Birth of Day-Day, beginning of Punishment, the end of Showtime and the death of Dirt.
Stretch for details.
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I know I'm a day late with this one, but I had to absorb it all before I spoke on it.
From the AJC:
Rapper T.I. stepped in to help police negotiators trying to talk a man out of jumping to his death from a 22-story Midtown building Wednesday afternoon. ...
The rapper told WSB Radio he was on the way to shoot a video when he heard about the man threatening to end his life. He drove to the scene and told a police officer he wanted to help. Another officer taped a quick video message which was then sent to the man on the roof, T.I. told the radio station.
And just like that, this anonymous dude no longer wanted to Shoulder Lean his ass off of One Atlantic Center.
I call bullshit on this one. More after the stretch.
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OK, I believe in coincidence, but a coincidence of this proportion is a lil' too coincidental.
You mean to tell me that a jumper just randomly chose One Atlantic Center — the building that houses local radio station V-103 — to jump off of? You mean to tell me that T.I. just happened to be listening to the station and was in the area? You mean to tell me that he rolled up to the scene and just happened to be allowed to intervene in a police negotiation? You mean to tell me that this suicidal man just happened to have a change of heart at T.I.'s behest? And all this just happened to happen two days before T.I.'s court date?
Call me a conspiracy theorist, but wouldn't it be really easy for Tip's lawyers to stand before the judge and play the "this guy is REALLY needed" card again in attempts to get his impending sentence reduced? My far-fetched theory is that the "jumper" was planted and that the whole "suicide attempt" was orchestrated to make The Rubberband Man look like an actual superhero.
And don't think I'm sayin' this because I've got a problem with Tip 'cause I don't. I think his probation violation was really fuckin' stupid, but we all do dumb shit sometimes so I get that. I'm sayin' this because if it smells like bullshit, walks like bullshit and claims to jump off a building like bullshit, it probably is bullshit.
I really hope I'm wrong.
**UPDATE**
Guess I wasn't the only one whose eyebrow was raised by T.I.'s apparent heroism earlier this week. CNN interviewed Kang Cliff and had him address, among other things (i.e. his court appearance today), his part in the rescue and whether or not it was a stunt designed to gain some positive press before his court appearance. You can probably guess his response.
**UPDATE #2**
Verdict's in. Back to the bing Tip goes. Eleven months. Obviously, the hero card didn't play too well. Here's his lawyer:
Damn, Tip. SMH.
Supplier: AJC
While it doesn't actually exist at this point, the concept for the Mozilla Seabird Open Web phone is pretty damn impressive. Fuck a touchscreen, this thing suggests projecting a usable keyboard onto a flat surface.
You would also be able to dock this thing and use the detachable Bluetooth device/wireless mouse to control the standard desktop that is actually projected from the phone and onto the wall, chalkboard, HUGE woman or whatever large surface you have available.
This is some Star Trek shit right here. Animated demo after the stretch.
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Supplier: Funk Flex via Mozilla Labs
Yo, I just realized how much Rick Ross resembles Kamala, a character from the WWF of the '80s and '90s. These dudes either look just alike or William Roberts was a pro wrestler before he became Officer Ricky then Rick Ross. That shit is hilarious.
Peace, WWE
As part of their Visionaries series, Fortune Magazine briefly chopped it up with Uncle Rush about his legendary career and has him offer advice to young entrepreneurs on the come-up.
Russell put the "OG" in yoga.
Supplier: CNN Money
The homie Ed Lover's back with his latest pop culture critique — and guess who's first to catch heat...?
Is it me, or is that "C'mon Son" sign lookin' pretty fuckin' raggedy these days? Might be time to re-up, Ed.
Visit CmonSonOnline!
When I hear about someone hitting one of these big, multi-million dollar lotto jackpots, more often than not I get a mental picture of what the lucky bastard looks like: rural, possibly toothless hick-type from the middle of nowhere wearing cowboy boots or rubber fishing waders and drinking moonshine from a Mason jar. Oh, and I ALWAYS envision them being White.
And I'm usually right.
Not this time, though. Garina Fearson, a 34-year-old corrections officer from BK, is the country's latest multimillionaire after hitting last week's $54 million Mega Millions jackpot.
From the NY Post:
"Fearon said she bought the wrong ticket at a Sutter Avenue bodega, where she went to play Powerball, not Mega Millions.
"I only play every six months or so," said Fearon, who has a 16-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter.
She held on to the ticket all weekend, and didn't think about it until Monday, when she asked a co-worker for a newspaper. She scribbled the winning numbers on the back of an inmate pass as her shift ended.
