50 Cent is at it again. After a heated exchange with Cam'ron last week on New York radio station Hot 97, the G-Unit general took aim at the Diplomats top dog on the track "Funeral Music," which made its debut on DJ Kay Slay's MySpace page Thursday night. In the YouTube video clip, 50 poked fun at Cam being shot last year and mocked the Harlem, New York, rapper's rhyme style before adding, "I'm not gonna destroy Dipset, just gotta make some changes.
" He then proceeded to rearrange the Dipset ranking order to put Jim Jones and Juelz Santana over Cam in the hierarchy. "From now on, Jimmy's the boss of Dipset and Juelz is the capo," 50 says in the clip. "Cam's demoted to soldier!
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We've learned that Ozzfest will be free this summer but how will one gain admission to the traveling metal monstrosity? Well, tickets will be paid for and distributed by the festival's sponsors, including J germeister and Monster Energy Drink. Those signed up at Ozzfest.
com will get info on how to score their free tickets first. Once you've landed one, you'll need to print it out and bring it to Ozzfest the day of the show. The shows will be general admission and seats will be divvied out on a first-come, first-to-claim-a-seat-and-watch-the-show-from-there basis.
The prices of merchandise, beer, soda, water and food will not be raised at all, according to organizers. A limit on tickets has yet to be determined, and more information on the free fest will be revealed in the coming weeks. .
.. Bloc Party are in need of a fill-in for drummer Matt Tong, who has a serious respiratory condition that caused his lung to collapse during the band's last U.
S. tour. Tong is likely to suffer complications from his condition during the band's upcoming U.
K. tour, and the temporary replacement should help Bloc Party avoid cancelling any gigs. .
.. Tha Dogg Pound aren't ready to be muzzled just yet.
After reconciling in spring 2005, Snoop Dogg, Daz Dillinger and Kurupt dished up a reunion LP, Cali Iz Active, in June. Now they're ready to issue that LP's successor less than a year later: Dogg Ch--, due March 27. The album was completely produced by the group, but it features a veritable guest list to boot, including the Game, Jayo Felony and Too Short.
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Cartoon Network General Manager and Executive Vice President Jim Samples resigned Friday (February 9) in the wake of the network's botched "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" publicity campaign, CNN reports. "I deeply regret the negative publicity and expense caused to our company as a result of this campaign," Samples wrote in a letter to employees, referring to the stunt that led to a terrorism scare in Boston last week. "As general manager of Cartoon Network, I feel compelled to step down, effective immediately, in recognition of the gravity of the situation that occurred under my watch.
" The Cartoon Network's parent company, Turner Broadcasting System along with marketing company Interference Inc. agreed earlier this week to pay $2 million to reimburse local agencies and fund homeland-security programs. .
.. Weeks after bloggers began posting unofficial lists of artists they claimed would play this year's South by Southwest music conference, organizers have confirmed an initial lineup for the annual fest, which will hit Austin, Texas, on March 14-18.
The Stooges, Bloc Party, Mastodon, the Strokes' Albert Hammond Jr., Kings of Leon, Jack's Mannequin, Chingo Bling, Dirty on Purpose, the Horrors, Spoon, Apples in Stereo, the Bravery and Amy Winehouse are among the acts on the fest's current list of performers. For more information on the conference, visit SXSW.
com ...
The reunited Stooges who will release The Weirdness, their first album in more than 30 years, March 20 have announced several shows planned for the spring. The band will play its SXSW gig March 17, followed by concerts in Boston (April 7), New York (April 9), Detroit (April 13), Denver (April 17), San Francisco (April 19) and Seattle (April 27). .
.. Gus Van Sant has agreed to an alcohol-diversion program after being arrested on drunken-driving charges in December, The Associated Press reports.
The director appeared briefly in a Portland, Oregon, court Friday morning. Those who enter the program have to plead guilty or no contest, but a DUI conviction can be avoided if the participant successfully completes the program. .
.. Saves the Day's next album has a title, even though the band hasn't started working on the LP just yet.
Frontman Chris Conley revealed that the group's next record will be called Under the Boards, in a statement posted on the band's MySpace page. Saves the Day have demoed 13 tracks for the effort but have no plans to enter the studio anytime soon. Conley said he hopes the album will be in stores before the end of the year.
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Gomez are chasing their recently released Five Men in a Hut (A's, B's Rarities: 1998-2004) CD anthology with a similarly titled DVD: "Five Men in a Hut: Singles 1998-2004." The career-spanning collection, due February 20, compiles 12 music videos along with six unreleased performance clips, two interviews and more. .
.. Maybe Steve Jobs is on to something.
Just days after the Apple Inc. boss wrote an open letter saying he'd support removing copy protection from the iTunes store, one of the major labels, EMI Group PLC home of the Rolling Stones, Beastie Boys, Beatles and Coldplay has revealed that it is talking to online retailers about possibly selling its digital catalog without copy protection, according to The Wall Street Journal. Citing people familiar with the talks, the Journal reported that EMI asked retailers to submit proposals telling the company what size advance payments it would offer in exchange for the right to sell EMI's music as unprotected MP3s.
A decision on whether to go ahead with the plan could come soon. Over the past few months EMI has experimented with copy protection-free MP3 by Norah Jones, Lily Allen and Relient K, getting positive results from fans. Dust off your record players, Coldplay fans: The band is compiling all 14 of its singles on vinyl, each pressed as a 7-inch in a sleeve with its original artwork.
The box set, dubbed The Singles 1999-2006, will also include 1999's The Blue Room E.P. the band's first Parlophone item and is set for a March 26 international release.
