AP Alleges Shepard Fairey of Copyright Infringement of Obama Image

via Breitbart

NEW YORK (AP) – On buttons, posters and Web sites, the image was everywhere during last year’s presidential campaign: A pensive Barack Obama looking upward, as if to the future, splashed in a Warholesque red, white and blue and underlined with the caption HOPE.

Designed by Shepard Fairey, a Los-Angeles based street artist, the image has led to sales of hundreds of thousands of posters and stickers, has become so much in demand that copies signed by Fairey have been purchased for thousands of dollars on eBay.

The image, Fairey has acknowledged, is based on an Associated Press photograph, taken in April 2006 by Manny Garcia on assignment for the AP at the National Press Club in Washington.

The AP says it owns the copyright, and wants credit and compensation. Fairey disagrees.

“The Associated Press has determined that the photograph used in the poster is an AP photo and that its use required permission,” the AP’s director of media relations, Paul Colford, said in a statement.

“AP safeguards its assets and looks at these events on a case-by-case basis. We have reached out to Mr. Fairey’s attorney and are in discussions. We hope for an amicable solution.”

“We believe fair use protects Shepard’s right to do what he did here,” says Fairey’s attorney, Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University and a lecturer at the Stanford Law School. “It wouldn’t be appropriate to comment beyond that at this time because we are in discussions about this with the AP.”

WTF? ‘There’s no reason only poor people should get malaria’: The moment Bill Gates released jar of mosquitoes at packed conference

via Mail Online

It was a show-stopping move by any standards.

Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of Microsoft and a renowned philanthropist, let loose a swarm of mosquitoes at a technology conference in California to highlight the dangers of malaria.

‘Malaria is spread by mosquitoes,’ the Microsoft founder yelled at a well-heeled crowd at a technology conference in California.

’I brought some,’ he added. ‘Here, I’ll let them roam around – there is no reason only poor people should be infected.’

He let the shocked audience sweat for a minute or so before assuring them that the freed insects were malaria- free.

But that didn’t satisfy all the attendees.

‘That’s it. I am not sitting up front anymore,’ eBay founder Pierre Omidyar said.

The stunt was an attempt by Gates – who quit Microsoft last year to concentrate on his charity work – to hammer home the importance of malaria prevention.

It is one of the pet projects of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that announced last year it was donating £115 million to help develop a vaccine for the deadly disease.

Up to 2.7 million people a year still die of malaria each year, 75 per cent of them African children.

[video] Fox News Starts “Comrade Update” Targets Obama as Communist/Socialist

It’s funny how talk radio and right wing commentators on FOX are so hellbent with tagging Obama’s policies as Communism and Socialism when in fact this is just an extension of what Bush started before Obama was sworn in. So if he is ushering in the finale to something Bush started shouldn’t they be delighted with the way things are going?  Or are they just playing out the script of setting him up as a scapegoat?

Cheney Goes Nuclear and Warns of Impending Attack

via AlterNet

Former Vice President Dick Cheney was a national disgrace and an embarrassment to himself while in office, but he’s not quite done engaging in some of the cheapest, most offensive, least honest demagoguery imaginable.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned that there is a “high probability” that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear or biological attack in coming years, and said he fears the Obama administration’s policies will make it more likely the attempt will succeed.

 

In an interview Tuesday with Politico, Cheney unyieldingly defended the Bush administration’s support for the Guantanamo Bay prison and coercive interrogation of terrorism suspects.

And he asserted that President Obama will either backtrack on his stated intentions to end those policies or put the county at risk in ways more severe than most Americans — and, he charged, many members of Obama’s own team — understand.

“When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry,” Cheney said.

Protecting the country’s security is “a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business,” he said. “These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.”

[video] H&R Blocks ‘Cyclops’ Commercial

Saw this on the ‘idiot box’ and just had to post it.

[video] Police Brutality?: Cop Punches Female Teen In Face Multiple Times For Riding Bike On Sidewalk!

Another display of abuse by filthy cops that continue to terrorize inhabitants of the communities they have been sworn to protect.

 

Poor Little Rich Kids: Wall Street Elites Whine About Obama’s Pay Caps

via AlterNet

Yesterday, President Obama announced that top executives’ pay at companies accepting TARP funds would be capped at $500,000, with any additional compensation coming only in the form of stock options that could not be cashed until the government had been repaid.

