jess3 blogs,
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'8 Mile' Soundtrack To Include Cuts From Eminem, Jay-Z, Nas
With the first single, Eminem's "Lose Yourself," already getting heavy radio spins, the soundtrack to "8 Mile" has just wrapped up production.
Em, who stars in the movie and donated three new songs to the soundtrack, also produced much of the album, which includes Jay-Z, Rakim, Nas, Xzibit, D12 and Macy Gray. Em's Shady Records signees 50 Cent and Obie Trice are featured throughout the LP as well, highlighted by a posse cut with Marshall Mathers.
According to Em's management company, the artists on the LP kept their tunes in tune with the vibe and goings-on in the film. The Gang Starr track "Battle," for instance, which features DJ Premier scratching on the turntables, was derived from a scene in the movie where the Shady one squares off against another verbal gladiator. The "8 Mile" soundtrack is tentatively slated for an October 29 release.
spiralgradient.grd if you have photoshop you can use my gradient....
i made this in class today... its not finished, its gonna be a propaganda poster....
Redman, Method Man To Play Soldier Boys
It's been over 20 years since we've seen Goldie Hawn and Bill Murray suit up as hapless GIs in career-elevating roles in "Private Benjamin" and "Stripes," respectively. Now a couple of rap's most infamous smokers will see how high their careers can go as soldier boys.
Redman and Method Man have just inked a deal with Paramount Pictures and MTV Films to star in a yet-to-be-titled film that will find the MCs with the tattooed arms joining the armed forces.
"They're going to the military and get sent on a special mission," said James Ellis, one of the film's producers and Redman's manager. Brian Posehn, who wrote for Red and Meth's film debut, "How High," has been tapped to pen the movie's script, and Ellis said he hopes to ramp up production in mid-2003.
Before we see them throw down for Uncle Sam, Ellis said the lyrically lacerating duo will be on the big screen in a more familiar element as a couple of guys using rap to stack chips in "Ghetto Inc." The two will portray undercover DEA agents in another untitled movie that Donald Scott is currently writing.
"I think it's a race to the finish between that and the 'Ghetto Inc.' film," Ellis said about which movie would hit theaters first, "but the untitled DEA project is slated to be the first one. No directors have been named but that one is a joint production between Jersey Films and Native Pictures, the same people who produced 'How High.' "
Ellis said ever since "How High" hit theaters, he's been fielding calls from all over Hollywood.
"It's like nonstop from people who wanna do low-budget stuff with them, and now people are talking about doing sitcom ideas with them," Ellis explained. "Before 'How High,' [Red and Meth] were a little apprehensive about doing [TV], but now they're talking about doing it, but not in a traditional way. Kinda bringing a twist to it."
The duo have not forgotten about twisting words over murky beats, however — they are both working on solo albums. Ellis disclosed that the next Redman album is probably going to come out in late February or early March, with Method Man's album right behind it.
Cyclists ride past sheep near Cuerrar during the 127-mile stage 12 of the Tour of Spain cycling race from Segovia to Burgos, Spain, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2002. (AP Photo/Denis Doyle)
A Palestinian child carries a poster showing a hamburger, which has been altered, to include a dead Palestinian child Saturday, Sept. 21, 2002. The writing on the poster reads, "Let's boycott the American food." More than 400 Syrians and Palestinians gathered in downtown Damascus to call for boycotting American goods. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi)
Embattled Nirvana Track Surfaces Online As Hits LP Nears Release
Kurt Cobain fans are closer to Nirvana than they have been in years.
A studio version of the unreleased Nirvana track "You Know You're Right" has surfaced online in its entirety. The song, which was reportedly recorded in January 1994, less than three months before frontman Cobain took his own life with a shotgun in his Seattle home, is expected to a appear on the long-awaited Nirvana greatest-hits album (see "Nirvana Song 'You Know You're Right' May See Release By Year's End"), which, according to Courtney Love, is due by Christmas.
A Universal Music Group spokesperson, however, said that while the LP would come out, there was no specific release date.
By Monday morning (September 23), several Web sites were streaming or had otherwise made available "You Know You're Right," another bursting confessional by the tortured Cobain, akin to tunes such as "Rape Me" and "Stay Away," with Nirvana's trademark soft/loud dynamic best displayed in "Milk It," and a similar sentiment to "All Apologies."
Prefaced with atonal harmonics, Cobain moans the opening lines, "I would never bother you/ I would never promise to," while a harrowing, rumbling melody trudges along. The chorus, in typical Nirvana fashion, explodes with inarticulate rage as Cobain repeatedly holds his scream of "Pain" for a full four measures before slurring into the song's title. Squalling guitar lines pierce through the manic fuzz, twisting around each other to cascade into a noisy maelstrom by song's end.
Portions of "You Know You're Right" appeared online in May; and a live version was recorded for a 1993 bootleg, but the full, studio version remained buried until now. Cobain's widow/ Hole frontwoman Courtney Love performed a version of the song during her band's stint on MTVs "Unplugged" in February 1995.
If "You Know You're Right" winds up on the as-yet-untitled best-of collection, the song would be the first posthumous release of any previously unreleased Nirvana studio recording to be issued in the U.S.
On Friday, Courtney Love announced on the syndicated morning radio program "The Howard Stern Show" that the Nirvana greatest-hits set would be in stores by Christmastime. She added that she had settled her lawsuits with both the surviving members of Nirvana, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, over future business decisions regarding the group, and major-label conglomerate Universal Music Group. In the latter suit, Love made the claim that artists' standard seven-year recording contracts are unfair.
However, Love's publicist handling the UMG suit said the disagreement had not been officially settled but was close to a resolution (a hearing scheduled for September 17 was adjourned to October 1). Neither Love's lawyer on the Nirvana case nor her manager returned calls by press time.
Making Your Own Coffee Table Book
Remember when ordering prints online and posting photo albums on the Web were revolutionary? The latest rage in online photo sharing is creating your very own photo album, one that’s printed on glossy paper and hardbound like a real book.
The coffee table-style photo book, available from myPublisher.com, makes an ideal gift for family and friends. You choose the pictures, design the layout, select photo borders, and more in a book of 10 to 50 pages. It’s one of the coolest ways yet to share your digital photographs.
Getting Started
You must register and join to use the myPublisher.com service, but it’s free to build a book. You only pay when you place an order. To ensure maximum quality, before posting photos review the site’s uploading and scanning guidelines. Their suggestions help ensure that your pictures look their best. Only JPEG format photos are accepted. Any significant photo editing, color balancing, grayscale conversion, cropping, and so forth that you want to do should be done before uploading.
If you have prints from film that you’d like to include in a book, simply digitize them by using a flatbed scanner. If you don’t have a scanner, myPublisher.com offers a print scanning service. Print sizes must be between 2 x 3 inches and 10 x 12 inches.
As you place photos during the book ordering process, myPublisher.com automatically gauges whether the photo has sufficient resolution for the size selected. If the photo contains too few pixels for the chosen space, alternate smaller sizes are recommended to maximize printed quality. Like most things in photography, the quality of the final product rests on the axiom of garbage in, garbage out.
