewish Defense League (JDL). Mike Klein, former Ruthless Records director of business affairs said "The League offered to provide bodyguards to Eazy-E when Knight allegedly threatened him in the early 1990s." This provided Ruthless Records with muscle to enter into negotiations with Death Row Records over Dr.Dre’s departure. While Suge Knight violently sought an outright release from Ruthless Records for Dr.Dre, the JDL and Ruthless records management were able to sit down with Death Row and negotiate a release in which the record label would continue to receive money and publishing rights from future Dr.Dre projects. It was under these terms Dr.Dre left Ruthless Records and formed Death Row Records with Suge Knight.

The DEA launched a money laundering investigation, assuming that the JDL was extorting money from Ruthless Records to fight their extremist causes. This led to JDL spokesperson Irv Rubin to issue a press release stating "There was nothing but a close, tight relationship" between Eazy-E and the League.

Jerry Heller has explained JDL’s involvement with Ruthless Records for even more reasons than the FBI investigated. Heller has acknowledged that Eazy E received death threats, and it was discovered that he was on hit list by some neo-Nazi skinheads. The FBI did not inform Eazy that his life was in danger. Heller has speculated that it may have been because of the Fuck Tha Police song. Heller said "It was no secret that in the aftermath of the Suge Knight shake down incident where Eazy was forced to sign over Dr Dre, Michel'le and The D.O.C., that Ruthless was protected by Israeli trained/connected security forces." Jerry Heller maintains that Eazy E admired the group for their slogan Never Again, and that he had plans to do a movie about the group.

Death Row Records

While Dr. Dre was trying to leave Ruthless Records, he was introduced to Suge Knight through his friend The D.O.C., for whom Knight was a bodyguard at the time. With Dr. Dre, Knight, The D.O.C. and John Payne set out to found their own label which they called Future Shock Records and then later renamed it to Death Row Records.

Funding Death Row was accomplished via financial support from Interscope Records, which in exchange would distribute its records. The label's first release was The Chronic, the solo debut from Dr. Dre, in December 1992. Featured on the album were newcomers: Daz, Kurupt, The Lady of Rage, RBX and, most notably, Dr. Dre's new protege Snoop Dogg(then known as Snoop 'Doggy' Dogg). The album quickly exploded into 1993, peaking at #1 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums Chart, selling over three million copies. Later that year, Death Row released Doggystyle, the debut album from Snoop Dogg. Debuting at #1, it wound up beating The Chronic in sales, and made Snoop Dogg and Death Row Records hip-hop's leading act by 1994. Also in 1994, Death Row released the multi-platinum soundtracks to Above the Rim and Snoop Dogg's Murder Was the Case.

With acclaim came criticism. While riding high on the commercial success of Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg, Death Row was blasted by several activist groups and public figures in the media for its glorification of the violence associated with the gangsta rap image that most of its artists promoted. The media criticism, meanwhile, grew louder by the summer of 1995, as dissenters zeroed in on Death Row's highly publicized forthcoming release, Dogg Food — the debut release by Tha Dogg Pound. The flak made the shareholders in Interscope Records' parent company, Time Warner, nervous. So much so that the company sold all of its shares in Interscope to MCA Music Entertainment. Dogg Food, meanwhile, was postponed from its intended July release date to October.

As the controversy with boycotters and Time Warner was adding fuel to Death Row's engine; Suge Knight, in the meantime, posted bail for the then-incarcerated Tupac ("2Pac") Shakur — in exchange for his signing with Death Row. At the time, Tupac and Death Row shared mutual disdain for the fledgling New York-based Bad Boy Records, along with its CEO Sean Combs and seminal star The Notorious B.I.G.

