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On Monday, another video from the same source hit the Internet — and it couldn’t have been at a better time.

The footage is of a pre-teen West — most likely 12 or 13 years of age — at Chicago’s Vanderpoel Elementary School reciting an original poem titled “His Name Means Love.”

The poem was dedicated to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who would’ve been 83 today. Watch the video below:

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By theGrio

From Entertainment Weekly: He wasn’t born on the throne.

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But according to a newly unearthed video of a 19-year-old Kanye West performing in his native Chicago, he was already on his way in 1996.

Check out the video here:

“I never been tookin’ out/I got emcees lookin’ out,” raps the nascent Louis Vuitton Don, sporting the kind of tucked-in polo ensemble that became the sartorial signature of his earlier days.

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Check out the rest of the story at theGrio.

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Rose and Kanye West were a hot item a few years ago, until Rose alleges, Kardashian stole West from her:

They were both cheating,” Amber, 28, said.  “They were both cheating on me and Reggie with each other.

Rose says it was Kim, 31, who instigated the whole affair by calling, texting and sending racy photos of herself to West.

Ironically, Rose “thanked” Kardashian for the “homewrecking” because it lead her to her current squeeze Wiz Khalifa:

I want to thank her,” she said about Kim.  “Because if she was never a homewrecker, then I never would have met Wiz, and I wouldn’t be as happy as I am now.

The full interview is in Star Magazine, which is on newsstands today.

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—–

This month, NewsOne presents a special exploration of Black Americans’ influence on social media, #TWEETING WHILE BLACK.

—–

Twitter has amassed more than 300 million users since its public launch in 2006, and a Pew Research Center survey shows that African Americans are more likely to Tweet than any other demographic. There is some speculation that this is because the median age among African Americans is currently skewing seven years younger than that of Whites — which can then be linked to smartphone usage and interest in the celebrities and media outlets (like BET’s 106 & Park), that rank among the most followed — but no conclusive study has been conducted.

SEE ALSO: INFOGRAPHIC: A History Of Black Twitter

But there’s no doubt that Black Americans are among the most effective and powerful users of Twitter, and that their influence is far out of proportion to their share of population.

Here is NewsOne’s official list of the Top 10 Black Tweeters. Are you following them?

1. @BarackObama: 11,449,382 Followers)

The account is run by his #Obama2012 campaign staff with at least daily updates on Presidential happenings. Much less frequently, he’ll chime in (he signs these Tweets “-BO”): “This dinner is important because I’m only president thanks to the work of millions of Americans like the four I just met.” (He dined with a teacher, an entrepreneur, a postal worker, and an artist who all donated at least $3 to his campaign and won the “Dinner With Obama” contest.)

2. @rihanna: 10,428,259 Followers

Her Tweets range from a Happy Birthday @britneyspears to quoting Jay Z to self-promotional commentary on her own social gaffes like “Shooting another vid in Ireland today!No farm this time :( … Im shooting another #ARMANI campaign Spring/Summer!Try to sneek u a pic ;)”

3. @Oprah: 8,456,870 Followers

She’s surprisingly not new age-preachy on this Twitter account. Instead, the media mogul posts one word response to her followers (“hi”), smiley face icons, and the occasional update of what it’s like to be Oprah: “Just saw Hugh Jackman on Broadway. WOW was he awe inspiring. He BROUGHT IT. Sang it, danced it and THREW DOWN!”

4. @NICKIMINAJ: 7,560,448 Followers

Between her Pink Friday promotions and congratulations to @maryjblige for her new album, the platinum-selling artist spends most of her Tweets thanking her Barbz and acting in cyber-speak: “Thank u my loves. I couldn’t do this w/o you. I am overwhelmed. I’m in love w/u guys. How could one girl be this lucky? *holds u close*”

5. @chrisbrown: 6,011,182 Followers

He still has a considerable following after recently deleting most of his Tweets. Now, Young Brezzy’s account is sporadic, sparse words like: “ELEVATE MENTALITY” and “Live LIFE!”

