G-Unit and Papoose vs. Fat Joe

Papoose and Fat Joe have a little high school beef with Cassidy in the middle of the situation and 50 Cent is the mediator of the situation, LOL. Essentially, Papoose and Cassidy were chillin' at a hotel - they were all on the same floor when Fat Joe came in the room and approached Pap., and according to Papoose, he "put his work in" as he popped Joe in face a few times...because he from Brooklyn, apparently, here's what Papoose had to say about the situation: (Side Note: Don't be surprised if 50 signs Papoose - he was dropped from Jive) Did he say he was from Brooklyn? I missed that... Fat Joe's side of the story: Everyone knows that 50 and the G-Unit don't think too highly of Joey Crack, when 50 Cent recently filled in for DJ Clue on the radio station, Power 105.1 in New York, 50 essentially called him a useless rapper and said about his newest track, "I Won't Tell" featuring J.Holiday, "Fat Joe just sucks...If you just muted his vocals and let him (J.Holiday) sing on the track, everyone would like the song." 50 continued to say that it's all right though because "he only gave us two verses that time, usually he kills us with the third verse - but we were saved this time, he only gave us two." Fat Joe responded by saying that he wants to fight 50 and offered to fight him plenty of times over the four years that they've been going back and forth, "I just wanna bust those new teeth out his (expletive) mouth." (LOL)...soon after Fat Joe said his piece, 50 came right back 50 and the G-Unit also came out with a couple of tracks directed towards Fat Joe - they really are making him not right now, Joe might wanna push his album back so he could add a few diss tracks on it so even more people could cop it...just food for thought. Oh, and I don't know if Fat Joe would really want to fight 50, I mean, 50 has Floyd Mayweather (the generation's best boxer) in his corner, I don't know how good it looks for Joe, but like he said, he's a warrior. Fat Joe and 50 go back and forth G-Unit - "I'm Leavin" G-Unit - "Rider pt.2" (Cameo by Papoose) Additionally, there is a rumor out that suggest that while 50 Cent will be with Floyd Mayweather Jr. on March 30 at the WWE's (aka WWF for my generation)Wrestlemania XXIV, Fat Joe plans to confront 50 Cent. That wouldn't be a good idea to crash their party with real violence to give hip-hop an even worse name. Apparently, Fat Joe's new album "Elephant in the Room" will only have 11 tracks. With album sales droppin week by week, more and more artists are trying to save money by only putting 11-12 tracks on their LPs - Fat Joe is no excuse -- but 50, Jay-Z, and Kanye are they had 18, 15, and 17 tracks on their albums, respectively. Additionally, not for nothing but it sounds like Lil Wayne and Rick Ross either had an influence on him for this album or ghostwrote some tracks or he just took their flow. Fat Joe "The Fugitive" (a decent track) Fat Joe feat. Lil Wayne "The Crackhouse" (decent track) Fat Joe - "Coca Baby" (pretty good) Fat Joe feat. DJ Khaled & Cool and Dre"Get it for Life" (pretty good) Fat Joe feat. Swizz Beatz - "Drop"(pretty good) Fat Joe feat. J. Holiday - "I Won't Tell" (pretty good) Fat Joe "K.A.R. Kill All Rats" (ehh) Fat Joe "300" (alright) Fat Joe - "Preacher on a Sunday Morning" (good) Fat Joe - "Thank God for that White" (alright)

Lakers Establish Themselves as a Major Contender

The amount of substantial moves in the NBA this season has been the most that I've seen in recent years. It proved just how important superstars are to their franchise on and off the court, and probably most importantly when owners look at their revenue.

• First, Kobe Bryant threatened to leave, almost everyone expected him to opt out after this year - he was begging for help - and he got it. The additions of Trevor Ariza and Pau Gasol and the arrival of Andrew Bynum makes the first place L.A. Lakers a real threat in the league. They also have pretty good wing players in Luke Walton and Lamar Odom. Let's hope that Bynum doesn't rush his comeback and when he does comeback, he's back at 100% - the kid is under 20 years old, I'm suspecting he'll be fine. The only thing this squad is missing is a proven solid PG and the sky will be the limit for the Lakeshow. Things have just been working in their favor, give those guys a A+.