Upon Shakur's release from jail, he immediately went to work on his Death Row debut album, All Eyez on Me. The album, released in early 1996, topped the albums charts and going diamond ( 10x platinum) became the label's biggest commercial success to date. The escalating tension between Tupac and Biggie (as well as Death Row and Bad Boy), meanwhile, fueled what was eventually called the "East Coast/West Coast rap war." What was to follow would be a year-long dispute in which several Death Row artists fired verbal assaults at East Coast artists. Among those who took lyrical shots were: Snoop Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound, and Tupac (with his group, Tha Outlawz). The list of those dissed by Death Row included most famously (but is not limited to): Mobb Deep, Nas, Jay-Z, the Junior M.A.F.I.A., Puff Daddy and the Notorious B.I.G.

Death Row artists who acknowledged Bad Boy Records, or those who didn't support the feud, were looked down upon by Tupac. Lady of Rage commented in an interview that Tupac had once called her the "weakest link in Death Row" because she wouldn't insult Bad Boy. Tupac also spoke ill of Dr. Dre for having not testified for Snoop during his murder trial, discouraging the West Coast-East Coast tension, and for his having departed the label in early 1996. Tupac dissed Dr. Dre on KMEL radio in the Bay Area for not running the streets representing with him and the label and being too slow on producing beats for his album. Snoop Dogg eventually would fall out with Tupac shortly before his death because of an interview in which Snoop claims to like and respect B.I.G.'s music.

Despite the infamous feud, Suge Knight had planned to open a New York chapter of the label to be called Death Row East, even signing K-Solo, the only rapper that signed before the label disappeared. Eric B. was slated to head that label. In an interview, 2Pac named rappers they planned to sign, from Big Daddy Kane to the Wu-Tang Clan. The branch, however, was never formed.

Tupac was shot and killed in Las Vegas in September 1996, while riding on the passenger side in a car driven by Suge Knight. Soon after, Knight was sentenced to nine years in prison for a parole violation relating directly to a fight that both he and Tupac were involved in on the night of his death. As a result of Dr. Dre's having previously left the company, Tupac's death, and Knight's incarceration; Death Row Records imploded almost instantly.

In August 1997, Interscope Records sold its interest in Death Row Records and severed ties with the company. This forced the label to take up distribution with Priority Records. By 1998, Snoop Dogg, RBX, Jewell, and Kurupt had all left the label. Nate Dogg, The Lady of Rage, and Daz Dillinger soon followed. Death Row's saving grace was, and remains to be, the fact that they maintain ownership of the original master recordings its former artists produced while they were still under contract. These recordings continue to provide the label with the majority of its revenue.

Upon release from prison in 2001, Knight renamed the label "Tha Row Records" and revealed a new roster headed by gifted Long Beach rapper, Crooked I. Tha Row also signed Left Eye of TLC, under the name N.I.N.A., meaning New Identity Non-Applicable. Left-Eye, however, was later killed in a car accident before anything could come of the deal.

Several out-of-print releases from Tha Row were re-released, such as: Snoop Dogg's Tha Doggfather and 2Pac's The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. However, Tha Row's attempt at a comeback lagged, as their new releases were all compilations. With the exception of previously unreleased material by 2Pac, the label failed to release any solo records by any of its current roster. On the 2001 Too Gangsta For Radio compilation, several skits were aimed at Tha Row's many adversaries. The introduction had a Snoop impersonator waking up from a nightmare and making his wife phone the prison in which Suge Knight was serving time to verify that he was still behind bars. On the track "Fuck Dre", Tha Realest, Twist 2 D.V.S.(J. Gallardo not to be confused with Chicago rapper Twista) and Lil' C-Style (formerly of the LBC Crew) recorded a skit where Dr. Dre rapes a potential signee, and on K-9's "Gangsta'd Out", a skit portrayed Eminem as a tool of the Ku Klux Klan.

At 2:30 am on May 27, 2003, several bullets were fired by an unknown person, or persons, at Death Row Records Beverly Hills headquarters; damaging the front door, windows and wall of the offices. Earlier that year, a Los Angeles S.W.A.T. team raided the Death Row offices, looking for evidence of gang murders and drug dealing.

