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Attorney for JT Money Denies Rapper’s Involvement in Club Shooting

An attorney for Miami rapper JT Money has denied his client’s involvement in an October 11 shooting at Club Opera in midtown Atlanta.

The incident left one man wounded and sent hundreds of clubgoers fleeing for their lives. Soon after the shooting, JT Money was identified as a possible suspect. Police were said to be looking for three men who fled the scene in a black Hummer SUV.

According to Atlanta’s 11 Alive News, an unidentified attorney said to be representing the rapper has denied that his client was involved in anyway and claims that he was actually in Florida on the night of the shooting.

Atlanta police have not publicly named any suspects and have made no arrests. A police spokesperson informed 11 Alive News that officers still plan to interview several witnesses.


Lil Wayne Not A No-Show, Just Didn't Take The Stage

As reported earlier Monday (October 22), Lil Wayne was a no-show for a concert that was held in Hanover, North Carolina Sunday (October 21), but apparently it wasn't true. The rapper was there and just didn't get on stage.

According to a report from TMZ.com, the concert promoter said that due to poor attendance and ticket sales, Lil Wayne refused to go on stage.

Charles "Duke" Lineberry, Jr., the attorney for Mitchell Entertainment Group, the show's promoters, a crowd of 3,000 were expected, but when only 1,000 kids showed, Lil Wayne's cut wasn't going to be paid.

As a result, Weezy reportedly sat backstage waiting on the crowd to increase, when it didn't he left without performing.

TMZ reports that Mitchell Entertainment Group -- who fought to make the concert happen after the New Hanover County School Board tried to cancel it -- has to refund concertgoers' money.

New Hanover County School Board and to have Lil' Wayne appear -- now has to deal with refunding tens of thousands of dollars to irate concertgoers.


FIVE ARRESTED IN LUCKY DUBE KILLING

Police in Johannesburg have arrested five suspects in the killing of reggae star Lucky Dube, who was gunned down Thursday (Oct. 18) in the midst of an attempted carjacking.

According to the Associated Press, police spokesman Eugene Opperman said the men were arrested Sunday morning and will appear in court Tuesday. Police also recovered two stolen handguns and a car allegedly used during the crime.

Dube, who gained international attention in the 1980s with music criticizing apartheid, was killed after he dropped off two of his children at his brother's suburban Johannesburg house.

Dube's friends told South African Sunday newspapers they believed it was a targeted assassination. But Opperman said police still believed he was shot in a botched carjacking.

Meanwhile, sales of Dube's music have skyrocketed since his death. Ivor Haarburger, chief executive of Dube’s recording company, Gallo, and the singer's long-time friend, tells the Sunday Times: “We have received more than 3000 e-mails and 220 telephone calls a day with messages of condolence and orders for his products.

“His music has definitely been receiving more media coverage, but his popularity was not just in South Africa," Haarburger continues. “He had fans across Europe and Africa. I just got off the phone with an Australian radio station about him.”

Beanie Sigel To Release "The Solution" December 11

Beanie Sigel is set to make his much-anticipated return with The Solution (State Property/Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam). Hitting stores December 11, the “Broad Street Bully” unleashes his highly anticipated fourth album.

“I realize that the game has changed… Everything sounds the same…very repetitive,” says Beanie Sigel, who also adds “The Solution is the answer to all of that. For those that want to here a little rock, jazz or soul, I got all of that!”

The Solution is the follow up to Beanie’s 2005 critically acclaimed, certified gold release The B. Coming, which earned Sigel his highest chart debut to date. “The crucial street credibility that can make or break a hip-hop star didn’t stop curbside for Sigel,” commented USA Today. “His emcee skills and potent rhymes are undeniable.” Beans, who can also be heard on the track “Ignorant Shit,” on Jay-Z’s upcoming epic American Gangster, has brought his most diverse musical offering to the table yet. The Solution features R.Kelly, Scarface, Styles P, Raheem DeVaughn as well as production from The Runners, Eric Hudson (Trey Songz), newcomers Harry & Alex and Philly’s own Dre & Vidal (Usher, Mary J. Blige, Chris Brown).