Release Your Inner Artist
Once your pictures are uploaded, the fun begins. You don’t have to be a graphics professional to create a beautiful book. The framing, layout, and text options are easy to use. Photo borders come in different styles and colors, and you can stylize each image by softening corners, blurring edges, creating ovals, and more. You can also mix and match layout types throughout the book; it isn’t necessary to stick with one look for all pages of the book.
You have two choices for building a book: you can go with a pre-built layout, or you can opt for a custom design. The pre-built layout is designed to be the quick and easy route to a finished book. As such, you’re presented with fewer options than if you take the customized approach. You can also build and store multiple book layouts. Regardless of what layouts or design options you choose, the cost of a book works out to about US$3-4 per page, with discounts for multiple copies ordered at the same time.
Before You Print
It’s critical that you preview your book before completing the order. This is your final opportunity to ensure the photos are exactly where you want them, the captions are free of typographical errors, that all borders are in order, and that the cover looks the way you envisioned. Even seasoned graphic designers are known to miss a thing or two the first time through, so preview carefully to prevent costly and disappointing mistakes.
If you want to take the book upmarket, explore some of the optional extras. They include a leather cover in place of the standard linen one. A book jacket and slipcase are also available.
Once your order is placed, myPublisher.com indicates it takes up to 10 business days to process, print, and bind your book, though you’ll likely see your order dispatched sooner than that.
TONY HAWK'S BOOM BOOM HUCKJAM
SKATE: TONY HAWK - Bucky Lasek - Andy Macdonald - Lincoln Ueda - Sergie Ventura
BMX: Mat Hoffman - Dave Mirra - John Parker - Kevin Robinson
MOTO-X: Clifford Adoptante - Mike Cinqmars - Ronnie Faisst - Dustin Miller
MUSIC: Social Distortion
November 10th at 7:30PM
MCI Center
Washington D.C.
Tickets go on sale to the general public Saturday, September 21st at 10:00AM,
stuff i made in my photoshop 2 class today... while i was bored... we were critiquing the autumn assignment.... member that one ??
the 2pac los angeles article PART 2
How Vegas Police Probe Foundered
By CHUCK PHILIPS, Times Staff Writer
LAS VEGAS -- Six years ago today, rap and film star Tupac Shakur was fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting on a crowded street a block from the Las Vegas Strip.
Despite the public setting and the victim's notoriety, no one has ever been arrested for the killing. Shakur's family, many of his followers and some black entertainers cite the case as evidence of a double standard in the justice system. Had a white celebrity been gunned down in the open, they contend, police would have found those responsible without delay.
Las Vegas police say their investigation stalled not for lack of effort, but because witnesses in Shakur's entourage refused to cooperate.
That, however, is only part of the explanation. A Times review found that police committed a string of costly missteps:
They discounted an incident, hours before the shooting, in which Shakur took part in the beating of a gang member in a Las Vegas hotel lobby.
They failed to follow up with a member of Shakur's entourage who witnessed the shooting and told police he might be able to identify one or more of the assailants. The witness was killed several weeks later in an unrelated shooting.
They did not pursue a lead about a sighting of a rented white Cadillac similar to the car from which the fatal shots were fired at Shakur and in which the assailants escaped.
Las Vegas homicide Sgt. Kevin Manning, who oversaw the investigation, defended his department's work. He said detectives fielded thousands of phone tips, interviewed hundreds of witnesses and chased numerous leads during a year when the homicide unit was besieged with a record 168 murders.
"Tupac got the same treatment as any other homicide here," said Manning. "But you know what? We can't do it alone. We rely on cooperative citizens to step forward and help us solve crimes. And in Tupac's case, we got no cooperation whatsoever."
The Times reported Friday that court documents as well as interviews with investigators and gang members, including witnesses to the crime, indicate that Shakur was attacked by the Southside Crips, a Compton gang, to avenge the earlier beating of one of their members. The Times also reported that the man who had been beaten fired the fatal shots.
The following account of how the Las Vegas police investigation went aground is based on the same sources and on interviews with Nevada police, six Los Angeles-area investigators involved in the probe and three independent gang experts.
Gang killings are extremely difficult to solve because there is usually little evidence and few witnesses are willing to talk. Shakur's associates were particularly unlikely to volunteer information. Like the rapper himself, many had criminal records and a deep-seated hostility toward police. To some extent, the feeling was mutual: Shakur first gained notoriety with lyrics depicting violence against police.
There was a deeper problem: Las Vegas police were slow to grasp that the roots of the killing lay in a feud between rival gangs in Compton, and were slow to act once they did realize it. To identify those responsible, police would have to take their investigation to Compton and develop informants within the gangs.
The Vegas cops were ill-suited to do that. They had little experience with gang investigations or gang culture. The Compton Police Department did have entree to the gang underworld. Its investigators had known many gang members since they were babies. They took their first mug shots. They testified at their trials. They visited them in jail. In return, they often got valuable information.
But Las Vegas police worried that the Compton investigators were too close to the gangs and their rap-industry patrons and might leak information. The Vegas detectives kept their distance from the gang squad, and their investigation quickly hit a dead end.
"How is a cop from Vegas supposed to go out to Compton and get a powerful street gang to cooperate in a murder probe?" asked Jared Lewis, a Modesto police detective who is director of Know Gangs, a group that presents seminars on gang homicides for police agencies nationwide.
"Gang homicide investigations are very complex," he said. "This was no easy case to solve, by any stretch of the imagination. I can understand why it ended up the way it has."
Sept. 7, 1996
On the evening of Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur and his record company chief, Marion "Suge" Knight, attended the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon heavyweight boxing match at the MGM Grand Hotel. Also in Las Vegas for the fight were scores of gang members from Los Angeles.
As he was leaving the hotel after the fight, Shakur attacked a man in the MGM lobby. Shakur's bodyguards and Knight joined in the beating. The victim was Orlando Anderson, 21, a member of the Southside Crips. Shakur and Knight were affiliated with a rival Compton gang, the Mob Piru Bloods. Shakur's bodyguards were members of the Bloods.
The Bloods had been spoiling for revenge against Anderson because he had beaten one of their members at a Lakewood shopping mall several weeks earlier.
Now, the attack on Anderson became the basis for another act of retaliation--this time against Shakur. The rap star was shot 2 1/2 hours later as he and Knight waited at a red light on a street teeming with tourists and other onlookers. The shots were fired from a white Cadillac carrying four Crips. Shakur suffered massive chest wounds and died a week later.
Immediately after the shooting, the assailants returned to Compton, where they bragged to their friends and girlfriends. The Compton gang unit was soon deluged with tips implicating the Crips and "Baby Lane," Anderson's gang nickname. Informants reported that Anderson had been seen brandishing a Glock semiautomatic pistol, the kind of weapon used to kill Shakur. Investigators passed this information on to Las Vegas.
