Upcoming female rapper
Janine “Jah Jah” Gordon filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against
50 Cent and Dr. Dre, claiming the duo infringed on several of her copyrights.
Gordon alleges that her songs “Poppin’ at Da Club,” “Hardcore”
“Crazy Dreams” and others were illegally used on 50 Cent’s album
The Massacre. Gordon, who’s worked with Chubb Rock and others, is also an acclaimed photographer and painter.
When contacted, Gordon declined comment. Gordon recently released a new album,
Take A Lick, Take A Bite.
Miami, Florida
rapper Ranzer “Ran Rover” Wallace was found dead on Monday morning,
after police found his decomposing body in a car with an associate. Police found
Wallace, 25, and Stephen Marzan, 34, in a car in an apartment complex, after
residents complained of a foul odor. Police are still seeking suspects. As Ran
Rover, Wallace’s debut Ride Wit Ya Boy boasted appearances by
Juvenile and Snoop Dogg.
Snoop Dogg has been named executive producer of XM’s classic Hip-hop channel
65, The Rhyme. Snoop will be in charge of developing the creative direction
of the channel, in addition to developing exclusive content. "I am truly
excited about being able to have total control over the music and programming
for The Rhyme on XM,” Snoop Dogg said. “I will play music that people
have never heard and music that they haven’t heard in a long time. We need more
Snoop Dogg music all the time because the music I play makes people feel good.
Consider yourself a part of this new Snoop Dogg eargasm." Snoop will continue
to host his show "Welcome to Da Chuuch" in 2006 on channel 65.
MTV Films has acquired the feature film rights to Marc Ecko’s upcoming
videogame, “Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure.” According to Ecko,
the film version will pay homage to “graffiti’s rich culture.”
The game centers around a fictional city called New Radius, where freedom of
expression and graffiti has been outlawed. Players assume the role of Trane
and must learn various graffiti skills in order to expose the tyrannical mayor
of the city. Sean “Diddy” Combs, The RZA, MC Serch, Rosario Dawson,
Brittany Murphy and others have signed on to provide voices for the game, which
is slated for a Feb. 2006 release date. "When I first began working on
"Getting Up" seven years ago, I wanted to create a storyline that
provided a rare look inside of one of the most influential, yet often overlooked,
artistic movements in recent history,” Ecko said. “Today, graffiti
is a global cultural phenomenon and few understand its impact better than MTV,
pioneers in its use as a motion graphics tool nearly two decades ago.”