• The ultimate losers this season have to be the Memphis Grizzlies. Yup, the Memphis Grizzlies, not the Miami Heat or the New York Knicks - the Memphis Grizzlies. They're obviously planning a reconstruction and their management seems to be in shambles ever since Jerry West (one of the best GMs to bless the front office) stepped down. Whenever you lose Pau Gasol, but "gain" Kwame Brown...you've got a major problem. D

• The Miami Heat made a move they had to make - or did they? The trade was excellent in the aspect of giving up not so much for a lot. Shaq is on the horizon of retirement but still poses a threat to anyone in the paint, can still grab boards, defense is still there, and rarely anyone is going to want to challenge him the paint. Shawn Marion is the most underrated superstar in the league, the guy does everything well and will provide a great dose of everything that the Heat needs and Marcus Banks is good, too - it's just difficult playing behind Steve Nash and Barbosa for much of the beginning stages of your career. I'm expecting the Heat to develop decent chemistry but they still need a big man - maybe their hoping Earl Barron to be their Andrew Bynum. B+

• The Atlanta Hawks made a good move that will put them in serious post-season contention by acquiring PG Mike Bibby from the Hawks for four players including Tyronn Lue, former starter Anthony Johnson and sophomore Shelden Williams. But Bibby is recently coming off of an injury and hasn't been able to put it all together like he used to. We'll see how the talented Hawks all play together, it would be good to see them put it all together for once. B

• The San Antonio Spurs made their usual close to nothing move by getting rid of Francisco Elson and acquiring Kurt Thomas. B-

• In another "ask and you shall receive" situation, Lebron James got some much needed help in Cleveland by adding Ben Wallace, Wally Szczerbiak, Joe Smith, and Delonte West to their roster. Defensively, this is a great improvement for the Cavs. As far as the "O" goes, let Lebron take care of all of that. B

• The Supersonics simply got nothing in return for what they gave, Donny Marshall and Ira Newble, giving Kevin Durant even less support...C-

• The Nets gave up a proven superstar that helps everyone around his excel for a few role players and a retiree. This now puts more pressure on Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter to make the team theirs and carry them to wherever they lead them. B-

• The Suns acquired Shaq for Shawn Marion...not a good trade for the Suns, Shaq will inevitably get injured and that'll be the end of that...there's no D.Wade on the Suns. C

• The Kings don't have a quality PG now with the exception of Anthony Johnson (if you want to call that quality) and John Salmons, who is always good for 5 turnovers per game. C

• The Mavs definitely upgraded, their offense will flow like the days when they had Steve Nash on their squad, but now inside presence is a bigger issue than ever. B+

• The Bulls got it all wrong by getting rid of Joe Smith and Ben Wallace for Drew Gooden and Larry Hughes - Hughes can't do anything on the court that no other guard on Chicago can and Ben Wallace and Joe Smith for Drew Gooden is just plain wrong. C

We'll see what the future holds for all of these teams, it's going to be an exciting second half of the NBA season

The O'Reilly Factor

Bill O'Racist-I mean O'Reilly

...And I'm not talking about the Fox News show. Instead, I'm talking about how majestic it is that this man still has a job after his over the top blatant racists comments on the regular - might I add. Anywhere from suggesting population control for minorities so that Whites can stay the majority, to his condescendingly racist comments about restaurant customers in Harlem, it is no secret that Mr. O'Reilly is a racist. Recently, O'Reilly accused Sen. Barack Obama's wife of being unpatriotic and said "I don't want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there is evidence, hard facts that say this is how the woman really feels. If that's how she really feels - that America is a bad country or a flawed nation, whatever - then that's legit...We'll track it down." But what makes it worse is because other people in that same position, don't get away with it - we've seen the Golf Channel reporter, Kelly Tilghman say that the only way Tiger Woods' opponents would have a chance of beating him would be to "lynch him in a back alley." Woods forgave her and didn't take much offense, Tilghman was suspended. Great controversy has surrounded idiots that like to flaunt nooses and they've all been reprimanded but how come Bill O'Reilly gets away with so many of his racist remarks and doesn't get punished. I yearn for the day he publicly confronts Blacks or any other ethnic group on the streets. Michelle Obama originally said she hasn't been more proud of this country until now, here is the clarification. Bill O'Reilly Quotables (as late as 2003, I'm sure a lot more crazy comments has surfaced from then)

• "Does anyone know where the Best Men are? I hope they're not in the parking lot stealing our hubcaps." (the Best Men are a performing group who live in the inner city of Washington D.C.)

• On Immigration: We'd save lives because Mexican wetbacks, whatever you want to call them, the coyotes--they're not going to do what they're doing now, all right, so people aren't going to die in the desert."