Las Vegas police had heard about the beating in the MGM Grand lobby and reviewed a security videotape of it. But they did not know who Anderson was or why the incident mattered. Manning, the homicide commander, issued a statement at the time saying, "Investigators have no reason ... to believe that the altercation has any connection to the shooting."
A week after the shooting, Compton gang investigators reviewed the videotape at the request of Las Vegas police. They identified the beating victim as Anderson, explained his gang affiliation and said the bodyguards seen flailing at him were Bloods.
"We told Vegas right then we thought the Southside Crips were responsible for the murder and that Orlando was the shooter," said Bobby Ladd, then a homicide investigator with the Compton gang unit and now a Garden Grove police officer.
Las Vegas police stuck to their position that the beating was irrelevant. Manning told an interviewer, "It appears to be just an individual who was walking through the MGM and got into an argument with Tupac.... He probably didn't even know it was Tupac Shakur."
Having ruled Anderson out as a suspect, Las Vegas police did not try to track him down for questioning or show his photograph to members of Shakur's entourage, a dozen of whom remained in Las Vegas for a week after the shooting while the rapper fought for his life in a local hospital.
Police also failed to retrieve additional security video that might have captured Anderson's movements after he was beaten. Security cameras are pervasive in Las Vegas, sweeping hotel lobbies, hallways, parking areas and other public places around the clock.
Crips gang members say Anderson and his accomplices passed in front of video cameras as they gathered at the Treasure Island and MGM Grand hotels to plot the killing and, later that night, when they picked up the white Cadillac in the valet parking circle outside Treasure Island.
Because casinos routinely tape over surveillance footage every seven days, the potential evidence was lost.
"Overlooking the gang fight at the MGM was a mistake," said Wes McBride, president of the California Gang Investigators Assn. A retired gang intelligence sergeant for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Operation Safe Streets division, McBride runs a gang training program for police academies.
"In gang culture, that fight was a killing offense," he said. "If you embarrass a gang member in public, they will retaliate with a vengeance."
Lou Savelli, a New York gang-unit sergeant and vice president of the East Coast Gang Investigators Assn., concurred.
"If a drive-by shooting happened in New York and we found out that there was a gang beating three hours earlier involving the murder victim, I guarantee that would be my No. 1 lead," he said.
Manning now says Las Vegas police may have misjudged the significance of the fight in the MGM lobby. In a recent interview, he said police discounted Anderson as a suspect based on information that he had been detained by hotel security long enough that he would not have had time to arm himself and organize the Crips' ambush of Shakur several hours later.
Manning said that information had proved incorrect. He declined to elaborate.
Working With Gang Members
Investigators say it takes special effort to develop a rapport with gang members. Because gang culture places a premium on respect, gang detectives will treat thugs and their families with great courtesy, even deference. In return, they sometimes provide confidential information that helps solve crimes.
That did not happen in the Shakur case.
From their first moments on the scene, Las Vegas police unintentionally alienated the witnesses most likely to be able to identify the rapper's assailants. After summoning an ambulance for Shakur, police ordered Knight, bleeding from a head wound, and other members of Shakur's entourage out of their cars at gunpoint.
"The police shoved guns in our faces and threatened us," said rapper E.D.I. Mean, who was in the car directly behind Shakur's. "They made us lie face down in the middle of the street. Even after they realized we were telling the truth, they never apologized."
Las Vegas police say they had no way of knowing at first whether Knight and the others were victims or suspects. After establishing that they were the former, patrol officers had them sit along a curb until homicide detectives arrived. That took nearly two hours.
Then Manning and his men ushered the witnesses one by one into squad cars and took their statements.
They were, Manning said, "extremely uncooperative." Knight, founder of Death Row Records in Los Angeles, summed up relations between the witnesses and the police during an interview with ABC-TV's "PrimeTime Live" two months later. Knight said that even if he knew who killed Shakur, he would not tell Las Vegas authorities.
"It's not my job," he said. "I don't get paid to solve homicides. I don't get paid to tell on people."
Las Vegas detectives were disgusted. "It's the typical gang mentality," Manning said. "Their best friend got shot and nobody saw nothing. The way I see it, if somebody tells me they don't want to talk, what's the point of calling them back over and over again? In this country, citizens have rights."
There was, however, one witness willing to help: a 19-year-old rapper named Yafeu "Kadafi" Fula. He had spent part of his childhood in the same households as Shakur and was particularly close to him. Fula, who was with Mean in the car behind Shakur's that night, told police he might be able to identify one or more of the assailants.
Fula was among the dozen or so members of Shakur's circle who remained in Las Vegas after the shooting, keeping vigil at University Medical Center, where Shakur was on life support. During that week, detectives made no attempt to follow up with Fula.
His only contact with police was confrontational. On Sept. 9, two nights after the shooting, patrol officers stopped a motorist outside the hospital. Fula and some other Shakur associates who knew the man protested and got into a scuffle with police. Fula was handcuffed and searched but not charged.
After Shakur's death on Sept. 13, Fula left Las Vegas, traveling to Atlanta and Los Angeles and then New Jersey, where his relatives lived.
Compton investigators, meanwhile, had assembled mug shots of a handful of gang members, including Anderson. They hand-delivered the photos to Las Vegas.
Manning said detectives called Fula's lawyer to set up a meeting with the teenage rapper so they could show him the pictures. Manning said the calls were not returned.
Police did not try to locate Fula on their own. By Nov. 10, it was too late. Fula was gunned down in a housing project in Irvington, N.J.
Potential Witnesses Dismissed
Early on the morning of Oct. 2, 1996, Compton police, FBI agents and members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department swept through Compton, arresting nearly two dozen gang members and seizing weapons and ammunition. Their aim was to stifle a gang war that had erupted after the shooting of Shakur.
Orlando Anderson was among those sitting in the Compton police lockup. He had been picked up on a warrant stemming from a gang killing six months earlier. The other gang members were being held on drug, weapon and other charges. Compton police believed that some of them were involved in Shakur's slaying or knew something about it.
Two Las Vegas detectives took part in the roundup at the invitation of Compton police. One of them questioned Anderson for about 20 minutes.
The visiting detectives brushed aside a suggestion that they question the other gang members. This stunned the Compton cops and sheriff's deputies, who thought the obvious thing to do was to use the threat of prosecution to try to extract information about Shakur's killing.
"We had a bunch of gang members in custody who knew exactly what happened with Shakur--some who we believed were in the Cadillac," said Ladd, the former Compton investigator. "Las Vegas expressed no interest whatsoever in talking to any of them. They barely even interviewed Orlando."
Anderson was released two days later; prosecutors had declined to file charges against him for the gang killing. Las Vegas investigators never spoke to him again. He was killed May 29, 1998, in a drug-related shooting at a Compton carwash.
Savelli, the New York gang investigator, said the arrests in Compton were a missed opportunity.