As news of the plan leaked last night, wealthy Wall Street went into panic mode, insisting that the caps would ruin the financial industry. It’s “a nightmare for any financial institution,” CNBC host Joe Kernen proclaimed this morning, while Fox Business host Alexis Glick said it was evidence of Obama being “a little anti-business.” Others insisted that the “draconian” caps would drive the “best and the brightest” away from Wall Street and that Obama’s anger over executive bonuses was misplaced:

“That is pretty draconian — $500,000 is not a lot of money, particularly if there is no bonus.” [James F. Reda, founder and managing director of James F. Reda & Associates]

“If I didn’t pay [bonuses], the people were going to go. … These people didn’t choose to cure cancer. These people didn’t choose to do public service work…These people chose to make money.” [Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric]

“The consequences of it are going to be a massive brain drain of senior talent from those companies that have taken TARP money to those companies that have not.” [Donald Straszheim, managing principal at Straszheim Global Advisor]

“Companies that need the most talented people to fix their problems won’t be able to pay them.” [Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer]

[video] Lebron kills Knicks with 52

So Kobe and now Lebron are just using my home team to just break all kinds of records.Hopefully this was Lebron’s audition to play here in a couple of years.

[video] Lady Luck – Change

I think this is a slick video concept even though as she says it is low budget, but I give Lady Luck some props for this one. Support dope female rappers!!!
Ohh and my man makes a quick brief appearance.

more about “Lady Luck – Change“, posted with vodpod

[video] WTF??? Audio Of Etta James Saying She Will Whip Beyonce’s Ass

Sorry Ms. James you sound very old and bitter and how ironic is that Beyonce just played you in Cadillac Records(great movie by the way) which could not be done without you signing off on it. I guess out with the old in with the new applies here. SMH.

[pics] Friday The 13th

So far the buzz on this update of the franchise has been pretty good so I guess I will be paying the $12.50 to see this because the bootleg off the NYC subway just won’t cut it. Matter fact sign me up for the matinee.

Jason Lives!

via Latino Review

Synopsis
Searching for his missing sister, Clay heads up to the eerie woods of legendary Crystal Lake where he stumbles on the creaky remains of rotting old cabins that lie in wait behind moss-covered trees. And that’s not the only thing hiding under the brush. Against the advice of police and cautions from the locals, Clay pursues what few leads he has with the help of a young woman he meets among a group of college kids up for an all-thrills weekend. But they are about to find much more than they bargained for. Little do they know, they’ve entered the domain of one of the most terrifying specters in American film history – the infamous killer who haunts Crystal Lake armed with a razor-sharp machete… Jason Voorhees.

More pics after the jump

[video] Ex-Bad Boy Artist Mark Curry On The Devil aka Diddy

more about “Ex-Bad Boy Artist Mark Curry On The D…“, posted with vodpod

I was having this discussion the other day with my partner P Moor and it seems that no matter how bad former artists talk about there experience with Sean Combs there is always a new crop willing to get under his wing and receive the same fate. I don’t have all day to construct a list of all the people who were Bad Boy artists that are now extinct.

It seems that Mary J. Blige was the smart one who got away from him early but even she relapsed and recorded one of her more recent albums with him. I will never understand the logic behind this constant cycle. And that goes to you Royce the 5’9.

[video] Lil Wayne Interview with Katie Couric: Tells The World He Doesnt Want To Know His Real Father, “Ima Rapper & A Gangsta. I Love To Smoke” (Lil Wayne Gets Deep) [Full 11 Min Interview]

[video] 10-Year-Old Boy Found Dead in School Bathroom Hanging from a Hook

This is a tragedy beyond words.  WTF is happening in the State of Illinois?  This story is rather bizarre.

[video] Riots In Russia & Europe Due To Economic Crisis Are Growing Worldwide!

Miracle reports “Worldwide riots & protests due to do the global recession. Riots took place in Greece, Russia, France, Spain, Latvia.” I’m trying to forecast into the future and figure out which region of the Americas will be the first to pop off in unrest? The South, Midwest, or Up North? Spring or early summer? What do you think?

 

 

[video] Hero on the Hudson Interactive Game

Naturally, you’ve heard the story of US Air Flight 1549, which was successfully crash-landed into the Hudson by a dedicated and amazing crew. That crew got its 15 minutes of fame at the opening ceremonies before Super Bowl XLIII, but now you can play the hero yourself in a free, Web-based Flash game that lets you re-create the challenging landing.

