Already a Billboard chart-topper, featured on her father’s emotional song, “Glory,” in honor of her “magic” birth after Beyonce suffered a miscarriage, her parents are eager to share their gift with the world:

“We welcome you to share in our joy,” read a hand-written note on HelloBlueIvyCarter.tumblr.com. “Thank you for respecting our privacy during this beautiful time in our lives.” — The Carter Family

See below for pictures of Blue Ivy!

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Last week, the Washington Post hinted that the stars might have received preferential treatment with their trademark application, although the Trademark Office shot down any wrongdoing. An administrator from the office reportedly told the Post that some names that are filed are typically anticipated, which arms the agency against imposters looking to cash in on quick bucks.

Further, the Post report stated that Beyoncé’s company, BGK Holdings, would hold the rights to the name. The trademark is reportedly being reserved for a series of baby-related items, such as carriages, cosmetics, accessories, and a possible fashion line. Still, the name isn’t unique to the world of business, as a Wisconsin clothing store is also named “Blue Ivy.” A pure coincidence, the store opened in early 2011.

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Proceeds from both concerts benefit the United Way of New York City and the Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation of which his mother, Gloria Carter, is president and CEO. Ticket prices ranged from approximately $300 – $1000. Jay-Z first announced the concert series in December of last year.

Beginning the evening in a white Tom Ford dinner jacket and diamond Cartier pin sparkling on his lapel, he changed the line of one of his most recited rhymes, “Public Service Announcement,” in honor of the occasion, replacing “hat” with “tux”:

“Check out my tux, yo/Peep the way I wear it,” he rhymed as the well-heeled crowd adorned in tuxedos and strapless gowns nodded along to the music of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra — conducted by Jeri Lynne Johnson — which served as Jay-Z’s house band, along with the Illadelphonics, an ensemble featuring Questlove of the Roots and soul singer Bilal, reports the Times.

Hova went through his greatest commercial hits, such as “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” and “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)” to the Rick Rubin produced “99 Problems,” laying to rest the speculation that he had given up the “b-word” in honor of his daughter with wife and former Destiny Child front-woman, Beyonce Knowles.

Jay-Z gave his daughter a shout-out during the evening’s festivities, “Put one hand in the air for Blue! If there are any proud parents in the house tonight, make some noise for me,” while performing “Glory,” his emotional tribute to baby girl Blue Ivy Carter:

“I didn’t think I was gonna make it through that one,” he said at the song’s conclusion.

Alicia Keys joined Jay-Z to perform their NYC anthem, “Empire State of Mind,” which came after an interlude during which the orchestra and band played Gil Scott-Heron’s “New York Is Killing Me.”

Former arch-nemesis, Nas, joined him on stage to perform “N.Y. State of Mind.” Jay-Z let his guest shine alone on “If I Ruled the World,” accompanied by Keys.

Even with all of the pomp and circumstance, Hova kept it so BK. After changing into a black T-shirt and gold chain, he paid homage to his fallen friend, Brooklyn rapper Notorious B.I.G. by performing the ’90′s hit, “Gettin’ Money .”  He then segued into a medley of classics from his 1996 debut album, Reasonable Doubt, making good on the promise he made the crowd early in the evening:

“All those lines that divide us,” he said with confidence, “we gonna step on them.”

Hip-Hop pioneers, Afrika Bambaataa and MC Melly Mel were the first Hip-Hop duo to play Carnegie Hall in 1985. Wyclef Jean performed there in 2004, Mos Def in 2008.

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It’s absolutely not true that she’s the godmother, King said. She’s friends with them, of course, and likes them both very much. She’s working on sending them a baby gift. She hasn’t even had time to send a baby gift because she’s been away.

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According to TMZ:

Jay-Z‘s 40/40 Club racking up a slew of health code violations … a rep for the club tells TMZ.

As we previously reported, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene cited the club big time Thursday night for a litany of violations … which included several different instances of food being stored at improper temperatures.

But Ron Berkowitz, a rep for the club, tells TMZ the motor in one of the refrigerators blew just moments before the health inspector arrived … causing the temperature in the fridge to rise. Berkowtiz says the staff identified the problem immediately and had no intention of serving the food from that fridge.

Sometimes even the biggest ballers fall off a little. For the full story check out TMZ.

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Jay-Z, formerly a “big presence” in the office, rarely shows up anymore, an insider told The Post. “It’s kind of like he’s given up on the brand,” the source added.

In 2007, as the market for urban-style clothing was peaking, the rap tycoon sold the Rocawear brand for $204 million in cash to Iconix Group, a licensing company that also owns brands such as Candie’s, Ed Hardy and Peanuts.

While Jay-Z retained an interest in Rocawear as part of the deal, his contractual obligations to the brand have expired and the rapper has since refused to promote it amid steady, double-digit sales drops, sources said.

“Jay-Z doesn’t do anything without getting paid a lot of money — a lot more than Rocawear is generating,” according to one insider.

