Give the drummer some! After Swizz Beatz’s wife Mashonda wrote a novel to Alicia Keys on Twitter (I’m saying, aren’t Tweets supposed to be 140 characters or less?) The Root’s Questlove added a rimshot to the situation by taking to Twitter and writing his own call-out. Questlove practically copied Mashonda’s letter word for word but instead jokingly addressed it to Stevie Wonder accusing the iconic singer of breaking up his family and not having the guts to speak about it. We see you got jokes Quest! Preforming on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon must be rubbing off.

@questlove said:

“After having a great evening with my band and enjoying some fun twit chat, I decided to sign off and get some work done. However, a few hours later I was advised that I should check @_steviewonder twit page. I’ve never reached out to him on twitter before. I feel our issues are a lot more serious than a website conversation. Not to mention that I’ve reached out to him many times in the beginning of this whole thing, as any husband would do. Unfortunately, I never succeeded in getting a response. The 1st time I meet SW, my wife @auntesther introduced us to each other at an event. ( I have no choice but to call her my wife, until she is not anymore) In the messages that I sent to him (SW), I made it very clear that on the contrary of what he might be (only) hearing, I am still married to my wife, living with her and just had a child. Its been two years and I still have not received a response. What I do receive, is constant displays of selfishness and disconcern to me and my seed.

I was a fan of SW’s 70s genius streak, we are both signed to Universal Records (he Motown and me Def Jam) and I always checked up on his projects since i was a youngin. I sang his songs and admired him for creating Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You) and Rocket Love, I would never deny him, her talent. I believed in him until I found out he was possibly sleeping with my wife @auntesther. The affair was denied by both, until it was finally admitted months later.

Already I can hear some of you saying ” why are u blaming him, You cant make someone leave their husband, You cant break something thats broken”. Well, my marriage was not broken, as far as I knew we were celebrating our child’s birth and getting ready to celebrate our 25 year wedding anniversary (despite the fact that 25 years ago when i was 13 it was against the law for my wife to be sexing me like that) . Call it blind love, whatever. I call it being a devoted husband. As far as me blaming him and not blaming her, thats false. Me and my wife have worked out our differences. We are in a good place as people and as parents. I accept her choices and I am comfortable enough with myself to move on. I am so very blessed in many ways.

My concern with SW is no longer the fact that he assisted in destroying a family but that he has the audacity to make these selfish comments about love and wanting to be with someone, even after knowing their situation. How is this the same Soldier that I sang out loud with in my truck? I ask myself sometimes.

If you are reading this Steveland, let me start by saying, you know what you did. You know the role you played and you know how you contributed to the ending of my marriage. You know that I asked you to step back and let me handle my family issues. Issues that you helped to create.
Im not saying everything was perfect all the time but no relationship is perfect. We made a vow to God and I believe you should have respected that, as a man. I know you owe me or my child nothing but I just wish you would’ve handled things more carefully. I’m not judging you, I put you and the whole situation in the hands of God, the Higher Power. Just know that as a dude, I expected so much more from you. I never had intentions on reaching out to you this way but after reading your twits tonight, and the constant disregard, you left me no choice. I feel that after 1 and a half years of you hiding this affair and acting like it doesnt exist, that now is the time to confront it, since you talk so openly about it now

This is a publicity stunt, I do have a record coming out in February called How I Got Over. I just need to close this chapter in my life and that means confronting our issues. There is a 42 year old child involved (despite the fact my child is older than me…this is my twisted fantasy leave me be). His momma loves him to death and she wants to spend more time with our child but shes afraid because he knows we don’t have a relationship. This is my main concern. My child NEEDS his mother and I NEED to be comfortable with you. For him!

-yes folks twitter has driven me to this. ”

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Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…and it’s even worse when she has a stable internet connection.

Mashonda will not rest until Alicia Keys acknowledges her role in the end of her marriage with Swizz Beats.

