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She was already popular but it looks like Skylar Diggins might be taking her fame to another level.

On Thursday, Diggins, former Notre Dame baller and newest member of the Tusla Shock, tweeted that she’s signed on to be managed by Jay-z latest venture, Roc Nation Sports:

Twitter

It looks like Roc Nation Sports is quickly building their roster, having already signed football player Victor Cruz and baseball player Robinson Cano.  Diggins can now add “first lady of Roc Nation Sports” to her growing profile. If RNS can do a better job managing their athletes than Roc Nation has done with their artists (minus Rihanna), this might be a huge company.

Diggins is already a big favorite among young girls who look up to her as a role model as well as men who want to date her so it shouldn’t be any problem getting all those in between to become fans too.  She’s a very pretty young woman so don’t be surprised if we see her doing some modeling and/or makeup ads, sports endorsements and a host of other things.

I wonder what Jay and his team of agents (I can’t imagine he’s managing these major athletes on his own) are up to next!

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It’s another Bey & 3 Stacks collabo!

We’ve been hearing about this remake for quite some time now, with Amy’s fans and family members not being overly thrilled with the news.  Amy and Beyonce are totally different artists in terms of style so there was really no clue what the final outcome would be with this one.

Well last night on eastvillageradio.com (or EVR), DJ Mark Ronson dropped the song on his show. As the co-writer of the song, he was the chosen guy to air it out for the masses.  The song actually starts off with Andre singing the first verse in a voice that sounds much like the singing voice he had in Idlewild.  Beyonce comes in on the second verse in a very “breathy” tone, giving us nothing but silky and sultry.

The version is actually quite different from the original version.  First, there’s a hip-hop beat on the new version that wasn’t really present on Amy’s version.  Second, when you hear Amy sing the song, there’s a certain power and “pain” in it that you won’t really find on the remake.

“Back to Black” will be featured in the upcoming film Gatsby in which Jay-Z is scoring the original music on the soundtrack.

Before you listen, I have to warn you that EVR has their drops all over the song, but they’re placed strategically and you can still heard all the vocals. Check it out!

Source: Instagram

Over the past few years, we have been allowed to enter the Queen Bey’s Hive. Through Beyoncé’s social media accounts, we are able to scroll through her most priceless moments with family, stunning performances, and selfies. Like all of us, Beyoncé controls how she wants to appear to her audience. Therefore, when Beyoncé banned independent photographers from her Mrs. Carter tour, I didn’t understand why people began to ask: “Is Beyoncé not secure in the skin she’s in?”  When what we should be asking ourselves is: As consumers (and human beings), do we allow others the same non-judgmental agency when controlling their Internet personas?

From Clutch Magazine:

“Beyoncé may run the world, but the diva is going to extremes to have some serious control over her internet personification. The decision was indubitably prompted by this year’s Super Bowl fiasco, after Buzzfeed published unflattering photos that propelled Beyoncé’s publicist to issue an emailed request for removal. Instead of taking the pictures down or replacing them, the site reposted the images and the email with the headline: “The ‘Unflattering’ Photos Beyoncé’s Publicist Doesn’t Want You to See.” Visitors of Buzzfeed are familiar with the comedic and playful tone to the popular site, but Bey wasn’t laughing.”

Yes, people are interested in a Beyoncé who does not “wall” herself in, at her convenience. We want to see those stank-faces while she is dancing so we can feel the passion, blood, sweat, and tears of every practice session that make her concerts so noteworthy. But if she is not comfortable with sharing a less than flattering picture of herself, can we find it in ourselves to let her live? If a friend uploads an undesirable photo of you on a social network, you would want it to be removed. “Take away the power to un-tag and how many women would be orchestrating an online petition to permanently ban Facebook from ever seeing the light of day?” When people become celebrities, do we set and require new societal expectations? Our implications show we demand total transparency from celebrities even if it is embarrassing because we are far removed from the actual life they live.

Beyoncé’s appearance of flawlessness has helped her brand come off as all-s*xy and all-sassy all the time, consistent, and never messy. With Beyoncé we know what we are paying for – her talents and not antics. Though her brand is constantly evolving, we must also remember her rise to fame did not occur during the social media age.  “The Beyoncé we’ve come to know has constructed an entire empire based off of seeming perfection and trying to keep the focus on her music, her acting endeavors, her business ventures. She receives million dollar endorsements solely from her pristine beauty and body. I’m not sure how it feels to be labeled one of the most beautiful women in the world, but in addition to her already gargantuan self-standards, one can only imagine the pressure she’s put under. And her rule number one is to never let them catch you slipping. And we can all agree that the one thing Beyoncé demonstrates in her career is to “be a brand first, human second.”