Read more in the New York Post

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Before I got in the game, made a change, and got rich,, I didn’t think hard about using the word B—-., I rapped, I flipped it, I sold it, I lived it, now with my daughter in this world I curse those that give it. I never realized while on the fast track that I’d give riddance to the word bitch, to leave her innocence in tact No man will degrade her, or call her out her name the women won’t despise her and call her the same. I know it’s gonna miss me cuz we been together like Nike Airs and crisp tees when we all used to hang out front, singing 99 problems but a lady ain’t one. Excuse me miss, can I be your mister cuz I can tell the difference from a little girl and a sister, She never grew up, her father left her alone I promise not to talk like we used to until Kingdom Come.

E! News claims that a source close to Jay-Z claims that he did not write that poem and has no idea on how they wound up on RollingOut. The blogger Renee Gardner has not addressed who actually wrote the poem but she is an artist herself.

The U.K. Guardian reports:

Soon the story was picked up by the Daily Mail, NME and New York magazine. The Guardian covered it, too. But when E! News asked Jay-Z’s representatives for comment, the answer was unequivocal. “A source close to the rapper’s camp [said] the poem in question is not by Jay-Z,” it reported. “No word how the lyrics made it online, but it wasn’t from the rap mogul.” Another denial came via a tweet from the Roots’ leader, ?uestlove: “This just in: [Jay-Z] to me: ‘B*aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatch!!!!!!!! and tweet that.’”

Read More At The U.K. Guardian

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New York designer Joseph Mbeh is attempting to trademark “Blue Ivy Carter NYC” so it can be placed on a line of children’s clothing. Mbeh filed an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Jan. 11, four days after the birth of the urban music stars’ newborn girl. Read the application here.

According to a report in the Smoking Gun, the USPTO application was filed without consent or knowledge of either of the celebrity parents.

The application by Mbeh, 35, covers “infant, toddler and junior clothing” including dresses, skirts, sleepwear, and undergarments…

In his USPTO filing, Mbeh contends that he has been using the “Blue Ivy Carter NYC” name since “at least as early as 01/09/2012,” two days after the child’s birth at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan…

To apparently bolster this claim, Mbeh’s application includes a “Blue Ivy Carter NYC” logo and a mocked-up photo of girls clothing with hang tags bearing the child’s name.

Mbeh, a former Phat Farm intern, is a co-owner and designer of FourFront clothing, which he describes on his Linkedin profile as “a street-contemporary couture brand” that has been worn by T-Pain, Musiq Soulchild, Ray J and other musicians.

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There has been no approval from the hip-hop power couple, but none of the dispensaries have received legal notice as of yet.

A day after the Jay-Z and Beyonce’s baby was born, Jay-Z released a song, titled “Glory,” for free download. The Brooklyn rapper touches on his love for his wife and newborn, and the baby girl’s cries can be heard in the background.

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1)  Is this the second coming of Baby Jesus? No, it’s not. When Blue Ivy Carter was born, I expected the North Star to shine prominently and for Three Wise Thugs to show up at the Manhattan hospital looking for her.  I’m really, really hopeful that the Carters themselves don’t buy into the idea that the birth of their child is the most significant event in human history.

2) Shutting down an entire hospital wing? Give me a break: Some of us can partially understand the need to protect the Carter family from an ever-so-hungry media salivating over the chance to get just one photo or video clip.   But if any of the reports are true about Beyonce and Jay-Z shutting down a massive chunk of the maternity ward, then I am angry for the other parents.  The last thing I’d want to see if I were trying to deal with the stress of a newborn child are bulky security guards telling me where I can come and go.  This is silly, disrespectful and pretentious.

3) The lies and rumors: Did Beyonce have a surrogate?  Did they rent out private helicopters to fly in custom-made, solid-gold baby booties?  The rumors about this child’s birth have been beyond outrageous, and I’m sure that a few years from now, Blue Ivy will be amused to read about how crazy the world went over her birth.  By then, she’ll be 100 percent celebrity, wearing sun glasses  to kindergarten, and sporting a weave as long as her body.  Children are already born thinking that they are the center of the universe.  This poor child actually has reason to believe it.

4)  The lies in response to the lies and rumors: Beyonce and Jay-Z have announced that they had a natural birth, but they never really explained the video where Beyonce’s stomach dropped like my grandmother’s face when my daughter got her first tattoo.  The family has maintained their “silent, yet mysterious” disposition on almost every front, seeming to want the attention that their child is getting, while pretending to dislike it.

5)  Blue Ivy’s million-dollar-marketing plan: Beyonce used her pregnancy to steal the show at the MTV Music Awards the way a single man borrows his neighbor’s puppy to pick up pretty girls.   Then, of course, Jay-Z had to release a song right after the baby is born.   Pretty soon, Blue Ivy will be in the studio busting rhymes with her daddy; well actually, Jigga did use her voice on the audio already.  So, put that on the “already did that” list.  The only thing left is for Kanye West to bust into the maternity ward and demand that everyone acknowledge that Blue Ivy is, in fact, cuter than the other babies.  Kanye’s latest outburst has been scheduled for next week.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition.  To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.

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They had received two complaints about Manhattan’s Lenox Hill Hospital, one made anonymously, the other from someone who had learned about the matter through the media, a health department spokesman said. Officials reviewed the complaints and dismissed them Wednesday night, spokesman Jeffrey Gordon said without elaborating.

