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Monday, June 16, 2014

50 Cent Says Get Ready For More

New York hip-hop star 50 Cent is keeping the G-Unit flag waving on Father's Day Weekend by promising new tunes to come from the recently reunited collective. #GUnitComing

Fif announced plans to release new music as early as this upcoming week on Instagram.

"New music coming this week.check out episode2 #power," Fif captioned June 15 to a photo of himself and G-Unit. (50 Cent's Instagram)

The Unit leader, Kidd Kidd, Lloyd Banks, Young Buck and Tony Yayo all united on their recently released "Ordinary N*gga."

G-Unit continues to jack the instrumentals, grabbing Trey Songz and Jeezy's "Ordinary N***a" for their latest remix. 50 Cent is back on his lyrical assault on the remix, floating over the R&B production like he has done so many times in his career. The rest of the crew then comes through to dismantle the remainder of the beat. We sure are loving this G-Unit resurgence in 2014. (Complex)

Although brief with his words, Fif put a fall deadline on a G-Unit reunion album a couple weeks ago.

"Yes, you'll see an album by late November," Fif revealed in a televised interview. (Fox 29)

The Unit jumped onto Young Money stud Drake's new "0 to 100" track earlier this month.

Just days after surprising the world with their reunion at Hot 97's Summer Jam concert, G-Unit have become the first group in rap to hop on Drake's "0 To 100" and make it their own. "Real Quick" borrows what I would call the 'title bars' from Drake's latest viral hit for a five minute reintroduction to one of the mid-2000s greatest collectives. It's got solid verses across the board, and its structure is one I am sure many emcees will borrow in the months ahead. (Under The Gun Review)

SOURCE: http://www.sohh.com/2014/06/50_cent_says_ggg-gg-get_ready_for_more.html?utm_source=sohh&utm_medium=text-link&utm_content=recent-news&utm_campaign=news-article

Can These Women Make CDs Cool Again?

This article first appeared in the June 21st issue of Billboard Magazine. By Dan Duray

The market for CDs may be crashing, but the creators of ZinePak are doing their best to keep hope alive. A New York-based startup, the company seeks to recapture the pleasure of holding a musical object in your hand -- packaging CDs with mini-magazines and merchandise.

Their version of Katy Perry’s Prism came with decals that fans can stick on their fingernails.

“We hear from people all the time on social media or in emails that this is the first time they’ve bought a physical album in a decade,” says co-founder Kim Kaupe. She and co-founder Brittany Hodak came from advertising backgrounds and quit their jobs because they saw sales potential in reaching out to “superfans.”

They know the challenge is tough. According to an April report in The New York Times, CD sales are roughly a quarter of what they were a decade ago. But by marketing exclusively through Walmart, the owners, fueled by partnerships with Perry, Taylor Swift’s Red and Justin Bieber’s Believe, claim almost 2 million units sold, accounting for $25 million in retail sales. (Walmart declined comment.) Their package promoting the Academy of Country Music Awards helped the disc land at No. 5 on Billboard’s country chart.

ZinePak has hedged its bets by diversifying into fan events, but CDs remain key. Kaupe says, “It’s all about taking that subset of the overall audience and overdelivering to them.”

SOURCE: http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/retail/6121320/can-these-women-make-cds-cool-again

Ciara Releases First Full Photo Of Newborn: "Baby Future Loves You"

by Cyrus Langhorne

Weeks after officially hitting "mommy" status with fiancé/rapper Future, R&B singer Ciara has celebrated "Father's Day" by releasing a full-sized photo of her son. #FirstTime

CiCi relied on social media site Twitter to unleash the photo to eager followers.

The 28-year-old rapper took to Twitter to share an adorable photograph of her four-week-old son Future, which she dedicated to her fiancé Future, 30, for Father's Day. Alongside the cute snap, which sees the tiny tot laying on a white fluffy rug gazing at the camera lens, she wrote: ''Hey Dad aka Big @1future. Baby Future Loves You. #HappyFathersDay (sic).'' (AZ Central)

Recently, Future said Ciara was already adjusting to motherhood after their son's birth.

"She's feeling great," the new father, 30, told Us of the "I'm Out" singer, 28. (He spoke to reporters at the Bacardi Rum and Vice Celebrate Cuban Independence Day in NYC on Tuesday, May 20, where he had committed to perform.) "She's with our son right now [in L.A.]," the rapper-producer added. "I just texted her when I got off the airplane, and I'm going to get on the phone with her to see how everything is going." (Us Magazine)

Although she did not reveal the baby's body, CiCi did post a portion of her son onto Instagram in mid-May.

"FUTURE ZAHIR WILBURN 9lbs 10oz May 19 2014," Ciara wrote May 20. (Ciara's Instagram)

According to reports, the engaged music duo welcomed their first child together on May 19.