After Mashonda spotted Alicia’s tweet, “Having a heated debate n the studio. Question is…N love is it better to go 4 the choice that is ‘SMART’ or the choice that has ‘SPARK?’” Mashonda saw an opportunity to get at the “other woman” who keeps ducking her calls.

She wrote:

“After having a great evening with my son and enjoying some fun twit chat, I decided to sign off and get some work done. However, a few hours later I was advised that I should check @aliciakeys twit page. I’ve never reached out to her on twitter before. I feel our issues are a lot more serious than a website conversation. Not to mention that I’ve reached out to her many times in the beginning of this whole thing, as any wife would do. Unfortunately, I never succeeded in getting a response. The 1st time I meet AK, my husband introduced us to each other at an event. ( I have no choice but to call him my husband, until he is not anymore) In the messages that I sent to her (AK), I made it very clear that on the contrary of what she might be hearing, I am still married to my husband, living with him and just had a child. [It’s] been two years and I still have not received a response. What I do receive, is constant displays of selfishness and disconcern to me and my son.

I was a fan of AK’s last album, we were both signed to J Records and I always checked up on her projects. I sang her songs and admired her for creating Superwoman and Karma, I would never deny her, her talent. I believed in her until I found out she was possibly sleeping with my husband. The affair was denied by both, until it was finally admitted months later.

Read the rest of this entry »

Even though the VMAs have come and gone, people still can’t stop talking about Lil’ Mama crashing Jay-Z and Alicia Key’s “Empire State of Mind” performance. Lil’ Mama apologized saying she just got “caught up in the moment.” Alicia Keys responded and said “We can appreciate her being overwhelmed and inspired, but we would have appreciated it if she would have did it from her seat” and everyone had a laugh by way of all the Twitter jokes and PhotoShopped pictures of Lil’ Mama appearing in everything from the Million Man March to Da Vinci’s Last Supper picture. It seems like the incident was dying down but yesterday, Hov spoke on it during an interview with Angie Martinez of Hot 97.  This is what he had to say:

“Me, personally, I would never do that. I would never have the nerve to do that. It’s just like, someone’s up there performing…We went through rehearsals, we did run-throughs and we worked really hard at the performance to put on a show for people and to interrupt that moment for us, you know, I don’t think that was the right thing to do.”

Like everyone else, Jay also likened the incident to Kanye’s infamous stage crash (which Jay had previously called rude):

“I actually thought it was the equivalent of what Kanye did to Taylor Swift but nobody really talked about that because I’m not a little sweet girl from the middle of America. And I’m cool with [Lil' Mama] being excited and all that but you have to understand, people put in work to make that performance happen, that took weeks the planning of it. If you look at those screens, we had to go to Yankee Stadium to shoot that live, there was a lot of planning. To disrupt that was out of line. I was a little angry to be honest, but what do I do, fight Lil Mama?”

I’m actually surprised Jay-Z spoke on this at all, since he usually chooses to “be above” such issues, but I guess it was bound to come up during his crazy press schedule for Blueprint 3 (can’t wait to watch him on Oprah today!).  Seems like we can finally put this issue to bed, well, as long as Lil’ Mama doesn’t put out any more ridiculous songs about the incident like the one below.

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In a perfect world, every blog post and every article about the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards would kick off with praise of Janet Jackson’s tribute to her late brother, Michael Jackson.

But, no, more people are ranting about the Hennessy sipping diva that spoiled the moment minutes later with his antics.

Kanye West decided to hop on stage and throw shade at a teenage country music singer because he felt MTV threw even more shade at Beyonce.

Taylor Swift beat out Beyonce for Best Female Video. While Beyonce herself took it stride, Kanye decided to jump on stage and tell Taylor, “She ain’t no diva.”

‘Ye came out of nowhere, took the mic and award from Taylor and said: “Taylor, I’m really happy for you. I’ll let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!”

The audience booed him, and it’s been reported that Taylor herself went backstage and cried hysterically.

Way to embarrass us, Kanye.