6. @MariahCarey: 5,314,200 Followers

With her record-breaking 1993 release, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” still charting and recently being remixed by Justin Beiber, Mrs. Cannon is using her Twitter to count down the days ‘til 25th, and bubble about her new song with John Legend, “When Christmas Comes.” She also takes a moment to shout out her second cousin’s sweet sixteen, post a Twitpic of herself in the booth, and send a note to O.D.B.: “Happy birthday & RIP to the late great O.D.B! I miss you & love you. “Ol’ dirty bastard across the globe.” – Fantasy.. classic, forever. Xo”

7. @aliciakeys: 5,284,370 Followers

Besides the occasional personal Tweets to the likes of @traciellisross, she’s all business on her account promoting her Keep A Child Alive cause, the Broadway play “Sticky Fly” that she produced, and her job as a “light bearing mommy/artist/songwriter/musician…”: “‘You’ve got to dance like nobody’s watching and love like it is never going to hurt ~ Ann Wells’.”

8. @50Cent: 5,301,573 Followers

He goes in multiple times per day, and will sometimes drop insight like how amazing it was to see Goldie Hawn and @deepackchopra live, but in true 50 fashion is mostly about the marketing strategy: “Streetking is the movement I’m not reading or retweeting if I don’t see SK in your tweets I need your help hold me down” (referencing his energy drink partnership with the United Nation to feed the hungry).

9. @kanyewest: 5,251,094 Followers

Only a select group of Tweeters have millions of followers without following anyone at all (the Dalai Lama, Rev Run, and Lord Valdermort), and, of course, Kanye tops that list. But it’s not the arrogant, Ye-centricity that one may expect. He expresses gratitude with a thank you to HipHopDX.com for a “tasteful well written review,” Chicagoan camaraderie with a re-Tweet of Bears stats mid-game, and just genuine goodwill: “Support Michael J. Fox foundation & NIKE and the fight against Parkinson’s”

10. @SnoopDogg: 5,222,697 Followers

He’s got a narrowed-eye focus on #macanddevin via many daily Tweets. The only thing that’ll make him take a breather from his new joint album with Wiz Khalifa is news of his Snoop Youth Football League Superbowl game and his family: “Sunday n vegas syfl superbowl go hard or go home! Happy 2 b home. Cocori! N tae tae !! Love yall!!”

SEE THE ENTIRE #TWEETINGWHILEBLACK SERIES HERE

METHODOLOGY:

List derived from Twitaholic.com, data updated via Twitter.com

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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As the nation and global community turns its attention to the rise of the Occupy Wall Street movement, celebrity involvement has been a growing hot topic. Last week, controversy erupted over Kanye West’s presence at the protest site, Zuccotti Park in New York City, at the invitation of Russell Simmons. One article of particular interest, Why Kanye West Doesn’t Belong at Occupy Wall Street, was written by GOOD Senior Editor Cord Jefferson. Highlighting the selling price of his outfit and his image as the “Louis Vuitton Don,” the writer concluded by saying that “what OWS doesn’t need is everyone who’d like to be seen as a populist jumping onboard for a photo opportunity before leaving to go buy $500 jeans. Lip service and deceit is what got us into this mess in the first place.”

Watch this videotaped discussion to hear political website Urban Cusp‘s Editorial Director Rahiel Tesfamariam reflect on the author’s points with NewsOne’s Bakari Kitwana, who has a forthcoming new book entitled Hip-Hop Activism in the Obama Era. Kitwana has been seen and heard on CNN, Fox News, C-Span, PBS and NPR. He is the CEO of RapSessions.org and Senior Media Fellow at the Harvard Law-based think tank, the Jamestown Project. Kitwana is also the former editor of The Source, co-founder of the National Hip-Hop Political Convention and author of the best-selling The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture.

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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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Johnson claims one of the songs on the deluxe edition of the album, Kanye’s “The Joy,” uses vocals from his classic track “Different Strokes” without getting the proper clearance for the sample.

Johnson added that he was particularly surprised that West didn’t reach out to him, since his daughter Syleena Johnson was an acquaintance of West and sang the vocals for “All Fall’s Down” from West’s debut album “The College Dropout.”

