“T.I & Tiny: The Family Hustle” aired another episode last night with this one focusing on Domani, his school performance and his first video shoot. When Tip learns that Domani isn’t doing well in school, he tells Domani that his motto should be “God, Family, School and Hustle,” in that order. He understand that Domani wants to shoot a video for his first single, but Tip has a plan to get Domani more focused on school. Tip plans to take his son to a video shoot and get him all hyped up about shooting his own video, and then rip the dream right from under him by telling him that if he doesn’t get his act together in school then there will be NO VIDEOS for Domani. Well said. Domani works hard to get his act together in school and then two weeks later he returns home to show Tip that he’s made the honor roll. See what you can do when you put your mind to it! Domani gives Tip his idea for the video shoot, which involved President Barack Obama, Ben Franklin, doing the dougie and $100 bills everywhere. Sounds like fun! When they finally get to the video shoot, Domani realizes that his big video dreams have been halted to a mere $2,000 budget with Tip’s assistant, Snake, as the video’s director and his brothers and the OMG Girlz as his video talents. When the camera’s start rolling, Domani doesn’t know what to do, what camera to look at and how to conduct himself. Tip hangs his head saying, “Hes half-assing again. His name shoulda been Half-Ass Harris.” Eventually Domani finally gets his life together, and does an amazing job at his video shoot! Looks like another star is born in the Harris household! Get More: T.I. & Tiny: The Family Hustle “Wait, We Ain’t Gon Get No Presents?”, “T.I & Tiny: The Family Hustle” [RECAP] A Family That Raps Together, Stays Together “T.I & Tiny: The Family Hustle” [RECAP] Five Reasons We Love T.I & Tiny “The Family Hustle” [RECAP] Why T.I. Thinks Tiny Is Beautiful… [EXCLUSIVE] T.I. & Tiny Dirty Talk In Reality Show Sneak Peek [VIDEO] T.I. & Tiny Land Reality Show, Reveal Promo Shots [PHOTOS] Visit T.I’s Hometown, Georgia! Tiny To Tip: “Put My Love On Top!”, “The Family Hustle” [RECAP]
We hate to report these kinds of stories. But Denver Bronco and former Georgia Bulldog Knowshon Moreno was arrested while driving his Bentley convertible last night in Denver. He was charged with DUI and driving 70-mph in a 45-mph zone. He was also charged with failing to have insurance and reckless driving.
When producer Wyatt “Wyldfyer” Coleman says he started making beats in “the lab,” he’s not just tossing around industry jargon. Before he brought the world beats like Jay-Z and Nas’s “Black Republicans” or Kendrick Lamar’s “ Kush and Corinthians,” the Philly native was pioneering the mobile studio—sort of. “Black Republicans” “We would be at the Spelman computer lab, me and my homeboy Chris. Spelman always had the better computers because they had the Cosbys funding them,” says the Morehouse and Georgia Tech alumnus of his humble beatmaking beginnings. “Kush and Corinthians” “I didn’t have a laptop so I had Fruity Loops on a 100MB ZIP disk . I had to install it each time. I’d bang away for a few hours and then delete the program from the computer. It was a demo and with the demo you could export the project but you couldn’t save it. So when I made my beats I had to finish ‘em up, bruh. I had to finish the beat or I’d never hear it again. Low budget? I’ve been there.” Thanks to that kind of hustle Wyldfyer now holds the distinction of being the only producer (thus far) to have had Jay-Z and Nas on the same track–twice. He programmed the slaps for Ludacris’ “I Do It For Hip-Hop” featuring Nas and Jay-Z and the aforementioned “Black Republicans.” “God is my manager, bruh,” he says. “Me and NO ID were joking around one time cuz he did “Success” and we were saying ‘we’re the only ones that had Nas/Jay-Z collabos.’ I don’t know what made Luda get Nas and Jay-Z so that was just a blessing.” Currently Wyldfyer is at work submitting tracks for the next Nas album and is sitting on some unreleased Biggie vocals that could make his career if he wanted to. He submitted two remixes to the Biggie Duets album that weren’t used, but he still has the acapellas. “It didn’t make the album so it would be an unreleased Biggie song that no one’s ever heard,” says. “It’s the slow flow Biggie. It might just be a verse, which is probably why [Puff] didn’t put it out. But I’m not that thirsty to put it out there and ruin my career.” Follow him on Twitter @Wyldfyer
Everyone would agree that politics is the HOT TOPIC this year. President Obama is working his re-election campaign and there are 4 potential Republican nominees battling it out for their party’s nomination. No matter WHO you vote for, it is important that you VOTE. Often times, I hear of people who go to the poles, only to get turned away because they were at the wrong precinct or not registered like they thought they were. Well, here’s a GREAT way to check! If you registered in the State of Georgia, be sure to check out your Voter Information/Status on the Georgia Secretary of State’s “MVP” Site to ensure everything is accurate! Take action EARLY so they’ll be no confusion on election day! Also, be sure to spread the word!
