Preview: Steve Stoute’s ‘Tanning Of America’ With Jay-z, Pharrell, Jimmy Iovine & Lady Gaga

Author, entrepreneur, former record executive and artist manager Steve Stoute has been a matchmaker of sorts over the past few years as founder of the marketing agency, Translations Consulting and Brand Imaging. His company has been responsible for linking pop and urban culture with corporate America including Justin Timberlake McDonald’s ‘I’m Loving It’ deal, Lebron James partnership with State Farm, Jay-z’s ‘S. Carter’ deal with Reebok, Lady Gaga Viva Glam deal with MAC Cosmetics and Chris Brown’s ‘Forever’ jingle deal for Doublemint Gum.
Steve has recently released a new book titled, “The Tanning Of America: How Hip Hop Created A Culture That Rewrote the Rules of The Economy” with an accompanying web series for AOL. In ‘The Tanning Effect’, he sits down with some of music’s most influential artists and asks pressing questions such as Jay-Z’s real opinion on Cristal’s comments about the hip hop community drinking their champagne, as well as how Pharrell put Louis Vuitton in the sunglass business with inspiration from the late Notorious B.I.G. Check out the trailer to his new show, plus a few excerpts from the interviews below:

Jay-z on Cristal comments about the black community drinking their Champagne
It’s a huge slap in the face. Here it is you’re promoting something you like and it’s not even promoting it, you’re just talking about it. Hip Hop is about expression, you’re talking about something you like and it catches on in culture and you’re an unpaid spokesman for this brand. You’re generating millions and millions of dollars for that brand and for that brand not to say…..at least say thank you….
Pharrell on Louis Vuitton’s inspiration for eyewear and how it was influenced by Biggie
I was on the front row of Vicky Secret and [Marc Jacobs] was like “What sunglasses are those?” and I was like, “they’re Bathing Ape.” He said “What made you wear them?” and I was like, “It just reminds me of B.I.G” and he was like, “I like them, what do you want to do? Let’s do something.”
Right then and there and he was like, “What other sunglasses would you do? I was like, “You’re going to think I’m crazy.” He was like, “What?” I love when Tony [in Scarface] says to Manny “You know it’s the money. First, I’m going to be a millionaire and then I’m going to take over the world.”
Jimmy Lovine on what influenced him to create Beats by Dre
All I ever wanted to do my whole life since I was 18-years-old was move the needle of popular culture. Just move it! Not copy it, not run after it, move it, move it forward. So I was with Will.I.Am one day and he says, “You know the record business is all screwed up, we’re losing money. Jimmy, Jimmy! Hardware.” I said, “Will, what are you talking about hardware?”  He said, “HARDWARE.” So I said, “Will, you know why they call it hardware? It’s hard! That’s why they call it hardware.”
About a year later I was walking on the beach and I ran into Dr. Dre and Dre is a guy of few words. He said, “Jimmy, my lawyer wants me to sell sneakers.” I just looked at him and I said, “Dre, f–k sneakers, let’s sell speakers” and he said, “Wow, that works. So I got this word ‘beats’ and I don’t know what to do with it.” I said, “Beats by Dre, headphones and speakers.” That was the beginning of ‘Beats.’

Watch snippets of interviews with Jay-z, Pharrell, Jimmy Iovine and Lady Gaga below

Birdman Denies Boosting "Tha Carter IV" Sales By Buying Mass Copies

Birdman Denies Buying Copies Of Tha Carter IV
It is a well-known urban legend that many big name record companies purchase (scan) bulk amounts of their own artists' albums in order to drive records sales. With Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV selling 964,000 copies in its first week, many conspiracy theorist took to the internet to claim that C4's mind blowing sales numbers were do to this frowned upon practice.
Cash Money CEO Brian “Birdman” Williams was on Sway's Shade 45 morning show earlier today (September 7) to make clear that he didn't purchase any of those units.