Ciara is officially a mom. Sources say the "Body Party" singer gave birth very early Monday morning in Los Angeles. The baby boy is the first for Ciara, who is engaged to rapper Future and expected to marry him in the fall. Future has three other children from previous relationships. (Page Six)

San Antonio Spurs Cool Down The Heat, Win NBA Finals W/ Brutal Beating

by Cyrus Langhorne

The San Antonio Spurts have done what they could not do last year by beating the defending champion Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Finals Sunday (June 15) night. #SpurredUp

Despite an initially hard-fought series start, the NBA trophy ultimately came down to a 4-1 overall match-up win for the Spurs.

As a barrage of Patty Mills three-pointers added to the onslaught Sunday night, the decibel level inside the normally placid AT&T Center rose to jumbo-jet-on-takeoff proportions. The Spurs are champions once again, a 104-87 victory over the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the Finals giving them a fifth NBA title and presumably soothing much of the hurt that had lingered since the Spurs fell short in soul-crushing fashion last year in the final two games against the same team on the same stage. (Los Angeles Times)

Miami's LeBron James raised eyebrows at the start of Game 5 with huge points.

The only thing James plays for is championships and this season, he didn't get a chance to grasp the Larry O'Brien Trophy. A 31-point, 10-rebound effort wasn't enough to get Miami past San Antonio, and the Heat fell to the Spurs 104-87 on Sunday night. So for the first time since June 21, 2012, the Heat are not NBA champions. This four-year run with James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh together has seen huge success -- a league-best 283 wins, four straight trips to the NBA Finals to join only the Celtics and Lakers as franchises to pull off that feat, plus two NBA championships. (Washington Post)

Despite becoming notorious as "The Big Three," Miami's top players could take their talents to other teams this offseason.

The Heat now approach an uncertain future in an important summer. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh can terminate their contracts and become free agents or they can remain in their current deals, which expire after 2015-16, and remain in Miami for at least one more season. (USA Today)

Recently, Miami native DJ Khaled aired out the San Antonio Spurs for allegedly compromising Game 1.

"They won that one game because they were cheaters. They won but they cheated -- see they practiced with no [air conditioning]. ... I respect everyone, but I can't respect somebody turning the AC off and cheating. I can't do it. And The Streets is saying they cheated." ("First Take")

Rewinding The Charts: 17 Years Ago Diddy Toasted An Icon (And Friend)

June 14, 1997 was a new day for rap.

Fans still were mourning the unsolved March 9 murder of 24-year-old star The Notorious B.I.G. in Hollywood as the one-year anniversary of Tupac Shakur's killing approached. Both were icons, helping bridge the gap between hip-hop and pop. But Sean "Diddy" Combs (then-known as Puff Daddy) — the 27-year-old head of B.I.G.'s label home, Bad Boy, and a rising rapper himself — had bigger plans.

On June 14, his single "I'll Be Missing You," a tribute to B.I.G., made its Billboard Hot 100 debut at No. 1, a feat then only achieved four times before, and stayed there for 11 weeks. The song went on to become the second-best-selling single of the year, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and helped Combs' debut, "No Way Out," sell 3.4 million copies.

"All this chart news must still be bittersweet to Combs," Billboard wrote at the time. "[He] isn't just the head of the label that signed B.I.G.; he also counted the artist as one of his best friends."

"I'll Be Missing You" mourned the passing of a superstar, but also helped usher in a new one, and the new day he represented: the so-called shiny suit era, named after Combs' frequent choice of attire. Video budgets ballooned, as did rappers' pop ambitions, and Combs was leading the way.

He was no wordsmith like his slain friend, but "I'll Be Missing You" proved Combs knew the recipe for a hit. It heavily sampled The Police's 1983 "Every Breath You Take" — also a Hot 100 No. 1 (for eight weeks) — and featured Bad Boy act 112 and Biggie's widow, Faith Evans. During his career, Combs perfected the formula: He has landed 15 top 10s on the Hot 100, including five No. 1s.

TOP STORY//Casey Kasem, Iconic Radio Personality, Dead at 82

Chris Polk/FilmMagic

EXCLUSIVE//Casey Kasem, the American Top 40 radio host who crafted a long and lucrative career out of counting down to No. 1, has died. He was 82.

Kasem, who hosted the syndicated weekend show for nearly four decades, died of complications from dementia at St. Anthony's Hospital in Gig Harbor, Wash.

Danny Deraney, the publicist for daughter Kerri Kasem, has confirmed that the radio host died at 3:23 am on Sunday. Kerri Kasem, wrote the following message on her Facebook page on the morning of June 15.