"The success rate on these kinds of homicides hinges completely on having informants inside of the gang," he said. "You lean on gang members with rap sheets for information about the crime. If you don't get the information the first time, you go back. You get in their face. Two. Three. Four times. Eventually they talk. But relentless follow-up is essential."
Manning said his detectives, operating outside their home state, lacked authority to interrogate the Compton gang members--that morning or later. Los Angeles authorities took issue with that assertion. They said that once local police invited the detectives to question the suspects, there was no legal reason for them not to do so.
Manning also said his detectives asked Los Angeles County sheriff's officers to question gang members on their behalf. Sheriff's investigators said they were not asked to interrogate the suspects about Shakur's killing. Rather, they said, the Las Vegas detectives asked them to pass on anything they learned about the case while questioning the gang members on the local charges.
Manning said he had no regrets about how his officers handled the situation.
"You can't just go in and push everybody aside and say, 'OK, we're taking over,' " he said. "Even if we did, do you think these guys are going to talk to us simply because we walk up and ask them to? Do you think we scared them so bad they would just puke their guts out and admit to everything?"
The White Cadillac
Two days after the shooting of Shakur, two Crips were seen in Compton driving a white 1996 Cadillac bearing a rental sticker. An informant told the local gang unit that the Crips had visited a car stereo shop whose owner also did bodywork. In Las Vegas, one of Shakur's bodyguards had gotten off a shot at the white Cadillac as it fled. The word on the street in Compton was that the Crips brought the car to the stereo shop to have the damage repaired.
Compton police relayed this information to Las Vegas investigators, who added it to their file.
The Compton gang investigators then canvassed every rental agency in the area to determine whether any had rented a white Cadillac that had been driven to Las Vegas around the time Shakur was shot. They found that a Carson agency had rented such a car to a man with possible ties to the gang underground. They took a photograph of the car and detailed their findings in a report.
Compton investigators say they gave this additional information to Las Vegas police.
Manning said his detectives never received it.
"We thought there was a possibility that we had located the Cadillac used in the crime," said retired Compton Sgt. Robert Baker. "It was a solid lead that should have been pursued."
Concerned About Corruption
Investigators say it was understandable that Las Vegas police would have concerns about cooperating closely with their Compton counterparts. Compton had a history of political corruption, and some Police Department figures had been alleged to have gang ties.
In 2000, after years of feuding with the police brass, Compton Mayor Omar Bradley and City Council members disbanded the department and contracted with Los Angeles County to provide police services. But at the time of Shakur's shooting, the gang squad was regarded as one of the finest in Southern California.
People familiar with the investigation say Las Vegas police were concerned that city officials were too cozy with Suge Knight, who grew up in Compton, contributed money to Bradley's political campaigns and knew members of the police force. Knight's security chief, Reginald Wright Jr., is a former Compton police officer whose father ran the gang unit.
Knight's name had figured in some of the speculation about Shakur's death. One theory was that Knight arranged the rapper's killing so he could exploit his martyrdom commercially. Las Vegas detectives worried that Wright's father and other officers might protect Knight or pass information to him. Knight's refusal to cooperate with them sharpened the Nevada detectives' suspicions.
To ease those concerns, Hourie Taylor, then Compton chief of police, removed the elder Wright from the Shakur investigation and replaced him with Baker. Nevertheless, Las Vegas investigators continued to keep their distance.
"The investigators with the best inside information about the Southside Crips worked in the Compton gang unit," said McBride, the former Sheriff's Department gang investigator.
"They were good investigators. But even if Las Vegas didn't trust them, what did it hurt to listen? It's not like Vegas had to give up anything. In my mind, if you aren't even close to solving the case, what do you have to lose?"
Though the investigation into Shakur's slaying has been dormant for years, some former Compton officers refuse to give up hope of catching some of those involved.
"I believe Tupac's murder could have been solved--and it still could be," said Tim Brennan, a Compton gang investigator now with the Sheriff's Department. "All the clues are right there. What the investigation lacked was input from detectives who understood the gangs involved and how they operate and who all the players are. I believe justice could still be served."
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http://www.directeminem.net/media/audio/other/my_name_all.ram
"my name f/ XZIBIT" hot track from xzibits new album Man vs Machine
http://www.directeminem.net/media/audio/other/lose_yourself_all.ram
"Lose Yourself" lead single from 8 mile soundtrack
http://www.trickology.com/soundcheck/stream.php?id=213&audio=eminemstimulate.rm
stimulate
Volkswagen of America Inc. on Friday, Sept. 13, 2002 offered the first official glimpse at its long-awaited topless Beetle. The 2003 New Beetle convertible features the same rounded looks as its hardtop siblings and uses the same four-cylinder engines, but with a fabric roof. "The New Beetle convertible follows in the footsteps of two of the highest-selling cabriolets in the world, the Volkswagen Cabrio and the original Beetle convertible of the '50s, '60s and '70s," the company said in a statement. (AP Photo/Volkswagen of America, ho)
Kansas City's catcher Brent Mayne argues with home plate umpite Jerry Crawford, while being restrained by manager Tony Pena, not shown, after Mayne was ejected for arguing balls and strikes during the third inning against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2002, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Brian Kersey)
Mos Def, Erykah Badu, Roots Make 'Brown Sugar' Music
Mos Def, Common and the Roots have recorded new music for the soundtrack to "Brown Sugar," an upcoming movie set in the hip-hop industry in which all three acts appear.
Def contributes three versions of the film's title track — one with his and Talib Kweli's group Black Star — to the album, due September 24.
Queen Latifah and Mos Def have major roles in the film, while Common, the Roots, Method Man, Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick, Dana Dane and other rappers make cameos.
"Brown Sugar," written by "Carmen: A Hip Hopera" scribe Michael Elliot, chronicles the lives of a music executive, played by Taye Diggs ("The Best Man"), and a music critic, Sanaa Lathan ("Love & Basketball"), who met and became friends the day both discovered hip-hop.
Magic Johnson is the executive producer of the film, which hits theaters October 11.
The soundtrack features Erykah Badu's new single "Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)," which features Common and was produced by Raphael Saadiq.
Other highlights include a cover of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" by contemporary jazz singer Cassandra Wilson, Coldcut's remix of Eric. B and Rakim's hip-hop classic "Paid in Full" and Jill Scott's new "Easy Conversation."
