Baby News
 

***From E!online***

Murphy and his wife, Nicole, announced the birth of their fifth child Wednesday. The baby, a girl named Bella Zahra, was born Tuesday night in Los Angeles, weighing 7 pounds, 6 ounces, according to publicist Arnold Robinson.

Mom and kid are said to be healthy. In a statement, the happy couple said, "We are overjoyed about this newest addition to our family."

And what a family it is. Little Bella will be competing for toys with her four siblings: Bria, 12; Myles, 10; Shayne, 7; and Zola, 2. (Murphy also has a son, Christian, from another relationship.)

Maya Angelou, Hallmark, and other ventures
 

Maya Angelou Launches Hallmark Line

By KAREN MATTHEWS
Associated Press Writer
Author Maya Angelou
AP/Richard Drew [20K]
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NEW YORK (AP) — Hallmark: Birthday cards and wedding cards, friendship, graduation and get well messages, too.

Maya Angelou: friend of Billie Holiday and Martin Luther King, celebrated poet who read at President Clinton's first inauguration, author of the classic memoir ``I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.''

And now Hallmark's in-house poet.
Maya Angelou
AP/Richard Drew [24K]
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In a once-unthinkable collaboration, Angelou has teamed up with the greeting card giant. Overcoming initial reservations that she was trivializing herself, she has agreed to develop a line of greeting cards and gifts.

At least one of Angelou's colleagues is appalled at the idea.

``I think it's preposterous,'' said Billy Collins, the poet laureate of the United States and a fellow Random House author.

``It lowers the understanding of what poetry actually can do,'' Collins said. ``Hallmark cards has always been a common phrase to describe verse that is really less than poetry because it is sentimental and unoriginal. ... I just think it's surprising that she would market herself in that direction.''

At first, Angelou was cool to the idea. But after meeting with executives of the Kansas City, Mo.-based company, she warmed.

``They were white and black, and they were women and Spanish speaking. That pleased me, obviously. ... So I listened,'' Angelou said in an interview at her flower-filled upper West Side pied-a-terre. The 73-year-old poet-writer-professor-actress-director-singer lives mostly in North Carolina and also has a home in Atlanta.

Then she went to her editor at Random House with the proposal.

``I said, 'I'm thinking about doing something with Hallmark.' And he said, 'You're the people's poet. You don't want to trivialize yourself.' So I said OK and I hung up. And then I thought about it. And I thought, if I'm the people's poet then I ought to be in the people's hands — and I hope in their hearts. So I thought, 'Hmm, I'll do it.'''

The Maya Angelou Life Mosaic Collection has been in stores since just after Christmas. It includes 104 greeting cards and assorted bookends, photo frames, coffee mugs and other gift items. The cards start at $2.49 and the gift items range in price from $19.99 to $49.99.

Many of the messages inscribed in the cards and other products are condensed versions of essays from Angelou's books. They treat themes such as love and friendship.

A typical sentiment is, ``We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.'' A ceramic ``thankful vase'' is captioned, ``Be present in all things and thankful for all things.''

A wedding card reads: ``Batten down the hatches, secure the rigging. You and your beloved are about to sail on the river of dreams. You are wished fair weather and fresh wind ... and always love. Congratulations on your marriage.''

Hallmark would not divulge what it had paid Angelou. However, Paul Barker, senior vice president for creative development at Hallmark, said, ``Retailers are very positive about how well it is moving.''

To develop the line, Hallmark staff met with Angelou in her home.

``Sometimes they stayed overnight,'' she said. ``And I cooked for people, and we sat and talked. And that's how the line has really been developed. By talk. Telling stories. Anecdotes.''

Barker said additional products including Christmas and Mother's Day cards are planned for the future.

Angelou, meanwhile, is busy with other projects. She is on the faculty at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., where this spring she will teach a master class on ``World Poetry in Dramatic Performance.'' She'll also direct her second film, an adaptation for Showtime of Bebe Moore Campbell's ``Singing in the Comeback Choir.''

And she has a new book coming out in April, ``A Song Flung Up to Heaven,'' the sixth and, she insists, the last of her autobiographical works. The first appeared in 1970.

``It takes me exactly to the beginning of writing 'Caged Bird,''' she said. ``And I refuse to write about writing. It would be the biggest bore in life.''