‘Hero on the Hudson’ was created quickly by Orb Games Limited, supposedly to “remind everyone about this miraculous event,” but we’re also thinking that selling a few more advertisements was also on people’s minds. Either way, the 1.5 million plays the game has received in its first week is serious Internet traffic.

The game was deliberately made to be ridiculously simple (it actually took us three tries to crash), but if you still want to give it a shot, just start clicking above!

 

Google Earth now lets you explore the Ocean Floor

Google Earth is one of our favorite toys (time-wasters) here at Switched, and on Monday Google unveiled its updated version 5.0 (beta, of course) of the software. It’s packed with so much new content that we’re amazed we’ve managed to get anything done this week.

One of the features that has everyone “ooo”ing and “ah”ing is the new underwater imagery. Instead of merely flying overhead, you can plunge into the oceanic depths (by zooming in past the surface) and explore mountains and valleys of the sea floor. Links to information from National Geographic, Cousteau Ocean World, Wikipedia, and even animal tracking data can be layered onto these underwater maps.

[Video] Rick Ross – Mafia Music

more about “Video: Rick Ross – Mafia Music“, posted with vodpod

[video] KRS-One vs. Barack Obama

Kudos to the Blast Master. Every system needs Checks & Balances. Like I said before lets see how quick they are to distance themselves from the “Teacher” and label him crazy but nobody will dare step up to debate the facts upon which he is professing. This should be interesting. We use to always say KRS-ONE is the last dude you want on the opposing team.
CLICK [HERE] for related post.

[pics] I’VE GOT THE WORLD’S BIGGEST BOOBS

Not much of an implant man myself but from what I can see these don’t look half bad.

via Daily Star UK

SHEYLA Hershey’s massive 38KKK breasts have been declared the world’s biggest boob job.

The 28-year-old American housewife and model has undergone nine ops to get her amazing figure.

And even though medics have warned that her breasts are in danger of exploding, she does not seem to care.

Sheyla, from Houston, Texas, said: “To me, big is beautiful. I don’t think I have anything to worry about.”

She had to go to Brazil for her last op after US doctors refused to carry out any more surgery on her Now Sheyla is in the record books for having the largest breast implants ever.

Her British ex-boyfriend started paying for her plastic surgery, but she left him after he begged her to stop.

She said: “I loved him very much but I had to leave him to follow my dream.”

Sheyla appears on The World’s Most Enhanced Woman And Me, next Wednesday on C4, at 10pm.

[video] $9 Million Stolen From Banks In A Worldwide Hack! [FBI Investigating $9 Million ATM Scam]

MY Fox reports ” – A Fox 5 investigation exposes a worldwide ATM scam that swindled $9 million and possibly jeopardized sensitive information from people around the world. Law enforcement sources told Fox 5 it’s one of the most frightening well-coordinated heists they’ve ever seen.”

 

[video] 2nd Grader Brings Heroin To School & Passes It Around In Philadelphia! (Investigation In Where They Got It From Continues)

ABC reports “SOUTH PHILADELPHIA – February 3, 2009 – (WPVI) — Five elementary school children have been taken to Children’s Hospital after, officials say, one child brought heroin to school. Medics were called out to McDaniel Elementary School at 1800 South 22nd Street around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. The second graders were taken to Children’s Hospital of Philadlephia to be examined after coming in contact with heroin packets inside their South Philadelphia school. It’s believed only one child opened packet and tasted it.”

Goddamn Dope Boyz got to be more careful..SMH

 

50 Cent to Headline Emo Rock Event

via LA Times

Today, we learned that this year’s installment of Bamboozle Left, the weekend-long blowout of Orange County mall emo in a parking lot (I’ve been!), has an unexpected headliner. Mr. Curtis Jackson, who apparently has some time to kill while waiting for his perpetually delayed “Before I Self Destruct” album to become even more relevantly titled, will head up the Saturday show opposite a gaggle of the usual suspects for these sorts of things, including P&H faves Brokencyde, who I simply must see live before the year is out. While the jokes about this pairing will come fast and easy, this seemingly absurd booking has a strong chance of actually being a pretty fantastic way to close out the weekend and a useful move for Mr. Jackson.

