Source: WENN

I’m no fan of Aubrey Graham, the man known to the world as the rapper Drake, but I must say I am impressed with his latest accomplishment. The YMCMB front man just became a high school graduate.

I’m sure someone somewhere is rolling their eyes thinking what’s the big deal, after all the man is 25. But let’s be real, how many people in the music industry, particularly on his level, are thinking about obtaining a high school diploma when they have already amassed enormous wealth and status? Lawd knows ya’ll shade the mess out of Beyonce for her lack of education so I say congratulations are definitely in order for Mr. Drizzy.

Last night, the rapper/actor/low-key wanna-be R&B singer tweeted the good news, saying:

If you’re wondering why this is just now happening, Drake dropped out of school when he got a role on the Canadian TV show “Degrassi: The Next Generation” at 15. He was on the show until 2009, and we all know what happened after that when Weezy F got a hold of him.

It sounds like Drake didn’t take an easy way out to graduate either, shouting out one of his teachers who he credits for his accomplishment:

“Thank you to my teacher Kim Janzen for spending the last 5 months working tirelessly with me!! OVO SOUND”

Go head, Aubrey! C/O 2012

I’m sure you’ve heard all the sayings about haters in your years: “Make your haters your motivators,” “Haters gonna hate,” “Let the haters hate,” and who could forget the catchy song, “Hi hater”? Nicki Minaj even sent love to her haters in her hit song, “Moment 4 Life” when she said, Shoutout to my haters, sorry that you couldn’t phase me. But as we know as of late, a few of her haters got under the rapper and her bosses’ skin so much that she backed out of performing at Hot 97′s Summer Jam concert this past weekend.

DJ Peter Rosenberg got on stage during Summer Jam before the femmeC’s scheduled performance and declared that her song “Starships” (not Nicki Minaj as a whole) was “wack” and panned it as not being “real hip-hop.” Rosenberg has talked many times on his show, “The Cipha Sounds and Rosenberg Show,” about being one of those old-fogy, take-’em-back-to-the-old-days-of-hip-hop heads and has made his feelings vocal about “Starships” for a while. Once those comments were known to Lil Wayne and his team, he told Nicki that she shouldn’t take the stage. She and the YMCMB camp didn’t stand down from their choice, and through a barrage of Tweets from Roman Zolanski and her camp, she let folks know that while she will ride with her fans until the end, R-E-S-P-E-C-T was most important in this situation. She also reiterated that point in her interview with Funkmaster Flex yesterday.

After doing some thinking, I will say that I don’t disagree with Nicki’s anger and some of the comments she’s made. There is honestly something jacked up about a radio station making money off of you and then turning around and having one of its biggest representatives say you made a wack song, publicly, before you’re slated to hit the stage for them. Doing so before her performance could have fostered negative energy amongst the crowd, and that’s not cool. In everyday terms, that’s like someone asking you to help them cook for Thanksgiving, you get ready to slave over the stove, and then a family member tells Auntie Jackie and ‘nem that a dish you made before was the wackest thing they ever tasted. I’m sure you would feel some sort of way about bringing the plate of dressing after the fact. A random example, but I’m sure you understand. However, DJ Peter Rosenberg isn’t an influential fan who could make or break her, he was a random guy with an opinion. That’s it. Why get so bent out of shape that you let this man cheat your fans out of their chance to see you?

This is not only about hip-hop, but this situation reminds me of the confusion people have between individuals being haters and having an opinion. An opinion with some truth to it that they’re not ready to face. Sure, DJ Rosenberg expressed his opinions at an unnecessary time, but these weren’t new opinions he was expressing, nor was it an opinion that I’m sure she hadn’t heard before. He didn’t say that as a whole, Nicki Minaj wasn’t real hip-hop or that she was a wack musician all around, but that her song “Starships” isn’t real hip hop. And, uh, HELLO, I’m sure even she knows that it’s not. But why care so much when you were the same person saying on the radio that you weren’t worried about pleasing old hip-hop fans anymore anyway?