February 1, 2002

BY BILL ZWECKER SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST


WEDDING BELLS: We don't know the lucky guy's name yet, but R&B star Mary J. Blige has announced she's getting hitched. The singer says she won't unveil her beau's identity now, but she confirms the couple became engaged over the holidays. A small wedding is being planned because Blige says it's just for ''real friends and family. The industry is not going to know about it, the press is not going to know about it,'' she told AP.

This week the artist released her latest platinum-selling CD, ''No More Drama,'' containing the Sean ''P. Diddy'' Combs-produced remix of the title song. It was the first reunion of Blige and Combs since he produced her first two discs in 1992 and 1994.

Minister Mason Betha, NYT-style
 

From the New York Times about Sean Combs' former greatest asset. Interesting stuff, particularly about celibacy.



February 3, 2002
A Bad Boy of Hip-Hop Turns the Other Cheek
By JOHN LELAND
ATLANTA -- In a half-filled elementary school auditorium, the Rev. Mason Betha was talking about sex and money.

The first is a scourge, he told the congregation of about 100, mostly African-Americans in their 20's and 30's. "I'm talking about some silly women, fornicating, can't control themselves," he said. The group murmured in approval.

On the second topic, money, the pastor took a more liberal line. It was Wednesday night Bible study, and Pastor Betha, 26, wore a powder-blue pinstripe suit, alligator shoes and new silk handkerchief. He had spent much of the afternoon at his weekly haircut.The devil, he said, "don't want you to prosper."

A woman answered, "Come on, pastor, just get it out."

Pastor Betha continued, "Let me tell you something: being broke ain't going to make nobody come to the Gospel."

It was a stern, assured performance. For Pastor Betha, it marked the latest step in a circuitous and improbable life journey.

Three years ago, he was known as the rapper Ma$e (or Ma$e Murder), the flashiest and most pleasure-driven performer on Sean Combs's Bad Boy record label. To hear him rhyme, flaunting enough jewelry to break your heart, was to enter a bracingly inverse moral sphere. He rapped about the "four pimp rules" and described his ethos in a March 1999 interview with The Source, a rap magazine: "Every time you hear Ma$e rhyme, what is it about? Money, some bitches and good living."

Then at the height of his success, after selling four million copies of his debut album, "Harlem World," and filling videos with outrageous cars and barely dressed women, he announced in April 1999 that he was giving it all up to pursue a higher calling. Last month he celebrated his first anniversary as pastor of Saving a Nation Endangered Ministries, a nondenominational Christian church he started in a Days Inn meeting room.

The other day, in an Italian restaurant in Buckhead, Atlanta's hub of night life and million-dollar condos, Pastor Betha described his transformation. "I was just sitting in a hotel and decided I can't do this no more," he said. "People be looking for this big explanation. But when it's God's time, it's God's time."

Celebrated for his slow offhand flow as a rapper, Pastor Betha speaks in unrushed conversational tones, a shifting mix of righteous humility and residual celebrity brio. If he has any reservations about moving from pop stardom to the humbling task of building a ministry from scratch, he does not show them. "Have you accepted Jesus?," he asked directly. In his strict theology, he casts unforgiving judgment on his musical past.

"I was leading kids to hell," he said, with the headlong zeal of the newly converted. "I was actually being a prophet, because people was going out and trying to live what I was speaking."

The worlds of popular music and the church, for all their polarities, have long rubbed close enough for volatile exchange. Wilson Pickett, Sam Cooke and others drew the wrath of gospel audiences in the 1950's and 1960's when they turned their church- trained voices to secular passions, creating the template for soul music. Al Green and the rapper Run, among others, made the journey the other way, moving from the pop world to the pulpit and making largely religious music.

Pastor Betha's transition, however, was particularly abrupt. Instead of turning to gospel music or even gospel rap, he left the music business altogether, breaking with his friends and colleagues and giving away many of the baubles that shaped his persona: a Range Rover, a BMW, a Mercedes convertible and a diamond-encrusted Rolex worth more than the average American home. He also left a lucrative contract with Bad Boy Entertainment and Arista Records.

In interviews before his retirement, he said he was earning up to $100,000 just to appear as a guest on someone's record. Through publicists, Mr. Combs and Clive Davis, who ran Arista at the time, declined to comment for this article, but in 2000 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution quoted Mr. Combs as saying he made no effort to prevent him from leaving the label. "People didn't know what to make of it," said Elliott Wilson, 31, editor in chief of the hip- hop magazine XXL. "He and Puffy were wearing the shiny suits, taking the music higher. But if you listen to his second album" — "Double Up," recorded just before his retirement — "it made sense that he was off to God. Second albums in hip-hop are about dealing with success, and he really had a struggle to deal with the celebrity. He put a lot of blame on the women. You can hear the sadness in the music."

