Yung Berg Dark Butt Comment Affects Record Sales

Yung 'I don't do dark butts' Berg's debut cd sold a little more than 19,000 units its first week out.

Issac Hayes' Funeral

First of all, Isaac Hayes had two funerals. There was the one on Monday that was open to the public and a private one on Sunday that was organized by the Scientologists. The Sunday one was filled to the brim with celebrities including Isaac's fellow scientologists Doug E. Fresh, Chick Corea, Tom Cruise, Anne Archer and Kelly Preston, as well as his non-Scientology celeb pals Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, Bootsy Collins, Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Sam Moore, Aretha Franklin, Chuck D, Maurice White, John Singleton, Richard Roundtree, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson any many others. Anyway, folks are whispering about how weird the Scientology funeral was because they barely mentioned his music, no one sang any of his songs and they didn't talk about his film or television career. They say the whole memorial, if you could call it that, was mostly his Scientology pals talking about themselves while being filmed by Scientology leaders. Also, according to witnesses, the Scientology speakers and performers — there were seven in all — made little reference to Hayes’ 11 grown children, just to his wife of three years and their 2-year-old son. The snubs were so blatant, Isaac's oldest daughter Veronica, who didn’t get to speak until nearly two and a half hours had passed, felt the need to declare, "Just to clear it up, there are 11 children." Isaac's family members are also upset because he was not buried next to his grandmother, but instead buried in what they referred to as "the white cemetery."

The Other Night

They say Prince sat outside Janelle Monae's concert at The Viper Room, waited for her to come out then invited her into his limo for a chat.

50 Ain't Talking

Arson investigators trying to get to the bottom of the suspicious fire that burned 50 Cent's baby mama's house to the ground are frustrated because they have not been able to question the rapper at all regarding the case. While Shaniqua has met with investigators several times, her lawyers claim 50, who was in New Orleans filming a movie at the time of the blaze, has refused to speak with investigators.

Better Black TV

P Miller, who, by the way, does not wish to be called Master P anymore, is starting a new television station called Better Black TV.

According to a company statement, the network will provide "positive content for a black and brown culture."

BBTV, set to launch in 2009, will be a general entertainment channel running a wide range of scripted, unscripted and news programming, including drama and comedy series, movies, animation, reality, politics, sports and entertainment news, children's educational and teen programming, as well as "responsible hip-hop music and videos."

I wonder if they're going to show "I'm Bout It" late at night?

Dexter King Returns Fire

Remember back in July when Bernice and Martin King III sued their brother Dexter claiming he was mishandling funds from the Martin Luther King Jr. estate? Well Dexter launched a suit of his own against Bernice and Martin III. Dexter's suit accuses Martin III and Bernice of establishing foundations in direct competition with The King Center and claims that Martin III used the center without permission to meet with then-presidential candidate John Edwards in January 2008.

They Say

While troubled rapper DMX sits in a Miami jail, his people are actively shopping a new DMX reality show around to the networks. They're offering to let cameras follow DMX while he resolves his various legal troubles. So far there have been no takers.

Straight From The Source

Remember when former editor in chief of The Source magazine, Kim Osorio, sued Source founders Dave Mays and Ray Benzino for sexual harassment and won that multi-mullion dollar settlement? Get ready to read all about it. Kim wrote a book called Straight To The Source: An Expose From The Former Editor-In-Chief Of The Hip-Hop Bible. Kim dishes all the dirty details on how Benzino would be switching covers at the last minute, re-ordering cover shoots, randomly firing employees, trading covers for beats and guest appearances on his records and how Benzio's favoring street cred over journalistic integrity lead to the magazine’s downfall. She also reveals a famous lover or two. *cough*50 and Nas*cough*

Damon Dash In Foreclosure

From the New York Post:

Eastern Savings Bank has filed suit against entrepreneur Damon Dash, charging the Roc-a-Fella Records co-founder hasn't made a payment on his $78,504.20-a-month mortgage since January.

"YOU ARE IN DANGER OF LOSING YOUR HOME," reads the foreclosure action against Dash and wife Rachel Roy.

The $7.3 million mortgage was actually taken on two TriBeCa properties the couple owns, at 25 N. Moore St. and at 79 Laight St.

A rep for Dash did not return a call and e-mail for comment. The clothing big has been besieged by debtors in the past year, despite having an estimated $50 million fortune.

The Post reported last year that he owed the city $2 million in back taxes, and the mortgage suit says he has $100,000 in federal tax liens against his properties.

Bobby Being Sued

The lawyers who handled Bobby Brown's divorce from Whitney Houston are suing his ass for $90,217 in unpaid legal fees.

LisaRaye Got Her Butt Kicked And Here's The Proof

Bernie Mac's Obituary

Click the images to enlarge

So So Closed

Not only did Jermaine Dupri shut down his Buckhead restaurant Cafe Dupri, he shut down and stiffed his employees out of a couple weeks pay. Click here to see the news report.

Is Rihanna Broke?