The hospital, a popular choice for the rich and famous from late philanthropist Brooke Astor to “30 Rock” star Tina Fey, said it was conducting its own probe.

Beyonce gave birth to the couple’s baby, Blue Ivy Carter, at the hospital on Saturday.

Media reports said Beyonce and Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, paid $1 million to take over a floor and their security guard blocked parents from the neonatal unit for hours. The hospital denied the reports, saying the couple paid the standard rate for an executive suite without disclosing what that is.

One new mother, Rozz Nash-Coulon, told The Associated Press that her twins, born Dec. 28, were in the neonatal unit and, starting Friday, intense security measures made it a struggle to see them as guards directed hallway traffic.

“Once they checked in there was high security everywhere,” she said Monday. “It looked like the president was on our floor. The hospital’s security cameras were taped over. Internal windows from the hallways into the ward were blacked out.”

The hospital’s executive director was heading up its own inquiry into the complaints, hospital spokeswoman Barbara Osborn said. The hospital was interviewing parents who had children in the newborn wing when Jay-Z and Beyonce were there, she said.

“We have spoken to seven out of the 10,” she said. “None have reported being stopped from seeing their babies.”

She confirmed that security cameras were briefly taped over when the Carter family was being moved, “but only when a security guard was present” on the fourth floor, where the neonatal unit is located. She declined to say why they were taped over.

She said that other parents at the unit did notice “enhanced security.” But she said none felt restricted from accessing the unit or any other at the hospital.

Jay-Z confirmed the birth of the couple’s daughter in a song released on his social website Life and Times on Monday.

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Someone vandalized a North Carolina church sign yesterday with writing that read, “Beyonce had her baby. Satan is on Earth.”

Beyonce‘s new baby Blue Ivy Carter is the devil incarnate — this according to some heartless vandal who defaced the sign in front of a North Carolina church yesterday … writing, “Beyonce had her baby. Satan is on Earth.”

The pastor at Beulah Hill Baptist Church in West End, NC tells TMZ, he discovered the vandalism yesterday after receiving numerous complaints from locals — and removed it immediately.

Check out TMZ for more on this disturbing story.

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People keep asking: What does Blue Ivy mean? What kind of father will Jay Z be? Will Beyonce be able to stop dancing and acting long enough to be a good mother? How long will it take her to get the baby weight off and hit the mic again? The internet is virtually aflame with talk about Blue Ivy Carter. Only a new baby by President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle could top this hype. None of that is what interests me though.

Call me old fashioned but, I’m just happy to see a Black couple that took the traditional route to family for a change. I’m not passing judgement on any lifestyle choices that anyone makes. I believe folks need to live their life the way they see fit. Still it has been a long time since I have seen a Black man love and marry a Black woman, and get such a massive response when they have a child. In fact, I have never seen such excitement about the birth of a Black child in America.

When I speak to kids today, they enjoy talking about many things in their future. However, they almost never talk about love. They talk even less about marriage. Few aspire to a life where monogamous Black love is a reality. Hopefully Jay Z and Beyonce’s marriage, and the arrival of Blue Ivy can instill more faith in our young Black boys and girls about the power of the Black family. I feel like the Black family is in a deep state of crisis (American families are as a whole). So anything that any celebrity might do to confirm the value of the Black family, is something I will champion.

For this reason alone, I’m very happy for Jay Z and Beyonce. I am lucky enough to have been married to a wonderful Black woman for 16 years now. We have three kids together, and I would not want my life any other way. There is no cheating, or violence in our household. We don’t curse one another, or call one another names when things get intense. I’m not bragging. I’m blessed and I know it.  It is nothing to be arrogant about. As time has gone on most of the Black marriages I’ve seen come together have fallen horribly apart. Its unfortunate and sad to watch. Watching any love fall apart is hard though. The number of Black married couples I personally know today (not counting my parents generation), can be counted on one hand. Its pretty wild. But I live in California. I can imagine that in New York or Atlanta the number of married Black families are much more abundant.

Love is not easy on its own. Black love in America, is purely a trial by fire. It must be very hard for them to cultivate the love they have. The pressure of whatever good and bad is in their relationship is enough stress on its own. To have everything you do magnified and scrutinzed by the media is something I can’t even begin to comprehend. Yet they have done it. Not only that they have done it with a class, and grace possibly unmatched in recent years. Rather than get too excited about what these two do, or do not do as parents, I’m reminded to focus on the love in my life. My wife,  and my kids.

So, while everybody else charts astrological graphs and rants about the potential career of  Blue Ivy, I will celebrate something else. I will toast to the beauty of their love, and the power of the Black family they represent. May they be showered with all the joy and protection The Creator can provide. Congratulations to Jay Z, Beyonce and Blue Ivy. Stay blessed y’all.

UPDATE: SEE LABOR DETAILS HERE.

E! Online is reporting that Jay Z and Beyonce had their baby. She scheduled a C-Section and rented out the 4th floor of the hospital for 1.3 million dollars. The name…?

