Keepingitreal

September 09 2009, 20 Years High and Rising Tour: De La Soul. At Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris, France

Video: Diamond District - "Mini Documentary"

In anticipation of the official release of their forthcoming debut effort, In The Ruff, the trio of Oddisee, X.O., andYU, collectively making up the group Diamond District, take some time out from their day to break down the boundaries that define the area where the group was born and raised – the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia). From a bird's eye view, Oddisee points over the bridge to where he grew up in Maryland and X.O. and yU show us where our nation's capital lies on the northwest corner. Diamond District is essentially standing at the crossroads of the DMV, and even more important than their geographic location is the mind state and way of life that comes from living at that intersection. As the video progresses, each member brings us a little deeper into their worlds. X.O. explains how the movement began in DC and slowly spilled over into Maryland and Virginia; YU brings us into his friend's apartment where he delivers a flow packed with cleverness and slick delivery; Oddisee brings us into his modest home studio where he shows us that you don't need a lavish setup to create head-nodding beats that we are accustomed to hearing from the boom-bap beat-smith. And with each segment you leave with more insight than you came with, as the trio drops knowledge, both individually and collectively. Diamond District's In The Ruff will be available October 27th via Mello Music Group. Like Lao Tzu in hip-hop, Mello Music Group provides music for the soul, from the heart of American culture, opening the realm of the intelligent hip-hop experience through melodic evocations, beats that corroborate the truth, and voices that roar above the rising void and impose order on the terrible & triumphant moments of everyday life. This is the compelling sound of Mello Music Group. Industry newcomer Michael Tolle founded MMG in 2007 and is acting Director of Operations. MMG will be releasing projects from Oddisee, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Kenn Starr, Finale, Trek Life, Dudley Perkins, Sareem Poems, and YU in 2010. http://www.myspace.com/mellomusicgroup

iphone blog buzz 09.30.09

LisaRaye's publicist has denied rampant reports across the black blogosphere that the actress is dating Rev. Al Sharpton. The rumors started flying after the two were photographed holding hands at various events over the past several days. Moved by the senseless beating death of a 16-year-old honor student by gang members in Chicago, rapper Nas has written an open letter to teens who throw away their future by battling each other.TMZ.com is reporting that the quickie marriage of Lamar Odom and Khloe Kardashian is not even valid, and won't be unless a prenuptial agreement is signed. Good Morning America" co-host and breast cancer survivor Robin Roberts will be the guest announcer this Friday during a special Grand Ole Opry show promoting research about the disease. Past and present staffers at New Jersey's Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Office are taking the witness stand as part of an investigation into whether the case against former NBA star Jayson Williams, who is black, has been racially biased.Comedienne Luenell will hit the road in a new comedy tour dubbed "More Hustlin'," a follow up to her previous stint on the Pimp Chronicles Tour with Katt Williams, Red Grant and Melanie Camacho.The very smart and very sexy James Franco is attending graduate school at NYU and is supposedly enrolled in Queer Cinema, an undergrad course in the Cinema Studies department. Here's a sample of the syllabus: Week 1: “You Don’t Know Dick: The Courageous Hearts of Transsexual Men” (1997 documentary) [...]

THE UK’s 100 most powerful people of African and Caribbean heritage are unveiled this week in the second annual edition of The Powerlist: Britain’s 100 Most Influential Black People. The list, compiled by a high-powered panel chaired by the British High Commissioner to Australia, Baroness Amos, smashes stereotypes by featuring business leaders, entrepreneurs and people from the arts, media, science and engineering – most of whom the average Briton will probably never have heard of, yet all are leaders in their field. (Continue Reading…) The US Secret Service is trying to identify the people who launched an online poll at Facebook asking whether US President Barack Obama should be assassinated. Facebook on Monday shut down the user-generated poll, which was titled “Should Obama be killed?” and offered answer choices of yes, no, maybe, and “If he cuts my health care.” “Once we found out about it, we worked with Facebook to have it removed,” Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley told AFP. “ CONTINUE READING..

You're looking at what was the main road in the downtown area of Fagatogo, in the main town area in American Samoa. A towering 15-fooot tsunami triggered by a massive 8.0-magnitude earthquake swept ashore on American Samoa and the neighboring...By a vote of 8 to 15, the Senate Finance Committee rejects Rockefeller's (WV) public option amendment. This was considered the strongest Senate proposal for public option in health care reform. Four "Democrats" joined all ten Republicans to defeat the amendment: Baucus (MT), Conrad (ND), Lincoln (AR), Nelson (FL) and Carper (DE).