At some point, rumors circulated that rapper The Game was in talks with Suge Knight about signing with Tha Row. Supposedly, The Game was simultaneously considering a deal with rival Bad Boy Records. Regardless of the authenticity of these talks, they yielded nothing and The Game is currently under his own label named The Black Wall Street Records.

The year 2004 proved unfortunate for Suge. Crooked I, Tha Row's most promising artist, became frustrated that his album had failed to reach shelves after a period of five years and departed the label when his contract expired. Crooked I is now under his own label called Dynasty Entertainment. Similarly, R&B artist Danny Boy too left the label after a lengthy postponement, but as of now this is yet to be announced. Rapper Kurupt left in 2005 to reunite group Tha Dogg Pound with former partner Daz Dillinger. In the same year, Tha Row signed rapper Petey Pablo. Additionally, it is rumored that the company attempted to sign incarcerated rapper Shyne, but that didn't work out.

After weeks of speculation, Queens, NY bred rapper Lakey The Kid and Suge Knight recently revealed on New York radio station Hot 97 that Lakey The Kid is signed to Death Row East, and will be the flagship artist for the label. Death Row East was 2Pac's idea but didn't materialize until ten years after his death.

In 1998, Suge planned to launch the many rappers to come for the second generation of Death Row Records. Although he was incarcerated, he pushed rapper Top Dogg (also known as YGD) as his first new face making his television debut appearance in the video "All About U" on the 2Pac "Greatest Hits" album replacing Snoop Dogg. Top Dogg had generated a buzz from a hidden track on the "Gang Related Soundtrack" titled "Goin Back To Cali" aimed toward Puff Daddy. The video, "All About U," received heavy play and Suge followed in 1999 with "The Chronic 2000: Suge Knight Represents" album to introduce a brand new roster headed by Top Dogg, Tha Realest, and Soopafly, with Daz Dillinger as the veteran lead-producer.

In 2000, the video for Top Dogg's "Cindafella" track received minor airplay with an innovative concept produced by TC as many earlier videos and directed by K.C. Amos, and his album "Every Dog Has His Day" was shelved as his contract expired and he was not renewed. Soopafly shortly lived as the label's lead artist after generating a buzz off his single "Like It Or Not," but was released due to disputes over payments from the label. Tha Realest tookover as Tha Row's lead artist and made several albums which were never released, including the much anticipated "Witness Tha Realest" that featured a diss track towards Mobb Deep. He recorded tracks with Daz Dillinger, The Outlawz, Scarface, Richie Rich, and other big westcoast names along with labelmates Dre'sta, K9, J Valentine, PB, and his group, The Last Circle. After "Too Gangsta For Radio," Tha Realest was put on the back-burner for Crooked I. He went to court against Suge Knight's label to escape his contract. Daz Dillinger left the label as head-producer later that year due to money problems with Suge Knight and he used his Death Row tracks to release an independent album titled "R.A.W." His lead single for the Too Gangsta For Radio compilation titled "Gangsta Rap" was pulled and he was replaced with Scarface & Treach of Naughty By Nature. This track would later appear as the lead single for Knight's Tha Dogg Pound "2002" release. Big Hutch aka Cold187um from Above The Law became the label's lead producer. In September of 2001, with Knight being out of prison, Crooked I's debut "Say Hi To Tha Bad Guy" was supposed to be released with the lead single being "So Damn Hood" and guest appearances by Dru Hill, Jadakiss, Kurupt, Eastwood, Scarface, Juvenile, Too Short, and others marking the big return of the label. The album was never released and it became apparent Death Row Records had major marketing problems. Big Hutch parted the label and various producers tookover the position he held at the company.

