Saturday, February 14, 2009
New Music: Saigon - The Rules
Here's the first single off Saigon's "All In A Day’s Work" album that he completed in 24 hours.
New Video: MIMS - Move (If You Wanna)
This is the video for MIMS new single "Move (If You Wanna)" off of the new album Guilt coming soon.
New Video: Cam'ron - I Used To Get It In Ohio (Prelude)
Cam'ron continues the storyline of his "I Hate My Job" video and gives a sneak peek of his upcoming video "I Used To Get It In Ohio." Video was filmed in Chicago, directed by Bang and will be coming soon.
The ENTIRE Aubrey O'Day Playboy Spread Uncensored!!
CLICK THE MAGAZINE COVER TO SEE THE ENTIRE SPREAD
New Music: Drake - Uptown (Orginal Version)
Here's the original version of Drake's "Uptown" hit, which features Lil' Wayne and Bun B, and is on his mixtape (So Far Gone) that dropped yesterday.
The instrumental behind the song is the same on this one. Lyrics pretty much the same. The original version though has Wayne doing a nice chorus (not featured on the mixtape final version) but leaves Wayne verse-less.
The orginal version: DOWNLOAD LINK
The final version: DOWNLOAD LINK
Which one do you like better?
Solange Lights Up the Stage!
Solange was caught looking amazing while doing her thing as she performed at the Arise Magazine launch party in NY. More pics below:
How a Strip Club Lured a Reporter Away from Journalism
A couple of years back, around the time he was turning 50, Michael Precker was in his prime as a journalist. He'd never imagined himself doing anything else: "I knew in seventh grade I wanted to be a newspaperman."
A graduate of Columbia Journalism School, he was a foreign correspondent for 11 years in the Middle East and wrote feature articles on countless subjects for the Dallas Morning News. One year, the paper nominated him for a Pulitzer Prize.
Now he has a new job: running a strip club. "I feel lucky," he says.
Mr. Precker's career adjustment reflects the recent chaos of the newspaper business. It happened in 2006. Back then the industry was already pretty far along in its path to today's never-ending reports of bankruptcies and layoffs.
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A commercial for the Lodge, the Dallas strip club where Mr. Precker now works.
When the Morning News offered buyouts in 2006, he says the paper's leadership made clear that the reduction in staff wasn't temporary -- or necessarily complete. And maybe the next buyout offer would be less generous. Demand for the long-form journalism he favored was drying up. He could see "storm clouds" all around him.
"It seemed pretty clear that people of my vintage weren't going to get through retirement," says Mr. Precker, now 53 years old.
Around that time he found himself seated at a charity dinner near the owner of a Dallas strip club, Dawn Rizos. Hearing him mention the newspaper industry's travails, she offered him a job. "I like smart people. You could do communications," she told him.
He laughed it off. "I thought, 'I couldn't stoop to something like that,'" he recalls.
Soon afterwards, he was visiting Israel when the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon broke out, and to his surprise he found himself disinterested in covering it. "As much as I loved my job and was proud of what I'd done, I didn't have the urge anymore to run up to the border and explain it all to the American people and then come back and brag about how I'd been shot at," he says.
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Mr. Precker's career change was mentioned earlier this week in a column written by Mr. Helliker.
Health Journal: You Might as Well Face It: You're Addicted to Success
02/12/09For him, that experience made it all the harder to ignore the industry's deepening financial travails. In his mind, he says, "the lines on the graph crossed. It got to be more ridiculous to hang on at a newspaper and less ridiculous to take this leap."
Upon returning to Dallas, he called Ms. Rizo, who made the offer contingent on the approval of Mr. Precker's wife of more than two decades. "I talked to her myself and made sure it was okay with her," says Ms. Rizos.
His decision to take the buyout and join the strip club surprised some at the Morning News. "He's probably the last guy anyone would have expected to become the manager of a topless joint," says columnist Steve Blow, a 30-year veteran of the Morning News. "He was a family man, a truth seeker, a serious journalist who covered the Middle East for us and then came back and wrote lifestyle stories about every subject imaginable."
Now he's serving as an all-purpose manager of the 12-year-old establishment, called the Lodge. Mr. Precker's new employer offers upscale food in a plush setting replete with a business center. Last year it won "Best Overall Club" at the Gentlemen's Club Owners Expo in Las Vegas.
"If you disapprove of the entire genre, then they all seem the same," says Mr. Precker. "But at the Lodge, class and elegance and integrity are very important to us." With a laugh, he adds, "Obviously, I have drunk the Kool-Aid."
At the Lodge, Mr. Precker writes speeches for Ms. Rizos as well as advertising copy. He has given the club a new slogan: "For the finer things in life." The old one: "Where a man can be a man."
Ms. Rizos says Mr. Precker combines "great intelligence and writing ability" with a willingness to handle operational duties. This week, for instance, he wrote a press release about the guest appearance of a burlesque star named Tiny Tina. Then he drove to the airport to pick up the 3-foot-9-inch entertainer.
For his part, Mr. Precker takes pride in how the club treats its dancers. He says Ms. Rizos encourages them to go to college, even pays tuition in some cases, and lectures them that, like professional athletes, they need to prepare for a second career.
Mr. Precker says it's a myth that the strip-club industry is immune to recession. But The Lodge is doing all right, he says, and he feels much more secure than he did at the Morning News. "Everybody in newspapers feels like they have a sword hanging over the heads, and are just wondering when it's going to fall," he says.
He says he roots for the newspaper industry and aches for its glory days. But he sums up his job much as he might have described being a reporter in earlier, better times. "I love the work. I love the variety."
Michael Jordan Out & About!
Damn Jay! Do you ever date black women??
MJ attended the Fabulous 23 cocktail party with a pretty young lady and palmed her booty like a spalding basketball.
M.I.A Has a Baby Boy!
Urbanpaparazzi.com has found out on Thursday February 12th, pop singer MIA delivered a healthy baby boy. You’ll recall MIA performed her hit song “Paper Planes” & "Swagga Like Us" at the Grammy’s with rappers TI, Lil Wayne, Kanye West and Jay Z.
Congrats to her and her fiancé Benjamin Bronfman.
Congrats to her and her fiancé Benjamin Bronfman.
Danger from 'For The Love Of Ray J' Is Pregnant By Ray J??
What the hell? Sex is allowed during the taping of these shows? I did not know.
Ray J’s reality show , which launched last week, has already been struck by scandal with former contestant Monica ‘Danger’ Leon alleging she is more than three months pregnant with the singer’s love-child. Apparently Danger became pregnant ironically after their condom broke……and her contraception pill failed. She goes on to explain, “Toward the end of the first week of filming, we made love for the first time and we slept together every night after that.” To make the situation even more complex, Danger is now engaged to marry Nick Cannon’s brother Gabriel. Allegedly Ray J denies he’s the father and has stopped returning phone calls, but Gabriel has committed to raising the child as his own. I have a feeling we will be hearing about a paternity test in about 6 months, but we will keep you updated.
The condom broke? & You kept going? Stop frontin', you put a whole in it didn't you Danger?
More pics of them below:
New Music: Ryan Leslie - Valentine
We thought in celebration of Valentine's Day, we'd drop a special, fitting song by Ryan Leslie. This track is also on Ryan's self-titled ablum which is out now. Here's a link to download the song as well. Enjoy.
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