A host of big-name artists are releasing albums this week, starting with Madonna’s double-disc collection dedicated to her entire tenure on Warner Music, Celebration. Packing 34 hits and two new songs onto two discs, Celebration is a dizzying, non-chronological journey through the Material Girl’s hits, from “Burning Up” to “Dress You Up” to “Hung Up.” “Her hitmaking genius is unmatched and — with the new Eurocheese blast ‘Celebration’ and the Lil Wayne duet ‘Revolver’ — undiminished,” Rob Sheffield writes in his four-star Rolling Stone review of the collection. CONTINUE READING... While initially downplaying any possibility of joining Eminem's Shady Records, Royce Da 5'9 has now said a deal to bring Slaughterhouse to the Interscope imprint may be in the works. Tony Yayo recently spoke on G-Unit's current status and said despite The Game's early claims of the group shattering upon his departure, the Unit is here to stay. Written By Archie Fucque As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. For Caption Diss SOHH is asking you, the reader, to tell us what those words are...just keep it short. The person who coins the wittiest caption wins. Swizz Beatz's estranged wife, Mashonda, has inked an open letter to Alicia Keys requesting the singer to come clean about her alleged affair with the Ruff Ryders producer.Nick Cannon is going hard attempting to squash rumors that his wife Mariah Carey is the sole reason he landed a hosting position on NBC’s hit TV show “America’s Got Talent”. Nick wants all of you to know that Mariah didn’t help his ass get a job. He tells Zap2It. Once upon a time it was the norm on major pop albums for an artist to work with one producer or team of producers throughout an entire album. However, in recent years it has become more common to create an album as a hodgepodge of sometimes mismatched tracks recorded with various producers.

For Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, Mariah Carey has collaborated primarily with the team of The-Dream and "Tricky" Stewart for songwriting and producing throughout the entire album. The result is a unique, cohesive musical glimpse of the inner life of Mariah Carey.

For fans of Mariah Carey, the quality of her singing and direction of her vocal arrangements are one of the first things looked for in a new album. As has become common since The Emancipation of Mimi, she spends most of her time singing in a midrange that eliminates much of the vocal acrobatics of earlier in her career. However, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel does insert enough moments of vocal fancy to keep most fans happy. CONTINUE READING THE REVIEW...

Dwight Howard Arrives to Camp Bigger, Expects to Be Better

ORLANDO -- There is a good reason that Boston and Cleveland -- two of the three serious contenders in the Eastern Conference -- added proven big men to their roster this summer. They already know what's coming.
Magic center Dwight Howard, already the best big man in basketball, is going to be even better this season. Howard has come to training camp with another 10 pounds of muscle on his well-muscled frame, up to 275 pounds. He also believes his 59 percent free throw percentage -- his only serious flaw -- will rise to 70 percent after a summer of sharpening his shot. He expects to be both more powerful -- and more accurate.It's why the Cavs added Shaquille O'Neal and the Celtics signed Rasheed Wallace. Both are players who have given Howard problems in the past with other teams, but both are probably too old to give him serious trouble now.The Magic beat both Boston and Cleveland on their way to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Lakers. CONTINUE READING...

New DeBarge makes 'Goodbye' her hello

NEW YORK (CNN) -- So far it has been a very sunny summer for newbie pop singer Kristinia DeBarge. She has a Top 20 hit with "Goodbye," a peppy pop number which borrows from Steam's 1969 stadium anthem "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye."  The energetic video just earned DeBarge an MTV Video Music Award nomination in the best choreography category. And later this month the 19-year-old will demonstrate her dance skills as the opening act for Britney Spears' global "Circus" tour. The L.A.-based singer is well connected in the music business: she's the daughter of James DeBarge, a member of the '80s R&B group DeBarge. Her debut album, "Exposed," dropped last week, and was produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. Watch DeBarge tell her subject "Goodbye" »

Kristinia DeBarge (pronounced Kristi-NEE-ya) dropped in to CNN to talk about why her dad initially wanted her to follow a different career path, her different personalities and lip synching. The following is an edited version of the interview. CNN: Your dad must have a wealth of advice for you.

Kristinia DeBarge: Yes he does. His advice is stay true to yourself. He's also told me many times that I should have a lot of strength in this business, and that I'm going to need my family around me.

CNN: He didn't want you to go into music, did he?