Fans are always thirsty (even the anti-folks who go to every story about her to down her) for her to send out bow-down tweets to other artists or to hear the juicy, most intimate details of her marriage to Jay-Z. The want for Beyoncé to find the perfect medium between her private and public self for the entertainment of others is alarming. We tend to forget we all have inner-Beys. Privacy settings, makeup, and filters have allowed us to leverage between who we are and who we want to expose ourselves to. Are we really out here posting our bad photos and embarrassing ourselves through social media? Of course not–we want people to see us at our best. In reality we are controlling how our “audience” (aka, our friends, family and foes) views our authenticity just like Queen Bey. So what’s the problem?

Whenever big events are taking place we’re always anticipating who our favorite celebs will bring as their dates. Just when we think it’ll be a model, they make us fall in love them even more by bringing  their mamas instead. I always find it cute when they show mom dukes that she will always and forever be their leading lady. Video vixen, models, singers… fall back because the mothers are running this show.

For a groupie, there is no bigger prize than getting pregnant by your celebrity lover. It’s like winning the lottery — so they think. More often than not, headlines about them and their baller boyfriends read like an episode of the Maury show, particularly for these 15 women who hung their heads in shame after they heard the judge say “You Are Not the Father.”

Image Source: WENN.com

Pamela Smith

Pamela Smith should have looked for a better baller to blame. He’s the world’s most famous basketball player and he made it to 50 without a paternity scandal.

That’s a man who’s too smart to let a groupie get her paws on his millions. In March, a judge ordered  MJ to take a paternity test to determine if Pamela’s 16-year-old son Grant Taj Reynolds was his. But seeing as Pam already sued MJ for paternity years ago and lost, no one expects Mike to be the father.

When artists have beef with each other, the easiest way to let the other person know what’s up is to put it in a song. Many of the rappers and singers who made this list have been known to cause controversy and have no problem speaking their mind. Let’s take a look at some of the most memorable and funny beefs in hip hop.

At the inauguration. (AP Photo/Win McNamee, Pool)

Updated…

We’re actually surprised it took this long.

The Mrs. Carter World Tour and deals with H&M and Pepsi have pushed Bey and Jay up over the billion-dollar mark, making them, collectively, the first billionaires in music. So classifying them as “rich” doesn’t even begin to sum up the phenomenal sums of money in their possession. We’ve reached Oprah/Bill Gates/Warren Buffet territory.

According to Glamour in the UK (which sourced its story from the International Business Times), Beyonce is making $116 million from The Mrs. Carter tour. And besides the two aforementioned deals, she’s also the spokeswoman for L’Oreal and has served as a face of Tommy Hilfiger. Jay-Z has Roc Nation, which has forged a number of companies. Actually, because of his latest business, Roc Nation Sports, a sports management agency, he has had to sell his stake in the Brooklyn Nets. He owned less than one percent of the team, but the association between the two brands has been tremendous.

“For Roc Nation Sports to function at its full potential, NBA rules stipulate that I relinquish my ownership in the Brooklyn Nets,” said Jay in a statement available on XXL. Roc Nation Sports has already signed New York Yankee Robinson Cano.

Finally,he’s got his own concert tour, which is raking in big bucks for tickets.

Not a surprising development, but a milestone nonetheless. If they keep this up, they actually will have their own kingdom soon.

TIME magazine just released its annual list of the Most Influential People in the World, and as these things go every year, there are some people who unquestionably should be on this list and others who we’re scratching our head over. After a lively and heated debate in the office this morning, I’ve come to the conclusion that influence means different things to different people — and perhaps TIME should revise this list to be called the most influential people of the week, month, or quarter, as some of these pop culture choices appear to be hot right now — as in April 18, 2013 right now — but hardly for the entire year.

But before we debate, let’s shout out the black folks who made the list:

• Jay-Z : Not only did the Jigga man make the list, he snagged one of the mag’s covers and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, no less, wrote his profile. #Winning
  
• Valerie Jarrett
• Beyoncé
• Shonda Rhimes
• Lebron James
• Barack Obama
• Omotola Jalade Ekeinde
• Michelle Obama
• Joyce Banda
• Miguel
• Frank Ocean
• Joaquim Barbosa
• Mario Balotelli

And now for the interesting/confusing ones:

• Christina Aguilera: In the world? Perhaps the singing competition world, and I’m not even sure that assessment would be completely accurate. This seems like a wild card, we need one more influencer who’s  female addition. Can we say reaching?
• Jennifer Lawrence: Is it just me or is Jennifer Lawrence just the different white girl flavor of the year? You know the innocent, aloof blue-eyed girl who acts like she doesn’t really want to be famous but doesn’t mind hitting every red carpet to pick up an award. I’ve yet to understand her mass appeal…but I also haven’t seen ”Silver Linings Playbook” yet, maybe I’d understand her magnificence afterward.
• Justin Timberlake: I know Justin’s album just sold a bazillion copies and I have noticed a couple of big band, rat pack redux copy cats since he came back…OK so maybe he is influential. But the boy just came back after a 10-year hiatus. Can we see how much of the attention is based on consistently hot music as opposed to his hyped up return to music. This just seems a bit premature.
• Miguel: I’m not denying Miguel’s artistic prowess, but the reality is on a mass level people just don’t know who he is. Remember Kelly Clarkson at the Grammys? Plus Miguel just said so himself on The Breakfast Club, acknowledging not enough people are hip to who he is yet. I feel like someone who just got word of who Miguel is last month thought, “yeah, let’s add this guy.” At the end of the day this is still a great look for him though.

Who’s missing?

• Hello, Hillary Clinton! The former U.S. Secretary of State hasn’t sat down since leaving her latest post, and everyone knows she’s gearing up to run for president in 2013. She’s got a heavy influence right now.
• Rihanna: I’m not really mad she wasn’t on the list, but with all the accolades the great people of Europe have just bestowed upon her (the new Princess Diana?), TIME might be slipping by not acknowledging her global influence.

Check out the full list of influential people here. Who would you add or remove?

Source: Shutterstock

A couple of weeks ago Jay-Z and his wife Beyoncé were spotted in Cuba on their fifth wedding anniversary. Whether the couple expected it or not is debatable, but their Cuban excursion stirred up much controversy, which included members of congress launching an investigation into the nature of their trip and political activists urging Washington to punish the hip-hop power couple accordingly if it was found that their trip was in violation the country’s Embargo Act, which prohibits Americans from journeying to Cuba for tourism purposes. Adding fuel to fire, not long after his return to the States, Jay-Z dropped controversial track “Open Letter,” where he addresses critics over their responses to his trip and rapped about having White House clearance due to his relationship with President Obama. Things got so out of hand that even the White House addressed the song during a press conference last week, expressing that President Obama had not spoken to Jay-Z or Beyoncé regarding their trip and that the White House has nothing to do with approving travel.

It turns out that Jay and Bey’s trip was in fact authorized by the proper government agency, which is the U.S. Department of Treasury, yet somehow, the public refuses to let the issue die. During a recent appearance on Today, the President was questioned about the song and his involvement in the Carters’ trip to Cuba.

“I wasn’t familiar that they were taking the trip. My understanding is that they went through a group that organizes these educational trips down to Cuba. This is not something the White House was involved with. We’ve got better things to do,” President Obama stated, seemingly through with the frivolous topic.

We have to agree Mr. President, there are plenty of other things to be concerned with.

Turn the page to watch Pres. Obama’s interview. Should Jay-Z apologize for dragging our President into the middle of his controversy or is the media to blame for blowing his lyrics out of proportion? 

Source: WENN

Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake’s highly anticipated “Legends of the Summer” tour is a pretty big deal. So much of a big deal that fans are willing to shell out big bucks for the high priced tickets, which according to Hip Hop DX max out at nearly $300 for a non-VIP ticket. Those prices certainly serve as a reflection of the times in which we currently live. Ask anyone who’s been to the movies within the past six months and they’ll tell you that the price of being entertained seems to increase with each passing year. Musician Kid Rock, however, finds this to be unreasonable and recently voiced his disapproval of Jay-Z, J.T. and other entertainers for their expensive admission charges, even referring to them as “robbery” during an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan.

“It’s garbage. It’s highway robbery,” he told Pierce.

He went on to say that he consider both Jay and Justin friends, but he disagrees with the pricey admission fees.

“I don’t care who you are. I would consider both of them in the circle of friends in the business, but I don’t agree with it. It’s gotten out of hand. The price of concerts, the price of entertainment period. Whether it’s a sporting event, going to the movies, buy a soda there, whatever…I’ve always tried to keep prices [to] what I think are fair. And I’ve always said I’m proud that I can walk around with my head held high and look someone in the eye knowing that I haven’t taken an unhonest dollar from a working man. But how can we make it better?”

Kid Rock also revealed that he’s been working closely with Live Nation to lower the costs of tickets to his concerts so that they are affordable to everyone, even if it means he has to take a $50,000 – $100,000 pay cut. This summer fans will be able to see him during his “$20 Best Night Ever” tour for the low price of $20.00. He expressed that he prides himself in being able to say that he hasn’t taken an “unhonest dollar from a working man.”

His efforts are definitely admirable, but as long as fans continue to dish out the big bucks, it seems that these prices will only continue to soar.

Turn the page to watch a clip of his interview. What do you think of Kid Rock voicing his opinion on the rising cost of entertainment?