"Brown Sugar" soundtrack track list, according to MCA:
Mos Def - "Brown Sugar (Extra Sweet)"
Erykah Badu featuring Common - "Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)"
Angie Stone - "Bring Your Heart"
Black Star - "Brown Sugar (Raw)"
Jill Scott - "Easy Conversation"
Blackalicious featuring Lateef the Truth Speaker and KeKe Wyatt - "It's Going Down"
Mos Def - "Breakdown"
Rahsaan Patterson - "You Make Life So Good"
Cassandra Wilson - "Time After Time"
Eric B. and Rakim - "Paid in Full (7 Minutes of Madness - the Coldcut Remix)"
Hi-Tek featuring Big D and Piakhan - "No One Knows Her Name"
Mary J. Blige - "Never Been"
Mos Def - "Brown Sugar (Fine)"
Jully Black - "You Changed"
A tourist plays amongst the famous rocky landmarks known as the 'Devil's Marbles' in the Australian outback. Australia's tourism industry is facing a slump as visitors continue to stay away from its famous beaches and rust-red outback a year after the September 11 attacks. (Reuters/David Gray)
A giant pumpkin-pyramid towers in Ludwigsburg, Germany, Sept. 3, 2002. The 45-foot-tall pyramid is part of an exhibition showing some 600 different kinds of pumpkins. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle)
A Chinese worker installs a platform in Beijing's Tiananmen Square September 12, 2002 for the upcoming National Day celebration, which marks the founding of the People's Republic of China. (Reuters/Guang Niu)
Dirty South Pop: Timberlake Teams Up With Bubba Sparxxx
Blue-eyed soul met with blue-eyed rhymes recently when 'NSYNC's Justin Timberlake teamed up with Dirty South rap bumpkin Bubba Sparxxx.
In a collaboration no doubt facilitated by Timbaland, who's providing beats for both artists, Timberlake and Sparxxx recorded material for J.T.'s highly anticipated solo disc, Justified, due November 12.
Following back-scratching protocol, Bubba's management is hoping for a Justin-laced track for the buttermilk-fed rapper's upcoming album, which he hopes to have out early next year.
Timberlake, meanwhile, is already stoking the fire that is his highly hormonal fan base with Justified's first single, the Neptunes-produced club track "Like I Love You".
The Neptunes have split the album's production duties with Timbaland, P. Diddy and Mario Winans, but J.T.'s camp is quick to point out that Timberlake has been highly involved in the creative process, co-writing every song on the album.
In addition to the current single and the aforementioned Bubba-sparked track, other highlights include the Latin-spiced "Senorita" and a seductive ode to the ladies titled "Take It From Here."
the assignment and what i turned in......
Create 4 color magazine ad. Panel size is 4.5X7" but not a bleed. Artwork must be 300 ppi. Please use supplied supplied text and photos for imagery and enhance or composite any way you see fit. This is an ad for a poetry reading so please be sensitive to the material and find a way to keep it elegant. You do not need to use all text – it can be just be an excerpt; but you must include the poets name, time, store logo, etc…
Ad Must Include:
Poet: Yonala Riaksov
Book: Autumn
In store appearance:
7PM-9PM
November 24
version red
version white
New York Post reviewer Lou Lumenick said the movie (8MILE) is "a rousing Rocky with rappers (that has) astonishing crossover appeal." He also says the movie's climactic verbal battle scene between Eminem's up-and-coming rapper character and an opponent had the screening audience "on its feet cheering."
A U.S. Marine stands at a parade rest as the flag flies at half staff during a memorial ceremony Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2002, at the United States Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Marines from the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade paid tribute to those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, by burying a piece of the World Trade Center and marking it with a specially made stone. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)
The U.S. flag flutters over ground zero at sunset Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2002 in New York, the day before the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Center. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Eminem's '8 Mile' Gets Thumbs-Up From Fest Crowd
8 Mile, the semi-autobiographical drama in which rapper Eminem makes his movie debut, might just be as good as Oscar-winning producer Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind) once boasted.
Playing to a packed house on Sunday night (September 8), director Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential) unspooled a "work-in-progress" version of the pic at the Toronto Film Festival. Tickets for the anticipated film were extremely difficult to come by, but apparently the around-the-block queue for seating was worth it.
New York Post reviewer Lou Lumenick said the movie is "a rousing Rocky with rappers (that has) astonishing crossover appeal." He also says the movie's climactic verbal battle scene between Eminem's up-and-coming rapper character and an opponent had the screening audience "on its feet cheering."
8 Mile also stars Oscar winner Kim Basinger, ER co-star Mekhi Phifer, and Don't Say A Word lead Brittany Murphy, and it opens nationwide November 8.
Eminem's Tour Bus Destroyed By Fire
Eminem's tour bus caught fire on Sunday (September 8). The two people aboard the bus, including the bus driver, escaped without injury. Eminem and his entourage were not aboard at the time of the blaze. The bus was en route to the final date of the Anger Management Tour in Auburn Hills, Michigan via Route I-94.
Sergeant Julie Busch of the Michigan State Police told LAUNCH the bus "caught fire for unknown reasons at about 1:30 p.m." Fire and police officials quickly rushed to the scene, but Busch told LAUNCH, "The bus was destroyed and became unusable."
Eminem does not have any other tour dates scheduled. Fans can see the rapper on the big screen in 8 Mile, which is due November 8. In the film, which is loosely based on his life, Eminem plays a Detroit rapper, "Jimmy Smith Jr."
Eminem & Company Close Out Anger Management Tour As Cameras Roll
The cameras were out for the final date of Eminem's Anger Management tour on Sunday (September 8) at the Palace Of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan. All of the performances by Eminem and his road partners were shot for a tour home video that should be released in the first quarter of 2003. An estimated 110 hours of behind-the-scenes footage was also shot during the tour and will be woven into the video.
Eminem took advantage of the cameras and expanded his show for the occasion. Although he performed the same 70-minute setlist from the rest of the tour, he brought on a variety of circus-like performances to go with his stage motif, including Uncle Sam on stilts, fire jugglers, a sword swallower, a dwarf, and two plus-sized women who cavorted with the dwarf during "Without Me."
With ex-wife Kim, who's attended several shows on the tour, watching from the soundboard, Eminem also brought all the other tour performers--including D12, rapper Obie Trice, and singer Dina Rae from his entourage--on stage for the finale and told his hometown crowd, "We knew the best would be m-----------g last. We knew Detroit would be the m----------g wildest, so we brought the cameras. I cannot thank you enough."
While Eminem was performing, his feature film debut, 8 Mile, was premiering Sunday as a work-in-progress at the Toronto Film Festival.
pics i made in class today... my first photoshop for intermediates class....
just color straws....
reservior dogz VS bruce lee
hign noon
A South American king vulture in an outdoor exhibit at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, shown Wednesday, Sep. 4, 2002 is under watch because of concern of infection by the West Nile virus according to the aviary's curator, James Majeur. The West Nile virus, first spotted in this country in a sick crow three years ago, has now attacked at least 111 species of birds, including the bald eagle and the endangered Mississippi sandhill crane. The quick spread has surprised and alarmed wildlife researchers.(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
A museum technican uses a damp cloth to clean the face of a statue of George Washington on the steps of Federal Hall in New York City, Sept. 5, 2002. and My interpertation
Aerosmith Honored That Eminem Sampled 'Dream On' For His New Album
Among those cheering Eminem's sweep at last week's Video Music Awards were the members of Aerosmith. The band, currently touring with Run-D.M.C. and Kid Rock, has a connection with "Slim Shady"--Eminem sampled the Aerosmith classic "Dream On" for the track "Sing For The Moment" on his latest album, The Eminem Show.
Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton tells LAUNCH that the Boston rock veterans were both surprised and pleased by the move. "We were really excited, you know, when we first heard that he wanted to do it, and it came out great," he says. "It kinda surprised me a little, in a really nice way. I figured that someone like that would probably be influenced by something more recent than 'Dream On.'"
http://www.freep.com/entertainment/music/xzibit6_20020906.htm
On Xzibit: Native Detroiter's raw, rugged sounds put him in company with fellow rappers Eminem and Snoop Dogg
BY KELLEY L. CARTER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Alvin Joiner, 26, sometimes cringes when he thinks of what his mother and father used to do when they found the rap music he tried to hide from them as a kid in Detroit.
Then he remembers what that punishment led to. And he laughs because it's what jump-started his rap career.
"My parents were Jehovah's Witnesses and they didn't particularly care for rap music," says Joiner, , who is known as Xzibit. "I would get my little headphones and sneak and listen to it at night. Every time they would catch me, they would get it and break my tapes. And I'd be mad. Eventually, I got sick of it. So I said, 'You know what? I can rap my own stuff and they can never take that from me.' "
So he did. He completed his first rap, "Down With Me," when he was 13, four years after his mother's death. He would sit in the lunchroom at his middle school and beat on the table, spitting his rap and hoping to pull in a crowd with his louder than life vocals.
He called himself Xzibit A, playing off his first name, but later dropped the A as his popularity grew.
A schoolyard gimmick turned into a professional gold mine.
On Sunday, as part of the Anger Management Tour, Xzibit will perform at the Palace of Auburn Hills with headliner Eminem, Ludacris, Papa Roach and Xzibit's label mates, the X-Ecutioners.
On the edge of superstardom (he recently was featured on MTV's "Cribs"), the rapper, who has been recording since 1996, will release his next CD, "Man vs. Machine," in October. It willfeature super-producer Dr. Dre and other rappers including Snoop Dogg and Eminem.
This all began with his youthful admiration for rap music, which became something to wrap his mind around while he tried to get past losing his mother at age 9.
Xzibit moved from an east side Detroit address to New Mexico shortly after his mom died. His father had remarried and the new couple wanted to start in a new place.
It was a confusing time for the rapper. He got into a lot of trouble -- fighting, skipping school -- and, when he was 14, he was sent to a state juvenile facility, where he spent the next two years.
"I was a brotha from the east side, going out there with some cactus -- I was like 'What the heck?' It was definitely a culture shock. But it was a strange time, man. There was a lot of uncertainty and a lot of long drawn-out hurt because my mother was special to everybody, especially my family," he says. "Everything happened real fast, real quick."
And so did his career.
At 17 he moved to California.
"I knew I could be doing something better with my life other than doing what I was doing. Everyone that I was involved with was either being hurt, put to death or put to jail. And I didn't see myself going like that," he says.
"It was a life decision. I wasn't in trouble when I went to California. I wasn't running from the law or anything like that. I just wanted something better for myself and something better for my life. I stepped out on faith, man, you know. That's exactly what it was. God smiled down on me because it could have went either way."
Xzibit went the way of music.
For years, he worked the L.A. underground hip-hop circuit and it was there he hooked up with Likwit Crew, a group that featured rappers such as Tha Liks, Defari and King Tee. In 1995, they went on tour and that led to Xzibit being signed to Loud Records. He released "At the Speed of Life" in 1996 and showed hip-hop lovers his raw, rugged sounds.
Getting the breaks
His bigger break came in 1998 with the release of "40 Dayz & 40 Nightz" which broke a BET Rap City record for the video single "What You See Is What You Get." That video held the No. 1 position for six straight weeks on the popular rap show.
Xzibit followed that up with a cameo on Snoop Dogg's "B Please," a popular tune that still is on regular airwave rotation.
That paved the way for his 2000 release, which he worked on with Dr. Dre. A certified platinum CD, "Restless" became his biggest-selling effort.
And it really put him on the musical map.
Next came collaborations with Eminem, De La Soul, Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst, Erick Sermon and Korn's Jonathan Davis. On the current Anger Management tour, his cousin, Detroiter DJ Carl the Invisible Man, is touring with him.
Xzibit is proud of the work he's done up to now. But, he says, he's been saving his all for his next album, due Oct. 1. He says he wanted to give people time to get used to him before he pushed the envelope the way he wanted to.
"I feel like it's my most well-rounded material. It's got a lot of fun in it, too -- don't get me wrong. But I think the elevation of the music and the intensity of the music is what makes it my favorite album so far," he says.
The album also has a serious side. His mother was a writer, too. Before she passed away, she published a book of poetry.
"Missin' U," one of the songs on the album, which was produced by Ric Rock and features Andre Wilson, is a tribute to his mom, who was only 32 when she died.
KELLEY L. CARTER can be reached at 313-222-8854 and carter@freepress.com.
this dude performed with OutKast at the SMOKIN GROOVES concert.... check him out...
Music critics and celebrities adore CODY CHESNUTT, but he baffles most record companies. After 11 years, this eclectic rock 'n' roller is finally bringing his unique brand of funk to a record store near you.
www.vibe.com
Cody Chesnutt’s The Headphone Masterpiece is the greatest rock album you’ve never heard—an album with so much spiritual freedom and uncompromising vision that every major and minor label in the industry has passed on it.
Yet, like his Lord and savior, Jesus of Nazareth, Chesnutt, 32, has a fervent following. Disciples from Atlanta to Los Angeles have gotten hold of his elusive debut album and heard nothing but truth upon listening to its 36 tracks. They are wildly passionate about his music. They will punch you in your face for comparing Chesnutt’s singular style of rock to Lenny Kravitz’s. MTV caught wind of the growing hype and profiled Chesnutt, even though he had yet to release a CD. Sexy singers like Nelly Furtado and Kelis sing his praises. The Roots decided to pay homage and re-record Chesnutt’s ode to infidelity, “The Seed,” for their forthcoming album. “There’s so much posturing in hip hop when guys talk about women,” says ?uestlove of the Roots. “Cody’s not afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve, but he’s still got that Southern pimp shit with him.” Soon, with the September 24 release of Chesnutt’s double album on his own label, Ready, Set, Go!, the gospel that is The Headphone Masterpiece will be on every sinner’s lips and in their hearts.
I ain’t no rapper / Baby.” It’s an affirmation, spoken over a crackly instrumental like radio static. If that’s the case, what is he? Rock star, god, or, as his cousin and manager Donray Von likes to say, rock ’n’ roll mafia? “We made a decision back in the early ’90s to go this way,” says Von, 31, who runs Ready, Set, Go!, punctuating “this way” with a dramatic hand gesture to the left.
Chesnutt was once known as Antonious Thomas, a bare-chested, well-tapered crooner from Atlanta’s Chestnut Street. All six-pack and combat boots. “I was smoothed out, a Jodeci and R. Kelly mix,” he says. His single, “Young Dr. Feelgood,” released on a tiny indie label in 1991, was straight R&B—mindless sex, gospel runs, posing and primping. But even though he was half naked and unoriginal, his talent as a songwriter was evident. It wasn’t long before he decided to put his skills to better use.