Here’s why: 1. Emo kids are the last genre of music fans who might take 50 seriously. After a vigorous sonning at the hands of Kanye West back in the halcyon days of the “Graduation” versus “Curtis” feud, 50′s been on something of a credibility death spiral among even Top 40 rap fans. He took hits in feuds with Cam’ron, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross and even Taco Bell, for Godsakes. He’s already tried comebacks with blatant, for-the-ladies club tracks, toothless thug posturing and king-of-the-charts boasts that have fallen comically flat. So what’s the one demographic that might still find him a menacing and riveting personality? Get Up Kids fans. All he has to do is take his shirt off and reveal an actual bullet wound for those kids to go home thrilled. For one night, he gets to start over in an amber-preserved golden age of white suburbia’s appetite for gangsta rap where he’s the dangerous outsider.  If nothing else, he won’t be hurt by this more than a catcall of “Currrrtis.”

[Op-Ed] Is Hip Hop Ready for the Return of Eminem?

via Independent UK

1. GUESS WHO’S BACK

 

For a man whose last public act was to splash his wedding across the pages of Hello! magazine in 2006, where he proudly showed off his new wife Kim, daughter Hailie and an endearingly ill-fitting lounge suit, Marshall Bruce Mathers III was in a strangely reclusive mood when he began his long-awaited return to the public eye three months ago.

The 36-year-old white rapper, better known as Eminem but occasionally styling himself Slim Shady, turned up at the launch of his autobiography, The Way I Am, at a sports shop in Manhattan wearing the uncomfortable look of a man to whom fame and fortune have brought little in the way of happiness – and a healthy dose of insecurity.

Fellow guests, most of whom he’d personally invited, as it was, after all, his party, were ordered not to speak unless spoken to. Book-signing was out of the question, since Eminem doesn’t “do” autographs. He posed briefly for photos, frowning behind a pair of spectacles, before disappearing downstairs with fellow musicians 50 Cent and LL Cool J.

“Em was pretty much a rabbit in headlights,” recalls Hattie Collins, founder of the urban lifestyle magazine RWD, who was present. “We were told not to talk to him. People like 50 Cent were walking around, shaking hands and being generally sociable, so it was a friendly event. But I guess he just didn’t feel ready to be back in the public eye.”

Twenty minutes later, Eminem re-emerged. He breezed through the room, pausing only to answer a few questions for a local hip-hop station (earlier that day, he’d given a sometimes monosyllabic but occasionally intriguing half-hour interview to Radio 1′s Zane Lowe). Then he was ushered into a black SUV and driven away.

Attack of the A.I.? Google and Nasa back new school for futurists

via FT

I been telling folks that they about to fire up Skynet, but nobody listens

Google and Nasa are throwing their weight behind a new school for futurists in Silicon Valley to prepare scientists for an era when machines become cleverer than people.

The new institution, known as “Singularity University”, is to be headed by Ray Kurzweil, whose predictions about the exponential pace of technological change have made him a controversial figure in technology circles.

Google and Nasa’s backing demonstrates the growing mainstream acceptance of Mr Kurzweil’s views, which include a claim that before the middle of this century artificial intelligence will outstrip human beings, ushering in a new era of civilisation.

To be housed at Nasa’s Ames Research Center, a stone’s-throw from the Googleplex, the Singularity University will offer courses on biotechnology, nano-technology and artificial intelligence.

The so-called “singularity” is a theorised period of rapid technological progress in the near future. Mr Kurzweil, an American inventor, popularised the term in his 2005 book “The Singularity is Near”.

Proponents say that during the singularity, machines will be able to improve themselves using artificial intelligence and that smarter-than-human computers will solve problems including energy scarcity, climate change and hunger.

[video] Lebron Jame’s TOP 10 Plays of ’09

via RealTalk

He’s heating up, nah he’s on FIYAH!

[video] LMAO!!! Kid after being drugged up by dentist

Remind me to never go to the dentist, when they are giving out cocaine to sedate you.

via BOOBA 1234

This is my 7 year old son who had an extra tooth removed last summer, 2008. I had the camera because he was so nervous before I wanted him to see before and after.

He was so out of it after, I had to carry him out of the office. The staff was laughing and I had tears it was so funny.

He is doing fine now and the teeth are great.

Best of all he is the best kid as his brother William. I couldnt have asked for two better sons!

2/3 Update: Video camera is a flip video. not bad for $150 bucks!

[video] Another Comedian Bites the Dust: Katt Williams Says He Is Retiring?