By 2002, Knight's fanbase became frustrated with a lack of new albums from active artists. Although Kurupt of Tha Dogg Pound had returned to be President of the label, the release of Tha Dogg Pound's 2002, Tupac Shakur's Until The End Of Time, and Snoop Dogg's Death Row: Snoop Doggy Dogg at His Best escalated the frustration of loyal fans that wanted to see the new roster. Although he had a great relationship with Suge Knight, it was apparent that Kurupt had very little power when it came to major label decisions, album releases, and recruiting power as the President and that the significant decisions ran through Knight.

By 2003, Kurupt was the label's new lead artist as Crooked I fought legal battles with Knight to escape his contract. He recorded with his brother Roscoe, Ray J, Eastwood, and Tri-Star.

By 2005, multi-platinum rapper Petey Pablo had signed on to become Death Row's new lead artist. Kurupt and Eastwood (Who is now a former artist) were the only ones left of the second generation of Tha Row artists because most had departed from the label. Kurupt's album "Against The Grain" dropped and Death Row claimed that distributor Koch dropped the album before it was finished and left off important tracks Kurupt recorded with Lil Jon and Ice Cube. Songs such as Vaseline 2 were dropped from the album. The album did poorly for sales and reminded everyone of the problems the label was having. As well as the poor sales Death Row did not endorse the album because of Koch's "mistake".

The second generation did not fail due to lack of talent, but rather, a lack of exposure. With poor promotion and missed album releases, several quality records were shelved that may have generated heavy sales. The label failed to release completed albums by Top Dogg, Soopafly, Tha Realest, Daz Dillinger (second album), Above The Law, Ray J, N.I.N.A., J. Valentine, Eastwood, Danny Boy, Crooked I, Dre'sta, Mac Shawn, and several others.

Later that year Kurupt and Eastwood both left the label. The only remaining artist would be Petey Pablo until 2006.

Sometime in early 2006 Suge Knight went on the DJ Kay Slay Hot 97 Radio Show and announced Death Row East and its first artist Lakey The Kid. Lakey had appeared on albums with Nas previously. Tha Row East has plans for one album. This album is Lakey's solo album called "The Big Ride" which, according to Tha Row East Vice President Delson, will be coming out sometime in 2007. Another artist named Warlord later signed to Death Row West. His mixtape "I Can Getcha Block Knocked Off Volume 1" aided by DJ Fokis aka "Bull Of Tha Industry" out of Chicago was released September 26, 2006. Warlord recently started working on "Still Can Get Cha Block Knocked off Volume 2". The mixtape is in its final stages and will soon be available worldwide on Apple’s iTunes. Apparently the mixtape is executive produced by Suge Knight and Big L.O.S. (Death Row's Former V.P.). There is a video being shot for this called Boss, which will be the main focus of the tape. It has also been reported that Suge Knight is doing a reality show pilot for a major cable channel. Recently Big L.O.S. left from Death Row Records & formed his own company. Petey Pablo was stated to have left from Death Row Records near the end of 2006. Petey Pablo plans on releasing a mixtape around the same time his new album drops.

Warren G, Dr. Dre's step-brother, left the label without releasing an album — claiming that he had been assaulted by Knight. The book "Have Gun will Travel" by Ronin Ro later claimed that he and his friends were publicly beaten at a boat party, and also details accusations of violence against Sam Sneed. Some employees were allegedly beaten and forced to strip after making a telephone call without permission.[2]

On his VH1 Behind the Music profile, Dr. Dre noted that the single incident that made him decide to leave the label for good was when he witnessed a studio engineer being assaulted, simply for rewinding a tape back too far.

Back to 80s - Eric B and Rakim

N.Y.C.'s groundbreaking duo Eric B and Rakim turned the rap world on its ear with their first single, "Eric B Is President," released in 1986. Set to chunky beats, tight scratching, and heavy synth-bass, Queens emcee Rakim delivered a flurry of now-classic rhymes. Their debut album Paid In Full (1987) continued the onslaught of deadly serious lyricism and air-tight beats, fast establishing them as one of the most respected and influential groups out. Their sophomore LP Follow The Leader (1988) was another undisputed classic, packed with hits like "I Ain't No Joke" and "Microphone Fiend." They released two more solid albums, and parted ways in the early '90s. Their latter-day singles include "Casualties Of War" and "Juice (Know The Ledge)." Among the most influential groups in the history of hip-hop, they popularized James Brown drum loops and complex rhyme schemes alike. Rakim released two solo albums in '97 and '99.