Pastor Troy hasn’t had a hit record in a while, but the “No Mo Play in GA” rapper recently resurfaced on “Judge Alex” of all places. Troy was on “Judge Alex” being sued by an Augusta, Georgia concert promoter who said the ATL rapper failed to show up at an Augusta club performance. Troy’s manager told Judge Alex that his client has a violent history with Augusta and never would have agreed to the show if he had known the club was so close to Augusta. “People who wanna pop a cap in you aren’t gonna drive 20 minutes?” asked Judge Alex. RELATED: Big Boi Avoids Jail Time In Florida Drug Case Ice-T Escapes Jury Duty In Jersey Eddie Long Accusers Risk Losing Settlement Money By Speaking Out [FULL INTERVIEW]
Season 11 contestant is a mashup of every male winner in show’s history. By Jim Cantiello Phillip Phillips on American Idol’s season premiere Photo: FOX Last night’s 14-hour “American Idol” premiere presented the usual suspects of hopefuls. To paraphrase judge (and hideous eyewear collector) Randy Jackson at the end of the Savannah, Georgia, trip, “We came, we saw, we mocked immigrants’ accents, we patronized and lusted after hot girls, we competently read off of producers’ notes, we conquered.” Then, just as the expected parade of planted craycrays and daughters of sports athletes wrapped up, “Idol” introduced its eventual season 11 winner, Phillip Phillips. First let’s talk his name. It’s so ridiculous, it’s awesome. You’ll never forget it. Not to get all numerologist on you, but for season 11, a digit comprised of “one” repeated twice, a name like Phillip Phillips is destined to end up on top. At least he is in a pretentious overwritten novel. But Phillip Phillips’ unavoidable victory truly comes into focus once you realize that he’s a tried-and-true mashup of every male winner in the show’s 10-year history. Musically, Phillip 2 is a Dave Matthews worshipper (hi, season nine’s Lee DeWyze!) with the Joe Cocker mannerisms of season five’s Taylor Hicks. His first audition song was a Stevie Wonder classic. (Sophomore class president Ruben Studdard made his first impression with a Stevie song, too.) And just when you thought fellow contestant Colton Dixon had the David Cook fans in his corner by singing the season seven winner’s “Permanent” (and sharing a passion for haircuts tragique), Phillips rocked a “Thriller” of an encore: a white-dude twist on a Michael Jackson fave
Something about this story just doesn’t smell right… A man arrested this week in North Carolina may have stashed a .38 barrel revolver in his rectum, according to police, who reported that the unloaded 10-inch weapon was not discovered until after the suspect had been booked into a cell in the county jail. Michael Leon Ward, a 22-year-old Georgia resident, was arrested Monday after a trooper spotted him speeding. Ward, who resisted arrest, was subdued with the help of a stun gun. A subsequent search of his vehicle resulted in additional charges for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. But it was only after Ward–who is a fugitive on a murder warrant out of Atlanta–entered the Onslow County jail that sheriff’s investigators discovered what else he possessed. According to cops, Ward, pictured at right, summoned jailers to his cell, claiming that someone was trying to kill him, and that he discovered a gun inside his cell. The weapon was found in the toilet, where Ward claimed he tossed it after finding it in his bunk Sheriff’s investigators say they are investigating how Ward got the weapon into the jail, since he had been “strip searched prior to being booked into a cell block.” The inmate, a press release notes, was taken today to a local hospital “for possible injuries that may have occurred to Ward’s rectum where it is believed Ward may have concealed” the revolver. So he snuck it in the “back door”? It must have been a Browning. We bet he’s a crappy shot anyway. These jokes just write themselves SMH Source
The idea of seeing Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton in a movie together, not to mention a movie about a gospel choir, is a particular kind of heaven. Latifah is a radiant performer capable of elevating even the most mundane material to a level of charm and grace unachievable by most mere mortals. And Parton, aside from having one of the sweetest and most haunting voices in all of country music, is a firecracker presence by herself — if you could bottle force of will in a perfume bottle, you couldn’t name it anything but Dolly. But whatever Latifah and Parton might have achieved together in that mythical heavenly ideal, it’s just not coming together in this lifetime – or at least not in Joyful Noise , a well-intentioned, pleasant-enough picture that shoots off in too many directions to ever ignite. Latifah plays Vi Rose Hill, a sturdy, no-nonsense family woman who inherits the leadership of her church choir after the death of its beloved director (played, in just a few tiny scenes, by Kris Kristofferson). But this is a very small town we’re talking about — Pacashau, Georgia, pop. 233, or something like that — and petty rivalries and resentments abound. It turns out that G.G. Sparrow (Parton), who has contributed heaps of money to the church and who’s also a leading (and undeniably shapely) figure in its Divinity Church Choir, thinks she should inherit the mantle. She has some new ideas for the group, which she wants