The Blueprint rapper come Music Mogul Jay-Z has been listed in a litigation that indicates that he has profited from the enslavement of Africans.

The $5billion lawsuit was filed by “Da Black Defense League” and Clive Campbell - a “Brooklyn Activist” - whatever that means. Other listed parties in the suit are Barclay’s Bank and Forest City Ratner.

This is all according to a news source for music-news.com.

The article goes on to explain how Clive Campbell and Da Black Defense League have come to this conclusion :

because they have: "profited from the African Slave Trade and continue to profit from these gains, through a conspiracy dating back hundreds of years and continue to date to oppress Black people, enslave them, unlawfully deport them to all corners of the Earth."

I don’t know about you - but this seems a little far fetched to me. Even if Barclays and Forest City Ratner were in existence all those years ago when this supposedly started - how does Jay-Z get involved? Whether he is a share holder or not, people are not approached with a question of “Do you want to get in on working some African slaves?”.

The Spice Girls make 240k per hour … each.

Over the past 17 nights, the Spice Girls have been swanning about the stage - entertaining their cash cow fans.

At £75 per ticket, averaging 23-24000 people per night, for seventeen nights - the girl power brigade raked in £1.8million each evening - NOT INCLUDING MERCHADISING!

• 75*24000*17 = 30,600,000
• 25.5 hours work = 1,200,000 per hr
• each per hour = 240,000

*hourly rate calculated at an average 90 minute show.

That’s some pretty nice wages you are getting there ladies. Add that to the fact that you get most of the stuff normal people have to buy for free and you have yourself a nice life.

Its funny that people get into these positions. Individually none of the Spice Girls have proven talent. This is confirmed by their failure as solo artists. I bet you could drop in ANY 5 woman, within a certain weight range, and they could replicate the success that this line up have produced. Its really down to the management of the band - something Simon Fuller is more than an expert at. Choosing the songs, written by gifted people, to target the appropriate genre’s of the population while creating a marketing machine that drives the press wild and its almost hard to fail.

The same can be said for the rest of the “made for market” bands that the record companies create. To get into one of these bands is as simple or as hard as being in the right place at the right time.

• Mika
  • British Breakthrough Act
• Arctic Monkeys
  • British Album
  • British Group
• Take That
  • British Single
  • British Live Act
• Kate Nash
  • British Female Solo Artist

That was the main highlights. Kylie won the International Female Solo Artist award and Paul McCartney won the Outstanding Contribution to Music award.

Sharon Osbourne nearly wet herself when Take That won one of their awards and continued to be a complete embarrassment the whole night through.

Rihanna and the Klaxons were the highlight of an otherwise bland show. See their contribution below:

Pinks marriage to motocross racer Carey Hart is reported to have come to an amicable end - the singers publicist has announced.

The pair got hitched in Costa Rica in early 2006 after the Rock chick proposed to the cyclists while he was in a competion in 2005. How dramatic. The marriage seems to have been nothing more than a hope as the pair have both been travelling extensively through their careers and Hart has been seen with more than his fair share of women. Funnily enough - Pink has also been seen with some women as well.

Carey stated in an interview in August last year that any speculation about his marriage was “just a bunch of trash talk” - as quoted from the Press Association. It now seems those statements were purely defensive in nature.

Pinks publicist has noted that the they will remain good friends and that they have a huge amount of love and respect for each other.

Another one bites the dust….

If you don’t have a ticket you ain’t getting in. Not at this stage anyways.

London’s Earls Court is the venue for this evenings festivities and the party being thrown is in honour of this years BRIT Awards. Are you going? I am sure if you are then you are already glam-med up and headed for the queue to get in. The event starts at 8pm GMT and is being hosted by Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne.

NME are reporting on the event live on their website (NOTE: the event is not being streamed from their website - just reported on). If you are in the UK then you can catch the event on ITV1, with the red carpet coverage starting at 7pm on ITV2.

Cheryl from Girls Aloud is set to ditch, soon to be ex-, hubby Ashley for the star studded affair and just hang out with the rest of the girls.

Should be a good show…

Lenny Kravitz has been admitted into a Florida hospital suffering from dehydration, fatigue and bronchitis. This is at the expense of his European tour.