For the crowd at Bible study, Pastor Betha's journey is a large part of his appeal. John Maikke, 31, who was there with a friend, said he had never been moved by religion. "I like my life, and don't want to mess it up," Mr. Maikke said. "But I can respect him because he gave up so much to pursue God. Nobody that age is going to do that for no reason. Every time he speaks, he's moving me little by little. That's scary to me."

The Betha journey began on Aug. 27, 1975, in Jacksonville, Fla., with four older siblings and a twin sister, Stason. He barely knew his father. Before he entered kindergarten, his mother moved the family to Harlem, where Mason had a childhood of petty fights, hip-hop and basketball, with only passing contact with the church. "We used to rhyme in a park on 139th and Lenox — me, Cam, Big L," he recalled. Cam is Cameron Giles, who now has a modest career as the rapper Cam'ron. Big L is Lamont Coleman, an underground rapper who was murdered not far from the park in 1999.

When Mr. Betha earned a contract with Mr. Combs in 1996, hip-hop was dominated by the darkly compelling figures of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., whose gangster image defined the Bad Boy label. As Ma$e began to hone his identity, the rap world was rent by sudden violence. In September 1996, Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas; the Notorious B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was murdered the following March. Ma$e, a model of jovial hedonism, became the signature Bad Boy.

The deaths introduced Mr. Betha to the cold cloister of the music business. "It didn't really affect me, because I was a young dude just trying to make money," he said. "Just like everybody else. You heard of anybody who stopped doing music because it happened? So it didn't affect them."

Instead of recoiling, he dug himself deeper into the Bad Boy fold, forging a relationship with Mr. Combs that he describes, in his book, "Revelations: There's a Light After the Lime" (Pocket Books, 2001), as one of Batman and Robin. Mr. Betha told lurid tales of the bedroom in his songs, and lived them in his life. He and Mr. Combs turned others' envy into big business: cultivating it with their dress and manner, complaining about it in their rhymes.

Cheo Hodari Coker, a screenwriter who spent several weeks with the Bad Boy clique in early 1999, remembers a family atmosphere of lavish parties and platinum jewelry.

"The whole scene was over the top," Mr. Coker said. "Anywhere Ma$e was, there were at least two women. He was very much trying to live up to his image as the shy, cute ladies' man."

Yet even then, Pastor Betha says, he was restless. He left the fishbowl of New York for Atlanta, and his new lyrics dwelled on betrayal and false friendships. In his book, he writes of visiting old Harlem haunts, and now seeing "the hatred in the eyes of the people who were smiling."

On a warm afternoon in Buckhead, Pastor Betha wandered the Lenox Mall with Jasper Littlejohn, the first member of his church. The stroll was an idle one. Pastor Betha has not yet figured out what to do with his ministry, and so his time. Describing his plans, he alternates between a desire to minister to poor young people and the more glamorous prospect of tending the souls of entertainers and rich athletes.

The young athletes, he said, "need someone who knows their situation, from their financial to their social, from fans to the lobby." He added: "There's some folks now that cannot make it past the lobby. Five hundred girls are in the lobby, all your favorite type of women, saying: `Can you sign an autograph? What room you all in?' They need someone to speak who knows that." He said a National Football League team had asked him about becoming its chaplain.

In the mall, teenagers who recognized him from his rap days approached for autographs or offered him tapes of their own music. Some asked about Sunday services, some about Puffy. Three years after leaving the music business, Pastor Betha seems ambivalent about his public image, enjoying the attention while chiding people that he is Mason, not Ma$e. If they lingered, Pastor Betha bore down. "I'm asking you about Jesus," he told one man. "If you don't want to know about Jesus, I don't have anything for you."

When he needed shoelaces, he dispatched Mr. Littlejohn, who was happy to run the errand.

The two met in a gym at Clark Atlanta University, where Mr. Betha had enrolled in 1999 in retreat from the rap world. He remained a year, studying for a math degree. "I was a big fan of his music," Mr. Littlejohn said. "I wanted the money, the women, the cars, just like them. I figured if someone had all the money and girls, if he walked away, it must be for something real."

In the early days of his new life, Mr. Betha attended Siloam Baptist Church in East Point, an Atlanta suburb of single-story brick houses. He came in his hip-hop clothes, and struggled mightily with celibacy, keeping rocks in his pockets to remind him of his course. For a while he chose not to count oral sex as sex, but this too fell.