What is it in the comedian’s psyche that always seem to pop up when they are at the top of their game. I have spoken with a up and coming comedian and he told me that it takes 10 years to get good and 15 to be great. Katt says in this clip he has been doing standup for 18 years and he has had enough.
He definitely filled the void left by Dave Chapelle and to hear him talk of retirement is shocking and sad. Another great one bites the dust.

more about “Another Comedian Bites the Dust: Kat…“, posted with vodpod

via WSHH

The Humor Mill reports “Here is our interview we did with Katt Williams where he talks about his dispute with Steve Harvey and with Jamie Foxx, plus he talks about his retirement. We asked him about his retire 3 times because he has a contract on the table with Comedy Central worth about $50 MILLION dollars that he is walking away from. ”

Former La. Klansman David Duke Says New RNC Chairman ‘Black Racist’

via WDSU

NEW ORLEANS — Former Klansman David Duke, who ran for governor of Louisiana, is blasting the newly appointed chairman of the Republican Party as a “black racist.”

In a lengthy process on Friday, GOP leaders voted former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele into the party’s leadership post.

Steele is the first African-American to hold that position.

Duke described those who supported the move as “traitorous,” and cited Steele’s positions on gun control, affirmative action and the death penalty in a sometimes rambling condemnation posted on his personal Web site.

“I think the insanity of nominating ‘Mr. Amnesty’ John McCain and now this black racist will lead to insurgency in the Republican ranks,” Duke said.

He further referred to Steele as “Obama Jr.” and a “servile dog of Israel.”

While he has been largely off the mainstream political radar for years and no longer lives in Louisiana, Duke is still politically active, speaking largely to a fractional segment of the spectrum.

He said he was interviewed this weekend by the Washington Post, though he was not mentioned in any published items through the weekend.

Kwame Kilpatrick Released After 99-Day Bid

via USA Today

DETROIT — Former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick left jail early Tuesday morning with a new look, an apparent new appreciation for freedom and a new high-powered lawyer who said he doesn’t have any plans to sue anybody … yet.

Emerging from the Wayne County Jail situated across an alley from Detroit Police headquarters, a slimmer and shaggier Kilpatrick paused in the doorway of the Andrew C. Baird Detention Center around 12:30 a.m.

While his new attorney, Willie Gary, said Kilpatrick would have nothing to say, the 38-year-old ex-mayor looked around with a somewhat bewildered expression. Through the thick beard that replaced his formerly closely cropped whiskers, he flashed a smile. Then he plowed toward a waiting Chevrolet Suburban as a phalanx of large and nattily attired escorts tried to form a wall against reporters and photographers.

Micheal Steele Blogs to Hip Hop on Global Grind

via Global Grind

Washington is currently locked in a debate over a federal government “stimulus” package but millions of Americans in poverty remain locked out of that debate. If we are to stimulate our economy for real growth, we must empower more Americans to move up the economic ladder. We won’t be healthy as a nation until we do. Republicans have in the past been accused of caring more about the statistics that define the poor than the reforms necessary to lift the poor out of poverty. However, if we are to be true to the foundational principles of the Party of Lincoln–free enterprise, individual liberties and access to equal opportunities–then we know that any efforts to improve our economy must include a pathway of empowerment and opportunity for the poor.

Some have faith in government in order to create such a pathway; Republicans have faith in people. Thus, a truly effective stimulus package would rely less on government solutions and more on individual solutions that encourage enterprise, job training and educational opportunities for those seeking to free themselves from the shackles of poverty. HUD Secretary Jack Kemp once noted, “the purpose of a great party is not to defeat the other party but to provide superior ideas, principled leadership and a compelling cause.” The Republican Party now has an obligation to provide solutions and ideas that demonstrate our capacity to lead on behalf of the poor of America and to provide them a pathway to legacy wealth creation. No cause can be more compelling than that!

-Michael Steele

Blood on the Sand G-Unit Interview ft. Tony Yayo & Lloyd Banks

more about “Blood on the Sand G-Unit Interview“, posted with vodpod

[video] Vida DUB Magazine Photoshoot

Don’t know if this is new footage but it’ll do! All of our faithful Vida followers can feast on this until something new pops up.

 

[video] Embarrasing: Rapper Professor Green Falls Off Stage During MC Battle & Continues On

Hilarious. We’ve personally witnessed some battles hosted by JUMPOFF TV that have been the most entertaining spoofs of battles we’ve ever seen. I know they got loads of footage similar to this.

 

[video] Caught On Tape: NYPD Officers Pocket Money While They Raid A Bar!

This is no big surprise to anyone familiar with how filthy the NYPD can be, or any police force for that matter. Welcome to the real world of crooked crash cops!

“A shocking video showing NYPD cops raiding a bar, smashing gambling machines and shoving confiscated cash into their pockets has become an Internet hit and led to an internal probe of the officers involved,” The New York Post reports.

 

Controversial Bestseller Shakes the Foundation of Israeli State

via Alternet

What if the Palestinian Arabs who have lived for decades under the heel of the modern Israeli state are in fact descended from the very same “children of Israel” described in the Old Testament?

And what if most modern Israelis aren’t descended from the ancient Israelites at all, but are actually a mix of Europeans, North Africans and others who didn’t “return” to the scrap of land we now call Israel and establish a new state following the attempt to exterminate them during World War II, but came in and forcefully displaced people whose ancestors had lived there for millennia?

What if the entire tale of the Jewish Diaspora — the story recounted at Passover tables by Jews around the world every year detailing the ancient Jews’ exile from Judea, the years spent wandering through the desert, their escape from the Pharaoh’s clutches — is all wrong?

That’s the explosive thesis of When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?, a book by Tel Aviv University scholar Shlomo Zand (or Sand) that sent shockwaves across Israeli society when it was published last year. After 19 weeks on the Israeli best-seller list, the book is being translated into a dozen languages and will be published in the United States this year by Verso.

Its thesis has ramifications that go far beyond some antediluvian academic debate. Few modern conflicts are as attached to ancient history as that decades-long cycle of bloodletting between Israelis and Palestinians. Each group lays claim to the same scrap of land — holy in all three of the world’s major Abrahamic religions — based on long-standing ties to that chunk of earth and national identities formed over long periods of time. There’s probably no other place on Earth where the present is as intimately tied to the ancient.

Central to the ideology of Zionism is the tale — familiar to all Jewish families — of exile, oppression, redemption and return. Booted from their kingdom, the “Jewish people” — sons and daughters of ancient Judea — wandered the earth, rootless, where they faced cruel suppression from all corners — from being forced to toil in slavery under the Egyptians, to the Spanish massacres of the 14th century and Russian pogroms of the 19th, through to the horrors of the Third Reich.

[video] Shades of Brooklyn Vol.1

My partner Ephraim “Fetti” Benton stars in this indie.  Come check out the screening this flick on Thursday right here in BK…

	7:30pm – 11:00pm
	MIRRORS ON GRAND
	284 GRAND AVE @LAFAYETTE AVE
	Brooklyn, NY

Come and support homegrown artists if you are in the town.

Kobe Kills Knicks With 61 at The Garden

This guy is not human, or the Knicks are just that bad this year too. No excuse for letting Kobe come here and do that.

more about “Kobe Kills Knicks With 61“, posted with vodpod

[video] CAM’RON- I Hate My Job

I actually had to look at this a few times before I saw the cleverness in it. Shot in Ohio, Cam has taken himself off of 140th and Lenox and injected himself into the daily conversation being had around America. This is a song for the working man, a “recession” anthem but not in the same vein of Jeezy, which is what you’d expect from Killa. I know Cam has something in the stash, so I will let him pass on this one. Plus, he’s getting back to the humor we miss in Hip Hop.

 

If Lil Wayne Wins BIG at the Grammys, Expect BIG Crowd Onstage

via USA Today

If Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III wins album of the year, the rapper won’t be alone at the podium. The award, bestowed on an album’s artists, producers, engineers and mixers, means Wayne’s world of 42 contributors may congregate on stage to thank God and their moms.

It easily beats the last stampede in the album category, Outkast’s 2003 champ Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. The hip-hop duo shared the spoils with 15 engineers/mixers, two mastering engineers and producer Carl Mo.

Rap doesn’t have a monopoly on mob hits. When twangy soundtrack O Brother, Where Art Thou? won best album in 2001, 38 statuettes were dispensed. And Santana’s Supernatural, 1999′s top album, anointed 44 participants.

The record-holder remains disco soundtrack Saturday Night Fever, which won in 1978, when 32 artists and 18 producers collected Grammy gold for best album. Boosting that booty was a rule in force until 1980 allowing artist/producers to receive Grammys for both roles.

Multiple producers and songwriting by committee are far more common now than when the Bee Gees reigned. You have to reach back a dozen years to find the last twosome to win best album: Bob Dylan and Daniel Lanois in 1997 for Time Out of Mind. Even rarer? A self-produced artist like George Michael, who took best album for Faith in 1988. Then, it was lonely at the top.