VIDEO:

Credits on the album inaccurately list The Numero Group as the publisher of the sampled song, and more importantly, Johnson isn’t getting paid for the use of his vocals on the track.

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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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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The 34-year-old rapper known for his outbursts was the headline act at the Big Chill music festival Saturday night, where he ranted in the middle of his set about being misunderstood and underappreciated.

“I walk through the hotel and I walk down the street, and people look at me like I’m (expletive) insane, like I’m Hitler,” he said. “One day the light will shine through and one day people will understand everything I ever did.”

VIDEO (Skip to 6:40):

West received light boos from the crowd as a result.

The performer also defended the music video for his song “Monster,” which features cannibalism and girls hanging from their necks.

“Who saw the video before it got banned, before they took it down and before women’s groups starting saying that a person that lost the most important woman in his life is now against women in some way?” asked West, referring to the 2007 death of his mother Donda West.

West, who started his set roughly 30-minutes late, apologized to the crowd for his tardiness, saying he needed to make sure his performance was great.

“Michael Jordan changed so much in basketball, he took his power to make a difference. It’s so much (expletive) going on in music right now and somebody has to make a (expletive) difference,” he said.

The multiplatinum-seller is known for his outspokenness, most notably his diss toward Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, where he grabbed the microphone from her as she accepted the award for best female video and said Beyonce should have won it. In 2005 he said “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” during a Hurricane Katrina telethon.

At the music festival, West talked about some of his awards show drama, saying some of his sponsorships were canceled as a result.

But West closed his show on a positive note by paying tribute to Amy Winehouse.

West, who said he met the late singer a few years ago during Paris fashion week, played snippets of Winehouse’s “Tears Dry On Their Own” and “Back to Black.” He said it was “beautiful” to meet the performer and that she was “amazing.”

Then, in Kanye fashion, he began to rant.

“Thank you for protecting your artists that are still here,” he said to the crowd. “This is for McQueen, for Amy, for Michael and for all the media, can you lighten up on all your artists that are still here?” he asked, receiving a roaring cheer from the crowd and leaving the stage with his 3-man band and 20-something backup dancers.

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Others in attendance included members of The Last Poets, Malcolm Cecil, Gil Scott’s first wife Brenda Sykes and Gil Scott’s daughter Gia Scott-Heron, who read a poem and sang a rendition of the song “The Rose.”

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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.

Read The Whole Story

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Chicago – Controversial rapper Kanye West sparked more drama on Twitter today when he spoke about abortion.

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Kanye took on golddiggers and abortion on his Twitter feed by saying:

“An abortion can cost a ballin’ ni**a up to 50gs maybe a 100. Gold diggin’ bi**hes be getting pregnant on purpose. #STRAPUP my n**gas!”

He then said: “It ain’t happen to me but I know people,”

Below is a picture of the tweet:

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With all precincts reporting, the rapper had 20 percent of the vote, trailing incumbent Alderman Willie Cochran, who had 46 percent. Since no candidate got more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two advance to the runoff.

The rapper, who’s lived in Chicago for years, vowed to pick up support from three other candidates who did not make the runoff. He had received backing from the city’s powerful Chicago Teachers’ Union. His platform included bringing green business to the 20th Ward on the city’s South Side, which includes some of the poorest neighborhoods in Chicago.

Rhymefest won a Grammy in 2004 for co-writing “Jesus Walks” with Kanye West.

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Soulja Boy says initially he “wasn’t really thinking about it” and was optimistic that he would “get it next year.”

Now, the 20-year-old says while recording his recently released third album, “The DeAndre Way,” he felt like “he should have got that Grammy.”

The new CD has a song titled “Grammy,” which features singer-songwriter Ester Dean. Soulja Boy hopes that after the Grammy committee hears the track, it will change its “perception.”

West has earned 14 Grammys; Soulja Boy has not been up for an award since “Crank Dat” was nominated.