to implement before the all-important National Joyful Noise Competition. Vi Rose, a traditionalist, likes to do things the old-fashioned way. The two women start trading insults and play-fighting even before it becomes apparent that G.G.’s rapscallion grandson, Randy (Jeremy Jordan), who has just drifted into town from New York City, is madly attracted to Vi Rose’s daughter, Olivia (Keke Palmer), the choir’s obvious rising young star. Actually, there’s a new conflict every five minutes in Joyful Noise : It’s pretty much all writer-director Todd Graff ( Bandslam ) can do to tamp each one down, Whac-a-Mole style, before another one pops up. Vi Rose doesn’t much approve of Randy, until he takes her pop-music-loving, Asperger’s-afflicted son, Walter (Dexter Darden), under his wing. (Walter’s favorite song is the Left Banke’s Walk Away Renee , and if you’re going to have just one favorite, that’s not a bad one to have.) Randy, you see, is an ace pianist and arranger, and he also has some ideas for spiffing up the choir’s material and moves. Meanwhile, Olivia starts acting up, as young ‘uns will. And don’t look now, but a rival for her affections (Paul Woolfolk) is just about to show up at the local quarry, where Randy and Walter have gone to practice their vocals (it makes a handy echo chamber). That could be big trouble. And yet, somehow, it’s really not. There’s so much going on in Joyful Noise that there doesn’t seem to be much time for anyone to actually sing. Still, the gang manages to squeeze some in. Many of the numbers are pop songs reimagined as gospel material, some making the transition with ease (like Sly Stone’s “I Want to Take You Higher”) and others (“Maybe I’m Amazed”) that, no matter how you slice them — or tweak the lyrics — still sound like secular love songs rather than hymns of praise. One of the loveliest numbers is Latifah’s spare rendition of “Fix Me, Jesus”: It’s plain and unvarnished, in a way that too much of Joyful Noise isn’t. Parton sings a duet with Kristofferson (he returns from the grave specifically for this purpose), called “From Here to the Moon and Back,” which is pretty enough in its serene, wistful way. But even though there’s so much going on in Joyful Noise , there still isn’t much for its two stars to do other than trade one-liners masquerading as small-town insults. (Observing G.G.’s superblond tousle of hair, Vi Rose snickers, “What, you’re worried you’re not gonna be seen from space?”) Parton and Latifah are both high-spirited all right, and their sparring is reasonably fun to watch. But Parton’s face, as those of us who have loved her for years, is not what it used to be, and looking at it is a bit disconcerting. Latifah, on the other hand, looks as luminous as ever. As performers, the two clearly have a great deal of respect and admiration for each other, and that’s the motor that drives Joyful Noise . But movies need more than just good mechanics, or even just good chemistry, to bloom. They always need at least a scrap of divine intervention. And on that count, Joyful Noise could still use a little fixing from Jesus. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Usher is firing back at ex-wife Tameka Foster’s claims that he is a bad father to their two children. As we previously reported, Tameka asked a Georgia court last month for full custody of their two sons, claiming that Usher has not lived up to their joint custody agreement. Tameka claims that the Grammy Award-winning Atlanta singer failed to get her permission to travel with their kids and hired nannies without her approval. She also wants Usher to submit to a drug test. Usher has filed his own response to Tameka’s claims, asking a judge to reject Tameka’s request for full custody, on grounds her allegations are false. Usher also claims that he never canceled his ex-wife’s Saks 5th Avenue credit card as she has alleged. Usher and Tameka currently share joint physical custody of their kids. A trial date has been set for February 27. Read more at TMZ . RELATED: Tameka Foster Wants Usher Tested For Drugs Usher’s Ex-Wife Tameka Foster Files For Sole Custody Of Kids Usher’s Brother Arrested For Beating Baby Mama & Abusing Child
Rebecca Gayheart and Grey’s Anatomy star Eric Dane have welcomed their second child together, another girl they’ve named Georgia Geraldine! Gayheart, 40, and Dane, 39, have been married since 2004, and are already parents to daughter Billie Beatrice, who was born in March 2010. “Rebecca Gayheart and husband Eric Dane welcomed Georgia Geraldine Dane on Dec. 28, just in time for the New Year!” the pair’s rep says . “Both mom and baby girl are happy and healthy, Billie is thrilled to be a big sister, and dad is getting ready to live in a house full of ladies!” In August, an expectant Rebecca Gayheart shared with People some details about going through what was a more relaxed second pregnancy. “What’s made it different is that I’m very focused on Billie … so I’m not very focused on [the pregnancy]. I’m not as neurotic,” the actress said. She also confessed to readying herself for the obstacles that awaited the couple as they prepared to parent two kids under the age of 2: “I’ve heard that’s very challenging. But I think I’m up for it. Eventually it’s going to be great because they’ll be very close in age, and to each other, hopefully.” Congratulations to the happy, growing family! [Photo: WENN.com]