Blue Ivy Carter! (At least that’s what Jay-Z is telling pals at this point—the couple’s reps have not immediately responded to calls seeking comment.)

Friend and music mogul Russell Simmons was among the first to celebrate the arrival, tweeting the new parents: “congrats to my good friends Beyonce and Jay-Z.”

Rihanna gave baby Blue a warm welcome, tweeting: “Welcome to the world princess Carter! Love Aunty Rih.”

Hey, we’re happy to find out this much, considering Blue’s parents didn’t even confirm to the world that they were married until…Wait? Did they ever really confirm it? (Public records ultimately told the tale.)

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Criticism lands within one or both of the following camps. First, it has rattled the cages of ghosts of history’s past where black culture is undermined and undervalued, a literal “Murder To Excellence” which Jay-Z and Kanye West depict on their 2011 album Watch The Throne.  Second, detractors are wedded to an intellectual cannon to which, they insist, Jay-Z has no place.

Professor Dyson, as a sociologist, sees the value of Jay-Z as a towering figure of arts and letters, apropos for academic inquiry. Dyson and the scores of other professors around the country teaching and writing about hip-hop in the academy for well over a decade, take their cue from literary forebears who have come to represent the Western intellectual canon.

Scholars like Dyson recognize educational value of the canon like Homer, who writes in The Odyssey: “Among all men on the earth bards have a share of honor and reverence, because the muse has taught them songs and loves the race of bards.”

Dyson’s critics have no beef with Homer. But rather than widen the net, they criticize Jay-Z instead.

“This trendy juvenile nonsense happening at Georgetown is a very bad sign… They are manifestations of a deadly malignancy,” writes a commenter on an article entitled, “NBC Cheers College Course on Rapper Jay-Z By Left-Wing Professor Michael Eric Dyson,” written by Kyle Drennen on Lucianne.com.

In an op-ed within the Georgetown University paper, “The Hoya,” Stephen Wu concurs: “It speaks volumes that we engage in the beat of Carter’s pseudo-music while we scrounge to find serious academic offerings on Beethoven and Liszt. We dissect the lyrics of “Big Pimpin’,” but we don’t read Spenser or Sophocles closely. Our pedagogical commitments are disordered.”

It was with critics like these in mind that led to my anthology “Jay-Z: Essays on Hip-Hop’s Philosopher King” published earlier this year. One of the contributors, Nicole Hodges-Persley, sees Jay-Z through a Homeric lens in her essay “The Freestyle Remixing of an Afro-Homeric Oral Tradition.”

“I pay specific attention to three phases of Jay-Z’s artistic development which find synergy with the practices of oral epic singers as outlined by Albert Lord in A Singer of Tales, says Dr. Hodges-Persley who teaches a hip-hop course at Kansas University called “Hip-Hop in Popular Culture.”

“Jay-Z’s development as a rapper parallels that of oral epic singers as many facets of Greek oral narrative composition are recast in his Hip-hop freestyle practices,” she writes.

Opponents of Hip-Hop Studies should take a look at Jay-Z’s “Meet the Parents” while reading Sophocles’s “Oedipus Rex,” as is being done by A.D. Carson at Benedictine University in Springfield, Illinois. Or take a trip to the University of Illinois-Chicago and check in with Dr. David Stoval a Policy Studies professor who teaches hip-hop there. Or meet me at Wittenberg University where we engage in Emerson, Plato, Nietzsche and Voltaire while discussing Jay-Z along with the time-rich tradition of canonized excellence.

Homer states, in “The Odyssey”: “By their own follies they perished, the fools.” Taking his lead, I could have chosen to leave the carcasses of provincialism spewed by hip hop studies’ critics to rot unburied, exposed to its obscenity so that all can see what the face of the enemy of Liberal Education and Radical Pedagogy looks like. But I couldn’t. And my response is as consistent to my academic role, as it is my human duty to bury the dead.

It is a moral duty, one in which Sophocles’ “Antigone” spoke of quite well. So does Jay-Z in his rap song “Meet the Parents”:

Let’s take a trip down memory, lane at the cemetery
Rain, grey skies, seems at the end of every
young (Critics) life is this line, “Damn – him already?
Such a good kid,” got us pourin Henn’ already
‘Til the next time I see you, on the other side
He was just some thug (of a critic) that, caught some slugs
And we loved him cause, in him we, saw some of us
He walked like us, talked like us
His (academic) back against the wall, he even fought like us – damn.

Dyson, Hodges, and Carson are building on a tradition that includes the work of Mark Anthony Neal (Duke University), Tricia Rose (Brown University), Murray Foreman (Northeastern University), Marcyliena Morgan (Harvard University) and many others who recognize that the lyrical cries and visceral tales of those who operate within Hip Hop culture are tragically and triumphantly American. More so, they are deeply human.

Julius Bailey is Professor of Philosophy at Wittenberg University and Editor of  “Jay-Z: Essays on Hip Hop’s Philosopher King” (McFarland Publishing Inc, 2011).  www.juliusbailey.com

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The rapper announced Thursday that he will perform two shows at New York’s Carnegie Hall in February to benefit the Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation and the United Way of New York City.