I like the beats on Kanye West’s new album. I love the inversion of that famous line about Malcolm X–”That’s too much power for one man to have.” I think he’s an improved MC. But I’m a little amazed that no one’s disturbed by “Champagne wishes/30 white bitches” as a hook. I’m more amazed at his empty employment of white women as objects. I’m less amazed, but pretty depressed, that colorism is back–”Rolling with some light-skin chicks and some Kelly Rowlands,” is little more than “you’re pretty for a dark-skin girl” in this postracial era.

All told, the album strikes me as incredibly, almost casually, racist. On some level, I wonder what would have become of John Mayer, had he cut a video with dead black women strewn about and invoked black women throughout his lyrics in the manner Kanye does.

Read The Whole Story

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Washington — Cornel West has continued his harsh post election criticism of President Barack Obama. According to Firedog Lake, West told the show “Democracy Now”

Gonzalez had asked Prof. West to comment on Kanye West’s assertion that “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people;” but the professor diverted into criticism of the current Administration. He said he thinks neither Bush nor Obama acts out of “racist motivation and intention,” but that both Administrations inflict(ed) “racist effect and consequence” on people of color, and that their policies have “generated levels of misery among Black people, Brown people, Red people, but especially among the working class poor.”

Cornel West echoed Kanye West in rebuking Obama: “… He doesn’t care about the Black poor: The evidence is overwhelming! … His policies [a]re racist in effect and consequence and especially classist in terms of generating misery among poor people, disproportionately Black and Brown. … The Obama Administration seems to have very little concern about poor people and their social misery: Look at the policies vis-a-vis Wall Street – downplaying Main Street; look at the policies of Black Farmers – a settlement already in place but they don’t want to execute it because they don’t want to be associated with Black folk too explicitly; look at the policies of dilapidated housing; we can go right across the board – look at the policies of the new Jim Crow – the Prison-Industrial Complex.”

Read The Whole Story

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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

Executives at the publication were offered the opportunity to exclusively buy the pictures before they were leaked online but decided against it, reports E Online.

The photos were said to be personal snapshots taken by West and sent to a former girlfriend and were confirmed by the rapper to be real during an interview on New York’s Hot 97 radio station.

“It would have cost us $100,000, and we said no,” the Playgirl spokesman said.

Read entire article at DigitalSpy.com

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Chicago (AP)-– George W. Bush recounted the mistakes of his presidency on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show as he launched a book tour to promote his just-released memoir “Decision Points.”

The former president said he still feels “sick about” the fact no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. His response to Hurricane Katrina could have been quicker, he said, and he should have landed Air Force One two days after the storm instead of viewing the destruction through the plane’s window. And he said he didn’t see the financial meltdown coming.

The former president appeared Tuesday in a taped episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Writing the memoir, he said, “was an easy process” that has kept him busy.

“A lot of people don’t think I can read, much less write,” Bush joked on the program.

The world is better off without Saddam Hussein, Bush said, even though the invasion that toppled the Iraqi leader was based on faulty intelligence about the existence of weapons of mass destruction.

“When we didn’t find weapons I felt terrible about it, sick about it and still do, because a lot of the case in removing Saddam Hussein was based upon weapons of mass destruction,” Bush said. He added that Hussein was “equally dangerous” without WMDs.

On Katrina, Bush said he didn’t land Air Force One to view the submerged New Orleans up close because he was worried about taking resources away from rescue efforts.

“I shouldn’t have flown over and looked. I made a mistake. I should have landed,” Bush said. “I didn’t realize a picture of me looking out would look like I didn’t give a darn.”

Continuing to discuss Katrina, Bush said he should have sent federal troops to help with security in New Orleans sooner, but was waiting for authority from Louisiana state government.

Bush flared against critics who called his Katrina response racist. Winfrey reminded him that rapper Kanye West said during a 2005 telethon for hurricane survivors that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

“That really hurt,” Bush said. “You can disagree with my politics, but don’t ever accuse me of being a racist. … I can see how the perception would be Bush didn’t care, but to accuse me of being a racist is disgusting.”