“I press and distribute [CDs], ain't no need for me to buy em.,” Birdman told Sway. “That's hustling backwards, we ain't in it for that. I ain't ever been a part of that steam to be buying records. We don't do that homie. That don't go with what we do. We true about what we do, we real about what we do, we work hard every day at it.”
“There's no such thing as me buying those CDs,” he added. “I wouldn't even play it like that. I don't think that's gangsta, nor fair ball, I ain't even in it for that.”

Game Kicked Out Of Houston's Restaurant In Los Angeles, Claims Racism

Game Booted From Houston's Restaurant
Rapper Game is claiming that managers at popular upscale steak house Houston's asked him to leave for “racist” reasons and hit Twitter to show his discontent yesterday (September 6).
Chuck lashed out at the steak house via his Twitter account, tweeting,

"The mgr "Valerie" @ the Houstons resturant in Santa Monica is RACIST. She really just told me I cant eat cuz Im tatted n guest mite b scared," he tweeted September 6th.
"& when I pointed out 2 kool white guys with tank tops on, She stated they don't have as many ratios as you & said that I leave immediately"
"Houston's just went from my favorite resturant to the "RACIST-URANT" !!!!"
"Hillstone's racist-urant formerly known as Houston's & their slave-master manager Valerie has just made #1 on the RACIST resturant list !"

Game later notified his Twitter followers of a change of venue, tweeting.
"Now headed to "Roscoes Chicken & Waffles" where us N*GGERS are tattoo approved 100% accepted."

"#racisturant"
"Where the f%$k is @TMZ when you need em ?!?!?!? #rosaparkswasntenoughhuh"

However, reps for Houston's tell a different story, relaying to TMZ that Game was asked to leave because he was not adhering to the dress code.

"Game only pointed to a lone sleeveless woman at the bar -- NOT two men -- and says the sleeve rule does not apply to females. The rep says the restaurant would love to have The Game back ... when he's wearing the appropriate clothing."

Eddie Murphy Chosen As Host Of 84th Annual Oscars

Eddie Murphy Hosting The Oscars
Eddie Murphy will host the 2012 Oscars now that Brett Ratner, the producer of the 84^th edition of the coveted award show, chose the 50-year-old funny man over actors Jerry Seinfeld and Billy Crystal.

Ratner dubbed Murphy a "genius" in a recent interview with MTV.com, gushing: "The only time I ever really had to pinch myself was the first day of shooting with Eddie Murphy."

Murphy will be starring in the upcoming crime comedy film Tower Heist directed by Ratner.
Murphy plays Slide, an ex con tapped by the staff of a New York highrise to help get back at a wealthy businessman who has tricked them into a Ponzi Scheme.
The film hits theaters November 4, 2011.

Idris Elba Announced As The New Face of Smartwater

The 39 year old British actor has just been announced as the newest face of Smartwater, a brand of water owned by Coca Cola. According to US Today, this new ad will be featured in a number of major print ads such as Essence, GQ and Men’s Journal.

Another one below:

How Did Rapper Common Escape Being Held At Gunpoint By His Father?

Just when you think your life could be a blockbuster movie…

Common gives us an inside look into his life with his new book, “One Day It’ll All Make Sense.” In the memoir, he takes his readers through a series of events and relationships that have helped him shape him into the man he is today. In the prologue, he explains a devastating event as a kid, where his father kidnapped him and his mother at gun point and attempted to drive them across country.

Check out what happened in the excerpt below:

When I was eighteen months old, my mother and I were kidnapped at gunpoint. My father held the gun.

At least that’s one side of the story. I first heard about it all from my aunt long after it happened, when I was already a grown man. I asked my mother, and she told it to me one way. I asked my father, and he told it to me another…

My father, Lonnie Lynn, was a Chicago playground legend. They called him the Genie because he’d make the basketball disappear right before your eyes then make reappear at the bottom of the net. At six food eight, he had NBA size and the skills to match. He was nice around the rim and had a sweet stroke from inside eighteen feet. But he talked back to coaches. He missed practice. He developed a habit. He was out of the league before his career really began. For all his gifts, he played just one year of professional basketball, for the Denver Rockets and the Pittsburgh Pipers of the ABA.