Says Jay-Z: “Education is super important. ” He says even though he didn’t finish high school or graduate from college, “for me to articulate, I had to have some form of schooling to articulate my thoughts.”

The concerts will take place on Feb. 6 and Feb. 7. Tickets in the private sale will range from $500 to $2500.

The Brooklyn-born performer said he’s excited to influence his community in ways outside of music.

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The couple toured the 9,491 square-foot, which is estimated to be valued at $10,000,000 in 2005, according to TMZ.com.

We confirmed with the realtor that J&B took a walk-through the 9,491 square-foot ocean-front pad last week — but it’s unclear if the couple is interested in making an offer.

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But on Wednesday night, the British songstress shared in the Grammy nominations glory. While she was nominated for six trophies, including album of the year for “21″ and record and song of the year for her bitter groove “Rolling in the Deep,” Bruno Mars and the Foo Fighters also received six, and it was Kanye West who was the night’s top leader, with seven nominations.

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West was nominated for song of the year for his all-star anthem “All of the Lights,” which featured everyone from Rihanna to Elton John. But even though the album from which it came, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” heralded an epic album by critics when it was released last year, it was not featured in the best album category (so far, no obligatory West rant has surfaced in response).

Bon Iver, the folky indie rock act that was a key part of “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” and received a popularity boost from its association with Kanye, was one of the night’s big winners, receiving four nominations, including for best artist, and song and record of the year for “Holocene.” And last year’s critical darlings, Mumford & Sons, were once again nominated, receiving among their bids for song and record of the year for “The Cave.”

Other multiple nominees were Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Radiohead, and dubstep artist Skrillex, who landed a bid for best new artist among his surprising five nominations.

Among the evening’s biggest eye-openers were the artists not mentioned in certain categories. Taylor Swift, who won best album in 2010 for “Fearless” and was considered to be a key favorite for her multiplatinum “Speak Now,” only got her three nominations in the country fields, and Tony Bennett, who had a feel-good story as his “Duets II” album made him the oldest act to debut an album at No. 1 at age 85, was not nominated for album of the year, as some critics had predicted.

West’s joint album with Jay-Z, “Watch the Throne,” was also ignored for best album.

Mars, who like Adele was nominated in all the top three categories – record, album and song of the year – was estatic about his night. He was nominated for song and record of the year for “Grenade,” album for “Doo-Wops & Hooligans,” and best pop solo performance, among other bids.

“It feels incredible. Me and these guys, we locked ourselves in the studio not too far from here and worked on this album, especially `Grenade.’ That’s the song we worked the hardest on. That’s like our trophy right there. Of all the songs we’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of this year, we were most proud of that one,” Mars said after the nominations, some of which were announced in Los Angeles at the Nokia Theatre as part of the Recording Academy’s hour-long concert nominations special.

Mars, who was part of the CBS special, along with Rihanna, Lady Gaga, The Band Perry and others, also got key nominations last year. But he said of awards: “I’m trying to get used to it. It’s hard for me, because Adele is incredible. Kanye West is incredible. All these people are just incredible and they all offer something different, so the fact that this album got recognized and is being categorized alongside these acts, that’s the craziest part, because I’m a fan of all of this music.”

The academy seemed to be fans of a wide variety of music as well. They top categories honored rap, pop, indie music, folk and dance.

Adele’s “21″ is the year’s top-selling album with more than 4.5 million albums sold, and the singer-songwriter’s mournful post-breakup album produced smash hits like the torch ballad “Someone Like You.” Besides “21,” the best album candidates inclduded Lady Gaga; Gaga garnered her third straight nod in the category for “Born This Way,” while veteran rockers the Foo Fighters were nominated for “Wasting Light,” along with Mars’ debut album,and Rihanna’s steamy dance album “Loud.”

For record of the year, besides Bon Iver, Adele, Mars and Mumford & Sons, Katy Perry’s inspirational anthem “Firework” got a nod. The category looked virtually the same for song of the year, with “Firework” being replaced by West’s “All of the Lights.”

Unlike the past two years, which saw Swift and fellow country act Lady Antebellum soar in the general categories, the only country act that got a mainstream nomination was the country sibling act The Band Perry. Best known for their poignant ballad “If I Die Young,” they got a nomination for best new artist. Their competition also includes Bon Iver, Jay-Z rap protege J. Cole, Skrillex and rapper-singer Minaj.

“It’s been an amazing evening,” said lead singer Kimberly Perry. “We got the good news yesterday that our debut album went platinum, it was certified yesterday, to so follow it with a nomination tonight is phenomenal. We’re just in the clouds, absolutely.”

The 54th Grammys will be held Feb. 12 in Los Angeles. The ceremony will mark the first since the academy shaved its categories from 109 to 78 this year, amid some protest. Some of the more niched categories, like best Zydeco or Cajun music album, were eliminated.

In addition, men and women now compete together in vocal categories for pop, R&B and country, instead of having separate categories for each sex. This year, the category is best pop solo performance and Bruno Mars is the only man nominated for “Grenade.” His competition includes Adele for “Someone Like You,” Lady Gaga for “You and I,” Pink for “(Expletive) Perfect” and Perry for “Firework.”