Finally indulging in his lifelong rock ’n’ roll fantasies, Chesnutt relocated to L.A. with Von in 1992 and founded a band, the Crosswalk. They recorded Venus Loves a Melody, an album of powerful, socially conscious rock ballads. “I was listening to the second Brit invasion, early Oasis, Verve, Radiohead,” Chesnutt says. The best songs by the Crosswalk, “Brand New” and “16,” are about a recovering heroin addict and a victim of gang rape. The album isn’t as personal as The Headphone Masterpiece, but it’s a whole lot better than anything Creed has recorded in its entire career. Unable to come up with a marketing plan for the too-edgy Crosswalk, Hollywood Records unceremoniously dropped them, leaving the masters in Chesnutt’s hands. Then the band broke up, and he was left with no option but reinvention.
Chesnutt created Masterpiece in total isolation, in his small bedroom, with one microphone, an organ, a guitar, bass, and keyboard. His only monitor was a pair of Sony MDR-7506 headphones, so as not to wake his and Von’s ever-accommodating roommate, a dude named Phil. (The album is supposed to sound best when played through that particular headset.) In a period of intense introspection, Chesnutt rediscovered his faith in his musical calling.
“I woke up, went to the organ, and played these chords,” he says of “Serve This Royalty,” a majestic pimp anthem. “It felt like gospel.” On the song, he sings, “Thank you Jesus / For my mama / Thank you bitches / For my money….” From that cut to “Bitch I’m Broke,” then back again to a suite of songs about his wife and the joys of monogamy, Masterpiece is equal parts irony and sincerity, straight guitar rock and bass-driven funk. But always there are the simple and honest lyrics. “How was I supposed to know / That you could get inside me…that you and I / Would make so much sense from the start….” The album is everything that many roots and retro artists have reached for, pure and straightforward; yet it is thoroughly modern in its outlook, inventive and unsentimental, with both feet in the future.
Record companies have nixed the work mostly because they mistake the 36 songs for a demo and expect him to redo it, to add gloss where there is now grit. They’d like the drums rearranged, the vocals redone. “I refuse to re-record it—that defeats the purpose. What about the experience I had in my bedroom? To go back to the studio, I’d be chasing something,” says Chesnutt. “If you’re listening to it and you love it, then it’s already done what it’s supposed to do.” Look no further for your salvation; the master has arrived.
Here it is: The official LA TIMES new article on their own
investigations into the killing of Tupac Shakur:
Who Killed Tupac Shakur?
How a fight between rival Compton gangs turns into a plot of
retaliation and murder.
By CHUCK PHILIPS , TIMES STAFF WRITER
First of two parts
LAS VEGAS --The city's neon lights vibrated in the polished hood of the black BMW as it cruised up Las Vegas Boulevard.
The man in the passenger seat was instantly recognizable. Fans lined the streets, waving, snapping photos, begging Tupac Shakur for his autograph. Cops were everywhere, smiling.
The BMW 750 sedan, with rap magnate Marion "Suge" Knight at the wheel, was leading a procession of luxury vehicles past the MGM Grand Hotel and Caesars Palace, on their way to a hot new nightclub. It was after 11 on a Saturday night—Sept. 7, 1996. The caravan paused at a crowded intersection a block from the Strip.
Shakur flirted with a carful of women—unaware that a white Cadillac had quietly pulled up beside him. A hand emerged from the Cadillac. In it was a semiautomatic pistol, aimed straight at Shakur.
Many of the rapper's lyrics seemed to foretell this moment.
"The fast life ain't everything they told ya," he sang in an early hit, "Soulja's Story."
"Never get much older, following the tracks of a soulja."
Six years later, the killing of the world's most famous rap star remains officially unsolved. Las Vegas police have never made an arrest. Speculation and wild theories continue to flourish in the music media and among Shakur's followers. One is that Knight, owner of Shakur's record label, arranged the killing so he could exploit the rapper's martyrdom commercially. Another persistent legend is that Shakur faked his own death to escape the pressures of stardom.
A yearlong investigation by The Times reconstructed the crime and the events leading up to it. Evidence gathered by the paper indicates:
The shooting was carried out by a Compton gang called the Southside Crips to avenge the beating of one of its members by Shakur a few hours earlier.
Orlando Anderson, the Crip whom Shakur had attacked, fired the fatal shots. Las Vegas police discounted Anderson as a suspect and interviewed him only once, briefly. He was later killed in an unrelated gang shooting.
The murder weapon was supplied by New York rapper Notorious B.I.G., who agreed to pay the Crips $1 million for killing Shakur. Notorious B.I.G. and Shakur had been feuding for more than a year, exchanging insults on recordings and at award shows and concerts. B.I.G. was gunned down six months later in Los Angeles. That killing also remains unsolved.
Before they died, Notorious B.I.G. and Anderson denied any role in Shakur's death. This account of what they and others did that night is based on police affidavits and court documents as well as interviews with investigators, witnesses to the crime and members of the Southside Crips who had never before discussed the killing outside the gang.
Fearing retribution, they agreed to be interviewed only if their names were not revealed.
Revolutionary Upbringing
The slaying silenced one of modern music's most eloquent voices—a ghetto poet whose tales of urban alienation captivated young people of all races and backgrounds. The 25-year-old Shakur had helped elevate rap from a crude street fad to a complex art form, setting the stage for the current global hip-hop phenomenon.
Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in 1971 into a family of black revolutionaries and named after a martyred Incan warrior. Radical politics shaped his upbringing and the rebellious tone of much of his music.
His godfather, Black Panther leader Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, spent 27 years in prison for a robbery-murder in Santa Monica that he insisted he did not commit. Pratt was freed after a judge ruled in 1997 that prosecutors concealed evidence favorable to the defendant.
Shakur's stepfather, Black Panther leader Mutulu Shakur, was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list until the early 1980s, when he was imprisoned for robbery and murder. His mother, Afeni Shakur, also a Black Panther, was charged with conspiring to blow up a block of New York department stores—and acquitted a month before the rapper was born.
Shakur grew up in tough neighborhoods and homeless shelters in the Bronx, Harlem and Baltimore. He exhibited creative talent as a child and was admitted to the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied ballet, poetry, theater and literature.
In 1988, his mother sent him to live with a family friend in the Bay Area to escape gang violence in Baltimore. Living in a tough neighborhood north of Oakland, he joined the rap group Digital Underground and signed a solo record deal in 1991.
Shakur's debut album, "2Pacalypse Now," sparked a political firestorm. The lyrics were filled with vivid imagery of violence by and against police. A car thief who murdered a Texas state trooper said the lyrics incited him to kill. Law enforcement groups and politicians denounced Shakur. Then-Vice President Dan Quayle said the rapper's music "has no place in our society."