• "The most unattractive women in the world are probably in the Muslim countries."

• On Black athletes suing over minimum academic standards for college participation "Look, you know as well as I do most of these kids come out and they can't speak English."

• "We have black leaders in this country who blame everything on whitey, everything's the system's fault, and that gives a built-in excuse to fail and act irresponsible. 'Oh, I can't get a job. Whitey won't let me,' or 'I can't get educated. The teachers are bad, so I'm going to go out and get high and sell drugs. That's the only way we can make money here.' You know what I mean? And it's a vicious cycle."

• (America)"must realize that racial demonization is now organized and well-funded, and it will not end until everyday people begin condemning it." He wasn't talking about himself, though; he was referring to critics who label him a racist.

Ralph Nader Will Create Madness by Joining It

Green Party Pioneer, Ralph Nader has decided to run for President...again. When will this guy ever learn that he can't win? Although he's making a stand by running and maybe even making a few people proud, by him joining the madness that is the Presidential election, will he create even more madness? There are some pundits that believe that the soon to be 74-year-old Nader won't have too much of an influence on either the voters or nominees, but it is easy to see differently, especially in November. Voters who will vote for Nader will more than likely be Independent, Green Party, and radical left wing Democrats - all voters who would have formerly voted for a Democrat. By Nader joining the race, he can take those voters away from the Democrats and also those who are undecided - all while not effecting right-wing voters at all. This could turn ugly. The two Democrats running seem to put up a facade as if they aren't worried about what could possibly happen - but it would be foolish and naive to think that they aren't thinking about it and might even alter their focus and speeches to rope the voters who would vote for Nader in, pleading for them to vote for someone who has a chance. Quotables:

• "He thought that there was no difference between Al Gore and George Bush and, eight years later, I think people realize that Ralph did not know what he was talking about. My sense is that Mr. Nader is somebody who, if you don't listen and adopt all of his policies, thinks you're not substantive."- Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)

• "It is very unfortunate...I remember when he ran before. It didn't turn out very well for anybody -- especially our country. This time I hope it doesn't hurt anyone. I can't think of anybody that would vote for Sen. McCain who would vote for Ralph Nader. Obviously, it is not helpful to whoever our Democratic nominee is. But, you know, it is a free country."- Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY)

• "I think it always would probably pull votes away from the Democrats and not the Republicans, so naturally, Republicans would welcome his entry into the race." Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AK)

According to CNN.com, Nader encouraged people to look at his campaign Web site, www.votenader.org, which he said discusses issues important to Americans that Obama and Sen. John McCain "are not addressing."

Quick Notes

Sorry I've been gone for over a week...I don't even have a plausible explanation for it. I took the week off from work so that I can focus more on a collegiate competition that I have coming up starting next Thursday (which reminds me that I have to type up a final resolution) and my weekly class schedule isn't too tough - there really is no excuse. I feel especially bad because I have some good people on my team that big me and my work up...it is well appreciated. But the week wasn't too unproductive for me, I met a revolutionary interdisciplinary writer and performer, Coco Fusco. If you're not familiar with - get familiar at, www.cocofusco.com. To make a long story short, Coco spoke about the roles of American troops of women in interrogations in Iraq as a response to what late British feminist Virginia Wolff said about females who serve in the army don't do much. Overall, it was a good, moving performance that definitely made her audience think. Music and Entertainment

• R&B artist Ne-Yo or Neyo was arrested for speeding, driving recklessly and without a valid license - nothing ridiculous or crazy from the singer/songwriter, but we did find out why he always wears a hat:

Need I say more?

• Ne-Yo wasn't the only R&B artist that got arrested recently, rising artist, J-Holiday was arrested and charged with drug possession at around 10:30 PM when a pair of Maryland State Troopers pulled his car over because they smelled and saw marijuana.

• In case y'all haven't heard, R. Kelly is at it again! But this time with music industry vet. George Daniels' daughter, Maxine. Daniels was formerly a good friend of Kelly's and obviously disapproved of his relationship with his daughter. The daughter, a.k.a. Maxine, is 20 years younger than the 41-year-old, Kelly. According to Los Angeles Radio Station, Poppa Daniels said, "He crossed the line with my daughter...It didn't get to the extreme of that [sex tape] video or else I wouldn't be here, if you know what I'm talking about." (He's saying that if it would've been that extreme, he would've done something to be in jail right now instead of doing the interview for those that didn't catch on). Kells said that the relationship between the two was set up by Maxine's mother, and wife of George, Regina - stating that Regina gave her daughter his private phone number. But Maxine said that it was Kelly that gave it do her, and she also took full responsibility for everything that went down stating that she "was caught up in his charming and generous ways." Finally, the camp of the R&B star said that the team of Regina Daniels' reached his camp about a "healthy" six-figure settlement to make it all go away quietly. Regina denies that claim, stay tuned as the soap opera will surely continue.