It didn’t take long for other celebrities to share their opinions via Twitter.

Katy Perry said: “F–K U KANYE. IT’S LIKE U STEPPED 0N A KITTEN.”

P!nk chimed in as well: “Kanye west is the biggest piece of sh– on earth. Quote me. Beyonce is a classy lady. I feel for her, too. Its not her fault at all, and her and taylor did their thing. And douche bag got kicked out. HA”

While we’re on Pink: Shout out to her and Shakira’s stylists for putting them in the exact same dress last night. Maybe next time they need to be original like Lady GaGa and wear a bird’s nest. And don’t any of you hate on GaGa. You wish you could wear one flew over the cuckoo’s nest on your head and get love for it.

Now, back to the real diva of the night: Kanye.

Fortunately, when Beyonce did win her much deserved award – Video of the Year for “Single Ladies” – she gave Taylor the opportunity to have her moment.

But to be fair to Kanye, he did apologize.

On his blog he wrote:

I guess. As talented as he is, someone needs to give him a hug, a reality check, and maybe a backhand just in case he ever decided to do some nonsense like that again.

There is no reason for a grown man to throw a fit like that against a teenager on behalf of a grown woman who wasn’t even salty about not winning the award to begin with.

The only person who looked half as silly Kanye was Lil’ Mama.

I don’t know if she got caught up in the spirit of the Hovighost or what, but what would possess Bow Wow’s long lost twin sister to hop on stage in the middle of Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ performance?

I understand that we’re in a recession and companies have to cut corners, but had some decent security been in place most of the drama that occurred last night wouldn’t have.

Don’t be cheap on rent-a-cops.

Team Beyonce is facing legal action from a former Project Runway contestant who helped design the singer’s costumes for her I…Am tour.

E Online reports that Chris March, who was the third runner-up in the fourth season of the  reality TV show, is suing Beyonce’s costume designers Thierry Mugler and Tancrede Prinz. March claims he was hired to act as the head of costume’s and was promised $43,500 for stage outfits he helped make for the global tour, but never saw a dime.

We know Bey can pay her bills, but her people need to get it together and straighten this out.

Tough, Crowd

In Romania, Madonna got booed at her own concert when she spoke out about the discrimination towards Romany people in eastern Europe.

According to the AP, the singer paused during the middle of her concert to address the 600,000 crowd that came to see her perform: “It has been brought to my attention, that there is a lot of discrimination against Romanies and Gypsies in general in Eastern Europe – it made me feel very sad,” she said. “We don’t believe in discrimination, we believe in freedom and equal rights for everyone.”

Madonna uses a group of Roma musicians on her Sticky and Sweet tour so good for her for speaking on it! She received even more jeers when she mentioned prejudice against homosexuals and others, but appeared unfazed by the reaction.

Public Affair

Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz were spotted having a cozy dinner in St. Tropez this week.  The two have previously kept their relationship under wraps but have recently been hinting about time together on Twitter and went to Jennifer Lopez’s birthday party together last month.

Looks like they’re finally getting comfortable being public. Cute couple, but as you may recall Swizzy and his wife Mashonda filed for divorce last year and word on the streets was that Alicia was the home wrecker (although he denies that’s the case, of course). Hopefully history doesn’t repeat itself!

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Photo Credit: Kevin Mazur

Last night, the legendary Clive Davis hosted a listening session for Whitney Houston’s new album I Look To You, which is in stores September 1st.  Held at Jazz @ Lincoln Center in New York City, the event was packed with stars like Martha Stewart, Gayle King, Dionne Warrick, Alicia Keys (in the house with Swizz Beats!) LA Reid, Andre Harrell, Diane Sawyer, BET’s own Debra Lee and Stephen Hill – and the iconic Whitney Houston, who was absolutely stunning.  She looked happy, grateful and beautiful.  When Whitney hit the stage for a small speech the person next to me said,”That’s m*thaf**kin’ Whitney Houston!“  The diva received a standing ovation from a crowd (and the world!) who has been waiting for the return of the original pop-soul diva.

I was lucky enough to attend and here is a preview of the seven new tracks that were played (two leaked tracks were played, “Like I Never Left” featuring Akon and “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength” written by Diane Warren and produced by David Foster). I wasn’t able to catch every producer’s name or the exact lyrics so the credits are subject to change.  Note: Clive Davis did stress the songs were still being polished.

1. “Million Dollar Bill” (written and produced by Alicia Keys and Swizz Beats)

An up-tempo, joyful track about love and probably one of the funkiest songs Whitney has ever done. “Million Dollar Bill” has an amazing bass line and almost recalls early Michael Jackson in Off The Wall. The catchy hook, “You make me feel like a million dollar bill.” Her vocal is strong with some power notes toward the end. The song has an Alicia Keys sound but fits for Whit — it’s current without making her seem like she is trying to compete with teenagers. The song received a standing ovation.

2. “Nothin’ But Love” (produced by Danja)

Whitney’s shout out to those who her love her and those who hate on her, she’s got “Nothin’ But Love” for all of them. Completely up-tempo and definitely an R&B club track that has the potential of sounding even hotter with a remix. The vocal stays around her lower register and, again, holds some classic Nippy notes at the end.

3. “Call You Tonight” (produced by Stargate)

Fun, mature and a song everyone can relate to. Heavily produced and while it can be tough to adjust to a pure vocalist like Whitney sing to a production heavy song, the mid-tempo track works for this album.  “Call You Tonight” sounds like one of the better tracks from Just Whitney. Some lyrics include, “Destiny, I believe in it” and “I wish I could stay but I got to go, I’ll call you tonight.”

4. “Salute” (written and produced by R. Kelly)

Whitney is saying goodbye to a lover who has done her wrong, but she is letting go with no anger and confidently sings, “I salute you.” Could she be channeling Bobby Brown? The song is strictly R&B and almost sounds similar to “Heartbreak Hotel” from the My Love Is Your Love album. More instruments than production with keys and a strong vocal from Whitney. One line, “You think you know everything, you think your sh*t don’t stink.”

5. “I Look To You” – R. Kelly

Say what you want about R. Kelly but the man can still make a good R&B song. “I Look To You” is the title track and my favorite song so far. Beautiful lyrics like, “As I lay me down, heaven hear me now.” Her voice is deeply powerful, channeling classic Whitney with a pop sense but an R&B vocal. This song proves that she has not lost her voice and it’s definitely a melody I cannot wait to hear live.  Whitney clearly feels every line and chord, charging through the ballad, transcending her own experience and reaching others who have been through adversity.  Whitney has been criticized for not being emotional enough in her music — this track knocks out that complaint.  From where I could see, Bobbi Kristina, Whitney’s daughter, was getting emotional during the song.

6. “Worth It” (R. Kelly)

“This song is for the lovers…” is one of the lines. Youthful and radio friendly, another R&B track.  Nothing much to add about this one, enjoyable to listen to and had folks in the audience bobbing their head — I think I even saw a few head nods from Martha Stewart!

7. “A Song For You” (produced by Stargate)

Popularized by Donny Hathaway, “A Song For You” is a new spin on the Leon Russell classic. The beginning starts slow and the crowd gasped when they realized what song she was singing.  Whitney sounded incredible, nearly haunting  and before you knew it the song turns into a club banger!  Mr. Davis explained the song was recorded just the night before.  Definitely one for those who loves Whitney’s club tracks.

Overall, the nine tracks that were played received a good response. The album definitely has the potential to be a hit.  For Whitney, there is no such thing as a “comeback” — icons “don’t call it a comeback,” they just jump back in the game whenever they are ready.  One thing I do know is no one should expect 1985 Whitney.  Artists evolve and it’s limiting when we trap performers in a particular box or era.  The best piece about the tracks is that Whit has some grit to her voice, her vocals are still strong but she doesn’t mind getting a bit nasty with it.  While the album isn’t finished, I believe folks will be pleasantly surprised.