Shakur's recordings explored gang violence, drug dealing, police brutality, teenage pregnancy, single motherhood and racism. As his stature as a rapper grew, he pursued an acting career, drawing admiring reviews for his performances in "Juice" and other films.
But he never put what he called the "thug life" behind him.
During a 1993 concert in Michigan, he attacked a local rapper with a baseball bat and was sentenced to 10 days in jail. In Los Angeles, he was convicted of assaulting a music video producer. In New York, a 19-year-old fan accused Shakur and three of his friends of sexually assaulting her.
While on trial in that case, the rapper was ambushed in a Manhattan recording studio, shot five times and robbed of his gold jewelry. Shakur later said Notorious B.I.G. and his associates were behind the attack.
Shakur, convicted of sexual abuse, was serving a 4 1/2-year prison term when he was visited by Suge Knight, founder of Death Row Records in Los Angeles. Knight offered to finance an appeal of his conviction if Shakur would sign a recording contract with Death Row.
Shakur accepted the offer and was released from prison in 1995 on a $1.4-million appellate bond posted by Knight. Hours later, Shakur entered a Los Angeles studio to record "All Eyez on Me." The double CD sold more than 5 million copies, transforming Shakur into a pop superstar whose releases outsold Madonna's and the Rolling Stones'.
Two Fights
On Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur, still out on bond, traveled to Las Vegas to attend a championship boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon at the MGM Grand Hotel.
The sold-out arena was jammed with high rollers: Wall Street tycoons, Hollywood celebrities, entertainment moguls. The fight also attracted an assortment of underworld figures: mobsters from Chicago, drug dealers from New York, street gangs from Los Angeles.
Shakur arrived around 8:30 p.m. accompanied by armed bodyguards from the Mob Piru Bloods, a Compton street gang whose members worked for Knight's Death Row Records. Shakur and Knight sat in the front row, smoking cigars, signing autographs and waving to fans.
"Knock You Out," a song Shakur had written in honor of Tyson, blasted over the loudspeakers as the boxer entered the ring. Tyson flattened his opponent so quickly that many patrons never made it to their seats.
After congratulating Tyson, Shakur, Knight and a handful of bodyguards in silk suits headed for the exit. In the MGM Grand lobby, one of Shakur's Bloods bodyguards noticed a member of the rival Southside Crips lingering near a bank of elevators.
The Bloods and Crips have a 30-year history of turf wars: beatings, drug heists, drive-by shootings. The Crips dress in blue, the Bloods in red. When the two gangs aren't pushing dope or terrorizing citizens, they take pride in retaliating against each other.
The hoodlum standing in the lobby was Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, 21, a Crip who had recently helped his gang beat and rob one of Shakur's bodyguards at a mall in Lakewood. Anderson had a string of arrests for robbery, assault and other offenses. Compton police suspected him in at least one gang killing.
After the beating of Shakur's bodyguard, Anderson had dared to rip a rare Death Row medallion from the man's neck—an affront to Knight's honor and a slight to the Bloods.
The Bloods had been fuming for weeks, waiting to exact their revenge. Now, unexpectedly, there was Anderson, standing before them.
Shakur charged the Crip. "You from the South?" he asked.
Before Anderson could answer, Shakur punched him. His bodyguards jumped in, pounding and kicking Anderson to the ground. Knight joined in too—just before security guards broke up the 30-second melee, which was captured by a security camera.
Shakur and his entourage stomped triumphantly across the casino floor on their way out of the hotel. They walked half a block down the Strip to the Luxor hotel, where Death Row Records had booked more than a dozen rooms. After dropping off Shakur and the bodyguards, Knight drove about 15 minutes to a mansion he owned in a gated community in the city's southeastern valley.
The plan was to regroup later at a benefit concert for a youth boxing program featuring Shakur and other Death Row acts. The midnight concert was to be held at Club 662, a nightspot just opened by Death Row. The club's name was an emblem of how gangs had infiltrated the rap business. On a telephone keypad, 662 spells "mob."
Planning a Retaliation
A bruised and shaken Anderson gathered himself off the floor in front of dozens of startled onlookers. MGM security guards and Las Vegas police tried to persuade him to file a complaint against his assailants, but he declined.
Anderson headed out to the Strip and crossed over a pedestrian bridge to the Excalibur Hotel, where he had checked in with his girlfriend. News of the beating swept through the gang underground. Before he reached his room, Anderson's pager was beeping with calls from his Crips cohorts, according to what he later told associates.
Anderson phoned his comrades and set up a meeting at the Treasure Island hotel. He changed his clothes and hopped into a taxi, heading for the hotel with the huge neon skull and crossbones out front.
Treasure Island had served as a Crips headquarters during boxing matches for years. The gang would rent a fleet of luxury vehicles, ride across the desert in a caravan, hand their keys to the valets and head to a block of rooms booked under fake names. Drug trafficking paid for all this.
The ritual had little to do with boxing. Many gang members never attended the fights. They came to party and bask in the post-fight revelry: the drinking, the gambling, the drugs, the prostitutes. Other street gangs followed suit, flying in from Harlem and Atlanta, taking over establishments up and down the Strip.
By the time Anderson's taxi reached Treasure Island, more than a dozen gangsters were holed up in a Crips-reserved room. Marijuana smoke clouded the hallway. Alcohol was flowing as Anderson opened the door. The gang was furious. The topic of discussion: Who gets to pull the trigger?
According to people who were present, the Crips decided to shoot Shakur after his performance at Club 662. The plan was to station two vehicles of armed Crips outside the nightspot and lie in wait.
The gang put in a call to a Crips hide-out in Las Vegas, a rented house used to stash drugs and firearms and shelter gang members on the run from crimes committed in Los Angeles. They told a man there to bring some backup weapons over to the hotel. Soon.
Killers for Hire
For the Crips, the beating of Anderson was an egregious affront warranting swift and fatal retaliation. Still, the Crips thought, why not make a little money while they were at it? They decided to ask Shakur's biggest enemy to pay for the hit.
The gang arranged a rendezvous with Notorious B.I.G. The Brooklyn rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, hated Shakur and had been feuding with him for more than a year.
Once tight friends, the two entertainers now ridiculed each other at events, in interviews and on recordings. In one song called "Hit 'Em Up," Shakur bragged about having sex with Wallace's wife and vowed to kill him. The threats between the rappers and their labels, Death Row and Bad Boy Entertainment, escalated into a series of assaults and shootings—one of which resulted in the killing of a Death Row bodyguard in Atlanta in 1995.
Fearing for his safety, a friend of Wallace's arranged for the Crips to supply bodyguards for the rapper whenever he traveled west. Over the years, the gang was paid to provide security for Wallace at casinos in Las Vegas, clubs in Hollywood and award shows in Los Angeles. Besides cash, Wallace gave the gang access to stars, groupies and the inner sanctums of the music business.
Wallace began flashing Crips gang signs and calling out to the homies at concerts, sometimes even inviting gang members on stage. Privately, he prodded the gang to kill Shakur—and promised to pay handsomely for the hit.