When he got to Siloam, "he was broken," said Jonathan Carter, the pastor. "He didn't know anything about the Christian world. The first way to come to humility is through brokenness. He was broken, empty; he was ostracized by the people who used to be there with him."

As Mr. Betha took beginner's classes, planning his own ministry, Mr. Littlejohn was his first subject. "He would learn from Pastor Carter, then he would put it in terms I could understand," Mr. Littlejohn said. He moved into the Betha home, on an exclusive stretch of Buckhead — one of the possessions he kept from his rap days — and stayed for two years. In December 2000, Mr. Carter ordained Mr. Betha, who married another Siloam church member, Twyla McInnis, last August.

As a preacher with a single small congregation meeting in an elementary school (he says membership has grown to 200), the former rapper has nothing like his old following, but he has used his renown to attract attention. He speaks at churches around the country in a kind of anti- Ma$e tour, delivering a sermon called "Hell Is Not Full."

Pastor Betha said he did not draw a salary from the church, but relied on speaking fees, donations and his royalties. He said he did not miss rap. "My life right now, people in the industry would pay all the money to have it. A lot of people have money, but they don't have peace with it. They can't sleep. They need bodyguards every day."

Pastor Betha now listens only to gospel music. Instead of the sportswear with logos of his rap days, he wears custom suits, donated by tailors mindful of the promotional value. In the next few years, with the help of private donors — largely from sports and entertainment, he said, though he would not name them — he hopes to build a church and open a private school.

Such bounty, he said, is proof of his mission. "God called me to be rich," he said. "I didn't have to do music to do it. There used to be a time that I didn't care about how I looked once I got saved. I felt like, `Why does it matter?' And God had to show me why it matters. Because people are still watching me that want to see, was his God able?"

Pastor Betha walked the mall, at ease with his surroundings. "Yes," he said, "my Jesus Christ is able."



Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company | Privacy Information

Mase Article
 

I found this to be an interesting article. There are some things that he said in t his article that disturbed me but I must believe that God does have a purpose for him.

Brandy Jumped The Broom!

Pop star/actress Brandy Norwood got married last June to music producer Robert Smith. Robert happens to be a cousin of Darkchild CEO Rodnie Jerkins. The 23-year-old Brandy, who will turn 24 on February 11, kept the married a secret for seven months. "I've fallen in love with a very warm, gentle, understanding, and focused person," Brandy
Norwood said in a statement through her music company, Atlantic Records. "This summer we married quietly. A new experience, a new day for me—I couldn’t be happier!" Now I ran into Brandy back in January at a listening party in New York ! and she said to me, “I’m mad at you. You announced I was engaged and I didn’t get a chance to announce it myself.” Low and behold, she was married all along. The CoverGirl spokemodel’s new album “Full Moon” will be released on March 5th.

Tyson Leaves Polo

Supermodel Tyson Beckford has abandoned his post as a Ralph Lauren model and is now a model for FUBU. Tyson will began appearing in advertisements for FUBU staring in February.

Quickie!

In my next column I will have all of the dish from the Super Bowl in New Orleans. I still wish my two black quarterbacks could have made it to the Big Easy!

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Sisqo Got MJ’s Disease

Seems as though the rumors saying Sisqo may be suffering from Vitiligo are true. Vitiligo is the same skin disease that Michael Jackson has. Vitiligo causes a loss of color in the skin, hair, and retina in the eye. Sisqo, whose “Return Of Dragon” album flopped, has been wearing gloves at junkets promoting his new movie "Snow Dogs," with Cuba
Gooding, Jr. The Dru Hill member said he was initially misdiagnosed with eczema, but doctors now believe he may have vitiligo. He is currently taking antibiotics due to a! "rash" he's acquired "from the stress," he said.




Ginuwine In Demand

After a successful run on tour with Janet Jackson, Ginuwine will now hit the road with boy band N’Sync. Ginuwine will open for N’Sync during the west coast leg of the tour, performing in cities like Oakland, Portland, Phoenix, Dallas, among
others. The tour begins March 3 through March 15. Anyone who knows me knows I think he is one of the most talented young performers out now! Ginuwine has a new single out now called “Tribute To A Woman” off of his platinum album “The Life.”