Back to 80s - LL Cool J

Boasting one of the longest and most successful careers in the history of hip-hop, LL has been cranking out the hits since 1984. The Queens native first made waves with the release of "I Need A Beat," the first release ever on Russell Simmons' powerful Def Jam label. One of Rap's original bona fide superstars, Ladies Love Cool James popularized Kangols and fat rope chains, headlined mega-tours, and released a slew of classic hits, including "Rock The Bells" and "Mama Said Knock You Out." He was also amongst the first hip-hop artists to successfully crossover to a Pop audience, with help from his slow jam hit "I Need Love." In addition to his multi-platinum music career, he also led the charge for rappers as actors, appearing in films, commercials, and his own TV show. Still a prominent figure in an industry notorious for fleeting stardom, he keeps putting in work, further cementing this pioneer and trendsetter's place in the history books.

You talkin' to me ? - Martin Scorsese

Gangs of New York - Martin Scorsese - Interview

INGRID SISCHY: What attracted you to the story told in your new film. Gangs of New York?

MARTIN SCORSESE: At around the age of seven or eight I became aware of an older history to the Manhattan neighborhood I grew up in, Little Italy, as well as the surrounding areas of the Lower East Side and downtown all the way to Wall Street and what is now TriBeCa. Though my neighborhood was then an Italian-American area, there were indications to a young person that it hadn't always been. The nearby cathedral was the old St. Patrick's, and the nuns at the St. Patrick's elementary school, which I was going to, were from Ireland. As I grew up, I began to hear stories of old New York. My father told me stories from the 1920s and teens, but he knew others from way back beyond that. As I got older I started to do research on the church--I did term papers in high school about it, that sort of thing--and I began to understand about the conflicts between the Irish immigrants and the nativists [groups, political and otherwise, who were against immigration, like] the Know-Nothings. And looking at American history, I became fascinated by New York history, especially the period before the Civil War. Very little was available to younger people about that time in the 1950s and '60s.

IS: What is the precise time frame in which your film takes place?

MS: There's a prologue in 1846, but the majority of the film takes place from 1862 to 1863.

IS: So we're in New York during the Civil War.

MS: Yeah, at the turning point of the war. By the end of the film the main characters play out their conflict against the backdrop of the whole city erupting in what we now call the Draft Riots. That was in the summer of 1863.

IS: The Draft Riots took place in response to the fact that if you were rich enough you could buy your way out of being inducted by the Union army, right?

MS: Yes. By slipping the army 300 dollars or paying for a substitute. In effect, the immigrants were getting off boats, becoming citizens, and suddenly going into the army.

IS: So within all this brew there were the gang wars of lower Manhattan? And thus your film.

MS: Yes. The gang wars were politically motivated. The nativists didn't want immigration, they wanted, as they say, "America for Americans"--which were the English and Dutch stock, the Protestants. These people had fought for the country and wanted to keep it their own. The Irish immigration [which was primarily Catholic] was the first real test of what America would become, before the Statue of Liberty, the huddled masses. ... I don't think the founding fathers had in mind, really, that there would be such an influx of immigration from all over the world, which would become the complexion of America. In any event, [the 1860s] was a period where other cultures and other religions [than the nativists'] were resisted. That's the backdrop of the movie. Also, New York State was part of the Union, but not many people agreed with the Union and Lincoln, so the conflict between North and South was played out in New York in many different ways--riots, economic problems. Against this turmoil of what the country is supp osed to be, or what the country will become after the Civil War, whichever side wins, we set in motion a traditional tribal story of a young boy [Amsterdam Vallon, played by Leonardo DiCaprio] avenging his father's death [at the hands of Bill the Butcher, played by Daniel Day-Lewis].