Bush said he wasn’t alone in his failure to foresee the financial meltdown and defended his administration’s decision to invest in failing banks in late 2008 to stabilize the financial system.

“I believe it helped save the country,” Bush said.

Bush had nothing negative to say about President Barack Obama, whom Winfrey famously supported in 2008.

“I didn’t like it when people criticized me,” Bush said. “And so you’re not going to see me out there chirping away (at Obama). And I want our president to succeed. I love our country.”

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And no, it wasn’t any of the death or heartache that occurred during it and THANK GOD, because that would have been a downer…

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George Bush Calls Kanye West Diss Most “Disgusting” Moment Of Presidency

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In an interview with The Box Houston, Kanye West gave his response to George Bush’s criticism and compared what George Bush went through to what we went through after he interrupted Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.

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Bush: “Yeah. I still feel that way, As you read those words,” I felt ‘em when I heard ‘em, felt ‘em when I wrote ‘em and I felt ‘em when I’m listening to ‘em.”

Lauer: “I wonder if some people are going to read that, now that you’ve written it, and they might give you some heat for that. And the reason is this –”

Bush: “Don’t care,”

Lauer: “Well, here’s the reason, You’re not saying that the worst moment in your presidency was watching the misery in Louisiana. You’re saying it was when someone insulted you because of that.”

Bush: “I also make it clear that the misery in Louisiana affected me deeply as well. There’s a lot of tough moments in the book. And it was a disgusting moment, pure and simple.”

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Macy’s on Tuesday announced the list of celebrity performers for the event later this month. It includes Kanye West, Jessica Simpson, Gladys Knight and Arlo Guthrie.

The 84th parade will also feature some new balloons including Kung-Fu Panda and the Kool-Aid Man.

Other celebrities taking part include India Arie, Big Time Rush, and the casts of several Broadway shows.

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Kanye West Fans Call ‘Runaway’ Film ‘Hands-Down Amazing’

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“It was interesting. I thought he exposed a lot of things that were worth exposing. It was very different,” Alex Valls told MTV News. “The whole platform is awesome: It opens up a lot of interesting dialogue, what exactly was going on, what he was exploring. It’s different and it’s cool. I liked it, it was unique.”

“It was hands-down amazing … very creative, very inspirational, simply amazing,” Colin Witt added. “I was very impressed.”

Much like earlier audiences — who described “Runaway” as “abstract” and “very loose” — many in Los Angeles noted the film’s artistic and avant-garde quality. But they were quick to add that, really, what they liked best about it was that at no point did it not feel like a Kanye West project. After all, his ambition is what they admire most about him.

“I thought the movie was excellent, very visually arresting, there’s a lot of exciting imagery in there. … [It's] very explosive, it’s Kanye, you know? It’s what you’d expect from Kanye,” Conan Milne said. “It’s artistic, it’s poignant. There’s some great moments in there. It’s definitely worth seeing. [And] it’s great to hear so much of the album … the music’s epic; it’s definitely befitting the imagery.”

Read entire article at MTV.com

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Describing himself as a pop icon and “soldier for culture,” West told the crowd “there were times that I contemplated suicide.” However, he said, “I will not give up on life again.”

“There’s so many people that will never get the chance to have their voice heard” as loudly as his, West said Monday. “I do it for them.”

West, who didn’t say when he had considered suicide, is credited as director of the abstract 35-minute film, which features portions of nine new West songs, boldly colorful visuals and off-kilter camera angles. The mostly dialogue-free piece, set to premiere this weekend on cable channels MTV, VH1 and BET, will accompany West’s upcoming album, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” which will be released Nov. 22.

After a prelude featuring narration from rapper Nicki Minaj, West’s character, Griffin, is seen driving a black MTX Tatra supercar down a country road. Lying next to a hole in the pavement is a phoenix fallen to Earth, played by model Selita Ebanks in pink, gray and brown feathers.

He takes her home and offers this advice: “First rule in this world, baby: Don’t pay attention to anything you see on the news.”