Veterans Still Working

R&B diva Regina Belle is featured in the February issue of Black Elegance magazine. The singer was also recently nominated for a Grammy for her latest album “This Is Regina” on Peak Records. In addition to her recent performance on Soul Train, Belle will be
featured on CNN's Headline News. Before heading to the west coast for the Grammy's, Regina will be making special appearances at Macy's stores as a joint promotion with the fragrance Romance by Ralph Lauren and her single "Oooh Boy" for Valentine's Day.




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Passa Mason Betha
 

You know, I say "Praise God" if "the artist formerly known as Ma$e" has found Jesus in his life and has humbled himself to a calling to preach the Gospel. I truly hope that he is very sincere. I do believe that it does say alot that he gave up his previously lavish lifestyle to follow the Word. Did I read it right that he is married?

Re: Passa Mason Betha
 

i listened a few weeks ago to an interview between rev. mason and wendy williams (107.5 wbls). he is married, but doesn't have any children. he seems pretty sincere about his ministry and gave some very frank and candid answers to her questions. according to him, he still gets about $80k every 3 months from the music industry, which he gives directly to the church. i wish him the best.

PUHLEEZE SAY IT AIN"T TRU
 

Shemar Moore’s last day on the popular daytime soap “Young & The Restless” is February 14th. Moore will exit the show on Valentine’s Day and will probably break some hearts by doing so.

Re: PUHLEEZE SAY IT AIN"T TRU
 

http://www.plauder-smilies.de/party/yelclap.gifhttp://www.plauder-smilies.de/party/yelclap.gif
Maybe he will check out a dentist in the interim.:p

Re: PUHLEEZE SAY IT AIN"T TRU
 

Really?/ I wonder why he is leaving? PLEASE tell me its not to host Soul Train because I do not think he makes a good host. Its like he's trying to hard to be cool or something....

But he still in F-Y-N-E though....:D

Re: Re: PUHLEEZE SAY IT AIN"T TRU
 

I thought he was suppose to be leaving Soul Train too!?!?

actually..........
 

Shemar was supposed to leave the show last february to pursue a career on the "big screen".
apparently they renewed his contract, and now he is supposed to be leaving again. If ya ask me he don't know what he want's to do. I just hope he's not leaving to continue to do those plays. He's been doing. His career would really slip a notch.:confused:

Break Up to Make Up that's all we do. . .
 

In other news, appears Mama and Papa Knowles are calling it quits.

Re: Re: PUHLEEZE SAY IT AIN"T TRU
 

Thank you! I thought I was the only one who thought the brotha needed to slap on the braces on that bottom row! :rolleyes:
:D

Re: Break Up to Make Up that's all we do. . .
 

I didn't hear that one...but I DID hear that Mathew Knowles is being sued for 28 million dollars...allegedly he stole some of DC's money and spent it on sex and something else, I don't quite remember. (I just heard this on the radio on the way home today) He's being sued by TINA KNOWLES and ANDRETTA TILLMAN's family. Andretta Tillman was DC's co-manager until she died back in 1997 or 1998.

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Re: Re: Break Up to Make Up that's all we do. . .
 

Here's the article on that: http://www.greeksource.com/gcforums/...threadid=14447

J-Lo
 

Is Jennifer Lopez, Um, Losing It?
By Cathryn Conroy, CompuServe News Editor

Is sexy Jennifer Lopez becoming absent-minded? First came reports that the pop star actually lost her custom-made diamond wedding ring that cost a whopping $28,000. And it still hasn't been found. Now comes word from World Entertainment News Network that J.Lo went into a frenzied panic when she realized she had lost her cell phone, which cost $10,000.


A gift from her new husband Cris Judd (just like the wedding band), it's a one-of-a-kind gadget that is embedded with diamonds. But that wasn't the only reason she went into a panic when she realized it was missing. The phone contained the private numbers of family and celebrity friends. But good news for J.Lo. She retraced her steps and found it in a Hollywood Starbucks where she had been an hour earlier. An observant (and honest) employee put the valuable phone in the lost and found box. J.Lo thanked the Starbucks store appropriately: She stuffed $300 into the tip jar.

Re: J-Lo
 

what in the world would cause a cell phone to cost $10,000? i paid $50 for mine and think it was too much. maybe it's me...