Around the same time, his relationship with my mother was falling apart. He was getting high, keeping drugs right out in the open on the nightstand. One time my mother locked him out of our apartment, and he shot out all the windows. When he was sober, he was a loving man, but when he was high, he was somebody else…

His last chance came with a tryout for the Seattle SuperSonics. They knew about my dad’s past troubles, and they were concerned. They wanted to know he was a family man. Problem was, my folks were separated, heading toward divorce. So, early one morning, my father packed everything he owned into the backseat of a rented Dodge Charger and drove to Eighty-eight and Dorchester in Chicago’s South Side, where my mother and I lived.

Here is where my parents’ stories diverge. “He took us out the house at gunpoint, handcuffed me to the front seat, put you in the back, and started driving across the country to Seattle,” my mother says.

“You and your mother got in the front seat with me,” my father recalls, “and we started out on Interstate 90 heading West.”

What could she do? When we stopped for gas, she says he handcuffed her to the steering wheel. When she needed to use the restroom, she says he stood outside the door. The situation must have looked hopeless to her.

My mother escaped with me early one Sunday morning. She recalls my father pulling off the highway to get gas; there were no plans to stop for food, no plans to sleep. She complained of a headache and asked my father to bring her something for the pain.

He came back to the car with a bottle of pills. My mother took two like the container directed then somehow managed to put the rest in his can of Coke as he gassed up the car. When he got back in, he took a big swig of soda then threw the can out the window. It wasn’t long before he started feeling the effects.

“Did she drug me? I don’t know,” my father told me later. “All I know is that I made the decision that it was better to sleep during the day and drive at night while you were sleeping.”

We stopped at a roadside motel on the outskirts of Madison, Wisconsin… My mother told me that my father had just enough time handcuff her to the bed, sit me on the couch, strip off some of his clothes and fall onto the mattress, his feet dangling off the edge. Soon he was snoring away. Once he was fast asleep, my mother says she started working her small hand against the cuff, folding her fingers in on themselves and pulling until metal scraped skin.

“Rashid,” she said in a stage whisper. “Rashid, baby  go outside and play. Mommy will be there soon.”

Something in her eyes must have told me, young as I was, that this was no time for games. I followed her instructions and slipped out the door. Her hand finally free, my mother followed after me. She made it to the lobby and told the man working there to call the police.

“Next thing I know,” my father says no, “I wake up and there are two policemen standing over my bed. One of them’s got a shotgun on me. The other’s pointing a pistol. I raised my hands up above my head and turned my eyes to the sky… That’s when I cried out: ‘Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!’

“It was all over the radio, the television, the newspaper. ‘Kidnapping,’ in capital letters. But I was in jail only overnight. They released me the next morning without charges.”

Madison, Wisconsin, is one hundred sixty-three miles from the South Side of Chicago and nearly two thousand miles from Seattle. The road trip, the kidnapping, my father’s dream — whatever you call it — it was over almost as soon as it had started.

Lil Wayne Sells A Milli?

After much speculation and plenty of sales projections over the past week that estimated that Lil Wayne’s ‘Tha Carter IV’ would sell 800,000 copies, the album went on to sell almost a million copies. Although Hits Daily Double is reporting that ‘Tha Carter IV” has sold 1,000,690 units since it was released on August 29th, the Associated Press is reporting that the official soundscan numbers for Tha Carter IV were 964,000 sold in it’s first week. Still not bad for an album that leaked days before it’s release.