A U.S. release date is not scheduled, and Coldplay have stipulated that a CD version will not be made.
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(+44)'s injured drummer, Travis Barker, won't be returning to the road anytime soon. According to a MySpace post by frontman Mark Hoppus, Barker continues to recover from a broken arm his bones were so brittle that they broke while he was playing drums back in October. Barker is to strap a bone stimulator, a device that encourages the healing process, to his forearm, and doctors also ordered a casual return to the drums as rehabilitation.
There's no word on when Barker will be back behind the kit. ..
. Jadakiss was indicted Thursday (February 8) in a New York state court on weapon and drug-possession charges stemming from an arrest last year, according to The Associated Press. The Yonkers native and three other men were pulled over by police October 7 after authorities allegedly smelled marijuana coming from the car the rapper was in and then discovered a gun in the vehicle.
In the police report, Jada's lawyer, Clement Patti, said he had "yet to see or hear of any evidence connecting my client to possessing this weapon." If convicted, the rapper could face up to seven years in prison. Through an Interscope spokesperson, Jadakiss declined to comment to MTV News regarding the matter.
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The performer list for Sunday's 49th annual Grammy Awards keeps growing, with the latest additions including T.I. and James Blunt as well as Earth, Wind Fire, who will join a previously announced hook-up between Mary J.
Blige and Ludacris. More presenters have also been added, including Mandy Moore, Common, Quentin Tarantino, Luke Wilson, Reba McEntire, Natalie Cole and legendary songwriter Burt Bacharach. The Grammys air Sunday at 8 p.
m. ET/PT on CBS. MTV News' "All Up in the Grammys" preshow begins at 7:30 p.
m. on MTV. .
.. And the Grammys' star-studded green room won't be green at all this year.
The Recording Academy and Gap have teamed up to create the first (RED) Room backstage at the 49th annual Grammy Awards in honor of Product (RED), an initiative spearheaded by Bono to help combat HIV/AIDS in Africa. ..
. Dr. Dre is setting himself up for the next act in his creative life: movie mogul.
According to Variety, Dre has signed a multiyear feature production deal with New Line through his new company, Crucial Films. Dre plans to produce alongside longtime collaborator Phillip Atwell, focusing first on dark comedies before moving on to genres such as horror. He'll be heavily involved in the music side of the film projects.
"This is a natural switch for me, since I've directed a lot of music videos," Dre said. "And I eventually want to get into directing." .
.. Aching for a night with Justin Timberlake or the celebrity treatment at the VMAs?
That wish can come true for the right price. R.S.
V.P. to Help, an online charity auction led by Jon Bon Jovi and designer Kenneth Cole, includes a VIP package to see Timberlake perform in London in July, a meet-and-greet with the next batch of "American Idol" finalists on their summer tour, two spots on a Habitat for Humanity build crew with former President Jimmy Carter, a design lesson with Cole and spots on the red carpet and in the celebrity-packed green room at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards.
The auction ends February 15, with all proceeds benefiting Habitat for Humanity, Help USA and the Philadelphia Soul Foundation. Visit RSVPtoHelp.org for more information.
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The Isley Brothers who were nominated for two Soul Train Music Awards earlier this week will embark on a U.S. tour March 14 in Las Vegas.
The group featuring Ronald Isley, a.k.a.
Mr. Biggs will bring the R B fun to a close April 28 in Philadelphia. .
.. The Who announced a European tour Thursday that will take them to 28 cities, beginning with Lisbon, Portugal, on May 8 and ending in Helsinki, Finland, on July 9.
Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey performed a four-song acoustic set at their London news conference, AP reports, and they said they will continue touring elsewhere once they're done with Europe. ..
. The Blood Brothers and Celebration will head out March 15 on a 31-date North American trek that begins in Salt Lake City. The tour will make stops in Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Los Angeles before wrapping April 27 in Seattle.
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New York State Senator Carl Kruger launched a war on what he called "iPod oblivion" this week, proposing a $100 fine for people who are caught walking, jogging or biking across city streets while jamming tunes. The proposed bill would also outlaw the use of cell phones, Blackberrys, video games and other electronic gear while crossing the street, according to an AP report. Kruger cited the death of a 21-year-old man who was listening to music when he stepped off a curb and was hit by a bus in Brooklyn, New York, in September, and also referred to a 23-year-old iPod user's death last month.
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AP reports that Daniel Baldwin was in Detroit working on a horror flick when a judge in Newport Beach, California, issued a warrant for the actor on charges that Baldwin skipped a court hearing pertaining to the theft of a car. ..
. Nike has commissioned underground hip-hop hero Aesop Rock to compose the third installment of its Nike + Original Run music series. The 45-minute continuous mix will be available Tuesday on iTunes.
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Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley and his brothers Stephen, Ky-Mani and Julian have organized a concert to commemorate the birthday of their late father, reggae icon Bob Marley. The peace-promoting event, titled Smile Jamaica, will take place on Saturday, four days after the 62nd anniversary of Marley's birth.
Rita Marley, Marley's widow, is also expected to attend the show, which will be held in Jamaica's St. Ann parish. .
.. Sitting in front of the TV for hours playing video games could be good for your eyesight, despite what your parents may have told you.
A University of Rochester study found that non-gamers who played action video games for a few hours per day actually experienced a 20 percent improvement in vision over the course of a month. "These games push the human visual system to the limits and the brain adapts to it," Professor Daphne Bavelier said in the study, published Tuesday. "That learning carries over into other activities and possibly everyday life.
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