DeBarge: No, because he knows how the music industry is. And some people can become a little jaded and tainted after. So he likes that I'm innocent and wants to keep that innocence fresh. CONTINUE READING...

Review: 'Fame' should be called 'Anonymity'

(CNN) -- Remember! Remember! Remember! Remember!  Yes, "Fame" is back, nearly 30 years after Alan Parker's movie dragged the MGM musical kicking and screaming into the 1980s.The 2009 edition retains the name and even the logo but sheepishly holds the naked ambition of the Academy Award-winning title track back until the end credits. Success comes in many forms, we're piously informed: in doing something that makes you want to leap out of bed in the morning, in finding friendship and love ... but not necessarily in, you know, money, adulation and immortality.

That may be true, but they didn't call the movie "Contentment."

Still, it's easy to imagine why someone figured the time was right for another term at New York's High School of the Performing Arts. Preteens have embraced Disney's "High School Musical" moppets, and our top-rated TV shows all seem to be variations on "American Idol." "Fame" presents the same playbook: talent show auditions and party pieces, criticism and approbation, interspersed with just enough offstage information to give us a rooting interest in individual students' success and failure. But there's really nothing here that you can't see on the reality shows for free. The original film's screenwriter, Christopher Gore, first conceived of "Fame" as a TV series -- it materialized in the wake of the film's success and ran for four seasons, 1982-86 -- and presumably that's the goal this time too. Allison Burnett's screenplay follows Gore's template, beginning with a new round of candidates trying out for the school and then following them through four years of heavily truncated life lessons.  Director Kevin Tancharoen, a veteran of Britney Spears' Onyx Hotel tour, also reprises some of the more memorable vignettes from Parker's film -- a brush with the casting couch; a close call with a subway car -- invariably to lesser effect.

Substituting a PG rating for the original's R, the new movie has rounded off the rough and the raw, but all the handheld camera work in the world can't make it feel real. There is talent here. The standouts are the singers: Naturi Naughton has a big voice and is plausibly cast as a potential star in the Alicia Keys mold. Asher Book has the smile of a teen idol and the pipes of James Blunt.  But if you're looking for personality, the faculty dominates with minimal expenditure of effort. The staff includes "Fame" alumni Debbie Allen as Principal Simms, Charles S. Dutton, Kelsey Grammer and Bebe Neuwirth. Sadly, the latter two -- TV's Frasier and Lilith -- aren't on screen together. The young cast sing, they dance, and they act their socks off, but simple human interaction seems beyond most of them. It doesn't help that the dramatic scenes are so clichéd they might as well be acting exercises, but if there's a future De Niro here or a budding Streep, I must have blinked. SOURCE:CNN.COM

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WHITNEY HOUSTON'S I LOOK TO YOU CAPTURES THE NO. 2 SPOT ON THE TOP 200 ALBUMS CHART!

(New York, NY – September 24, 2009) After last week’s much-buzzed about two-day candid interview and captivating performance on the season premiere of  The Oprah Winfrey Show, Whitney Houston’s critically-acclaimed CD, I Look To You, is No. 2 on this week’s Top 200 Albums chart with an amazing 155,588 units sold, according to Nielsen/Soundscan.  Commenting about her appearance on the show, Houston states: “I knew in my heart that when I was ready to tell my story it would be to Oprah Winfrey, who has shown tremendous support for me throughout the years and whom I have a deep respect for.   We felt an incredible connection the day of the interview and I am delighted with the positive response to the show.”

 

In addition to the Oprah appearance, videos for “I Look To You” and “Million Dollar Bill” premiered last week on Houston’s site (www.whitneyhouston.com) with sneak peeks promoted on several entertainment news programs including People.com, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood and Extra.  

 

Whitney currently has three singles ascending up the Urban Adult chart: “I Look To You” jumps from No. 4 to No. 2 and both “Million Dollar Bill,” and “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength,” the song Whitney performed on Oprah, are quickly breaking into the Top 20. 

 

Released on Arista Records on August 31, I Look To You debuted at No. 1 on the aforementioned chart with 304,801 units sold, Houston’s biggest first week sales of her illustrious career. Houston’s No. 1 position also extended across the globe and claimed the top spots in Canada, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland.  

 

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Be sure to visit www.whitneyhouston.com regularly for up-to-date album information, exclusive photos and breaking news! 