You probably heard about Nicki Minaj backing out of her Hot 97 Summer Jam performance because of the comments station host, DJ Peter Rosenberg, made about her track “Starships” (that it’s not real hip hop and is wack…I was going to say something to add to that but I’m going to leave my comments to myself this time). And while she and YMCMB stood their ground and refused to take the stage, Nas stepped up to perform (he was set to be Nicki’s guest), and while filling in, he brought out LBoogie. In the video below, she performs “Ready or Not” from her time with the Fugees and “Lost Ones” off of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. My jams! And though her voice is a tad bit deeper after all these years, she still brings the energy. And may I say that her TWA is adorable! Check out the video below and let us know your thoughts. She comes out around the 1:20 mark.

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Source: celebrific.blogspot.com

It’s almost summer, and with that season approaching with the quickness (not until June, but you know Memorial Day ushers in the summertime way of thinking and naked-ness), it’s time to get ready for another presentation of the BET Awards. Nominations came out yesterday, and while I’m sure most–no, make that some–of the nominees are geeked up about their honors, I kind of rolled my eyes at not only the nominations, but the idea of another unorganized award show. Is it just me, or have the BET Awards become pretty irrelevant and unnecessary at this point?

I’ll never forget when the show was at its prime. The award show as a whole started in 2001 and has been a force to be reckoned with over the years, even pulling in MTV Video Music Award numbers, sometimes record numbers for the network. The most entertaining BET Awards presentation was probably the one in 2003 when Mo’Nique was the host, and anybody and everybody that was hot in the industry (and black) was in the audience. That was the year Bey performed “Crazy in Love” live for the first time, a very popular 50 Cent (remember, this was a LONG time ago) slayed the stage, and that was the year the show honored James Brown and Michael Jackson came out and got down with him. Our last glimpse of the men together on stage before both passed. Pretty awesome indeed.

But if you look forward after those years, the ceremonies became more and more ridiculous. From hosts who bombed (I still love you Damon Wayans), to reckless mess (Lil Wayne singing “I wish I could f**k every girl in the world” with his daughter and her friends dancing on stage), the terrible censorship (covering up clean words and accidentally letting the F-bomb and worse be aired on national television), and Debra Lee’s wardrobe choices, folks have been begging BET to go back to the drawing board with this once very fun and exciting annual event.

I’m sure most would say we need the BET Awards in order to honor OUR stars, but how does the show benefit and represent for black celebrities when half of them don’t even show up for the award’s ceremony??? Maybe they started to think the show was obscure as well, because last time I saw folks like Rihanna or even Kanye at the show, they had different boos on their arms and were all smiles before big scandals that would change the direction of their music and careers. And in all honesty, the show has started to honor the same folks over and over again rather than really showcasing a wide variety of talented black stars. And it’s getting pretty tired at this point.

For instance, this year, the video of the year category has two nominations for Bey and two for “The Throne” (Jay-Z and Kanye), leaving just one random nom left for Usher’s video, “Climax.” And that video came out, what, two months ago? And let us not forget that it has been the Chris Brown/YMCMB show for the last three years (Lil Wayne or Drake has consistently closed the show with stomach-turning flashes of Wayne’s panties and expletive-laden performances). Who can forget the fact that they let Chris Brown perform on-stage about three times last year and just HAD to give us a streamed performance of Beyoncé performing at Glastonbury? (They could have kept that.) And after a year that sprouted new female rap talents like Iggy Azalea and Azealia Banks, why Nicki Minaj is nominated against folks like Diamond (she had new music???), I have no clue. They might as well mail her that award now and save her the trouble of coming out. And No Jill Scott in the Female R&B category??? *scoffs*

I do commend producers for including the humanitarian award, the lifetime achievement award (which is hand’s down my favorite part of the show) and letting gospel talents perform (too bad they have to sit in the audience and listen to so much ratchet-ness a majority of the night). I even like that they try to broaden people’s musical tastes by having awards for international acts, but what good is that award when you hand it out before the program starts??? You see, for every step forward the show takes, it winds up taking a few more back. But then again, that’s the history of the network as a whole.

