Courtesy of Allthatsfab.com

By Sherri L. Smith, BlackWeb20.com

We follow our favorite celebrities’ social networking streams with greedy abandon, anxiously waiting for every new bit of info we can get to validate why they’re so great. From Grammy-winner Chrisette Michele (@epiphanygirl) taking a trip down memory lane, “Remember when u dialed 911 on ur beeper If it was an emergency. And remember swooshy pants and 54 elevens?” to Roots drummer Questlove (@questlove) adamantly disagreeing with NYMag.com’s best NY fried chicken list, “that’s a lie! that’s a cotdamn lie!!!” http://nymag.com/restaurant….,” it can be a fun diversion from the doldrums of everyday life. So what happens when the your favorite celebrities aren’t behind the keyboard furiously sharing every detail of their privileged lives?

Sohh.com dropped the bomb that 50 Cent (@50cent) isn’t actually manning the helm of his Twitter account and Kanye might peck out some half-assed apology every now and then, but he isn’t posting all the cool gadgets and images on his blog. And when I got the chance to interview singer Musiq Soulchild (@musiqsoulchild), he admitted that he wasn’t currently doing his own tweeting, but planned to start in the near future. And it looks like he’s been true to his word, tweeting a couple of days ago about taking a day off.

So does it matter if our favorite celebs aren’t the ones plying us with our daily fix of celebrity gossip? In some cases, it doesn’t, like when a celeb is using the latest tech as an obvious “buy my latest thing” marketing ploy. But when celebs are using their social networking pull to actively engage us and recruit us to their causes we need to be mindful. It’s awesome when you see a star like Chamillionaire (@chamillionaire) using his social networking swag to raise money for charity, but what about the stars that aren’t being so philanthropic like 50’s latest jab at Fat Joe or today’s sonning of Yung Berg (@TheRealYungBerg) by Fabolous (@myfabolouslife) (Fab, this is twice in one week. What’s really good with the Twitter beef?)?

It’s important to remember that celebrity social networking, like all social networking, should be taken with a grain of salt. At the end of the day, they’re out to sell you something — whether it’s through beef, wit, or good deeds. If you want my hard-earned dollar or page view, the least you can do is get on the comp and bang out 140 characters or churn out a quick blog post. But that’s just me. I thought social networking was supposed to be a little more personal than the usual contrived celebrity page.

BlackWeb20.com covers website and application launches; culturally relevant Internet industry news; and mainstream Internet industry news from an African-American perspective.  They also analyze emerging web trends and how they apply to web properties that target African-Americans or African-American culture.

By Sherri L. Smith, BlackWeb20.com

Hip hop is big business. Everyone’s getting fat off of the proverbial teat that is hip hop. Despite all this money floating around, the genre is still underserved when it comes to equipment. Beatmakers have been forced to make lemonade out of lemons, having to adapt hardware and software to their needs. Thankfully, this will no longer be a problem thanks to the Beat Kangz.

The Beat Kangz is a three man production team that has earned countless awards for their stellar work producing tracks for countless independent and big name artists including The Roots and KRS-One. They also create beats for ad and media agencies. But aside from being music geniuses, the Kangz are huge techies.

In 2005, they created the  Zoom SB-246 Streetboxx™, a rhythm machine that has been the company’s biggest seller. Refusing to rest on their laurels, the Kangz, comprised of president Aja “A.J.A” Emmanuel and vice-presidents Luke “Boom Bap” Jackson and Reavis “Rev” Mitchell, are releasing their latest and greatest gear that has the potential to change both the music and music equipment industries in a big way.

Set to launch in October, The Beat Kangz have developed the BEAT THANG, a portable beat machine designed specifically for hip hop and electronic music. Weighing in at a mere five pounds, the 11 x 8 x 4 inch device weighs about as much as your average laptop and can fit in a suitcase, a book bag, or “a big ole purse” according to Rev. Taking two years from drawing board to production, the BEAT THANG is a culmination of three disparate musical viewpoints combined with a dedication to creating a product that will best serve the music community, which is a huge deal to the partners.

Boom states, “We’re going to do one thing that the industry doesn’t do because when we’re talking about for us, by us, we’re not just talking about black people. We’re talking about musicians. We’re talking about creative people no matter what color shape or size they come in.”

The BEAT THANG is also eco-friendly, powered with rechargable batteries that give the device approximately six hours of beatmaking fury. The hardware is crammed with over 3000 sounds and 200 beats, kits and loops, perfect for the budding producer to create that next big sound that the industry is constantly questing for. You need strings, congas, and bass? Look no further, the Kangz have you covered. Aja declares, “You can score a film with it. You can make hip hop with it. You can make any genre.” Retailing at $999, the BEAT THANG is a beatmaker’s dream come true.

There’s also BEAT THANG Virtual, a standalone software that operates independently of the hardware. Available now at a wallet-friendly $149, Virtual can do everything the hardware can do.  The low price point was done with the younger audience in mind. Aja explains, “So the 16-year-old just starting out could afford it. It’s quality enough for the most serious of pros, but we designed where it would be affordable and easy to use so even ten years olds could get on it and make beats.”

The software is stored on a 2GB USB key that allows for easy sharing between collaborators. Simply drag and drop the files you want onto a friend’s comp and they can add their unique touches to the track which is directly related to how the Beat Kangz operate.

With a backgrounds in funk, classical music and Computer Science, each member of the triumperant has their own approach to making music, but at the end of the day, they “come together like the Voltron Force” and make noteworthy music and business decisions.

But still the Kangz have more to share with the musicians of the world. To supplement the filet mignon they’re serving up, the Kangz are offering up some caviar in the form of an iTunes app that is set to debut in the app store at an undisclosed date. The app acts as a player for your Beat Thangz tracks, allowing users to separate a track into it’s individual parts, which users can then mute and increase volume as they please. The biggest draw of the app has to be the 20 royalty-free tracks mixed and produced by Grammy-winning producer Commissioner Gordon Williams who’s worked with Jay-Z, Lauryn Hill, Kanye West, and Amy Winehouse to name a few. Perfect for a cyphers, writing session, or making beats the app will only set you back $3. If an artist makes a hit of the app, the Kangz just want one thing — give them a shout out when you get that award.

BlackWeb20.com covers website and application launches; culturally relevant Internet industry news; and mainstream Internet industry news from an African-American perspective.  They also analyze emerging web trends and how they apply to web properties that target African-Americans or African-American culture.

The plastic surgeon who performed enhancement on Kanye West’s mom a day before she died has given up his medical license.  Although Jan Adams wasn’t held legally responsible for Donda West’s fatal complications, he has drawn other fire. “A series of complaints were filed against Mr. Adams, but he chose to surrender his license instead of contest them,” California Medical Board spokeswoman Candis Cohen said in a statement. More.

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 Dr. Jan Adams, the plastic surgeon who operated on rapper Kanye West’s mother before she died, will spend the next year in jail on a drunken-driving rap. Last year, Adams pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor DUI charge. When Adams was arrested in late June, police said he was driving the wrong way on Interstate 680 (between Sacramento and San Francisco) and that his blood alcohol level was .20 percent. Read the rest here.

Rapper’s cousin worked on fatal procedure. A relative of Kanye West is being investigated in connection with the death last year of the rapper’s mom. Stephan Scoggins, 46, reportedly supervised Dr. Donda West’s post-surgical care following her tummy tuck and cosmetic operation. But Scoggins, West’s nephew and Kanye’s cousin, is said to have left her home alone while he attended a baby shower. Subpoenas have been issued by the California Consumer Affairs Department to determine whether Scoggins is in any way responsible for West’s fate due to post-operative complications. Get more on Kanye West including music, news, photos and video here.

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The Kanye West Experience

With 808’s & Heartbreak being released, BET.com brings you everything Kanye related. All the photos, videos and news that you need in one place!

Rapper is “super-devastated” by mom’s death. Could the frustration of grief over his mom’s death be behind Kanye West’s recent clashes with photographers? Maybe it’s a coincidence, but just days after People magazine published West’s first public comments on losing his parent, the rapper is explaining his second arrest in three months. Kanye was questioned by police in England, but not charged this past weekend after a cameraman claimed the rapper shoved his camera into his face, causing a cut. West took to his blog to write about the incident outside Newcastle’s Tup Tup Club: “I put my hand up to the camera in self-defense! …My security yelled, ‘Get the camera off him!’ I guess, in all the commotion, the camera scraped his nose.” West barely escaped felony charges in September when he and an assistant were caught on video destroying another photographer’s equipment at an airport. Instead, West was issued a misdemeanor. He further blogs, “When will there be a law passed that simply enforces that someone has to ask to take a photograph of you?” People quoted West as saying that his mother’s death, due to cosmetic surgery complications last year, left him “super-devastated. I didn’t do any interviews after my mom passed,” he tells the mag. “I wasn’t ready to speak about [it]. Now I’d rather talk it through than commit suicide. …I feel like I moved to California, then my mom moved to California, and she did stuff she wouldn’t have done if we’d stayed in Chicago. If I’d never made it in the music business, it never would’ve happened.”

Ex-millionaire label head’s financial woes continue. Former Roc-a-Fella Records boss Damon Dash doesn’t have “a pot to p–s in,” says a lawyer who recently sued him. “They’re broke,” Jason Gabbard says of Dash and his wife, following a suit over $148,505 in unpaid fees. The lawyer tells The New York Daily News that Dash owed a fashion firm the cash before the suit was settled. Earlier this year, the entertainment entrepreneur’s New York home was reported in foreclosure, and just this month his Chevy Tahoe was seized after he reportedly stopped paying the $714.99 monthly lease. If that’s not enough, Dash faces an outstanding debt of $2.1 million in New York state taxes and at least three other pending suits and unpaid tabs.