IS: It is impossible to listen to you talk about tribalism and this movie and not think about the contemporary parallels to world history and New York history of the past year or so. Not that life then and now is the same, but-

MS:--Yes, exactly. That's the point. The more I worked on the film the more I realized that the situation we are in now, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, puts the world in a dangerous place. Really, with the collapse of any great power in history, societies are reduced to a kind of tribalism. For example, to a certain extent, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire caused World War I.

The film plays out all the struggles and hardships and suffering and tribalism of a particular period in the 19th century. Ultimately the city as we know it is created, but that doesn't mean it stays that way. Cities rise and fall, but they rise up again. Very often we find that such struggling and violence are futile. People want to live with their individual rights. Everybody has the right to be free, and one person shouldn't infringe upon another person's freedom--that's what the struggle in the movie is about.

IS: Considering what's going on in the world, the idea you just raised. "People want to live," would seem to be a largely Western belief, wouldn't it? Interestingly, you were making this movie against the contemporary backdrop of culture wars that are making heroes out of suicide bombers--people who don't want to live.

MS: They're dying for a cause. And [during the Civil War] the North and South were fighting for causes. The nativists and the Irish were fighting for the right to live and the right to live together, but they were dying for it, too. If people believe in something strongly enough they're going to die for it, and that's a major problem in the world today. In the film--as in today's world--religion is used in a militant way.

IS: What would you say is the difference between then and now?

MS: It seems that the concept of America being open to immigrants, different cultures, different races, different religions, is now somewhat accepted. That does not mean that every immigrant group that now comes to America--usually playing itself out in New York--doesn't have its conflicts to overcome to become part of the system. The first generation usually struggles just to make ends meet, but the second generation finds itself going to school and taking advantage of the system. That's what makes this country so great, what makes this experiment in democracy so interesting. It's never finished; it's always in the works.

IS: You're a lifetime New Yorker. but you made much of Gangs of New York in Rome--what was that like?

MS: One of the main reasons the film hadn't been made over the years is the amount of money it would've cost to build these sets in America. Dante Ferretti [a production designer who often collaborates with Scorsese] was able to work out a deal with Cinecitta [Studios, on Rome's outskirts], and the craftsmanship and artistry of the Italians are so renowned that we felt totally comfortable.

IS: Did Dante design the weapons used throughout the film, too?

MS: Along with Dennis Parrish, our prop consultant. We had pictures of old weapons, and a number of people improvised ideas, and we would make them up on the spot.

IS: Are they all historically accurate?

MS: Some were invented. In gladiator fights, for example, there were four or five different styles to fight with, according to the gladiator's proficiency with a certain weapon. So we figured if you were in a tribal society living in caves below the city, you would make your own.

IS: We wanted to highlight some of these weapons--many of them homemade--in our piece on the movie. Somehow they symbolize something about history, and the impulse to violence when survival is the issue. What are the alternatives, one wants to ask? And, of course, understanding history is one way to change it, which is, I guess, why you're so interested in history. Your film sounds as if it takes all these issues on.

MS: Ultimately this tribal story plays out in microcosm what's being played out in the macrocosm: the war and the formation of the country. The 20th century was arguably the most violent in human history, but the most violent century in American history was the 19th. Poor people, political parties, and gangs would demonstrate, and there was violence constantly. Constantly. They stood on their soapboxes and screamed and yelled and had confrontations and fights. People were fighting not only in New York--though it was the hottest--but also in urban centers like Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. When the Draft Riots started, everyone thought it was just your average riot, but it immediately turned into a race riot, and it lasted four days and nights, which the end of our film is played out against.

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580's Interview @ 89.9 KCRH Bay Area College Radio Pt.2

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