With this type of job, I’ll be watching so I can help provide coverage about what happened, who wore what, and all that jazz (just as I did last year), and I’m really just looking forward to the show’s attempt at honoring Whitney Houston. But I’m hoping with the time they have to put on something fancy, it will be great, and that the awards as a whole can get a major upgrade. But these days, I’m finding that this show…honestly, make that most music award shows, are becoming as irrelevant as as can be, and there’s nothing you can do about it but tune in to laugh, or tune out to maintain your right mind.

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Starpulse.com

The last love story I remember seeing Omar Epps star in was “Love and Basketball,” so this actor’s new venture is long overdue. Written under his production banner, BrooklynWorks Films, Omar Epps has created a romantic comedy titled “Between Us” that he plans to bring to life with the financial backing of YMCMB members Bryan “Baby” Williams and Ronald “Slim” Williams.

Omar told Deadline the finished script is about two best friends “looking for love in the wrong places with a contemporary twist.” (Sounds a little like “Brown Sugar.”) Not only has Omar written the script he will also star in the movie, alongside Tracey Edmonds, and although Young Money Cash Money seems like an odd collaborator for the project, Omar said the brothers were looking to expand their ever-growing empire.

“They loved the concept and in a perfect world, we’ll be shooting late summer or early fall, but you know how that goes.”

The search for a director for “Between Us” is currently underway while Omar busies himself with several other television projects, including “Southern Gothic,” a one-hour drama written by Michael Nourse, and the travel show “Mile High” starring David Arquette and Mike McGuiness which he just sold to the Travel Channel.

Shout out to Omar Epps for getting his production hustle on, I just hope this movie won’t be a straight to DVD/BET film.

Did you know Omar Epps had all of these television projects going on?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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In the most random of news from Grammy weekend, singer Christina Milian is now the newest member of the “esteemed” (just kidding) Young Money crew headed by Lil’ Wayne and consisting of Drake, Nicki Minaj and Tyga to name a few. The addition of the singer seems pretty odd, (but not really since they like has beens) but it is alleged by OZONE magazine founder, Julia Beverly, that Milian is actually seeing someone in the crew (not Wayne).  That might be a reason why she felt such a connection to the very interesting crew. However, if I were homegirl, I wouldn’t get too excited about her new home, as only the rap acts on the label have seemed to do well. Their lone songstress before Milian’s arrival is Shanell, sister of former Danity Kane singer D.Woods. And mostly, we’ve only seen her sing background for Wayne live and on his tracks, and walk the streets with a ring doo-hicky in her nose that connects to her ear. She’s the rocker chic girl, but that’s all we really know of her. If Milian gets more shine than Shanell I would be surprised and a little disgusted to be honest, because Shanell has put in a lot of time with YMCMB.

Milian tweeted about her Young Money affiliation over the weekend, saying, “The answer is….Yes. Let’s Get To Work! I Heart You Guys.. It’s Now or Never. :*” She also issued the following statement/tweet with a picture of Drake: “Life is great… YMCMB”

*sigh*

You know, Christina Milian has been through a lot since getting her start in this business it seems, and I try to feel for her, but if she is part of YMCMB because she’s involved with someone from the camp, I just can’t back her up anymore…Seriously, if she hasn’t learned something from her relationships with Dre from Cool & Dre, Nick Cannon, and The-Dream, she needs to know that messing with guys in the industry, whether she’s looking for love or for a hot track, is not the way to go. She’s too gorgeous for that and I wish she would make better moves because her career has been on stall mode since “Dip It Low.” But if the team can help take her to the next level without just having her show up to support the other acts and without having her pop up singing on a cliche track from Lil’ Wayne or Drake, then kudos to them. But we’ll have to wait and see. However, it’s clear that Ms. Milian needs to find a man that’s not in the spotlight with her because at this point, it’s just getting played out and they’re clearly not taking her to the level that she wants and needs to be to stay relevant.

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