Real Housewives ATL: Selling the Song

Doctors' suit: KFC grilled chicken a danger

(09-23) 16:05 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- After losing its first battle against fast-food restaurants, a doctors group went back to court Wednesday and accused the KFC chain of selling grilled chicken with dangerous levels of a cancer-causing chemical.n a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine accused KFC of violating California's Proposition 65, which requires businesses to warn customers if they are being exposed to substances that cause cancer or birth defects. The chemical cited in the lawsuit, known as PhIP, is a byproduct of the grilling process and was added to the state's list of carcinogens in 1994. The doctors group said an independent laboratory found the substance in every one of 12 grilled chicken samples bought from six East Bay KFC restaurants in May. The suit seeks an order requiring customer warnings in all KFC restaurants in California and penalties to the state of as much as $2,500 a day for violations. The organization, which has 7,000 physician members, made the same arguments last year in a suit against other restaurants that sell grilled chicken. Burger King agreed to warn customers of the presence of PhIP, but other defendants, led by McDonald's, held their ground and won a ruling from a Los Angeles judge dismissing the case. The judge said a federal law that requires labeling of some chicken products prohibits California from imposing stricter standards under Prop. 65. The doctors group is appealing. The lawsuit faces another obstacle: The state attorney general's office, in response to a complaint from the physicians group, conducted its own study and concluded in 2006 that PhIP levels in cooked chicken were too low to require a Prop. 65 warning. The attorney general's position isn't binding on the courts, but KFC cited the conclusion in its comment on the suit. Company spokesman Rick Maynard said KFC's "Kentucky Grilled Chicken" product "meets or exceeds all federal and state regulations for food safety." The doctors organization, he added, "promotes a vegetarian agenda."  Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/23/BACP19R4MA.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0RzVRZ29i

Boyz II Men Surprise Guests At Hennessy 2009 Artistry Series In Atlanta

State OKs petition drive for pot legalization

(09-22) 15:41 PDT San Francisco -- Two prominent East Bay marijuana advocates got clearance from the state today to try to put a pot-legalization initiative on the November 2010 California ballot. Richard Lee, executive director of the medical marijuana dispensary known as Oaksterdam, and Jeff Jones, former director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, are the sponsors of a measure that would allow anyone over 21 to possess or grow marijuana for personal use. It would allow each local government to decide whether to tax and regulate marijuana sales. The secretary of state's office approved the initiative for circulation along with a similar measure sponsored by John Donohue of Long Beach. Each needs at least 433,971 signatures of registered voters by Feb. 18 to qualify for the November ballot. The Lee-Jones initiative would legalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. Lee says it would generate billions of dollars in tax revenue. Marijuana possession, cultivation and sale would remain illegal under federal law, however. After California voters approved the nation's first law legalizing medical use of marijuana in 1996, federal authorities raided local pot clubs, prosecuted growers and sought to punish doctors who recommended the drug to their patients.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/22/BACP19R095.DTL#ixzz0RssSxNSN

First Woman Ascends to Top Drill Sergeant Spot

FORT JACKSON, S.C. — It may come as no surprise that the Army’s new top drill sergeant idolizes Gen. George S. Patton Jr., has jumped out of planes 33 times, aces every physical training test and drives a black Corvette with “noslack” vanity plates.But consider this: the sergeant is a woman.On Tuesday, the Army will make Command Sgt. Maj. Teresa L. King, 48, commandant of its drill sergeant school here. It is a first. No woman has run one of the Army’s rigorous schools for drill instructors. Petite yet imposing, Sergeant Major King seems a drill sergeant at heart, ever vigilant for busted rules: soldiers nodding off in class, soldiers with hair a fraction too long, soldiers who run too slow.“Are you crazy?” she shouts at one who is walking across a lawn. “Get off my grass!”The eighth of 12 children, the sergeant major is the daughter of a sharecropper who grew cucumbers and tobacco near Fort Bragg, N.C. Her first job in the Army was as a postal clerk, a traditional position for women in those days.She says she regrets not having been deployed to a war zone during her 29-year Army career, though she has trained many soldiers who were. And now, in her new job, she will have significant influence over the basic training of every enlisted soldier. Last year the Army consolidated several drill schools into a single campus at this sprawling post, meaning Sergeant Major King, with her staff of 78 instructors, will oversee drill sergeant training for the entire Army. Famous for their Smokey Bear hats, booming voices and no-nonsense demeanor, those sergeants transform tens of thousands of raw recruits into soldiers each year. It is one of the backbone jobs of the military, and having a woman in charge underscores the expanding role of women in the Army’s leadership.