The phoenix sits on a lawn with a deer, rabbit and sheep, then joins West at a private parade featuring fireworks, a marching band and a float depicting Michael Jackson.

Playing over those visuals are West’s next single, “All of the Lights,” which he said features Elton John on piano and an all-star chorus including Alicia Keys, Rihanna, Fergie and John Legend.

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Ballerinas in black tutus perform in a scene featuring his current single, “Runaway.” When the tune ended, there was applause from both the on-screen and live audience. In attendance were Morgan Spurlock, Ryan Phillippe, Pete Wentz and others in the entertainment industry.

The 33-year-old West told them that after a “long, hard year,” he’d found his “creative sweet spot” by thinking like “a 5-year-old at all times.” Besides his mother Donda West’s death in 2007, West said he’d also lost three other parental figures in the last three years.

“Everything has been taken away from me,” he said. “I’m so not … scared. I so don’t care.”

After the Taylor Swift incident last year, which he called “a moment of sincerity,” West took a six-month break. (At the MTV Video Music Awards, Swift’s acceptance speech for best female video for “You Belong with Me” was disrupted by West, who took the microphone to say Beyonce should have won instead for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).”)

West said he moved to Rome and “was interning at Fendi” before finding the inspiration to get back to music.

He has hinted at the subject of suicide in his recent song “Power,” which includes the repeated lines: “Now this would be a beautiful death — I’m jumping out the window, I’m letting everything go.”

That song’s remix is among the 10 tunes that West has released for free in recent weeks through his website, a buzz-building initiative he dubbed “G.O.O.D. Fridays” for his label imprint, Getting Out Our Dreams Music.

The producer-turned-rapper said that after “Fantasy” — recorded in Hawaii with the likes of Q-Tip, DJ Premier, RZA and Pete Rock — he will release an album of songs with Jay-Z and another with Lupe Fiasco and Pharrell Williams under the name Child Rebel Soldiers.

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In the latest issue of XXL magazine, penned by Kanye West, himself, he addressed the off the record statement of Barack Obama calling him a “jackass” after the Taylor Swift VMA incident.

When Obama called me “jackass”, after the Taylor incident, I thought that the [wrong] person [had] to be speaking off the record, Obama has way more important stuff to worry about than my public perception. He was trying to pass the healthcare bill. And if he said that to relate to the room or lighten the room up and the whole mood, then I’d be more than happy to be the butt of all of his jokes if it in the some way helps his overall mission. I’m a soldier of culture. I’m resilient. I’m sure I’ll still beat him in basketball.

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Saturday Night Live had previously had a skit where, Taylor Lautner, Taylor Swift’s boyfriend karate kicked a card board cut out of West after the infamous VMA incident.

Kanye West Power

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Kanye West had a toast for the douchebags at the MTV Video Music Awards Sunday night.

Earlier, Taylor Swift sang a slow song about forgiveness at the VMAs, her version of a journal written about Kanye’s 2009 VMA antics, and he closed the show with his song ‘Runaway,’ his decidedly more upbeat side of the story, seen below.

He sings in part, ‘Let’s have a toast for the douchebags, let’s have a toast for the assholes. Let’s have a toast for the scumbags… You’ve been putting up with my sh*t for way too long.’

And MTV did not bleep the word ‘asshole.’

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Read entire article at HuffingtonPost.com

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Kanye releases new track; opens up about Taylor Swift

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Kanye releases new track; opens up about Taylor Swift

For the past 3 weeks, Kanye West has been releasing songs on Twitter every Friday and calling it “G.O.O.D. Friday” after his record label.

This week, he released this introspective song called “Devil In A New Dress” which you can click on below. After releasing, he went on to his Twitter page and talked about how the media has painted him “the angry black man,” and how it affected him. He even took time to mention that he wrote a song for Taylor Swift.

Kanye’s new album, which is yet to be titled, is shaping up to be the biggest release of the year.

To listen to the new Kanye song “Devil In A New Dress,” go to TheUrbanDaily.Com

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Kanye West recently was on the radio discussing the VMA incident and he compared the backlash he faced to the murder of Emmett Till, the Chicago teenager who was killed for whistling at a white woman in Money, Mississippi. Check out the entire interview at TheUrbanDaily.