Who do you think should win? Who got left out? Why do you think Hip-Hop is still doing so well at the Grammys? Post your thoughts below. See the full story at www.hiphopdx.com

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The sculpture features Jay-Z shirtless with gold chains and a dollar sign. Jay-Z had previously caused controversy with the Occupy Wall Street movement when he made Occupy Wall Street shirts with no plans to contribute to the movement.

Rumor Fix reports:

“I think Jay-Z has made himself a face of [the] Wall Street that Occupiers are protesting against,” said Edwards. “Maybe Jay-Z is striving to be in the one percent? Which is why I chose the composition of a totem pole because I thought it would resemble the number one. Rap stars who turn ‘Scrooge’ have to suffer some damage to their street credibility.”

Read More At Rumor Fix

After controversy grew on the Internet after many thought Jay-Z was trying to profit from the movement and not give anything back to the 1 percent, the t-shirts on the Rocawear site disappeared.

But what really happened was that the shirts sold out, and now they are back up on the site with a fresh batch.

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Many are still protesting the sale of these shirts on the Internet.

“Jay-Z, as talented as he is, has the political sensibility of a hood rat and is a scrotum,” one of the protest organizers said in response to the Occupy All Streets shirts. “To attempt to profit off the first important social moment of 50 years with an overpriced piece of cotton is an insult to the fight for economic civil rights known as #occupywallstreet.”

Read more at EURWEB

The shirts, stamped with the phrase, “Occupy All Streets,” first appeared when Russell Simmons tweeted a picture of Jay-Z wearing one backstage at a concert.

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Rocawear announced on Thursday that it planned to sell the T-shirts for $22, but any trace of garments has now been wiped from the brand’s site.

Backlash sparked when Jay-Z’s camp announced it had no plans to share profits.

Jay-Z was seen wearing one of the shirts on one of his Watch The Throne tour stops.

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The T-shirts will read, “Occupy All Streets.”

“At this time, we have not made an official commitment to monetarily support the movement,” the Rocawear spokeswoman said in a statement to the Gawker website.

Jay-Z also says that the Nets will change their name when they come to Brooklyn next year.

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Racist? Alec Baldwin Tweets The N-Word Referring To Kanye/Jay-Z Song

The New York Post reports:

Their game plan is set to target Wall Streeters and residents of upscale neighborhoods like TriBeCa and SoHo.

The turf war will be fought with billboards, 150 taxi tops, 60 telephone kiosks and a whopping 250,000 coffee cups to be distributed to local stores.

“We’ll be blanketing Wall Street with the coffee cups,” said Yormark.

Read More At The New York Post

Actor Alec Baldwin ruffled some feathers on Twitter today when he tweeted the “n-word” when referring to the Kanye West and Jay-Z song, “Ni**as In Paris.”

The tweets are below:

In the tweets, Baldwin said that he loved the song and was going to make his own version with Kanye called “Ni**as In Montauk.” He also said he would call his album, “My Beautiful Pale Twisted Fantasy.”

Baldwin received some angry at replies from African Americans on Twitter. He said that anyone who thought quoting the title was racist is a “disgrace to the human race.”

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Jay-Z, Kanye Auction “Otis” Mayback For East Africa

When the story first surfaced in 2007, Jay-Z denied having any connection.

“There is no truth to these ridiculous rumors,” the rapper’s rep told AllHipHop.com.

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The rap mogul is notorious for guarding his private life. He quietly married his megastar wife Beyonce in 2008 and kept news of her pregnancy under wraps for four months until she unveiled her baby bump during an MTV awards show last month.

Read more at The New York Daily News.

The rap duo gave the car a makeover during the video– stripping the exterior apart with saws and a torches, giving the uber-expensive vehicle a cool new look.

The video closed with a message stating, “The vehicle used in this visual will be offered up for auction. Proceeds will be donated towards The East African Drought Disaster.”

VIDEO:

There has been no word yet on when the auction will take place, but the money is much needed in East Africa.

In recent weeks, tens of thousands of of East Africans have died, in what the United Nations described as the worst famine of the generation. Aid workers say the severity of the famine has risen due to spiking food prices and the increasing regularity of major droughts.

Both rappers regularly donate to charity, Jay Z currently raising money for cancer research, and West supported at-risk students in America with his own foundation for several years.

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Jay-Z, Kanye West Talk Danroy Henry, Chicago Crime On Track

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While numerous critics are blasting Jay-Z and Kanye West for talking about expensive trips, clothes, and cars on their new album “Watch The Throne” during an economic recession, there are plenty of tracks on the album that touch on serious topics specifically, “Murder To Excellence.”

On the album’s tenth track, Jay-Z and Kanye West focus on police brutality, Black-on-Black crime, and the police killing of 20-year-old Danroy Henry. They specifically zero in on the city of Chicago’s high-crime rates (435 homicides in 2010) and the tragic death of Pace University student, Danroy Henry, who was killed at the hands of Westchester, NY., police in a murder still clouded in controversy.