Early this Father’s Day morning, our dad Casey Kasem passed away surrounded by family and friends. Even though we know he is in a better place and no longer suffering, we are heartbroken. Thank you for all your love, support and prayers. The world will miss Casey Kasem, an incredible talent and humanitarian; we will miss our Dad.

With love, Kerri, Mike and Julie.

In October 2013, his eldest children Mike, Kerri and Julie claimed that their stepmother, actress Jean Kasem, wouldn’t allow them to visit their father. They staged a protest outside the couple’s estate, waving signs that read, “Let Casey See His Kids.” Two months later, Julie and Mike reached a confidential settlement with Jean granting them visitation; Kerri refused to sign the agreement.

“I’m not afraid of her; they are,” she said of Jean and her siblings in a story published by The Hollywood Reporter in February2014. “This visitation agreement not only treats us like criminals, it treats my dad like an inmate. It’s about money for her. It’s about love for us.”

The situation took another bizarre turn in May 2014 when a judge ordered an investigation into Kasem’s whereabouts after an attorney for his wife said he had been removed from the country. Kasem at one point had been in a convalescent hospital in Santa Monica; he was found to be with his wife on vacation in Washington state, where they were staying with friends.

Since his first broadcast from Hollywood on seven stations on July 4, 1970, to his finale on the same holiday weekend in 2009, the peppy Kasem ended each American Top 40 show with his signature line: “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.”

Kasem loosely based his countdown format on the 1950s TV program Your Hit Parade. More than just spinning singles, he blended a mix of trivia, dedications, requests and artist information as he counted down the Top 40 each weekend. His first No. 1 song? Three Dog Night’s “Mama Told Me Not to Come.”
Kasem said he wanted to be the “voice of the guy next door,” and his style was to accent the positive, considering each one of the hits a major accomplishment for each act involved. He never focused on the negative, such as a big drop-off for a particular song, and remained family-friendly. His shows also tugged at the heartstrings with such elements as "Long Distance Dedications."

“I feel good that you can be going to synagogue or church and listen to me, and nobody is going to be embarrassed by the language that I use, the innuendo,” he told the Chicago Tribune in 1986. “It’s just not my style ... quite frankly, I think we’re good for America.”

Kasem’s friendly, crackling tones also were heard as Shaggy on the CBS cartoon Scooby-Doo Where Are You!, which premiered in 1969. He quit the show in 1997 in a dispute over a Burger King commercial but was back in 2002 when it was determined that Shaggy would be a vegetarian, just like Kasem.

Kasem also provided the voice of Batman’s pal Robin the Boy Wonder on several cartoon series.

He was born Kemal Amen Kasem on April 27, 1932, in Detroit, the son of a Lebanese grocer father and a Lebanese-American mother. Kasem made his radio debut covering sports for his Northwestern High School station, then performed in radio dramas at Wayne State University, voicing The Lone Ranger, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon and other heroes of the airwaves.

He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1952 and served as an announcer and DJ on the Armed Forces Radio Korea Network. After his discharge, he moved around the country as a radio announcer, working in Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, N.Y., and Oakland, Calif.

In Oakland, Kasem created a program in which he integrated biographical tidbits about the artists before each song. It quickly became a hit.

Kasem relocated to Los Angeles in 1963 when he secured a radio job at KRLA. He moonlighted by hosting “dance hops” on local TV, which attracted the notice of Dick Clark, who signed Kasem in 1964 to host Shebang, a daily musical TV show that Clark produced.

In 1970, Kasem opened his first three-hour American Top 40 broadcast by playing Marvin Gaye’s “The End of Our Road.” He hosted the program until August 1989, when he quit in a salary dispute with ABC, and Shadoe Stevens took over.

Kasem started his own program, Casey’s Top 40, for Westwood One -- as part of a five-year, $15 million deal -- soon afterward. In 1995, American Top 40 folded, and Kasem started hosting a new version three years later; in 2004, he passed the torch to Ryan Seacrest. He did countdown shows for Premiere Radio Networks until July 2009; two years earlier, he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's.

Kasem always wanted to be an actor and appeared in such movies as The Girls From Thunder Strip (1966), The Glory Stompers (1967) with Dennis Hopper, Scream Free! (1969), 2000 Years Later (1969), The Cycle Savages (1969), The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971), Disco Fever (1978) and Ghostbusters (1984), in which he played himself.

He also provided the voice for characters on Sesame Street, Josie and the Pussycats and Transformers; served as NBC’s staff announcer in the late 1970s; hosted the syndicated TV show America’s Top 10 for a decade; did hundreds of commercials; guest starred on such TV shows as Fantasy Island, Ironside and The New Mike Hammer; and appeared on Nick at Nite to count down reruns on New Year’s Eve.
Kasem was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1992, and five years later, Billboard presented him with its inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award.

