Source: WENN

Ready or not, Eve is back and she’s been looking pretty amazing these days. She’s been making her rounds, doing photoshoots and interviews to promote her new album, Lip Lock, her first album since 2002′s Eve-Olution. She did try and put out an album between the 11 years that she’s been on hiatus, and unfortunately it got shelved because the execs her label weren’t feeling it: “I was supposed to put out an album after “Tambourine, which was 2004, 2006, but it got shelved. I think my album wasn’t what the execs wanted and they just put it on the shelf.”

So knowing that, Eve had to battle for a few years to get away from Interscope, and after signing another bad deal, she had to battle for another year to get out of that contract, and she’s finally settled and released new music on her own independent label, From The Rib Music.

The 34-year-old rapper, who now lives in London with her man Maximillion Cooper, sat down with Wendy Williams to talk about more than just music, including love, babies, and DMX:

On whether or not DMX is on her new album and how she feels about his public struggles:

“He’s not on this album, but I love X. We don’t talk or call each other, anything like that…I love him, I love him.

When Wendy asked Eve if she watched DMX’s appearance on Iyanla: Fix My Life, this is what she had to say:

“Poor X. I didn’t watch it. I don’t watch anything actually. He’s been on a few things, I just don’t watch it. I can’t….But if he ever needed me, I’d be there.”

Speaking on her penchant for dating “nothing but money,” including millionaire Maximillion Cooper:

“You know what, there’s a certain lifestyle I think that I want to live. I’m going to do it on my own. I work hard. I work my butt of. But at the same time, I just, I don’t want to be with somebody I got to take care of. I’ll do it on my own, it doesn’t matter with the man though.”

On her past messing with Stevie J in the late ’90s and early ’00s and responding to the idea of it being “craziness”:

“It was. I think as ladies, we’ve all had the unfortunate…ugh [turns up face]. I can’t even continue it. I was young, it was what it was. God is good. I’m here where I am and I’m happy in love.”

The state of the rap game right now, including  her thoughts on the “femcees” out currently:

“I think there’s a lot of really cool girls out right now. I wish there were more girls, that’s my only complaint. But I think Nicki’s doing her thing, I think Azealia Banks is doing her thing. It’s Angel Haze. There’s a lot of girls coming up. We just need more.”

So what about marriage and babies next? Is she ready?

“Oh, it’s time to pop something out. Let me not pretend, okay!”

Check out Eve’s full interview with Wendy Williams on the next page and let us know what you think about her comments!

Source: ABC

Whether you’re a member of the BeyHive or you could use a little less Beyonce in your life, you have to admit that the girl works hard. In between her sold out shows in London, a hoarse sounding Beyonce sat down to talk to “Good Morning America” correspondent, Amy Robach, about the controversy surrounding her recent anniversary trip to Cuba, her role as Blue Ivy’s protector and enjoying the simple things like press on nails.

Check out the excerpts below.

Her trip to Cuba

“It was such a beautiful trip; I met some incredible children, visited some incredible entrepreneurs, I learned so much about so many people and the country and it was actually quite shocking.”

The simple things

On the next page, watch as Beyonce explains why her role as Queen Tara caused her to cry.

(Photo by Arthur Mola/Invision/AP)

Even if you’re not, it’s coming to television and should be interesting.

If you’ll recall, last year, Rihanna invited 150 journalists and bloggers as well as 50 fans with her on a “quick” tour to support her album Unapologetic. It was called “777″ because she did seven shows in seven countries in seven days. Madness, right?

Right.

After only a couple of days, many of the people on the planes praised and slammed all the debauchery on the plane. Rihanna is well known for her heavy touring schedule so while it may not have been much for her, it proved a bit much for those who came along for the ride.

In the trailer for the documentary that airs on Monday, May 6th on Fox, you see some people doing “confessionals” in which they admit that it could be considered fun but it is a lot on the body.

You can hear Rihanna in a voiceover saying, “Why did I think this was a good idea?” That was probably the question on everyone’s mind, including the  air staff, because rumors swirled that tempers clashed quite often on the week-long trip.

Check out the documentary clip below. Will you be checking out “777?” Would you have joined in on that tour experience?

Source: Thinkstock

Most mothers would be horrified at the news that their teenage daughter was pregnant. But one London woman encouraged her 14 year old adoptive daughter get pregnant. And not only did she encourage it, she practically forced the young teenager to inseminate herself with sp*erm she’d purchased over the internet several times a day over the course of 2-3 years.