But Sergeant Major King’s ascension is also a reminder of the limits of gender integration in the military. Just 8 percent of the active-duty Army’s highest-ranking enlisted soldiers — sergeants major and command sergeants major — are women, though more than 13 percent of Army personnel are female. SOURCE:NYTIMES.COM

‘Precious’ Wins Toronto Film Festival Prize

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire” won the top award at the Toronto International Film Festival Saturday, giving the Oprah Winfrey-produced film some early momentum heading into Oscar awards season. The film, a gritty tale of the abuse and redemption of a teenage girl in Harlem, captured the festival’s People’s Choice award, which is voted on by filmgoers. Last year it went to best picture Oscar winner “Slumdog Millionaire.” Critics have roundly praised “Precious” since its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January, and audiences in Toronto warmly received the film, which is directed by Lee Daniels and will hit theaters in November. (Continue Reading…)

Mayweather wins by unanimous decision in comeback fight

Juan Manuel Marquez fought back after being knocked down in the second round but in the end it was the same as always. Behind his world famous defense and lightning quick jab, Mayweather dominated the five-time world champion in a unanimous decision victory. Mayweather's unique defensive style created problems for Marquez while his jab proved to be more than enough offense to win rounds, beating Marquez on all three judges's scorecards by scores of 118-109, 120-107 and 119-108.

ATL Housewives: Alter Ego Reveal

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Dwight Howard's Pilgrimage To Africa

NBA players are high-paid athletes with huge paychecks, but many also have big hearts. Take Orlando Magic star Dwight Howard for example. The gifted center, dubbed "Superman," joined coaches and former players in Johannesburg, South Africa, to work at the NBA-sponsored camp "Basketball Without Boarders" for teenage boys. The organization picks 60 of the best players from around the globe under 19 years old, training them against their peers. Aside from sharpening their basketball skills, the program also promotes diversity among campers, dividing the teams independent of their race, religion or nationality.

Howard didn't stop his volunteer efforts at the camp. Off the court, he took time to lay cement for a Habitat for Humanity House and planted a peach tree at Cotlands, a facility in Soweto which provides care for orphaned and sick children. "[It] was great and the kids had a lot of fun," says Howard. He really is a superman.

Listen to Howard tell you about his journey to the Motherland. Also, check out exclusive photos of the five-day trip!

Floyd Mayweather or Juan Manuel Marquez? Boxing's Experts Weigh In

Juan Manuel Marquez, who is considered one of Mexico's greatest fighters, will fight at 144 pounds -- the highest weight at which he's ever competed -- to face unbeaten Floyd "Pretty Boy" Mayweather Jr. in a battle pitting two of boxing's pound-for-pound best performers Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.  FanHouse sought out the opinions and predictions of some of the sport's most knowledgeable sources in the boxing world for the megafight.

Check out the results below:

Bob Canobbio, CompuBox
Mayweather TKO 10: "Mayweather is too big for Marquez, and he's too fast. The layoff is actually going to work to Mayweather's advantage. It looks to me like Mayweather is physically peaking. I know Mayweather's not a knockout puncher, but he managed to knock out Ricky Hatton with a perfect punch.

I think he's going to wear down Marquez and eventually stop in in the late rounds around round 10, because if Marquez wants to win the fight, he's got to step it up. Marques is not going to win counter-punching by throwing 50 punches a round. Mayweather is such an accurate puncher. And Marquez is going to have to step it up, try to win rounds, and by doing so, he's going to leave himself open to be hit." SOURCE:FANHOUSE

Abercrombie & Fitch sues Beyonce over Sasha Fierce perfume

Overpriced mallrat retailer Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) and overexposed R&B songstress Beyonce may be heading to court in a trademark dispute over perfume.A&F filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court in Columbus, Ohio, to stop Beyonce from launching a perfume under the name of the singer's alter ego, Sasha Fierce, Women's Wear Daily reported Wednesday.A&F said it's been selling a perfume called Fierce since 2002, and trademarked the intellectual property in 2003. Lawyers for the retailer sent a cease-and-desist letter to Beyonce, but that hasn't stopped the star from forging ahead with her own brand, WWD reported.
How anyone could confuse an A&F product with Beyonce will be a matter for the court in Ohio. Fortunately for A&F, they didn't have to fight it out in Malaysia. Last week McDonald's (MCD) lost a trademark dispute with McCurry, a plucky Malaysian fastfood chain.