• I'm not going to take up too much time or space on this one, but, R&B living legend, Patti LaBelle is putting her wonderful vocals aside to create a new line of wigs and hair pieces. According to EURweb.com, the LaBelle collection will feature nine styles of hair designed by the legend herself - the pieces are 100% human hair. It will be available exclusively in the Especially Yours catalog and available on their website, www.especiallyyours.com

• Sticking to R&B stars that are trying new things, 21-year-old Mario is putting the mic down for now and has joined a list of celebrity contestants of the upcoming season of "Dancing With the Stars." Other notable names that are joining the singer (whose album was very good, just not promoted right, by the way) are comedian Adam Corolla, actor Steve Guttenburg (can't wait to see that!), actress and ex-wife of two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash, Shannon Elizabeth, former Olympic Gold winner figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, and Tennis Hall of Famer and stab victim, Monica Seles.

• Another R&B star making the switch includes the beautiful Mya (who can get the treatment) will start acting in the Broadway play, Chicago starting in May.

• Nas, love him or hate him, is one of the most respected rap/hip-hop artist to ever step in the studio and as all hip-hop heads now, his next album will be one of much controversy, entitled "Nig**r" but one of the producers one the album is one that doesn't get as much respect as he deserves is DJ Khalil (KHALIL not KHALED). Khalil is a staff producer for Dr. Dre and is very excited for what should be Nas' first single - a recycled song, "What It Is." Khalil recently held a public listening on some of his tracks. Check out the video:

DJ Khalil gives a Sneak Peek at new Nas

Nas What it is first listen Dj Khalil by Bounce2dis

• New Danity Kane track, "Damaged." A few notes: the track is pretty good, more of the melody that they have developed as opposed to the actual lyrics, I still want to hear that track that the dudes keep previewing, that sounds like it should be good. I hope that they get a name, though - having them known as "The Band" is pretty demeaning, LOL, and is a testament to the longevity that Diddy think that they will have.

• I remember back in the day when I used to be a HUGE WWF(now called WWE) wrestling fan, me and my entire family used to watch it religiously. I've separated myself from it when I turned a teenager but now I found myself watching it recently because of the best boxer in the world, pound for pound king, Floyd Mayweather Jr. made a special appearance on WWE's Pay-Per-View event, "No Way Out" and got in to it with 7 foot, 400 pound wrestler, nicknamed "The Big Show". Apparently, Floyd was defending a wrestler that "Big Show" was beating up, Floyd entered the ring and stood face-to-torso with the Big Show. The Big Show then got on his knees to mock Floyd when Floyd hit him with a three-piece that legitimately broke Big Show's nose. Floyd, by the way, is barely 5'8 (reppin hard for the shorter fellas). Floyd will face the Big Show, who was ironically training to be a boxer before that fell through in "WrestleMania" on March 30 - that should be quite the spectacle.

• Finally, some "A-list" celebrities were among over 100 people to be recommended to get an immediate Hepatitis A exam after a Bartender at a West Village Bar in New York City was infected. Among the big names were, Ashton Kutcher (who was there celebrating his 30th birthday), wifey Demi Moore, and Madonna. Hepatitis A is a liver disease caused by a virus and is spread from person to person by putting something in the mouth that has been contaminated with traces of fecal matter from an infected person, the department said. Symptoms include jaundice, fatigue, abdominal pain, nausea, and diarrhea.

Quick Weekend Notes

• First, our condolences to the family and friends of Rep. Tom Lantos, who was a holocaust survivor who escaped the Nazis twice as a teenager, and was the only survivor to serve in Congress - he was 80.

• There were two high school shooting in Memphis over the last week, the most recent one happened today, when a 17-year-old student shot a 19-year-old senior twice over an argument. The suspect shot the victim in gym class, the victim is in critical condition. The other shooting happened at a different school last Monday, Feb. 4 - when a student shot another student in the leg - no critical injuries were reported. Both students were detained and will more than likely be charged.
• Without getting into too much detail, Yahoo! Inc. respectfully rejected Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid to take over the company, deeming in inadequate. Word is that Yahoo! is in talks with AOL about a possible merger.