The daughter, who was a virgin, gave birth at 16 years old after having a miscarriage at 14. In a case that was kept secret from the public, the girl, whose identity has been concealed to protect her privacy, testified that because her adoptive mother was so domineering, she was scared to tell her no.

The mother, who adopted children three children from abroad, recruited her daughter, to get pregnant when she was denied the ability to adopt a fourth child. The woman couldn’t get pregnant because of a medical condition and underwent an elective sterilization procedure years ago.

She was married when she adopted her first two children and divorced when she adopted the last. The court claimed that the woman isolated the children by homeschooling them and keeping the oldest two away from their adoptive father, her ex husband, for 10 years.

The daughter told investigators she was pretty shocked when her mother asked her to willingly get pregnant but also thought, “if I do this … maybe she will love me more.” She also said “feelings of gratitude for my adoption influenced how I behaved.”

The mother wanted a girl, so she made her daughter use painful douches containing lemon juice and vinegar and eat certain foods which she  believed would  affect the baby’s gender.

Over the years there were several instances where the authorities and child welfare services were called out to the house when neighbors complained of the mother’s inappropriate behavior toward the children like cussing them out, isolating them from peers and leaving them in the home alone while she was being treated in the hospital for a month.

Each time, the authorities found that there was no cause for concern. A case review of the authority’s findings are being published next month.

The mother’s evil and selfish plot was only discovered after midwives reported her aggressive and insensitive behavior during her daughter’s labor. The midwives say that mother tried to prevent the daughter from breastfeeding the baby saying, “we don’t want any of that attachment thing.” They also noticed how the daughter hesitated when handing the baby over to her mother. They called child protective services when the mother attempted to remove the baby from the ward.

After reviewing the case, a welfare provisions and family division judge, Mr Justice Jackson included his reaction in his decision saying “…an abiding sense of disbelief that a parent could behave in such a wicked and selfish way towards a vulnerable child.”

The mother is now serving five years in prison for child cruelty.

Obviously, there are a lot of emotional scars this young mother will have to deal with now that her “mother” is gone and she’ll have to raise this child by herself. We’re hoping and praying that she gets the therapy and help she needs; preferably from the state that failed to protect her in the first place.

What do you make of this case? Did the child protective service agencies drop the ball? Do you think this woman should have been sentenced to more time?

Over the weekend, I watched the film “Dreams of a Life”; which is that docudrama about the British black woman, who went three years before anyone noticed that she had died.

You all may recall press about this film and its true story sometime last year but if not, the woman’s name was Joyce Carol Vincent and she died in her London apartment sometime in 2003. Her decomposing skeletal remains were found in 2006 by some county officials, who were sent to evict her. When Joyce’s body was found, her electricity was still functioning (she died in front of the television, which was still on) and a mountain of mail was found behind her front door. After an investigation, it was discovered that Vincent died of natural causes sometime around Christmas. And around her skeleton were Christmas gifts she was in the process of wrapping at the time of her demise.

What’s most mystifying about this story is that Vincent, who was only 38 at the time of her passing, was for all intents and purposes a very attractive and seemingly well-liked young woman. And yet somehow she went unnoticed from society for years and not even her friends, coworkers, or family members had been concerned about her whereabouts from the time she died to the time that she was discovered. I could go on and on about this film, but I don’t want to ruin it for you. But if you’re inclined to learn more, you can check it out yourself on Netflix.

Anyway, when the press about this film first began to circulate, I recall getting into an intense debate with a number of folks, who pitied Vincent. I mean she died…*gasp*…all by herself. No one – not a family member, not a loved one, not even a concerned nosy neighbor was there to hold and gently caress her hand as she slid off into the light. One of my sister-in-laws even told me that she got emotional upon reading about how her body was discovered and angrily blamed the family members and other people in her life for not being there. “How uncaring and selfish can you be to not check in on her from time to time? I mean to not even call her around the holidays? She must have had some sort of mental illness because being alone is not healthy. And if that was my sister I would force her to stay in contact with me,” my sister-in-law told me.