As she waited for the bus, she made the amazing discovery.
"I was about to fold up the lottery ticket," Fearon said. "Then I saw the numbers, and I started running from one part of the parking lot to the other screaming."
Fearon will take the lump sum cash option, which will pay about $30 mil before taxes.
She says that other than buy a home for her ailing mother in Jamaica, she doesn't really know what she'll do with the money — but she does NOT plan on quitting her job.
Shit, I wouldn't be surprised if she took on eight or nine more jobs. Even with millions of dollars, one job is not nearly enough. Hey mon!
She's better than me, 'cause quitting my job is the FIRST thing I would do. The second thing I'd do is buy a platinum-and-diamond grill and get a replica of the Sistine Chapel tattooed on my back. Then I'd start a record label ("Squeezebox Entertainment") and make accordion-based Hip-Hop. I'd call myself "Polka Flocka Flames" or "Polkaveli."
All jokes aside, congrats to Garina. She's been through some shit in her life and can finally live it up.
Read the whole story here.
Supplier: NY Post
But this ain't the homie D-Nice; it's COMPLEX Mag.
One of my favorite magazines comes with yet another dope piece of Hip-Hop storytelling, this time catching up with longtime Entertainment Lawyer-turned-writer Combat Jack (née Reggie Osse) and getting some firsthand, behind-the-scenes stories from the making of several of Hip-Hop's favorite songs.
Jack obviously spent much of his 20 years in the business very close to the Bad Boy and Roc-A-Fella camps (or it could be that these stories are just the most interesting), as many of the stories he shared with COMPLEX are related to these respective crews.
But fear not — it ain't ALL Roc/Bad Boy stories. He's also got stories on Capone-N-Noreaga, 50 Cent, LL Cool J, 3rd Bass, Nice & Smooth and several others.
Peep a sample of the piece after the stretch, or head straight over to COMPLEX and read the whole thing by clicking here.
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"We were repping cousins Damon and Darien Dash, who were managers under their Dash Management Company. Damon and Darien were kids, teenagers, who managed two groups: Original Flavor and The Future Sound. Clark Kent had discovered the Dashes. At the time he was an A&R at East/West Records, a label under Atlantic Records. Clark signed both groups, which meant that Damon and Darien had a lot of money in their pockets for cats that were only 17, 18 years old. ... East/West had put a hold on the rap acts they were signing, so Clark wasn't able to sign this up-and-coming Brooklyn MC named Jay-Z. So he introduced him to Damon, on account of how Clark was impressed with Dame's skills as a manager. It still bugs me out how, back in '94, Clark swore that Jay was the best rapper alive. For their first single, Clark convinced Dame to put Jay on 'Can I Get Open.' Ski and Tone were good, but once he touched the mic, it was clear to all that Jay-Z murdered them on their own shit."
"I was representing a majority of Puffy's Hitmen producer crew, and Nashiem Myrick was one of them. Nashiem was such an ill producer for how he came up with the beat, flipping the 'I'm Afraid The Masquerade Is Over' sample into this beat. When I first heard the beat, originally as an interlude to Mary J. Blige's My Life album with Keith Murray rapping over it, then this version with Big, my mind couldn't comprehend how otherworldly the track sounded. Listen to them keys drop made me feel like I was tripping on dust, and I never smoked/inhaled dust in my life."
"On top of continuously taking shots from Tupac, Death Row, and Snoop even, we were growing tired of being the target. No one on our end really knew the source of Tupac's rage, but God damn did he become a beast. The day this song dropped, New York was quiet, like we had got punched in our collective chests. Plain and simple, the record was hot, and the rage that jumped from off the track was very disconcerting. We got calls from our peoples at Bad Boy, from Roc-A-Fella, all talking, wondering how far 'Pac and Suge wanted to take this. ... When 'Pac yells out 'Fuck you too,' referencing anyone down with Bad Boy, I took that shit personally. Plus, cats started getting kind of annoyed at Big for not responding directly, because we all knew that as a superior lyricist, he would have really bodied Tupac and hurt his feelings. Still, with all that going on, being in the eye of the storm that was the coastal beef, the raw dopeness that is 'Hit 'Em Up' is undeniable. One of the greatest dis records of all time. And in a weird way, it remains one of my favorites."