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Kanye West doesn’t like his new rug. The rapper appears to be redecorating his house — buying gold-encrusted goblets, coveting 19th century artwork and turning his home “real Kingish,” as he puts it. But the rugs are all wrong. “I specifically ordered Persian rugs with cherub imagery!!!” He wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “What do I have to do to get a simple Persian rug with cherub imagery uuuuugh.”

Oh, Kanye. We’ve missed you.

Hip-hop’s most ridiculous rapper has been relatively quiet in recent months — ever since that 2009 MTV Video Music Awards outburst about Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” video being better than Taylor Swift’s (which, by the way, it was), after which someone on his p.r. team apparently told him to shut it until the backlash died down. Well, time’s up. West has a new album out in September — formerly called Good Ass Job, it’s currently without a name — and the promotional firestorm is kicking into gear. West performed at the BET Awards in June and has appeared at the khaki-clad offices of Facebook and Twitter. Then, on July 28, he opened a Twitter account. And here’s what we discovered: West is funny.

From Time.com:

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Click here to see gallery of Kanye West and Lady Gaga

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From NYPost.com:

A pouty, hair-flipping teenaged alternate juror for the caught-on-video police brutality trial was kicked off this morning — for wearing a T-shirt with the word “f—” on it in two-inch-high letters.

The shirt in question, worn by 19-year-old alternate No. 3, Nneka Eneorj, as she sat in the front row of the jury box, caught the judge’s eye just as the defendant was about to take the stand.

“WHO THE F— IS KANYE WEST?” the shirt read, the offending obscenity resting just above the wood veneer rail of the jury box.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber ordered the other jurors out of the courtroom — directing Eneorj to stand before his bench.

“Do you think it’s appropriate to wear a shirt that says ‘f—’ on it in my courtroom?” the judge asked, anger in his voice.

When Eneorj started to protest about having a sweater on — not that it covered the front of the shirt — the judge cut her off, demanding, “You’re excused.”

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NEW YORK (AP) — Battle-scarred rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight and volatile hip-hop star Kanye West faced off Friday over a beef involving a bullet — with a conference table between them.

The two rap titans were there for West to answer questions about a celebrity-packed Miami Beach party where an unknown gunman shot Knight in the leg. West hosted the 2005 fete at the posh Shore Club before the MTV Video Music Awards, held that year in Miami.

Knight — who promoted some of rap’s biggest acts in the 1990s but has been beset by legal and financial troubles — has sued the Grammy Award-winning West and the Shore Club’s owners, saying they didn’t provide enough security.

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Knight said Friday he had hoped a face-to-face encounter with West — and their lawyers — could settle the matter, but he got few answers.

“I figured I could sit him down, man to man, and get this resolved,” Knight said after the six-hour, closed-door session at a Fifth Avenue office. “I’m disappointed.”

West said he wasn’t involved in the security arrangements for the party, said Knight’s lawyer, Marc Brumer.

West briskly left the building afterward; his lawyers didn’t immediately respond to telephone and e-mail messages left Friday evening. In court papers, West and the Shore Club ownership have denied Knight’s claims of negligence.

No one has been arrested in the August 2005 shooting, which erupted in a club full of partygoers, including Jessica Alba, Eddie Murphy, the Black Eyed Peas and Paris Hilton. At least six shots were fired, police said.

The shooting shattered Knight’s femur and left him with $200,000 in medical bills, Brumer said.

Knight said in his lawsuit, now being handled in Miami federal court, that West and the Shore Club should have realized the party could produce a “dangerous environment” because of a widely known history of sometimes violent feuding among rap figures.

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“My whole thing is: I’m not here to put nobody behind bars,” Knight said Friday, saying he mainly wanted to put the specter of rap-related violence to rest.

“It’s time for more positive now,” he added.

The burly Knight, nicknamed “Suge” for Sugar Bear, founded Death Row Records and was one of the most powerful music figures of the 1990s. His stable of rappers included such superstars as Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Tupac Shakur, who was shot and killed in 1996 while riding in Knight’s car.