I get the profound sadness of it all. Nobody should have to die young. Likewise, nobody should have to feel alone if they don’t want to. However, I don’t blame her family and friends, and I especially don’t pity Vincent either. I think that she made a conscious decision to separate herself from people and I think the people in her life did their best to honor and respect her lifestyle choice. There are true introverts among us; people who actual enjoy their own company – at least more than they do the people in their lives. I know that may be hard for some folks like my sister-in-law to understand, especially since we live in a society – heck a world – which places high value on how successful you are at engaging others socially. Yet, recent research suggests that a-third to a half of all Americans are introverts. And more than likely, their penchant for privacy has less to do with any type of personality disorder like being shy or anti-social, but rather a desire for a less-stimulating environment.

Again, without giving too much of the film away, I will say that I got the impression that Vincent was not only an introvert, but also a free-spirit. She was not only likable, but her friends, ex-boyfriends and other acquaintances always regarded her as the life of the party. Yet most of her friends didn’t fret when she disappeared because she had a history of moving around from place to place and basically drifting in and out of people’s lives. In some respects, I have the same behavior patterns. Despite living literally two blocks away from my younger brother and his family, I might see or speak to them once a month. And even less frequent for the rest of my family. In fact, I haven’t done a holiday dinner in years and quite honestly, don’t even miss it. I hate telephones, so the only time I speak with my friends is when we meet up for an outing (excluding emergencies of course). And yet when I am around them, I can be extremely fun and a barrel full of laughs. As much as I love the people in my family, I also love privacy – to work; to think and basically let me become my sole priority. So when my family and friends don’t hear from me in a while, they think I’m off alone on one of my life adventures and they know that when I’m ready, I’ll come around, which makes me wonder what the heck was my sister-in-law talking about because she never calls me on holidays – not that I would answer the phone anyway.

One thing to learn from the story is that you can’t control the how and the whens of death. Whether she was holding her family members’ hands or dying alone, no one could go on that journey except Vincent. And while for many people in the world, the fear of being – if not dying – alone is what keeps them in bad relationships – whether they be with a significant other, a family member or even in your career, it would seem that Vincent didn’t think too much about those prospects despite whatever medical condition she had. And although she made some mistakes along the way (including one with an abusive boyfriend), she was too busy living life on her own terms. I am just speculating here, but I would like to think that Vincent would have been less concerned with being alone and more concerned about the prospect of dying around the wrong people. Besides, who cares how and when your body is found; you’re dead. It’s not like you are using it anymore.

WENN.com

Goodbye Idris Elba, hello DJ Driis.

That’s right, Idris Elba is officially taking a break from Hollywood. The Luther actor told The Daily Mirror, a UK newspaper, that he’s taking a break from acting to focus on his other baby: music. According to Black America Web, he told them:

“This year I’m not going to work as an actor so I can concentrate on music. I do it from the heart, not for the money.”

Well great, good for him.  But what about those who love to see him on the big and small screens?  One one hand, you’ve got to respect that the man is going to use his fame and opportunities to do things that are important to him. But on the other hand, we like his look- excuse me, his acting.

If you’re not familiar with “DJ Driis,” you might avtually be in for a treat. He’s compiled mixtapes in the past, hosts others’ mixtapes and he, obviously, deejays.  Right now, he’s in London doing a seven week residency at one of their popular clubs.  He also directed Mumford & Sons’ “Love of the Light” video. Elba also made his own musical debut in his own video for “Private Garden” back in 2011.

So yes, his track record in the music industry has been pretty good and steady so we’ll see what he does next.

But don’t worry, according to IMDB, we might get to see him on the screen after-all: he has three movies in post-production that should hit the screen. So maybe he’s just not filming anything new – we can accept that. Maybe once he’s ready to get back to work, that James Bond role will be waiting for him.

Are you going to be checking for DJ Driis?

Getty Images

Here we go again. By now, we should know that we’re never too far away from a Kanye West “episode.”

On Saturday night, he kicked off his back-to-back shows at London’s Hammerstein Apollo. After performing the G.O.O.D Music single, “Clique,” Yeezy decided that it was time to get some things off his chest.

He first discussed how he hates business people and the corporate world because they are wiling to stifle an artist’s creativity just to make a few million dollars.  “Remind me again why we in this s**t? Since when was making music about getting rich,” he added.

But that was just the tip of the iceberg.

In what could be used as a double-edged sword, Kanye said:

“Remind me why we in this Isht? And I got love for Hov but I ain’t f**king with that Suit & Tie.”

As we all know, Jay-Z is featured on Justin Timberlake’s new single “Suit & Tie.” In the context of his rant, it is likely that he made the “suit and tie” comment in reference to his sudden disdain of corporations. However, Kanye is not a stupid man so he’s undoubtedly aware that this also comes across as an open “attack” of his friend’s new song.