Are you looking forward to the new Whitney album?

PS. Clive Davis is 77 years old and stood on that stage for nearly an hour, introducing Whitney, telling stories, making  jokes and setting up each song!  This is a man from the old school and knows how to work a project!  Gotta give respect to Professor Davis!

PPS.  One more thing — I NEED a duet for this album and I’m calling it — just like Madonna teamed with Justin Timberlake, I need a Beyonce and Whitney Houston duet.  The song should be a single, maybe in the style of “Halo.”  So, please — someone text, email, Twitter, or Facebook Clive Davis ASAP!

Contributor: Runteldat

The girl who used to rap about letting another girl straight lick the…you know the rest is now a refined lady into the mushy and monogamous.

Sitting down for an interview with Bleu magazine, Trina talked about her love for Nuggets guard Kenyon Martin.

On her relationship with her live-in boyfriend:

“My relationship with Kenyon is something that I’ve never ever endured before. This is the first time that I’ve been in a relationship where I’m completely happy and completely secure and I feel like I have someone there for me 100-percent, she says on dating Kenyon Martin.”

Trina also touched on her ex, Lil’ Wayne:

“While I was in a relationship (with Lil’ Wayne), and it was a good relationship, but something was just not right. No matter how much you put into it, no matter how much love you give, something can always go wrong. And that’s how the ‘Here We Go’ came about. It’s from a real-life experience.”

If you’re wondering, yes, Kenyon Martin is still legally married to his wife, Heather. And they say Alicia Keys isn’t a trend setter.

But if you keep with the blogs you know Heather is rumored to be the type of chick only a free clinic and therapist could love, so I’m guessing it won’t be long before Kenyon makes that divorce official.  

Contributor: Runteldat

Just when you thought Swizz Beats was ready to get a lot more personal with the public, he’s since asked the judge in his divorce case to issue a gag order and seal all court records.

Mashonda’s lawyer, Bernard Clair, said he finds Swizz’s request “curious”

And told the New York Post:

[Mashonda’s request for child support were] “flying under the radar until Mr. Dean and Alicia Keys went public about their long-term affair and he released a song implying that he likes it when Alicia serves him breakfast naked. Now that Mr. Dean’s questionable conduct is being scrutinized, he suddenly wants a gag order and the media to be locked out?”

Right you reference Alicia Keys making you breakfast butt naked and you think Mashonda is the one who needs a gag order?

Note to Nas: Learn from Swizz. If you have a new chick somewhere, don’t bring her up until you sign divorce papers.  

Contributor: Runteldat

I know that Alicia Keys is loved by many. However, now that we know it’s official that she’s with the still-legally married Swizz Beats, is she about to face a wave of scrutiny?

Already some of have said that it’s in poor taste to openly date a legally married man regardless of whether or not he’s separated from his wife.

It doesn’t help that Mashonda pins the fall of her marriage on Alicia. Her friends are also complaining that while Swizz buys Alicia jewelry, the heat in her house is off.

Others ask what exactly is a person supposed to between the time it takes for a divorce to finalize?

Marriage gets about as much respect as Akon does for his vocals, but when someone call its quits does one have to wait until it’s legal to move on?

Contributor: Runteldat

Well look who’s no longer hiding anymore.

Last fall Mashonda hinted that Alicia Keys played a major role in the fallout of her marriage to Swizz Beats.

Of course, I’m sure his having a child with another woman didn’t help matters, but hey, this is Mashonda’s life, not mine.

Swizz denied it and Alicia never responded to it directly.

Though Keys and Beats both kept mum on their relationship, the rumor mill has been on fire lately – saying Alicia is in love and no longer cares about the home wrecker accusations.

With pics of her sitting in his lap and the two of them cheesing floating around, looks like the rumors may be true.

But uh, what ever happened to Krucial?