"Dame, Jay, and Clark were done begging the industry for a deal. Pooling their collective monies, along with Kareem Biggs, Roc-A-Fella was officially born. I was hired to do all the paperwork, all the sample clearances, all that. ... When Clark first played the track for me, I didn't get it, I'll admit. The sample was so different, jazzy, unorthodox, but the rhymes were greater than anything, ever. Respectfully, Jay was thirsty for Big's spot, and it showed. At the same time, Big wasn't effing around. No way was Jay going to outshine dude. This record would have been a monster single and even a greater video. When I contacted Bad Boy for Big's clearance, Puff wouldn't, couldn't grant us the full single rights. ... No shots, but I remember being on the phone once again begging for Puff to let Big rock on a single and video, and Puff asking me, 'Yo, what the eff is a Jay-Z? I can't get Clive Davis to clear Big on some unknown rapper's record.' To his credit, Puff did let the Roc keep the song on the album. ... Years later, I still feel some kind of way about Jay and Big not shooting a video for that. Can you even imagine how ill that would have been?"
"I was representing Nashiem Myrick and Tragedy Khadafi. Apparently they had beef as they were each part of opposing crews from Queens. ... One day, they were both in my office—appointments colliding—and the air was tense. Both clients were known to have been real thuggish on the streets. Fast thinking and talking, I helped convince them that we were all on the same team, and there was collabs to make, money to earn. Trag cautiously shared with Nashiem how he was working on his group, Capone-N-Noreaga. They start building on ideas. The first collabo they worked on was 'T.O.N.Y.' ... When 'T.O.N.Y.' dropped, cats weren't expecting that from Trag. It had been a long time since he had any heat, and no one had ever heard of C.N.N. before. Talk about organic, I watched that song go from a truce between two foes to becoming a Tunnel classic."
Supplier: COMPLEX
(CBS) An alleged crook running from police needed a place to hide.
James Brienzo saw a dumpster and leaped into it, authorities in Alliance, Ohio say.
But, reports Paul Joncich, of CBS Cleveland affiliate WOIO, there was one problem: It was trash day, and collectors were about to make a pick.
Minutes later, Brienzo was scooped up and dumped in the back of a garbage truck.
While swimming in garbage, he fished out his cell phone and called a friend, who called police.
"He is in the trash truck. He said it compacted him once and is getting ready to again," a police dispatcher said.
Police had to electronically track the cell phone to find the right garbage truck.
But, says Joncich, Brienzo was so wedged in the only way to get him out -- was to empty the compressed trash.
Brienzo fell to the ground, amid the trash, head-first.
Another Alliance officer says Brienzo "was in a lot of pain. He had been compacted several times. He was begging us to empty the truck."
He was listed in critical condition in an area hospital.
What makes this even funnier is the fact that he was running from the cops after being caught shoplifting from — wait for it....... — Wal-Mart. If you're from Alliance, OH, steal from Wal-Mart AND hide in dumpsters, you might be a redneck, but you're definitely an asshole. And your being nearly crushed by your stupidity (metaphorically represented by the trash compactor) only proves that point.
News report after the stretch.
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Supplier: CBS
To celebrate the latest Forbes 400 — the magazine's annual list of the nation's wealthiest people (and those in-the-making) — Warren Buffett (#2 on the list) and Jay-Z (in the making) met up in the heartland for a sit-down and heart-to-heart (to heart) with Steve Forbes:
We gassed up a Gulfstream 450 one warm September morning and flew one of the most successful recording artists of all time, Jay-Z, to meet the most successful investor of all time, Warren Buffett, on the latter's home turf of Omaha, Neb. The intent was to capture their very different perspectives on success and wealth and to talk about the social obligations that come with each. They ended up finding out they had more in common than anyone would have expected between a 40-year-old rapper from the Brooklyn projects and the 80-year-old sage of compounded returns.
Big money talk, indeed. More after the stretch.
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Jay: ...We've never seen the maturation of hip-hop in this sort of way. People would get to a certain age and still try to pinpoint at this young demographic because hip-hop is a young man's sport. But, you know, people that listen to hip-hop when they're 18 listen to it when they're 28. It's just that the voices of hip-hop are not speaking directly to them anymore. Or weren't. They're speaking to an 18 year old. I'm not going to do that anymore. I'm just going to make the music I love to make and I'm going to mature with my music. Luckily for me, it was the right decision.
Buffett: As you go along, you learn what things you're not going to understand. Knowing what to leave out is just as important as knowing what to focus on. Somebody said how to beat Bobby Fischer; you play him any game except chess. And so I don't play Bobby Fischer at chess.
Buffett: Part of making good decisions in business is recognizing the poor decisions you've made and why they were poor. I've made lots of mistakes. I'm going to make more. It's the name of the game. You don't want to expect perfection in yourself. You want to strive to do your best. It's too demanding to expect perfection in yourself.
Jay: As entertainers, we're the first generation to capitalize on our talent. For many years artists were dying broke, because the record companies took advantage of them. ... The first thing for me is to lead by example and show how these things have an effect on people's lives in a real way.
Supplier: Forbes
ATLANTA (AP) — Two men have filed a lawsuit accusing Bishop Eddie Long of exploiting his role as pastor of an Atlanta-area megachurch to coerce them into sexual relationships when they were young members of his congregation.
Lawyers for the men, now 20 and 21, say they filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in DeKalb County Court. ...
Craig Gillen, Long's attorney, said Tuesday the pastor "categorically denies the allegations." ...
The men were 17- and 18-year-old members of Long's New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, when they say Long abused his spiritual authority to seduce them with with cars, money, clothes, jewelry, international trips and access to celebrities. ...
"Defendant Long has utilized his spiritual authority to coerce certain young male members ... into engaging in sexual acts and relationships for his own personal sexual grafitication," the lawsuits read.
That shit is nasty. As fuck. This goes to show you that the pastor — yes, even YOUR pastor — is just a man. Stop treatin' that nigga like HE's the one being worshipped. That's all I'm gon' say about that.
Anyway, check out the "Pause" episode of The Boondocks after the stretch. This Eddie Long situation kinda reminds me of it.
STRETCH...
Supplier: USA Today
Congratulations, homeboy.
'Bout time they gave that boy the starting gig. The anti-Vick crowd should have a field day with this one.
But fuck 'em. It's about ball above all at this point, and Vick earned that spot. He's really been showin' his ass these last two weeks. Not starting him would be stupid.
Good job, doggie. Don't fuck this up!
Supplier: ESPN
From Chicago Breaking Sports:
MIAMI - Tyler Colvin is in stable condition at a local hospital after being impaled in his upper left chest by a piece of broken bat during Sunday's game at Sun Life Stadium. ...
He's being treated for pneumothorax, a puncture of the chest cavity, which allowed air into the chest wall and the potential of a collapsed lung. A tube was inserted into the wound, and Colvin is resting comfortably, but will remain hospitalized for 2-3 days for further examination, and manager Mike Quade said he will not play again this season. ...
There was no immediate word on the depth of the wound, though it was only a few inches from his heart, and his neck, and could've been much more serious. The sharp end of the larger piece of Castillo's broken bat is what went into Colvin's chest, but it did not stick into the chest.
Marlins catcher Mike Rivera said it was scary and looked like "he was being stabbed."
That's some Final Destination shit right there. I can't stand the damn Cubs, but I hope this kid's OK.
Watch the video of Colvin's injury after the stretch.
STRETCH...
Supplier: Chicago Breaking Sports & HuffPo
This is crazy.
From Fanhouse:
All summer, Garrett had worked to improve his passing accuracy, for moments just like these, rivalry games in East Texas.
Against arch-rival Jasper, the work paid off. Garrett dropped back to pass and in the words of his head coach Dan Hooks, a 72-year-old East Texas coaching legend with over 250 career wins, "just threw a perfect post-corner route for a touchdown. It was a beautiful pass."
The crowd of 6,500 exulted. Garrett's second touchdown pass of the game, midway through the second quarter, put his team up 21-0. Hooks remembers locking eyes with his quarterback as Garrett ran off the field. "He was smiling, the biggest smile you'd ever seen, just happy at what he'd done," Hooks told FanHouse on Saturday
As Coach Hooks, a 48-year coaching veteran who has been head coach at West Orange-Stark for the past 30 years, turned to ensure that his special teams were ready to attempt the extra point, Garrett collapsed on the sideline.
"It happened so quick none of us knew what to think," Hooks said. ...
Paramedics rushed to the senior quarterback's aid and at first everyone on the sideline assumed all would be fine.
"It's hard to believe," a shaken Hooks said the next morning. "We've had injuries before, but nothing like this."
Garrett was placed in an ambulance and rushed to the local hospital as the game continued. By the fourth quarter rumors began to circulate throughout the stadium and filter to the sidelines. Reggie Garrett, the quarterback whose final pass was a touchdown, had died at the hospital.
"None of us could believe it," Hooks said, "none of us."
He was only 17. They don't know what happened to the kid. Very sad story. This happened on Friday, the 17th of this month, just a few days ago.
R.I.P.
Suppliers: Fanhouse & Beaumont Enterprise
Finally, a magazine dedicated solely to the only women on Earth that can consistently compete with the sistas on the beauty tip: those lovely Latinas. SPICY's got some hot shit.
Get yourself a taste after the stretch.
STRETCH...
Yeah, you get the point, right? EPIC.
Supplier: SPICY
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