You can file this shit in the unsubstainiated rumors section. Try as I might, I could not find a source for this supposed missive from Rihanna's recently fired accounant, but here it is anyway for your gossiping pleasure:


Rihanna's now ex-business manager Patricia Willliams has been recently fired as she says "for no good reason, all in ignorance" and is "livid" with Rihanna & her management company Rebel One's decision to fire her. Rihanna recently met with Willliams to check on her accounting affairs and was shocked to see that almost all her money was missing. She instantly accused Willliams of "stealing her money.""I'm a professional Business Manager, I have a staff of more than a dozen, I have worked for many high profile actors, musicians and multi-million dollar corporations. Why would I steal from Rihanna?" She continues, "I showed her all the paperwork and tried to explain to her the circumstances but she wouldn't listen. She called me all sorts of horrible names and stormed off. I now feel compelled to share with the world the background story as I will not allow my name to be slandered"The Barbados born singer has had four back-to-back albums, including a re-release since her debut of "Pon De Replay" in 2005.According to Willliams, Marc Jordan, manager and owner of Rebel One Management has been taking care of Rihanna's financial situation with her. "Def Jam doesn't fund Rihanna properly, so Marc uses the money Rihanna makes from third-party endorsements and from tours to fund her album and music videos." Since 2005, Rihanna has been sponsored by the likes of JC Penny, Samsung, Covergirl, Secret, Venus Breeze etc,. and has gone on two major tours, most recently label-mate Kanye West's "Glow in the Dark" Tour and with Pussy Cat Dolls across Europe."I don't want to disrespect Marc's name. He is a fantastic manager and genuinely believes in Rihanna. But he uses her money to fund her future projects because he believes he can break her in the world-market. Her album sales are not nearly as close to her single sales and he knows that if she is only known as a 'singles artist' she will only be as good as her last hit. Unfortunately, he didn't inform his client and I'm receiving the brunt of it."Why is Def Jam lacking in funding support for there act? Why was so much money spent? How much exactly? Williams continues,"Her record label Def Jam has put out 3 albums in a time span of 2 years. Alot of that was orchestrated through her management Rebel One. It was never Def Jam's intention to release so many albums back-to-back but Marc Jordan found loop holes and ways to make it happen.A lot of the money Rihanna made through her endorsements between CoverGirl Cosmetics, Samsung.. Notice that majority of Rihanna's videos have a cell phone in it?""After the release of Rihanna and Teairra Mari, Def Jam had intention to drop both acts because their album sales were not successful. Her manager fought to get [S.O.S (Rescue Me)] and quickly tried to negotiate with as many companies as possible. Nike picked up the song and funded a video. This brought the hype back for Rihanna in the company's New York office. Majority of the official 'S.O.S' video was funded by Samsung because the record label was only willing to put up a small amount. Once 'S.O.S' picked up digitally and at radio, Def Jam agreed to fund the rest of her album. Jordan instantly got a video shot to 'Unfaithful' (he negotiated with video director Anthony Mandler to drop his price and would be given more videos from Rihanna in return). Then they shot 'We Ride' which was an extremely cheap video to create. 'Break It Off' was released as a third album, but again, Def Jam was unhappy with the sales of her album "A Girl Like Me" and refused to shoot a video. At this point Rihanna was opening up for the Pussy Cat Doll's in Europe. She was making 30,000 a show but she didn't see any of that money because it was needed to fund her next album." Which is now known to the greater public as a 'Good Girl Gone Bad'."The song "Umbrella" was found & Jordan fought again for Rihanna to have it. They shot the video, which CoverGirl funded half of, and the song became a success. When the record label had there meeting with Music Stores across the U.S to order her album for shipment, the number's weren't coming in the way that they expected. When the album's first week numbers came in at less than 150,000, the label was shocked. Def Jam's President LA Reid was livid! Umbrella was #1 for 11 weeks! Any other artist would have sold way more first week. T-Pain even did better in sales than her that week. Def Jam told Jordan they were no longer funding the album, so Jordan needed money again to pay for music videos 'Shut Up & Drive' and 'Dont Stop The Music'. Almost 250,000 was spent to have those videos created. Plus, an additional 120,000 to shoot 'Hate That I Love You'. Jordan was noticing that 'Dont Stop The Music' was picking up, so her persuaded the label to support it at radio in the U.S and the remaining singles, and they did.""Then came for the repackaging of her album 'Good Girl Gone Bad', which is called 'Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded', that entire project was funded through Rihanna's money. 'Take A Bow' was bought through her money, the video was created with her money and so is her most recent video and single 'Disturbia'. The label didn't even want to pay a dime for anything! Close to 750,000 was spent on those two songs alone. And now she expects to see money in her account?"Williams states that Jordan, her publicist from well-respected public relations firm 42-West, Alicia Silverman has built alot of hype around Rihanna's name but the singer has only made "a little bit above a million" and "all of it was spent on making her as big as she is now. It's not my fault that she only has 20,000 to her name."