Birdman tweeted a photo of ‘Tha Carter IV Deluxe Edition,’ boasting about the album breaking iTunes records with a caption that read ‘C4.#Dont Lie.YMCMBusiness’. The photo also included the words:

“Lil Wayne – The Carter IV
iTunes – Record Breaker

Tha Carter IV Broke the iTunes record for first-week U.S. album sales in only four days with over 300,000 units sold. Lil Wayne breaks the record set only two weeks ago by Jay-Z and Kanye West’s ‘Watch The Throne,’ and held by Coldplay before that.”

Young Money CEO Mack Maine also celebrated the ‘milli news’, taking a stab at Jay-z when he tweeted:

“We did a MILL in the 1st week AGAIN!!! WE including all of u who helped and purchased da Album!! Love y’all!!! #YMCMB…C4 boom. Thank God all praises due!!! A old head once said…..”Men lie women lie numbers don’t” C4 milli in da first week.”

Wayne thanked his fans, shortly after the final numbers came in:

Wow!!!!!!!!!! I have the best fans in the universe! I thank you all. Hard work and dedication pays well. Young Mula baby!(weezy voice)

Tha Carter IV sales are the second highest of the year, trailing Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ which sold 1.3 million in it’s first week. (It should be noted that Gaga’s album was available for 99 cents through Amazon during the first week it was on sale, however, Wayne’s wasn’t priced that low). This is also the second highest selling album of Weezy’s career. Back in June 2008, Tha Carter III debuted at #1 on the charts, selling 1.01 million records in it’s first week.

Jada Pinkett Smith's Show 'Hawthorne' Canceled After Three Seasons

'HawthoRNe' Canceled: Jada Pinkett Smith Show Canceled

Who knows if the rumors surrounding Jada Pinkett Smithand her Hawthorne co-star Marc Anthony had anything to do with the gossip concerning Will and Jada's break up?

One thing we do know is that the TNT medical drama that employed the two actors is coming to an end.

Jada announced on Whosay that the show was being canceled after three seasons.

Hey everyone...if you don't know Hawthorne will not be returning for another season. I want to say thank you to all the fans for being Hawthorne soldiers. All our facebook fans...twitter soldiers and viewers...you held us down. Of course you know there is more to come...believe it!

TNT later told Access Hollywood: "The series gave TNT the opportunity to work with many outstanding people, including Jada Pinkett Smith and the rest of the show's talented cast, crew, producers and writers. We wish everyone involved with 'HawthoRNe' nothing but the best."

This could be a way to create some exposure for the show, but if not we'll wait for the reason behind the cancellation to surface someday.

50 Cent Launches Street King Movement To Feed One Billion Kids [Video]

50 Cent Talks Street King

50 Cent wants to feed one billion children. 50's global movement is called Street King and he is launching his new Street King energy shot to fund the mission.

The G-Unit general talks about his goal to sell the energy shots and provide a meal with every item that is purchased.

Curtis reflects on being poor but not hungry as a child growing up in Queens.

 "We create new energy by utilizing our own energy. If we utilize our voices in different ways, it'll make everyone aware of the issues that they're probably not conscious of, and we can be effective."

Wiz Khalifa Talks Relationship With Amber Rose, "I'm An Example"

Wiz Khalifa's Sister 2 Sister Magazine Interview

Wiz Khalifa is once again taking about his high-profile relationship with model/socialite Amber Rose.

As previously reported, Rose recently revealed that she hopes to marry and have children with her rapper beau.

"I want to be a mom really bad. I really want babies. I'll be 28 in October and my maternal instinct is ready[...] We're definitely going to get married and have babies."

Now Wiz is speaking out and sat down for an interview with Sister 2 Sister magazine to dish further on their bond.

The 23-year-old tells Jamie Foster Brown that despite his age and his profession, he knows Rose is the one.