Re: Re: J-Lo
 

Girl I said ALMOST the same thing;). . .rich folks and their "toys":rolleyes:

Did it say the cell phone had diamonds on it? :eek: That's probably why it cost so much. But still....$10,000! :confused:
As much as cell phone styles change, why would you spend that much on a phone that will probably be out of style in a year or two? :rolleyes:
But you're right...rich people and their toys!
I'm saying though, can I get 1 diamond off the phone...I'll be happy! :D

Yes girl and on a DANCER'S SALARY:rolleyes: -- he must be shaking a serious TAIL FEATHER!! Umm anywho as much as I drop my little phone and the oil on my screen from hair -- eww lawd. what a waste of money!?!?!

Here Comes the Bride
 

Weddings, Weddings, Weddings. We hear that Chicago rapper, Common finally popped the question to soul songstress, Erykah Badu and she accepted his proposal. Badu also has a child with OutKast rapper, Dre. Congratulations go out to newly betrothed pair!

He really has to be shaking something to buy that phone AND that ring! :eek: He better keep on backing that thang up to keep up with buying her gifts like that. :D
But then again, I though 'Love Don't Cost a Thing'? :confused:
Didn't she buy them matching Bentleys or something? Just ridiculous!

LMAO
 

I hate to be ugly but, I believe J-Ho bought that crap herself. What dancer do you know that brings in that kinda cheese? Have you seen this heffa's new video? Direct blow to Puffy if you ask me!

Re: LMAO
 

I believe the same thing or maybe she gives him an "allowance" and he used his "Allowance" to buy her the phone and the ring.

Re: LMAO
 

Guuuurl, why do I call her "J-Ho" too?? Great minds do think alike! My cousin calls her "Jennifer Hopez", LMAO...Anyway, I think quite a few of her songs have been blows to Puffy, "Love don't Cost a Thing", "I'm Real" (Yeah, REAL FAKE), and her new song (of which I don't remember the name)...she needs to quit it b/c to me it looks like Puffy's still on her mind (or whoever supposedly tried to woo her w/ their $$$$)...And if your still thinking about an ex, that's a bad sign...

As for this, I don't know if I should be happy, esp. since Erykah Badu is one of my fav singers, and she deserves a good man :D(shoot, don't we all!! Dangit!!)...Or if I should not b/c Common is MY BABY'S DADDY!! :o...Dang, that's a beautiful man, inside and out...That's what I want!!!

Shhhh! That was suppoed to be a secret though!! ;)

DC's Scandals...
 

So, wait..Is he being sued by just Andreatta Tillman's family, or is he being sued by Tina Knowles also?? Where did you get that info?? If that's true, that's a DAYUM SHAME...He always seemed too controlling to me, esp. w/ the other three girls leaving the group, and Farrah said in that interview she did w/ "Sister 2 Sister" magazine that Mathew would pay Solange (Beyonce's younger sister who is now a dancer for the group) BEFORE she officially started dancing for the group...

Re: Re: LMAO
 

Don't call the girl a ho, Now a sugermama maybe but not a ho.
Now I know we are mad cause she used all she had to get over on puffy, but like I tell my AA brothers in person, if you stick to ya own kind, ya won't have that problem. What goes around comes around. and how do you lose your wedding ring. Who in their right mind would let someone Else hold their wedding ring??? That bad boy would've been in my pocket, bra, or something. That just goes to show how much she really thinks of her husband, and that ring. Isn't her marriage on the rocks now? Now see it's a shame when people who want to be divas, got to start stuff themselves to make it look like they are. And why would you marry someone YOU EMPLOY. So I guess when all the jiggling of the tail feathers stop, so will the marriage. Let me become famous and get married, I'll show'em how it's supposed to be done!!! *LMAO*

Alleged pedophile
 

From the Chicago Sun-Times.
Why? Just why? Why would a 35-year-old man risk everything to get off with young girls?
:mad:

City police investigate R&B singer R. Kelly in sex tape



February 8, 2002
BY JIM DEROGATIS AND ABDON M. PALLASCH
STAFF REPORTERS

Chicago police are investigating whether R&B superstar R. Kelly--part of today's opening act at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City--had sex with an underage girl and videotaped the illegal act.
A 26-minute, 39-second videotape, which was sent anonymously to the Sun-Times last week, shows the singer-songwriter performing various sex acts with the underage girl.
Kelly was the halftime act at Soldier Field during the Bears- Eagles game about three weeks ago, singing his "The World's Greatest" single from the recent movie "Ali."
Allegations of sex with underage girls have dogged Kelly throughout his career, including his brief marriage to his then-15-year-old protege, Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash in August.
The girl in the video, now 17, was identified by her aunt, who said that her niece would have been 14 at the time the tape was made, based on her appearance. Kelly can also be heard on the tape referring to the girl by her first name.
The names of the girl and her aunt are being withheld by the Sun-Times to protect the family's privacy, although they are known to police.
Chicago police first began investigating allegations about Kelly and the girl three years ago. At the time, both the girl and her parents denied that she was having sex with Kelly.Without hard evidence or eyewitness testimony, police and prosecutors were unable to press charges. Now, with the video, authorities tell the Sun-Times they are more optimistic about building a case against Kelly.
Illinois state statute prohibits adult men from having sex with girls under 17. It is a felony to videotape a sexual act with anyone under 18, prosecutors said.
Kelly's attorney, John M. Touhy, said the video is a forgery. "Any tape you have is a fake, and we find the timing of these events to be extremely suspicious,'' Touhy said. Of the ongoing investigation, the attorney said, "I would imagine that the police will do their job.''
A professional video maker told the Sun-Times the chances of fabricating a phony video that goes on for that long with Kelly's image and voice are "Slim to none--26 minutes of putting someone else's head on someone's body, you're talking about hundreds of thousands of hours of frame-by-frame manipulation to make that work."
Born and raised on the South Side, Robert S. Kelly, 35, is the most successful R&B performer from Chicago in the last 30 years. He has sold more than 20 million albums, and he scored a massive worldwide hit with the anthemic 1997 single, "I Believe I Can Fly.''
According to court records and interviews first published in a Sun-Times expose in December 2000, Kelly has repeatedly used his fame, wealth and influence as a pop superstar to meet teenage girls and have sex with them.
Kelly has twice been sued by Chicago women who claim they suffered personal injuries and severe emotional harm because of their relationships with him.
Tiffany Hawkins sued Kelly for $10 million in late 1996, charging that he convinced her to drop out of school and have sex with him when she was 15, and that he encouraged her to participate in group sex with him and other underage girls.
Kelly met Hawkins when he went back to his alma mater, the Kenwood Academy in Hyde Park, to speak to the school choir. The girl was a freshman at the school when they met.Sources said the Hawkins suit was settled for $250,000 in January 1998, shortly after Hawkins gave a seven-hour deposition in the case. The Sun-Times spoke to a friend of Hawkins who confirmed Hawkins' charges and said Kelly had sex with them together when both choir girls were underage.
Even as the Sun-Times was writing about these allegations, the singer was continuing an illicit relationship with a 17-year-old, according to a civil suit filed in Cook County Circuit Court in August."During my relationship with Robert Kelly, I lost my virginity to him," Tracy Sampson said in her suit. "I was lied to by him. I was coerced into receiving oral sex from a girl I did not want to have sex with. I was often treated as his personal sex object and cast aside. He would tell me to come to his studio and have sex with him then tell me to go. He often tried to control every aspect of my life including who I would see and where I would go."
Sampson's lawsuit was filed in August by the same attorney who represented Hawkins, Susan E. Loggans. Sampson, an aspiring rapper who goes by the stage name "Royalty," graduated high school at age 16 and enrolled at Columbia College.
In April 2000, Sampson became an intern at Epic Records. A month later, she met Kelly and began having sex with him at a recording studio that he partially owns, Chicago Trax at 865 N. Larrabee, the suit states.Kelly brought the girl with him to Orlando, Fla., and other places to continue the affair, the suit charges. Sampson's lawyer offers hotel phone records to back up the claim. Even though the girl was 17, the fact that Kelly was in "a position of authority" over her makes the relationship illegal, the suit states.
Since the first story about Kelly ran a year ago, "We have been contacted by other women," Loggans said. "Other women have come forward who have wanted to provide factual support to our clients."
Kelly has denied having sex with Sampson in court papers filed in response to her suit.
In 1994, Kelly illegally married Aaliyah, then 15, shortly after producing her debut album, "Age Ain't Nothing But A Number.'' The marriage was quickly annulled once Aaliyah's family and the public found out. Aaliyah died in a plane crash last August.
In 1996, Kelly married a 22-year-old dancer from his touring troupe. The couple have two children and maintain several homes in Chicago, including the location where the aunt said the videotape was made, a wood-paneled sauna room in one of his apartments.
Kelly told Sampson's lawyers in October that he now lives in Olympia Fields.
After the Sun-Times story ran in December 2000, another videotape was anonymously sent to the newspaper. It appeared to show Kelly having sex with a different woman, whose age and identity have not been determined. Police have also investigated that videotape.
In both videotapes, Kelly appears to be very conscious of the camera, looking at it and adjusting the angle several times.
In the most recent tape, the underage girl refers to Kelly as "Daddy" :eek: :eek: while they have sex. The sex acts include intercourse, fellatio and urination.
A television show plays new release music videos including "Let's have a Party Tonight" by the Backstreet Boys and "Too Much" by the Spice Girls, which were hits in late 1998/early 1999. That would have made the girl 14 at the time. An advertisement can be heard for "The Money Store," which closed in 2000.
It is not clear for whom Kelly would have made the tapes.
Asked if Kelly is aware of any videotapes of him having sexual relations with women, Touhy said, "I don't think it's any of your business.''
Touhy declined an invitation to view the tape.
Kelly is hardly the first celebrity to be accused of taking advantage of young girls. Gary Glitter, Rob Lowe, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roman Polanski, Rolling Stone Bill Wyman and even the legendary Errol Flynn all have been written about in this paper and others for allegedly having trysts with minors.Kelly's spokespeople have denied that the singer has had sexual relations with underage girls. They point to his record of philanthropy in the community and discredit allegations against him as an unwelcome byproduct of his wealth and celebrity.
"Mr. Kelly is at the top of his career,'' said his attorney, Touhy. "He has a hit song out right now, he performed at the NFC title game, and he's performing at the Olympics. In light of those events, I believe you have to have serious questions in your mind about the motives of people who sent you that forged tape.''