Read our timeline of Danroy Henry stories: Click here

Jay-Z opens the track letting us know where the track is going from start to finish when he says, “this is to the memory of Danroy Henry/ too much enemy fire to catch a friendly/strays from the same shade ni**a, we on the same team/ Giving you respect, I expect the same thing.”

In the verse, Jay obviously takes a shot at police officers who have proven to have quick trigger fingers when it comes to African-Americans. He mentions how cops want respect and all we want is the “same thing.”

On the second verse of the track, Kanye takes over focusing on his home of Chicago which he calls the “murder capital.”

“And I’m from the murder capital/where they murder for capital/ heard about at least 3 killings this afternoon/ looking at the news like damn I was just with him after school/ in shop class/ but half the school got it to/ and an I can die any day type attitude/ plus his little brother got shot repping his avenue/ it’s time for us to stop and redefine Black power/ 41 souls murdered in 50 hours…I feel the pain in my city wherever I go/ 314 soldiers died in Iraq, 509 died in Chicago.”

The hook to the song is as follows:

The paper read “murder, black-on-black murder”
The paper read “murder, black-on-black murder” again

Full lyrics to song

The numbers he’s referring to are from 2008 when 314 soldiers died in Iraq, and Chicago reported 509 people dying in violent crimes. This isn’t the first time Kanye references Chicago crime numbers in his rhymes.

From “Everything I Am”

“I know that people wouldn’t usually rap this/ But I got the facts to back this/ Just last year, Chicago had over 600 caskets/ Man, killin’s some wack s**t.”

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“Watch The Throne,” A Smack In The Face To Black America’s Plight

Under these circumstances, Watch The Throne is becoming much more than your standard who-ripped-the-track hip-hop conversation. Instead it’s becoming a dialogue on the increasing line between have and have-nots, a particular dichotomy that is illustrated well in hip-hop, where anthems on hustling to survive, have been largely replaced by hobnobbing in the Hamptons as the new measure of “swag.”

All this while the communities in which the culture was born are suffering some of the most troubling economic times in recent history. Last week, Public Enemy frontman Chuck D sent a message to Jay-Z and Kanye with his own rendition of the album’s first single, Otis. Chuck D’s version, “Know This or Notice,” chides their lavishness, asking the two to take notice of the financial and social conditions of the communities that their music represents.

Read more at The Grio.

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GQ reports:

“Numbers don’t lie. Unemployment is pretty high. It’s fucked up, but he’s trying not to be the angry black man.”

Read The Whole Story At GQ

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Jay-Z and partner Juan Perez  thanked patrons and discussed the 40/40’s makeover in a letter posted on the club’s websites. According to the letter, the renovations will be lead by renowned designer Jeffery Bears.

“Without your commitment the 40/40 Club would not have achieved the worldwide recognition it has today. We have shared amazing moments together and only look to expand on those memories in the years to come. “

Read the letter on the 40/40 Club’s website.

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Jay-Z Sues Boston Red Sox Player David Ortiz

The rapper visited the players after their victory over North Carolina on Sunday at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J, home of the Nets. Jay-Z is a part-owner of the team and attended the Nets’ 120-116 loss at New York on Wednesday.

NBA rules prohibit team personnel from having contact with players who are not yet draft eligible, and spokesman Tim Frank told the Associated Press the league is looking into it.

The investigation was first reported by CBSSports.com.

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Remember when Sade admitted to turning down collaboration offers from rappers, including Jay-Z? Well, she’s gone back on her word.

Sade will be receiving some help from Jay on the remix of “The Moon and the Sky,” a song that appeared on last year’s Soldier of Love. The revised track, along with two other brand new recordings, will appear on Sade’s 28-track double-disc set The Ultimate Collection. SOURCE

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AllHipHop News reports:

“On one side these are young black men that are great business men, but on the other end it is like the tobacco business,” said Rev. Lucious Smith, pastor of Pasadena Friendship Baptist Church. “In the end you get cancer.”

Coates, who heads up the Enough is Enough Campaign for Corporate Responsibility in Entertainment, said the battle with the NAACP is not about Hip-Hop music.

Rev. Coates said he is not against Hip-Hop, but he said the NAACP could do a better job picking out artists who have a more positive message than the 2011 nominees.

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Los Angeles — This past All-Star Weekend, Jay-Z and NBA Super-Star LeBron James teamed up with Sprite to make a donation to a local Boys & Girls Club gym.

The donation helped make numerous improvements to the gym, including a mural by infamous tattoo artist Mr Cartoon was also presented.

Watch:

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While it’s still in the development stage, Variety states that through his film company Overbrook, Smith would produce the film with megastar rapper Jay-Z collaborating on the music.

Details haven’t confirmed whether the film would be a contemporary version and whether it will include any original songs.

Will Smith hit paydirt when he remade ‘The Karate Kid‘ with Jaden as the star. The film made more than $350 million worldwide.

Willow made her acting debut in her dad’s film, ‘I Am Legend,’ and later appeared in ‘Kit Kittredge: An American Girl‘ alongside Abigail Breslin.