The star had this to say “I would like to apologize to my fans in Europe, I am extremely disappointed that I am not able to come to Europe to see everyone and also perform. Unfortunately I need to take this time to rest and get healthy and so I was forced to make this decision.”

The rock star had been on tour promoting his latest album “It Is Time For a Love Revolution. The tour was definitely a fun one and we can only speculate as to the mans shenanigans. The following excerpt has been taken from wikipedia :

“On January 17, 2008, Kravitz embarked on a 9 city mini-tour to promote his new album “It Is Time For A Love Revolution.” The tour started in Santa Monica, California and ended in New York City on February 1st. The tour was done in association with Myspace and called the “Get On The Bus” tour. At each stop on the tour, they would pick up one contest winner and their guest and they rode on the “Love Revolution” bus until the end of the tour.”

No wonder the guy was tired!

Doctors have advised Dolly Parton to cancel her American tour in order to rest her back as the weight of her chest was putting to much pressure on her back.

The Pop/Country music icon and singer of ‘9 to 5′  has been ordered to rest for up to eight weeks before hitting the road on tour again. The singer has stated that she hopes to be back in action in April.

The star is quoted as saying “My boobs are killing me - and I don’t know if I can stand the pain any longer. They have been a trademark for me - but I’ve paid one hell of a price.” and is understood to have considered reduction surgery. She has had a fabulous career and will hopefully be fit and healthy again soon.

BT, Tiscali, Virgin Media and all the other Internet Service Providers in the UK will soon have to spy on every single thing you do online as the British government is to pass a law ordering the ISPs to ban downloaders of copyrighted music and movies from the internet.

In the “3 strikes and you are out” proposals, users will be warned, suspended and then cut off from the internet if they are suspected of downloading copyrighted material.

The proposals remind me a lot of a scene in the cult horror film Salems Lot when the vampire raps on the window and says

Psst! Let me in the window, I'm your friend.

.. and the unsuspecting victim is lured to open the window.

By passing such laws the UK Government and Law Lords are pandering to the rich and causing many a conflict of interest in both the ISP and Music industries. There are already ample laws covering the downloading of copyrighted materials and if it is quite clear that it is illegal then new legislation is not necessary.

Small, up and coming bands almost depend entirely on the Internet these days to gain their cult following and this support seems to virally kick off their stardom. They are in a position where they want to give their music away in the beginning so that they can grow their audience.

ISPs on the other hand don’t want to fall out with their customers. By banning their biggest customers (i.e the people that download a lot are usually on the more expensive tariffs) they will be losing out on a lot of income - especially as it is estimated that over 6million people in the UK download illegally.

What do you think of these new proposals?

Girls Aloud are attempting to rustle some dirty hair feathers with the release of their new single Can’t Speak French.

In one of the B-Sides to the single, Hoxton Heroes, they are quoted as singing “don’t kid yourself you’re an indie clone, we’ve seen it before get a sound of your own”.

Ohhh, I say!

The girls are quite outspoken about a lot of things but this is normally outside of their singing. Seems like the writers are attempting to push the boundaries.

The song was originally penned for their latest album, Tangled Up, but was pulled as the lyrics were deemed to offensive.

The band Hadouken don’t seem to be mentioned anywhere in regards to the song, even though Hoxton Heroes is either a cover of their That Boy That Girl song, or its been directly ripped of. You can see the Hadouken song here.

Missy Elliot has announced that she is stuck trying to name her new album. The American rapper is running a contest on her website to see if any of her legion of fans can sum the creative depth necessary to top her previous albums name : “The Cookbook”.

A couple of names come to mind straight away ( I like mine well done, Large Chicken + Ham + Pepperoni ) but apparently the singer wants her fans to put a bit of proper thought into it - she states in a video plea message to her fans that they shouldn’t, for instance, suggest “The French Fry”.

The winner will receive credit for the name in the album sleeve notes (like anyone reads these) and also a $500 gift certificate from Adidas.

I can see the winner, fully clad in Adidas gear, trying to explain to someone how they have a claim to fame : “Hey - I named Missy Elliot’s new album!” to which an answer comes “And?”.

Least he/she gets to wear a fresh tracksuit everyday for a month.

Any suggestions on a name?