Kasem was married to Linda Myers from 1972 until 1979, then wed the former Jean Thompson -- some 21 years younger and many inches taller than he -- in a December 1980 ceremony at the Hotel Bel-Air officiated by Rev. Jesse Jackson. (She went on to star as ditzy blonde Loretta Tortelli on the sitcom Cheers and in a short-lived spinoff.) They had a daughter, Liberty. His fortune has been estimated at $80 million.
In April 2013, the couple listed their 12,000-square-foot mansion with 17 bathrooms for $42 million but pulled it from the market in September.

Survivors also include Kasem’s brother, Mouner.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

TRACEY MORGAN: Wal-Mart truck driver had not slept for more than 24 hours

TRENTON, N.J. – The Wal-Mart truck driver from Georgia accused of triggering a crash in New Jersey that critically injured Tracy Morgan and killed Peekskill comedian, James "Jimmy Mack" McNair, another comedian had not slept for more than 24 hours, a criminal complaint said.

This photo provided by the New Jersey State Police shows Kevin Roper. Roper, a Wal-Mart

truck driver from Georgia, was charged with death by auto and four counts of assault by auto

in the wake of a deadly chain-reaction crash on the New Jersey Turnpike early Saturday, June

7, 2014, that left actor-comedian Tracy Morgan and two others critically injured and another

man dead. (AP Photo/New Jersey State Police)(Photo: Uncredited AP)

A court official on Monday said 35-year-old Kevin Roper is scheduled to face an initial court appearance on Wednesday. He remains free after posting $50,000 bond.

Roper has been charged with death by auto and four counts of assault by auto.

Authorities said the Jonesboro, Georgia, resident apparently failed to slow for traffic ahead early Saturday in Cranbury Township and swerved at the last minute to avoid a crash. Instead, his big rig smashed into the back of Morgan's chauffeured Mercedes limo bus.

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The 45-year-old actor and comedian, a former "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock" cast member, remained in critical condition early Monday. Morgan's spokesman, Lewis Kay, said he was "more responsive" Sunday after having surgery for a broken leg.

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Kay said Morgan also suffered a broken femur, a broken nose and several broken ribs and is expected to remain hospitalized for several weeks. He said Morgan's family is "tremendously overwhelmed and appreciative of the outpouring of love and support from his fans."

Tyrone Gale, who was driving the limo bus, told ABC News that he was disoriented after the vehicle flipped over and could hear Morgan yelling for help.

"I climbed around and heard Tracy screaming for help," Gale said. "I climbed up on the body of the limo bus … but I couldn't reach them."

Wal-Mart President Bill Simon said in a statement that the company "will take full responsibility" if authorities determine its truck caused the accident.

The National Transportation Safety Board is working with state police to look at any issues in the crash related to commercial trucking and limousine safety.

EXCLUSIVE

Morgan, a New York City native, was returning from a standup performance at Dover Downs Hotel & Casino in Delaware when the crash occurred. In all, six vehicles were involved in the pileup, but no one from the other cars was injured.


FILE - Actor Tracy Morgan attends the FX Networks

At a press event Saturday in Los Angeles to promote the upcoming comedy film "Think Like A Man Too," cast members, many of whom have worked with and are friends with Morgan, wished him well.

Kevin Hart said he owes much of his success to Morgan, crediting him for paving the way for comics like himself to become successful.

"We just want him to get better and to get back to everyone that loves him and get back to doing what he does best, making people laugh," Hart said.

Fuqua's mother, Doris, said she visited him in the hospital Saturday. The writer-comedian had toured with Morgan for nearly a year, she said, and had opened for him Friday night.

"We're hoping for the best," Doris Fuqua said Sunday, adding that she didn't know how long he may be hospitalized. "It's too early to tell."

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McNair, 62, was a close friend and mentor to Morgan, Morgan's ex-wife, Sabina Morgan, told the New York Daily News. "He was one of the first comedians that took Tracy under his wing," she said.

(AP Photo/New Jersey State Police)(Photo: Uncredited AP)

This photo provided by the New Jersey State Police shows Kevin Roper. Roper, a Wal-Mart truck driver from Georgia, was charged with death by auto and four counts of assault by auto in the wake of a deadly chain-reaction crash on the New Jersey Turnpike early Saturday, June 7, 2014, that left actor-comedian Tracy Morgan and two others critically injured and another man dead.

Royale Watkins, a Los Angeles-based comedian who said he had performed in New York clubs with Morgan and McNair, described McNair as having a big personality.

"There may be guys like Tracy who get the fame and notoriety, but you have people like Jimmy Mack who have kind of energized and fueled cats like Tracy and kept them going on the road," Watkins said.