• Another lawsuit is coming out of former B2K member Raz-B's team. First, he was supposed to press charges on his prime producer/manager Chris Stokes for raping him and others - the suit was dropped a day later...nope, that's not shady at all. But this time, Raz-B's lawyers are out for blood against the team of boxing great Floyd Mayweather. According to Raz-B's lawyers, the security team of Mayweather beat Raz-B's brother, Ricky Romance, to a bloody pulp outside of a Grand Rapids, MI hotel - where Mayweather was holding his weekend extravaganza "The Mayweather Experience." Let's see if they fold if/when an athlete puts the pressure on them.

• To keep it on boxing, two big time welterweight prospects were in action this past weekend. Paul "The Punisher" Williams, who was coming off of a win against highly touted contender, Antonio Margarito, was in action against contender Carlos "Indio" Quintana, who is coming off of a loss to one of the tops in the division, Miguel Cotto. Paul Williams is a 6'1 welterweight - which means that at 6'1 - he fights at 147 pounds - he would easily be the favorite in any welterweight fight with exception only to one with either Floyd Mayweather or Miguel Cotto - but the hype was put to a stop as Quintana pulled off the upset, by winning an Unanimous Decision over the former WBO champ. The defense of Paul Williams (33-1, 24 KOs) wasn't there and both he and Quintana (25-1, 19 KOs) were sluggish, but the southpaw Quintana won the fight on straight lefts over the right arm of fellow southpaw Paul Williams. The scorecards read 115-113 (twice) and 116-113. Paul needs a rematch ASAP to prove that it was just an off night, and then he needs to move up in weight, it just looks very awkward to have a 6'1 athlete weigh 147 pounds in today's day. In the co-feature, undefeated prospect Andre Berto forced Michael Trabant to quit on his stool after six rounds of punishment, Berto moves to 21-0, 18 KOs, Trabant falls to 43-3-1, 19 KOs. Mega fights are in the future for Berto, I want to see him fight one more "average" boxer than move up to face Zab Judah.
• Lastly, big-ups to allhiphop.com, which is where I found this next clip, of some reporters at Fox in Houston tried to sucker Bun-B of the legendary UGK into demeaning hip-hop culture, but Bun-B proves he's too smart for it, and addresses the issue of him back on the road without partner, Pimp C - R.I.P.

Grammy Notes

I'm not going to write too much about the Grammy's...yet, probably won't ever (I'm not too big of a fan - the way they approach urban culture is unprofessional and some events last night proved just that), nonetheless, it seemed to be quite the night. But there are a bunch of other happenings, especially in sports and politics. First and foremost, big ups to the homie Kanye for shutting down the Grammy orchestra for trying to rush him off stage. I know that it wasn't my imagination - they definitely gave him less time than other winners who made their acceptance speeches. And it just so happened that the only two winners that got the orchestra played over their speeches were Black and quite amazing at what they do. More importantly, they both resisted and did their thing! (What up Herbie Hancock!) << style="font-weight: bold;">This clip isn't the entire acceptance speech, but it definitely wasn't a long one: Easily the best performance of the night: In other Grammy news, (by the way, I think it should be noticed that when I spell the word "grammy" with a lowercase "g" apparently, it's a misspelled word, but when I spell it with a capital "G" it's correct...smh) Amy Crackhouse, I mean Winehouse performed via satellite - she actually did a good job, despite her apparent unawareness of where the camera was filming from and the twitches and steady grabs at her crotch. She won 5 "Grammies" including record of the year and songwriter of the year - the category in which my lovely future wife who doesn't know I exist, Corinne Bailey Rae got robbed. Amy's Acceptance However, some of the best, if not unusual, news happened on the red carpet - and I'm not talking about horrid dresses worn by Cher or about how great Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Rihanna, and Corinne Bailey Rae looked, I'm talking about Nas' political statement...I don't know how I feel about his shirt, but I understand what he is trying to say. Two things to peep in this clip: Kelis and how scared and nervous the reporter is, she's getting a raise: Also, just to cap off a great weekend for Sen. Barack Obama - the Presidential hopeful won a Grammy! for Best Spoken Word Album for "The Audacity of Hope..." It's now or never.... Until then... Maybe next year, wifey.