If this is true, Rra needs some SKEERIOUS Psychological evaluations. He TRULY, TRULY has a problem.




:(

That's a shame.

Re: Alleged pedophile
 

You beat me to it! I was just about to paste this on the board.
This is not the first time these stories have surfaced, and now there's an "alleged" tape!!

WTF is his problem?!:mad: :eek: :confused: :(

I finally had time to read the article and this is some foul stuff. I mean come on. Not only do I find R. Kelly to be in the wrong but I agree he has some issues. I know he misses his mama and e'erythang but why does he have to go out like this!!?!?? The man is a music genius even with such travesty recordings like "Feeling on Your Booty:rolleyes: :rolleyes: -- his ode to butts. If you like sex, fine but at least get them 19 and up and VERIFY age. I know a lot of my high schoolers who look older than me.

I really think that maybe he was sexually molested as a child and this is his way of coping with it.:confused:

Singer Brandy is married!!!!
 

She just married secretly last summer! Did anyone else know?

Re: Alleged pedophile
 

Urination?!?!?!?!?!?!? :eek: That's just NAAASSSTTTYYY!

I heard about R. Kelly's infatuation with teenage girls about a year ago from Wendy Williams. From what she reported, it is common knowledge around the Chicagoland area that he likes girls as young as thirteen. This man needs serious, serious help. Can we say psycho schock treatment?

What I don't understand is why he would tape such a thing? Why would you want hardcore proof of such a heinous and illegal act? If someone accuses him, it will always be her word against his. But, this tape provides documented, verifiable evidence that the events occurred. And, he wants us to believe that it is a forgery. Who has the time and money to forge a half hour tape with his voice and face on it?

To R. Kelly:

We all know and can see that you did it. Be a man admit your mistakes and please get your self some help. God will always forgive and heal you. Please get yourself some help because I have a twelve year-old neice and if I ever see you around her I'm gonna take you from a rooster to a hen.

I refused to believe the rumors about him and Aaliyah at first. I just couldn't believe it. The man has problems. And they expect us to believe the tapes are forged? Yeah, right.

I thought it was alleged too. I figured -- nooooooooo, can't be but alas stuff is adding up to that very possibility. What I am having a tough time understanding or comprehending is WHY does it take so long for these girls to come forth? Also I remember reading in VIBE that this mickyfricky does not wear draws,:eek: :eek: :eek: I don't know about y'all but I find the idea of a man going underwearless to be absolutely revolting.

Re: DC's Scandals...
 

Well, I heard this on the radio on the way home. Now, I'm hearing that he and Tina are divorcing. Wow......

BEAT IT: A fan suing Madison Square Garden and Ticketmaster for $20 million for issuing her an obstructed view to Michael Jackson's 30th Anniversary Concert on September 10 without warning, the New York Post reports.....

Can you really sue for having a bad seat at a concert? If so, I have a few lawsuits that I need to catch up on.

Re: Re: Alleged pedophile
 

:mad: YUCK !!!

R. Kelly is a pedophile !!!!!:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: