A naked Kanye West and his "phoenix" as cover art didn't jive with distributors, but 'Ye gave fans a glimpse anyway, and blasted retailers who disapprove.
Although he's giving out weekly free songs via G.O.O.D Fridays, Chicago Hip Hop superstar Kanye West has kept a number of things mysterious about next month's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The Def Jam artist's fifth album may be coming November 22, 2010, but it was unclear what the art-inspired rapper's cover would look like.
Today, West tweeted what it will not look like. Kanye's intended cover featured a painting of what is believed to be a naked woman sitting on a naked man's lap. West indicated that the man, who is also holding a bottle, is supposed to be him. The woman, he called his "phoenix."
The cover is below:
With West's label presumingly banning the cover, the rapper criticized retailers that would deem the content unsuitable, specifically Wal-Mart.
West also pointed to the popularity of nudity on album covers in the 1970s. Artists including John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, The Scorpions and David Bowie have all used nudity or overly sexual themes on cover art.
Previously in Hip Hop, Ice-T's Home Invasion and The Coup's Party Music had banned covers
CHESTERFIELD COUNTY - Chesterfield Police have identified the man killed in a train accident Friday night to be a local high school student.
Police say Joshua D. Franklin, an 18 year-old Meadowbrook High School student who lives in the 6400 block of Cosmic Rd. was walking by the tracks near the Defense Supply Center when he was struck by a train. The incident happened at around 9:30 p.m. Friday night.
Franklin was pronounced dead on the scene. The incident remains under investigation.
A vigil is scheduled to remember the victim Monday night. Friends and family will gather at the railroad tracks where Franklin's body was found at 7:00 pm.
His mother tells CBS 6, she believes he was rushing home from a friends house to meet a 10pm curfew.
"He told me he wasn't going to use it again. That's why I knew he was rushing. He probably just wasn't thinking and used the shortcut," said Chrisandra Franklin.
When Chrisandra Franklin got the news about her son being struck by a train, she and her daughters rushed to the scene.
"I went up the train tracks, the police said you can't come up here and I said this might be my son. Once I saw his body, I said, Jesus, I knew it was my son."
Franklin says her son had his faults but called him a special young man.
"He cooked me breakfast every Saturday morning. He watched over my youngest daughter, you know. He was a big brother. It was like he was the man of the house," said Franklin.
Joshua's friends say he worked at the Boys and Girls club on Bainbridge street in South Richmond for the past three years.
They say he loved to play football and had planned to go to college.
And you could always count on him for a good laugh.
"He was a loving person, make you laugh, always put a smile on your face. He was just goofy a real comedian, good to be around," said best friend Casey Trice.
Family and friends comforted Joshua's mother and sisters at their Chesterfield apartment. Still in shock over this tragedy now asking why it had to happen.
Chrisandra Frankllin says "I love him but I know God loves him more. And I know I have angels watching over me but now I have a personal angel looking over me because I know my son was one."
"I just wish he could come back. It's not going to happen but I just miss him and love him," said Trice.
Many kids in living in the Regency Lake apartments in Chesterfield near the accident scene say, they use those train tracks as a short cut everyday, never expecting a tragedy to happen.
Since Joshua's death, there's been a huge outpouring of support from his friends.
So, his family is holding a vigil Monday evening at 7pm near the train tracks at Strathmore and Dundas roads. They're asking the public to bring flowers, roses and candles in memory of Joshua Franklin.
A man died after being struck by a train in Chesterfield County Friday night.
It happened about 9:30 p.m. on the tracks near the Defense Supply Center. Investigators say the victim was walking beside those tracks when he was hit by a train traveling south.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene. His identity is being withheld under his family has been notified.
Michael Vick told a Virginia Beach, Va., radio station Monday night that he's hoping to miss "maybe a week, maybe two weeks" from his rib cartilage injury.
"There is some cartilage damage up in there and a small fracture up in there, so maybe a week, maybe two weeks," he said, according to philly.com. "I just have to work through it. I've always been a quick healer. It won't be no more than one, two weeks hopefully. Hopefully.
"I'm feeling good, despite the rib injury. I'm fighting through it. Overall, I'm feeling well."
He has already been ruled out of this week's Eagles game against the 49ers, according to ESPN.
Monday afternoon, Eagles head coach Andy Reid called Vick "day-to-day, week-to-week" at his press conference.
Reid noted that Vick was still sore from the hit he suffered when two Redskins converged on him during a 23-yard scramble in the first quarter that was called back due to a penalty. Vick didn't return to the game and Kevin Kolb took over as quarterback in the 17-12 loss.
"The most important thing is just rest," Vick told WXTG Radio. "There is really nothing you can do for a rib injury, especially in the upper part of your rib cage. I'll get rest, I've got a Hyperbaric machine and I'll be spending a lot of time in that trying to restore my blood cells. I'll stay in the treatment room, getting ice for it and just trying to get movement."
Police in New Jersey are searching for the gunman who opened fire at an off-campus party near Seton Hall University, killing an honors student who tried to help a wounded friend.
Four people were wounded in the shootings early Saturday. Police are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, and the school is making counselors available on campus today.
"It's very much an active investigation," East Orange Police Sgt. Andrew DiElmo told AOL News today. "There are no suspects or arrests."
The gunman reportedly was turned away from the party in East Orange, about a mile from campus, but returned and opened fire, reportedly shooting people at random. As the shots rang out, the 100 party-goers scrambled to get out of the chaotic scene inside the row house.
Jessica Moore, 19, of Disputanta, Va., was gunned down moments after going to help one of her friends who was shot in the jaw, a witness told The New York Times.
"Everyone was running out; everyone was watching out for themselves," Jessica Townsend, 19, told the newspaper. "She said, 'I'm going to protect Nakeisha.'"
Nakeisha Vanterpool, a 19-year-old sophomore from the Bronx, was also shot in the arm.
"Jess was an amazing person -- the type who loved everyone, even if she only knew you for two minutes," Vanterpool told The Star-Ledger of Newark by e-mail. "She is more than my friend -- she is my sister."
Also wounded were another 19-year-old female student at the school, a man who attends New Jersey Institute of Technology and a man from New York who is not a student, The Associated Press said.
"It's every parent's nightmare," Vanterpool's father, Leslie Vanterpool, told the New York Daily News. "No parent should have to wake up to hear your kid is shot while attending college."
An unidentified survivor who was on the floor spoke of having the gunman step on her back as he fired randomly. The woman, a 19-year-old sophomore, was left with a bruise in the shape of a shoe print on her back, The Star-Ledger reported.
"I was literally the floor for the shooter -- he was standing on me," she told the newspaper. "When the gunshots stopped, all I saw was blood and Jess lying there."
One of the shooting victims, Xavier Lee, 21, had his left toe grazed by a bullet, fracturing a bone.
"I felt the sharp pain in my foot, so I knew I was hit," Lee told WABC-TV. "I'm hearing all these gunshots, and people screaming and everything."
Sponsored Links "It was one of the worst things I've ever seen," Lee told the station. "You know, people were climbing over each other trying to get out. People were getting knocked over. It was the worst."
After the gunman fled, police were interviewing witnesses.
"They're following up on some leads," DiElmo told The Star-Ledger. "There were 50-plus people at that party. So, there's a lot of people they're still tracking down who fled. ... It was mayhem."
About 500 of Moore's fellow students, friends and teachers gathered Saturday night for a prayer service. Hours after she was slain, Moore, a psychology major, was remembered as strong and selfless, The Associated Press reported.
"She had a magnetic personality," friend Christian Powe told AP after the service.
He and Moore became "real tight" after taking a rhetoric class together. He told AP she's a person "you can really open up to."
Students wrote tributes to Moore on a bulletin board at a dorm, and an electronic sign near the student center said, "Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected," the Times said.
The party was mostly for students from Seton Hall, a 10,000-student Roman Catholic university in South Orange, a suburb about 15 miles from New York City and a separate jurisdiction from the town where the shooting took place.
While the home where the party was held was on a street of well-kept houses, a major cross street leads to a rougher area. The university urges students going off campus to walk in groups.
The university's website lists 27 Greek organization but unofficial fraternities have been linked to the university, the Times reported. One came to light when two students were charged with assault in a 2005 hazing-related case, the paper said.
A dorm fire in 2000 killed three students and injured 58. It was started by two students who had been drinking.
We've heard all about the uniform redesigns for the Golden State Warriors, Utah Jazz and Cleveland Cavaliers. We know about the tweaks made by the Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Clippers and Dallas Mavericks. Jerseys be changin', you guys.
But did you know that every single team in the whole NBA will be wearing new jerseys next season? Totally true, because adidas has basically reinvented the NBA jersey without actually changing the way it looks besides tons of extra holes. Confused? Yeah, me too. But check out these sick details on the new "Revolution 30" unis.
Designed and developed by adidas, the uniforms are 30 percent lighter and dry twice as fast as previous NBA uniforms to help enhance player performance by keeping athletes cooler, drier and more comfortable on the court. All 30 NBA teams will wear the new uniforms beginning this season. [...]
The new uniforms, which are made from 60 percent recycled materials, feature adidas' Formotion technology, which reduces seams, decreases friction between the garment and the player's skin and optimizes the player's natural movement through specially constructed material. adidas reduced uniform weight and increased player comfort by switching front and back numbers from heavier, dense materials to breathable mesh. The new uniform absorbs moisture in less than three seconds as a result of adidas CLIMACOOL fabrics, which move heat and sweat away from the body through a combination of moisture management materials, ventilation channels, and three-dimensional garments, helping the uniform dry twice as fast.
Boom — 30 new uniforms all up in your face. They're cool (literally), they're sustainable (kind of), and they optimize player movement (seems chill?). What else could you ask for in a basketball uniform? Nothing, that's what else, because these are going to be a joy to wear.
[Jazz to rock throwback green uniforms]
Probably the best part of these uniforms — aside from the fact that they look significantly less shiny than the previous way-too-shimmery fabric used in the old kits — is that they have special ventilation channels that allow more air into the sweatiest parts of a player's body. We're talking on the back, on the chest and around the crotch. The real hot spots, which definitely need some cooling. There's no telling how this will affect Chauncey Billups'(notes) head or Lamar Odom's(notes) arms, but we can only hope for the best.
The new jerseys are available for purchase for all 30 teams, so if you're into that sort of thing, pick up a few over at the NBA's store. If you're not, enjoy your super sweaty tanktops, creepo.
The documentary painted a hopeless and pessimistic view of the violence in the city. At the time Little Rock was one of the most dangerous cities in the country. Sitting at the intersection of two major interstates from Los Angeles and New York, it had become a haven for drug trafficking. There were prominent gang presences of Bloods, Crips and Hoover's Folk Nation.
The documentary brought much attention to the problems in the city; the Little Rock Police force was quadrupled. As a result, the street gang problem was nearly eradicated.
While gang presence did decrease in the middle 90s, there is current evidence that local youth are once again beginning to identify with street gangs and drug dealers. Many intervention and prevention programs were not funded causing an increase once again in violence among youth.
Steve Nawojczyk GangWar who was the county coroner during the Gang War years, and was featured in the documentary, continues to work in the intervention and prevention of youth gangs. While Gang War: Bangin' in Little Rock followed Nawojczyk while he did his grim work as the county's chief coroner, it also showed his attempts at reducing the record-high homicide rate in Arkansas' capital city.
There was a follow up documentary released in 2004 called Gang War 2- Back in the Hood.
It's probably not a good sign for the future of Michigan basketball that there may be more star power in the stands at Crisler Arena next season than on the court.
Jordan Dumars, son of ex-Pistons star Joe Dumars, will be a sophomore at Michigan this season. Jon Horford and Tim Hardaway Jr. are part of this season's incoming freshman class. And then on Tuesday, class of 2012 wing Glenn Robinson III, son of former Purdue star Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson, announced that he has committed to the Wolverines.
"I just talked to my mom and dad and coaches and everybody in my family," the younger Robinson told UMHoops.com. "Yesterday I just started to like it more and more and I figured there was no point in waiting. Michigan is where I want to go. They have a great academic program and basketball program. I just like everything about Michigan and that's where I want to be. I think I'll fit perfectly."
Big Ten fans might be curious why Robinson wouldn't attend Purdue like his father, but the answer is because the Boilermakers haven't shown much interest so far. In fact, Michigan was the only Big Ten scholarship offer Robinson had along with the likes of Colorado, Valparaiso, Missouri State and others.
If recruiting the sons of NBA players is going to be coach John Beilein's unusual niche, then maybe the greatest irony is the lone legacy he tried to bring to Michigan but failed to land. That would be Glen Rice Jr., the son of the former Michigan star who now starts at guard for Georgia Tech.
Even without the Rices, a father-son exhibition game at Michigan would draw a lot of fans the next few years. Maybe the kids will improve with time, but right now the smart money would be on the elders.
Gucci Mane's tracklisting for his upcoming appeal album has been released.
As previously reported Gucci recently dropped the video for his new single “Gucci Time” featuring Alicia Keys' husband Swizz Beatz.
On the East Atlanta rapper's latest album he'll be accompanied by Bun B, Ray-J, Nicki Minaj, Estelle and Wyclef.
The Appeal is set to hit stores September 28, check out the cover and tracklisting below.
1. Lil Friend (Feat. Bun B) 2. Trap Talk 3. Missing 4. What It's Gonna Be 5. Making Love To The Money 6. Gucci Time (Feat. Swizz Beatz) 7. Party Animal 8. Remember When (Feat. Ray J) 9. Haterade (Feat. Nicki Minaj and Pharrell) 10. It's Alive (Feat. Swizz Beatz) 11. ODog (Feat. Wyclef) 12. Dollar Sign 13. Brand New 14. Weirdo 15. Grown Man (Feat. Estelle)
***Swirv Deniro Said "I Get In FREE SUNDAYS"*** ***Swirv Deniro Said "I Get In FREE SUNDAYS" *** ***Swirv Deniro Said "I Get In FREE SUNDAYS"***
@POSH 1713 E. Main St. In the Heart of Richmond, VAs Shockoe Bottom ************************************************************** (The 1st 92 People At The FRONT DOOR)
Tell Em "Swirv Said I Get In Free" & You Will!!!! Tell Em "Swirv Said I Get In Free" & You Will!!!! Tell Em "Swirv Said I Get In Free" & You Will!!!!