At the time, the Los Angeles-based Knight was publicly clashing with New York-based Sean Combs’ Bad Boy label. Bad Boy’s top artist, the Notorious B.I.G., was gunned down months later in Los Angeles. Relatives of B.I.G. have accused Knight of being involved; he has denied it, and police have never named him as a suspect.

Knight, who was jailed for five years in the 1990s on an assault conviction, has continued to have brushes with the law in recent years. Most recently, Los Angeles police sought assault charges against him after he was suspected of pointing a gun at a man in May, but prosecutors declined to file charges.

Knight, 45, made millions in Death Row’s heyday, but he filed for bankruptcy in 2006, spurring an auction of the label’s assets and sale of his mansion in Malibu, Calif.

He’s seeking more than $1 million in damages in his lawsuit, but he would have to share the money with a bankruptcy trustee and the Internal Revenue Service if he prevails.

West, 33, rose to become one of rap’s biggest stars in recent years, though he also has become known for impolitic outbursts — including an episode in which he interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech during last year’s MTV awards to say that Beyonce should have won Swift’s award instead. West later apologized.

From AZCentral.com

Among those artists joining de la Rocha’s boycott are Conor Oberst, Kanye West, Rage Against the Machine, Rise Against, Cypress Hill, Serj Tankian, Joe Satriani, Sonic Youth, Tenacious D, Street Sweeper Social Club and Michael Moore.

In de la Rocha’s words, the new law “sanctions racial profiling, straight up,” forcing “cops to hunt down and target anyone they ‘reasonably suspect’ that may be undocumented. And if the people they harass don’t have proof that they were born in the U.S., they can be detained and arrested.”

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Barack Obama speaks about his mother and grandmother:

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Check out the gallery of mothers who shaped America below!

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When I was growing up, “acting Black” was synonymous with acting ignorant, slow, uncultured and uncivilized. What’s crazy is that all Black people should have known even then that this was wrong. “Acting Black” is only a problem when you’re Black and you’re doing it. If you’re white and you’re “acting Black” your behavior could very well lead to fun and profit.

I just watched Cadillac Records yesterday and I recalled—as if this ever has to be drawn back into my memory—how Elvis Pressley became, for all intents and purposes, “the King of Rock & Roll” simply by “acting” like Chuck Berry. The Rolling Stones “acted” like Muddy Waters, Little Walter and Willie Dixon. And Dusty Springfield “acted” like Etta James.

Of course, even when you imitate something ridiculous that a Black person has done, if you’re white, it could end up ok.

David Letterman was able to make jokes at his own expense when his Tiger Woods-like behavior with female staffers was uncovered. Heck, Letterman was even able to successfully sue for blackmail that man that had threatened to bring his boorish behavior to light.

When Peyton Manning refused to shake hands with the winners after his Indianapolis Colts lost the Super Bowl to the New Orleans Saints, some commentators went as far as to suggest empathy for Manning’s pain. These were clearly not the same dudes that nearly crucified LeBron James when he left the floor after refusing to congratulate the Orlando Magic team that beat his Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals last season.

Lastly, it probably would have been too much to expect Twitter to light up with the word “cracker” the way that the “N-Word” lit it up in the wake of Kanye West’s famous stage-stealing moment when he protested Taylor Swift’s VMA award by snatching the mic from her and ranting like a cocaine-fueled zombie about Beyonce, but when the fat, white, purple-clad Elinor Burkett pulled the exact same stunt on Roger Ross Williams during Sunday Night’s Oscars, I don’t want to say that it was celebrated, but it definitely wasn’t criticized.

Williams, Oscar winner for the documentary Music by Prudence, was onstage giving his speech when the big, Barney-dressed broad—who because of a dispute, had been virtually removed from the project in every capacity except associate producer—bumrushed him took the mic and started spittin’.

Elinor Burkett is now being regarded in some circles with an interest that borders on enthusiasm.

Should anyone be surprised?