Apparently, he also hates the foundation that has given him 21 awards: The Grammys.  Kanye told the crowd that the Grammys can “suck my d**k” and that he’s “never won a Grammy against a white person.”  Now unless he’s talking about winning an award in a non rap category (he would be right in that case), he is wrong because he’s beat both Eminem and The Beastie Boys in the past.

Oh, he’s also not over Taylor Swift beating Beyonce at the MTV Awards years ago. He still believes it is “bulls**t” and that a six year who’s working on their musical craft will be discouraged because someone like Swift (who he is saying is less talented) will always come out on top.

Finally, in response to President Obama calling him a jackass, Kanye replied, “I don’t give a f**k what none of the presidents got to say!”

At some point during the first video, he starts yelling uncontrollably, saying:

“Real [n-word] don’t live too long in this Shyte. They say you coming on too strong in this Isht. They always talking about I’m doing wrong in this Isht. I could give a f**k about…! Remind me why we in this Isht! I lost my muthaf**king mama! So I could a Fawk about your comments, I promise!”

On Twitter, fans who attended the concert tweeted that the rant brought down the energy of what was otherwise a great show.  His rant just never seemed to end.

People have been saying that Kanye has not been the same since his mother, Dr. Donda West, passed in 2007. Many feel that he has just let his emotions simmer and his music – and personality – has greatly suffered.

One can only wonder how Nike feels about his hatred of corporations and big businesses since they’ve given him a deal to design the Air Yeezy sneakers.  There aren’t many major businesses that need any artists to do anything for them so if this continues, Kanye could find himself on the outside looking in trying to figure out where he went wrong.

Check out the videos below for the rants (in the first video, it starts at about 4:10).

What do you think?

What is Solo going to do next!?

If you didn’t know by now, Solange Knowles is a lover of ’90s music to the fullest. And when she’s not defending Brandy’s artistic awesome-ness against blogs on Twitter, she’s covering Nicole Wray. “Make It Hot” was everybody’s jam back in ’98, back when Missy used to do that slip and slide move across the floor, and Nicole was one of the many colorful folk that Elliot and Timbaland were producing bangers for. And clearly it’s still pretty popular, because during a recent show at XOYO in London, Solange decided to show some love to the track by covering it. Bringing out her friend Oliver Sims from the band The xx to help her perform the cut, their very colorful voices helped remind a crowd full of people why “Make It Hot” should be a staple in any iTunes list for a person who grew up in the ’90s. Check out their performance below, which really starts around the 50-second mark.

So did she make it hot? Either way, I know Wray is somewhere smiling at all this attention she’s getting once again. I think I’m going to play the original right now. And I’ve decided to post it if for you if you wanted to clown for a bit. Enjoy!

Hot97 Instagram

Girl, we’ve got our eyes on you.

It certainly seemed a little weird that Eve has started doing quite a few interviews lately for a project we’ve been hearing about for about four years but has never come to pass. She’s also being a lot more open about her relationship with boyfriend Maxmillian and we’ve never heard much about him more than the fact that he’s really wealthy.

But flash forward to the pictures we caught on Necole Bitchie and we are now officially putting Eve on baby watch.  Sure, people gain weight all the time so no biggie there, but we’ve never seen her face so full.  Her clothing doesn’t suggest anything more than cold weather temperatures in the city but that’s also one of the easiest ways to cover up a growing belly.

I see we’re going to have to “stalk” her Twitter account for any possible clues. But she’s no doubt read or heard the rumors so if this is a secret, she might work a little harder to keep it that way. We’d also probably be waiting another 10 years for a single.

We’ll, no doubt, keep you posted!

Image: Press Association via AP Images

London has been on everyone’s radar for the past few months. From the Wimbledon Grand Slam tennis tournament to the Summer Olympics and Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee, the city has played host to events of global significance for the better part of 2012 it seems. (Controversy concerning the Royal Family has also been a big topic of conversation, but that’s a whole different story.)

Whether you’ve been before or not, London is filled, end to end, with history, restaurants and tons to do and see. Guidebooks and travel sites about London tourism promote the standard tourist stops— Buckinhgam Palace, Big Ben, The Tower of London, the Thames River, Royal Museums Greenwich, for example —which you should definitely check out. But when you’re done jostling fellow tourists, definitely check out these gems where locals like to hang.