Very different from his previous projects, Sigel experiments on songs like “I’m In” which shows his smooth “Lady’s Man” persona with the sample of Luther Vandross’ “Make Me a Believer.” “Children” is a soulful Marvin Gaye rendition focusing on the problems in the community among children and their missing fathers while “The Day” produced by Dre & Vidal collaborated with Harry & Alex taps into Beanie’s rock side.

"I consider myself relevant in the rap game at all times," explains Sig. "After you party and do all that, now the real world kicks in. The pain, the stress, agony. The lessons you learn. Your come ups, your downfalls. The real world--which I deal with in my music--is always relevant. All the shit might go through in the course of a day is on my album. I'm talking about religion, spiritually, getting a piece of mind. All that counts and all that's in my music."

50 Cent Speaks On "Before I Self Destruct"

50 Cent recently spoke to MTV News about his up-coming album "Before I Self Destruct."

The album, which is slated to be released in Spring 2008, is 50's last album of original material under his current contract with Interscope Records.

"On my next album, you should expect to not see features [guest appearances] like you saw on Curtis," he smiled. "Before I Self Destruct, it's totally different. That record has a whole 'nother concept. I feel like this sets up the next batch of records. It's got what I really wanna do on it. Plus, it's my fourth album — it fulfills my record obligation to Interscope Records. I'll be a free agent."

In other 50 Cent news, G-Unit will release their second album December 18. According to 50, the album is nearing completion and they are only waiting on one last feature.

"We gotta work with Em, that's it," 50 told MTV News. "Then we can be done with it. Production-wise, I captured what I needed. But I didn't want to not have Em's stamp on it. We probably won't get his vocals until he's heard the full body of work and he's excited about it. Before my work [goes to the public], it has to pass the Eminem test, the Dr. Dre test — it's a few tests before we push them to the street. That's why they can expect a higher quality of 50 Cent music than the usual artist."

50 Cent also recently released his autobiography "50 x 50" and will be hitting New York City today (Oct. 23) to promote the book.

"50 x 50" is an illustrated autobiography detailing 50's rise from the streets to the top of the charts.


Dame Dash Opens Up About Jay-Z, Roc-A-Fella and Kanye

It seems as though Dame Dash is done with the biz as he stated, “I’m retired really from music,” in a recent interview. He continued, “I set up Dame Dash Music Group for all the artists I knew were going to get dropped when the sale happened.” A year later Dame dissolved the company. “To be honest, if I can’t make history again, I don’t want to do it.” And what a history Dash had. “People told me don’t mess with Jay-Z at all, then I did, and the same exact people told me ‘Nah Kanye’s not the one…including Jay-Z,” Dash explained. “Then when he came out, everybody’s up under him. It’s hard to keep arguing about things you know are right.”

Despite the fact that Kanye stayed with Jay-Z after the Roc-A-Fella fallout, Dash said he’s happy to see Ye win. “More power to him,” Dash said. “I think it’s a good thing that someone that was probably kicked around his whole life is now empowered; it’s just what he does with it. The only thing that’s bothersome about Kanye’s situation is that everyone’s still eating off it except me. I would have poly’d that deal a little different. Everyone that’s still eating off him is everyone that said he couldn’t make it, but other than that I’m happy to see what he does.”

When asked about his relationship with other Roc-A-Fella artists, he answered with his own list of questions. “Are there any other [artists],” Dash asked. “Does Roc-A-Fella still exist? I haven’t seen the chain around lately, so I don’t know. When I left it was different. And not to be arrogant or be happy but it’s the truth. What do you think about the other Roc-A Fella artists? Are they gonna come out? It’s been about 5 years.”