Read more at BlackVoices.com

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Of my three main New Year’s resolutions:

1. Stop getting angry as quickly, violently and easily,

2. Stop referring to other people and even thinking of them as “idiots”,

3. Say the word “relax” over and over to calm myself down

The only one that wasn’t broken literally seconds after the clock struck 12 was the third one.

I’m far from perfect and I expect people to literally see my insanity reeking from my pores when they look at me.

I talk to myself out loud and laugh like a maniac at jokes that only I would understand because they’re playing themselves out on the widescreen inside my own head.

Yet, of course, I’m Black, educated, fit, working, beautiful and all the other things that all the ladies love.

But am I… wrong?

Since I was the nut that declared 2011 “The Year of the Black Woman”, I would be remiss if I didn’t at least try to sum up the current state of the Black man.

Judging by myself as an example, we’re f*cked.

The ones of us that are ½ witty think we’re brilliant, the ones of us that are ½ cute think we’re Adonis’s, the ones of us that earn ½ decent salaries think were “Black” Bill Gates and Donald Trumps and we all think we’re sex gods.

And these are just the brothers you see on the street that aren’t in jail and actually like women and Black women at that.

The other brothers don’t exactly count because, believe it or not, we represent an elevated plane to their current state of depravity.

In other words, the junkies, conmen, crooks and liars have to work their way up to our level.

The problem, since I am gonna have to finally admit that there is a problem, is that very few of us have an internal ideal that’s entirely independent of any preexisting archetypes.

You’ll catch that whenever you hear a Black man use either one of two phrases: “I’m like…” or “If that was me…”

You hear these all the time.

“I’m like Jay-Z”

Or

“LeBron shouldn’t have gone to Miami. If that was me…”

Both of these phrases are symbolic of our need to distance ourselves from ourselves in order to gain perspective when probably the ability to use external guideposts in order to gain internal focus would be preferable.

Or maybe this is a phenomenon that occurs in all men but I notice it in us the most.

Now, this was a great post, wasn’t it?

Humility should have been my 4^th New Year’s resolution.

So now, despite the fact that I’ve done ya’ll a fantastic service by writing this, I’d like to thank everyone that took the time to read it.

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New York (NYDailyNews)– There was the general squalor of the ghetto, which got aired out in early songs like Run-DMC’s first hit, “It’s Like That,” or “The Message” by Melle Mel. But over time, rappers started really going in on specific issues. Crooked cops were attacked by groups like NWA. Drug dealers were targeted by KRS-One. Drug addicts were mocked by Brand Nubian. Ice Cube called out Uncle Toms. Groups like Poor Righteous Teachers denounced shady churches with bootleg preachers. Queen Latifah was pushing back against misogyny. Salt-N-Pepa were rallying around safe sex. Public Enemy recorded manifestoes on their albums addressing a dozen different issues. You could name practically any problem in the hood and there’d be a rap song for you.

The hip-hop generation never gets credit for it, but those songs changed things in the hood. They were political commentary, but they weren’t based on theory or books. They were based on reality, on close observation of the world we grew up in. The songs weren’t moralistic, but they created a stigma around certain kinds of behavior, just by describing them truthfully and with clarity. One of the things we corrected was the absent-father karma our fathers’ generation’s created. We made it some real bitch s— to bounce on your kids. Whether it was Ed O.G. & Da Bulldogs with “Be a Father to Your Child,” or Big mixing rage with double entendre (pop duke left ma duke, the f— took the back way), we as a generation made it shameful to not be there for your kids.

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“It’s bittersweet in a lot of ways,” he said about the impact on his business of West’s decision to protest Swift’s win over Beyoncé at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. “If we look back, everyone would agree that he was right. It was bad timing. It was not her fault. It’s not Taylor Swift’s fault. She didn’t nominate … she didn’t elect herself. She just sat there and she had a dream and she’s seeing that dream being realized, and he had the same dream, so he realizes that now. He was fighting for the integrity of the award, and he knows how hard he works on his videos. It was bad timing, but we agreed.”

And Jigga said ‘Ye had the right intentions when he made his famous remark about President Bush during the 2005 Hurricane Katrina relief telethon. “It was bad timing, but it was absolutely an honest emotion,” he said. “We all felt like that. We didn’t feel like Katrina was a natural disaster. We felt like it as an attack on black people. All you saw was black people on the roof with help signs. … White people felt like that.”

Read entire article at MTV.com

A rap mogul who helped launch Jay-Z’s career was busted Friday with 42 other people when the feds rolled up a drug ring that controlled the marijuana market in New York City.

Dubbed operation “Green Venom,” the feds rousted Kareem “Biggs” Burke, who co-founded of Roc-A-Fella Records with Shawn (Jay-Z) Carter and Damon Dash, from his home in North Bergen, N.J.

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Jay-Z is on the cover of this month’s Forbes. But the Miami Police Department still thinks he looks like your typical member of a street gang.

The department’s website is currently featuring a large mural-esque banner depicting five tough-looking characters, including one holding a bat and one throwing up a gang sign, and the plea: “Report Gang Activity”.

By our estimation, forty percent of the gang’s population is Jay-Z.

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