Jay-Z Pays Tribute To Beastie’s, MJ
The second annual All Points West Music & Arts Festival kicked off Friday at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, NJ, defined for a good part of the day by relentless wind and rain that added a little extra drama to the already newsworthy event. After the Beastie Boys’ Adam “MCA” Yauch announced last week that he would be undergoing treatment for cancer and canceling the band’s current tour plans, including Friday’s headlining spot at All Points West, Jay-Z was hastily added to the bill for the rapper’s U.S. festival debut.
It was with a roar of crowd approval, then, that Jay-Z opened his epic, full-band-supported 28-song set with “No Sleep till Brooklyn,” off the Beasties’ 1986 debut album “Licensed to Ill”. He later dedicated the show to Yauch, saying he hopes for him to “get well soon” and that the Beastie Boys were “pioneers, one of the reasons I’m on this stage.” He also paid tribute to the late Michael Jackson with a montage of photos and videos of a young Jackson along with an interlude recording of the Jackson 5′s “I Want You Back”. “If you take one thing from this concert, it should be that we don’t mourn death, we celebrate life,” Jay-Z said, noting his disapproval that Jackson’s album sales hit record-breaking highs only after his death in June.
Kanye Says Enough Is Enough
“I WAS JUST LISTENING TO WENDY WILLIAMS AND HEARD SOME QUOTE ABOUT ME SAYING I’M THE NEW KING OF POP,” Yeezy wrote Friday (July 31). “NOT ONLY DID I NOT SAY THAT, I HAVEN’T SAID ANYTHING. IT MAKES ME FEEL BAD THAT OBVIOUSLY I MADE PEOPLE FEEL THAT I WOULD BE CORNY ENOUGH TO SAY SOMETHING SO WHACK AFTER THE PASSING OF AN IDOL, A LEGEND AND MORE THAN THAT A HUMAN BEING WITH FEELINGS AND FAMILY. IT SCARES ME TO THINK WHAT PEOPLE WILL BELIEVE, WITHOUT EVEN A SOURCE. ANY RANDOM PERSON CAN TYPE SOMETHING ON THE INTERNET AND THEN THE WORLD BELIEVES IT. I DON’T TALK TO PRESS OR DO TV OR DO PROMOTIONS OF ANY SORT. I’VE STOPPED CHASING AND BUYING INTO FAME. FAME IS LIKE CIGARETTES WITH NO SURGEON GENERAL WARNING. IT DESTROYS MOST PEOPLE AS IT DID TO THE TRUE AND ONLY KING OF POP. WE EXPLOIT OURSELVES AND EAT OUR OWN EGOS ‘TILL THERE IS NOTHING LEFT. I HAVE A FEELING THAT THIS WON’T BE THE LAST FALSE STATEMENT WITH MY NAME ON IT, BUT THIS WILL BE THE LAST TIME I DEFEND MYSELF. I’M DONE.”
Michael’s Last Stand – Rehearsals To Become Movie?
A flavor of what Michael Jackson fans would have seen at his summer concerts in London could be coming to the big screen.
A deal is underway to make the best of some 80 hours of Jackson rehearsal footage into a movie. Before his sudden death on June 25, Jackson was preparing to perform up to 50 shows at the O2 Arena beginning July 13.
According to Variety, Sony Pictures is in talks with AEG Entertainment to acquire the rights to the footage of his rehearsals, and High School Musical director Kenny Ortega will direct. Ortega was designing and choreographing the “This Is It” shows with Jackson.
Tyler Perry Hearts Pool Kids In Philly
I was told that one of these children, a seven year old, asked her mother if she was “too black to be in a pool.” How do you answer that? Again, it broke my heart and I wanted to do something, and I feel like you all would want to do something, too. So what I did was on Aug 1st thru 3rd, I’m sending these kids to Disney World, and then to a Disney water park. I want them to know that for every act of evil that a few people will throw at you, there are millions more who will do something kind for them. This is all about the kids.
This made me so angry.
Then Tyler got at those taken shots at MJ
Since Michael Jackson died I have not watched the news. I have just been so disgusted at how the mainstream media has riddled this family with disrespect, and no matter what anyone, you or I included, might have thought of him, the truth of the matter is
-the man was still a human being and his kids and family deserve some privacy and space. And I know that I’m not the only one that feels this way, so I purposely kept the TV off. Anyway, I was walking through the house, and I don’t know how this TV was on, but I saw a little boy on the news crying his eyes out. So I turned it up. Here is this kid talking about being kicked out of the Valley Swim Club outside Philadelphia because he was black. Did you hear me? I said, “No way, this can’t be! It’s 2009. I don’t believe this!” But, I know it happens even in this year of Obama.
So Amazing Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson has locked up the billboard charts. He has nine out of the top ten spots in the charts.
Billboard Reports – The King of Pop’s “Number Ones” will fittingly lead the pack at No. 1 with 108,000 (an increase of 2,340%) while “The Essential Michael Jackson” and “Thriller” are in the Nos. 2 and 3 slots with 102,000 and 101,000, respectively. Last week “Number Ones” was the only Jackson title on the chart, at No. 20 with 4,000 copies; both “Essential” and “Thriller” re-enter the tally this week.
Additionally, his classic 1979 studio set “Off the Wall” re-enters at No. 4 with 33,000 while his 1987 album “Bad” returns at No. 6 with 17,000. At No. 5, the Jackson 5′s “The Ultimate Collection” debuts with 18,000. Jackson’s fourth studio album for Epic Records, 1991′s “Dangerous,” re-enters at No. 7 with 14,000 while his 2001 compilation “Greatest Hits: HIStory — Volume 1″ also comes back to the list at No. 8 with 12,000. Finally, Jackson’s 2004 box set “The Ultimate Collection” charts its first week on the Pop Catalog chart, arriving at No. 9 with 11,000.