Dame’s dedication to the label has not completely dwindled. Just recently BlockSavvy.com, the social networking site established by Dame and his partner Kareem “Biggs” Burke, gave their listeners an opportunity to hear Beyond Reasonable Doubt, which is a tribute mixtape put together by Dash before his beef with Jay-Z.

The mixtape includes Kanye West, Beanie Siegel, Freeway and other Roc artists doing their own renditions of Jay-Z classics in honor of the 10th Anniversary of Reasonable Doubt. “You know we gotta get that traffic,” Dame said in reference to Block Savvy before adding, “Reasonable Doubt was really the only thing we 100% owned and it was very reflective of us, not Jay – me, Jay, Biggs and the movement. That’s why Reasonable Doubt was a classic. I listen to that shit and every single thing said…I remember to a tee what he was talking about, because a lot of that shit was us. I A&R’d that project, so I know what music I brought, when we did it, who produced it, how we paid them, the changes that we made and I always thought it should be celebrated on a lot of levels because it was reflective of us and we owned it. We can make money from it forever, so I wanted to do something that paid homage to it.”


T.I. Dropped from Forthcoming Release

Unfortunately, T.I.’s film career has felt the sting of his recent legal problems.

According to an email sent by Kelly Crean (president of Creanspeak Productions which was the company set to produce the film), the self proclaimed King of the South will no longer be participating in Once Was Lost – a film in which he would have co stared along side Danny Glover.

The email read, “TI is no longer attached to Once Was Lost and we have been talking to a couple of other actors..”

KRS-One Set to Appear on VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club

According to XXL, legendary MC KRS-One will appear on the upcoming season of VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club.

The network’s reality series, which has already ran for five successful seasons, follows various overweight celebrities as they are split into teams to see who can lose the most weight.

KRS follows in the footsteps of rappers like Biz Markie, Bonecrusher, Bizarre, Young MC, Warren G and Da Brat, all of whom have appeared on the show. While the details of the new sixth season remain unclear, a VH1 rep confirmed that the Bronx-bred rapper will be a part of the new cast.


Terror Squad Signs With KOCH Records

Fat Joe's Terror Squad has signed a two-album deal with KOCH Records.

"We've had major success with Koch and the Terror Squad imprint in the past, especially with DJ Khaled's two albums," said Fat Joe. "We will continue this success with this new Terror Squad deal at Koch Records. It's a perfect place to unveil our new members."

Terror Squad had previously released their self titled debut in 1999 and 2004's "True Story" featuring the monster hit "Lean Back."

"I signed Fat Joe to his first record deal in 1992 when I was at Relativity. I am thrilled to be working with Joe again, and continuing our relationship with Terror Squad and DJ Khaled. We've had great success this year," added Alan Grunblatt, General Manager of Koch Records.

According to Terror Squad member DJ Khaled, the albums are going to be priority releases for KOCH.

"The Terror Squad albums at Koch are going to be huge," said Khaled. "Terror Squad/Koch is going to make history. Koch is a label that works their artists to victory. I'm happy to be a part of two big families."

"Run's House" Opens Its Doors For Another Season

After three successful seasons, hip-hop legend Joey "Run" Simmons is returning with his family for an all new season of their hit reality show "Run's House."

The new season, which is set to premiere this week, will once again follow the Simmons family and the activities in their day-to-day lives. As previously reported, last season captured a tragedy in the family, as Run's wife Justine delivered a baby girl who died a short time after her birth.

This season promises to present a new set of surprises as Rev Run's daughters, Vanessa and Angela attempt to move to Los Angeles, while Run and Justine prepare room for a possible new addition to the family. Son JoJo also graduates from high school this season and is on a quest for a record deal.

In addition to the family themselves, Run's brother Russell Simmons will return to the show, as well as an appearance from Ja Rule.

"Runs House" premieres on MTV on Thursday, October 25 at 10 p.m. EST.