Two great people when they meet up, and when you're at a certain point in your life, you know, I'm a little bit more mature than people in my age range. I've always been able to know when I have a good situation and be able to hold that close to me and not ruin it. Just because I'm young and in my past before I wasn't always with (just) one girl, or usually rappers aren't, you know what I'm saying? It's not really regular for a rapper to be like, “This is my girl and this is the only woman that I'm going to be with.” But it just makes sense to me, and that's how I really feel. And I just put that out there and everybody who embraces me, they have to embrace that as well.

When asked by the editor "who he was" and how he got so mature for his age, the Taylor Gang head replied,

"I'm an example. (laughs)"

Wiz and Amber are said to be working on new music as a couple.

DId Karrine Steffans (Superhead) Sleep With Lil Wayne The Night Of The VMA's?

Lil Wayne is notorious for having women and being a baby's daddy, so would it be surprising to find out that he slept with Karrine Steffans on the night of the VMA's?

While we aren't jumping to conclusions, Karrine posted on her blog what appears to be photos from her sleep over with Lil Wayne.

With the text reading:

Sometimes the artist is so influential, everything he touches seems to turn into art.

Or maybe I'm just biased.

This is what a Monday morning looks like in Wayne's world.

#thacarterIV

While there are no pictures of Wayne or his stylish female pants, it is known that Karrine and Wayne do have a friendship that may be closer than we thought.

In an interview with Necole Bitchie, Karrine speaks on her relationship with Wayne and recalls a recent night spend with him.

You seem to really care about him. Are you in love with Wayne?

In love with him? Who knows. But, I will always love and respect him and I do what I can to make sure he knows that.

What are your thoughts on his song, ‘How To Love'?

I heard ‘How To Love' in the studio. I love it. After it played in the studio he said, “Man, their going to be crying at that strip club”. When I first heard it I wanted to cry a little bit. It was playing and he was kind of looking at the board, listening to it, then he came over to me and he said “Babe, you need anything, you good?” The song was playing and I'm like (wimpering) “No, I'm good. I'm good.” He's so attentive and I loved it. I play it all the time.

So what do y'all think? Is Weezy showing Karrine how to love?

Also in ccase you missed, Click On  Hip-Hop Wired's Exclusive Interview With Karrine Steffans Below.

Jay-Z's 40/40 Club Under Fire For Shady Labor Practices

Protests Outside Jay-Z's 40/40 Club

Jay-Z's flagship NYC 40/40 Club is under renovation and under fire from the New York City District Council of Carpenters.

The union is claiming that the company which was hired to make those renovations, Conelle Construction Corp., “does not meet area labor standards, including providing or fully paying for family healthcare and pension for all of its carpenter craft employees,” according to a statement.

The NYCDCC also claims Conelle Construction Corp. is paying its workers “substandard wage” and hold owner Jay-Z responsible saying the rapper “has an obligation to see that area labor standard are met for construction work on their future location.”

Protestors have placed four nearly twenty foot blown up rats facing the club. There is also a banner-sized sign that reads: Shame On The 40/40 Club (Jay-Z) For Hurting New York City.

This is not the first time Jigga has come under fire for his club's alleged shady practices. Jay was sued by workers at the flagship location back in 2008 for allegedly violating minimum wage laws.

The 40/40 club is expected to reopen its doors November 1.

Lil Wayne Speaks On 'Tha Carter IV," Says "I'm Glad" The Album Leaked [Video]

Lil Wayne Talks Tha Carter IV

After shattering Watch The Throne's first week iTunes sales record and with Tha Carter IV projected to sell almost a million copies in its first week of sales, Lil Wayne is feeling pretty good about himself.

In a recent interview with MTV News, the YMCMB star stated he's actually glad his latest album leaked prior to it's release.

“We did real good this time, real good,” Wayne said. “It just means people want to hear it. I mean, cause there are people's albums that come out that can be leaked and don't leak, so I'm glad mines leaked.”

It's easy to say that when your album sells well. Game probably wouldn't say the same thing about his album leak.

Watch Wayne's MTV interview here:

Follow Us On Twitter