Usher, Next, Tariq & Gunz, Marcy Playground, and all those on board the "Titanic" came out on top when "Billboard" announced its year-end charts this week.

• Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz
• Marcy Playground
• Usher

Big Punisher, Jay-Z, Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz, and Cam'ron were some of the stars that turned out Tuesday night for Fat Joe's gala in the Bronx to benefit victims of hurricane Georges.

The event, staged in New York, was put together by Joe and the Hip-Hop Has Heart Foundation. Though the final tally isn't in yet, organizers estimate the event raised about $300,000.

Fat Joe organized and hosted the event during a break from his tour schedule. His latest album, "Don Cartegena," came out in August, and boasts a string of big name collaborators including Joe's star pupil Big Pun as well as Noreaga, Raekwon, and Puff Daddy. Puff delivers the hook on the title track, "Don Cartegena," but as Fat Joe lamented to MTV, you won't find him anywhere in the video.

"Puffy had just did the 'Godzilla' video," Fat Joe said,

In addition to his more humanitarian efforts, Joe just shot a straight-to-video movie with West Coast rapper Mack 10 called "Thicker Than Water."

• Big Punisher
• Diddy
• Fat Joe
• Jay-Z
• Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz

Blue-collar baseball fans aren't the only ones following the current saga of the future home of New York's Yankee Stadium, and some of the most vocal support for the team to remain in the Bronx has come from rappers, including Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz.

The rap duo isn't afraid to speak up about its Bronx Bomber heritage, and even attempted to shoot the video for its hit song, "Deja Vu," in Yankee Stadium, but were forced to revert to the Mets' Shea Stadium in Queens because of filming restrictions.

But despite the video's relocation, both Tariq and Gunz remain opposed to having a new home for the Yankees constructed in either Manhattan or in New Jersey.

"I'm gonna do everything I can to stop it," Gunz told the MTV Radio Network. "Normally you look at TV and see where people are protesting stadiums getting moved and you think, 'Ah, big deal.' But when it's Yankee Stadium, then it's a big deal to me. We're gonna keep it alive in the Bronx. If they move it, that would be like the equivalent of death for that area."

No word yet on the fate of Yankee Stadium, but New York's City Council has already started hearings on a plan that could determine the new home of the baseball team.

• Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz

As Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz prepare to release "We Will Ball," the second single off of the Bronx rappers debut, "Make It Reign," the duo is already lining up solo releases for next year and future projects for when they lay their mics and mixing tables aside.

Tariq and Gunz made a name for themselves with their first single, "Deja Vu" [900k QuickTime], which sampled the classic Steely Dan track "Black Cow" (see "Reeling In The Dough..."), and which the duo claim to have paid out over $500,000, so far, for usage of the song.

But in a recent interview with the MTV Radio Network, Tariq and Gunz, who met while still in high school (see "Tariq And Gunz On Their Old School Connection"), were less concerned with past issues and problems than their upcoming films, albums and a possible rock-meets-hip hop collaboration with Sugar Ray.

"We got a movie script that's partially finished," Tariq said, "and I just love to write, so I'm gonna be doing a lot of writing when this is all said and done. That's the last thing I'm going to be doing, I'll be an old man writing books" [900k QuickTime].

"The film is a street version," added Gunz, "showing me and Tariq coming up. And how we came up, it's almost like, I would have to say, 'Purple Rain,' because it got to show you the inside of his life, it showed you the performances and competitions, which is a lot like it happened with us" [800k QuickTime].

Tariq and Gunz both have separate solo record deals, and both plan to have records out next year. Tariq will release a new album, tentatively titled "Scriptures," on the duo's own independent imprint, Codeine Records, in mid-1999.

Gunz, on the other hand, is signed to Shaquille O'Neal's record company, and will adopt the new rap handle of "Othello" for his debut solo album, which is slated to ship in January of 1999.

• Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz

Wyclef Jean has announced the line-up for his second Haitian Benefit Concert, following up last year's big Fugees concert in that country's Port-Au-Prince.

Due to political confusion in Haiti, it became virtually impossible to tell if any money from that show ever actually ended up helping poverty-stricken repatriated refugees, as the Fugees had intended. The Haitian-born Wyclef vowed to stage another show in the U.S., and will keep his word on May 16 with a show at the AT&T Amphitheater in Miami. There, Wyclef will be joined by fellow Fugee Pras, Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz, Salt-n-Pepa, up-and-coming rapper Canibus, and MTV's Bill Bellamy as host. More acts for the show will be named later.

As we first reported on Friday (see "Public Enemy, Busta Rhymes, Wyclef On Board For Smokin' Grooves"), Wyclef also heads up this summer's "Smokin' Grooves" tour launching in July with Busta Rhymes, Gang Starr, Canibus, Cypress Hill and the reunited Public Enemy also on board.

• The Fugees
• Lauryn Hill
• Wyclef Jean
• Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz
• Pras

The old school style that Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz flaunt on their current hit "Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)" goes beyond the band's sound, and even manifests itself in the group's origins.

The group's hit is an ode to rap's birthplace in the New York City borough of the Bronx, and the duo recently told MTV News that they actually met in an old school way.

"Me and Tariq went to high schools not too far from each other," Gunz said. "I went to James Monroe in the Bronx and [Tariq] went to Stephenson. And in the Bronx, we used to have this thing where the best rappers from the high schools battle [in a rap competition]. I took out everybody on my side, he took out everybody on his side."

"It boiled all down to us," Tariq interjected, "just us two from the whole Bronx."

"And it was like," Gunz continued "'Yo, there's this kid named Tariq from Stephenson that you got to battle him... So, we met up to do the showdown, and our styles was different. I was more a commercial rapper, [Tariq] was more on the street."

"So we were like," Gunz said, "we should try something [700k QuickTime], we should get together and try a group thing. [Tariq does his] own street raps, and I'll do my commercial stuff and let's try and bend and make this group. The rest is history."

Tariq & Gunz will release their debut album, "Let It Reign," on May 26.

• Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz

Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz have one of the hottest singles in the country right now with "Deja Vu" [900k QuickTime], a tribute of sorts to their home borough of the Bronx -- even though the video was shot at Shea Stadium in Queens. But the track is receiving a lion share of it's attention because of a riff sampled from the classic Steely Dan song, "Black Cow."

In the past, Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagen made rappers De La Soul pay dearly for the sampled use of Dan's "Peg" in their 1990 hit, "Eye Know," and Tariq and Gunz have had to pony up as well for the use of "Black Cow" -- to the tune of $105,000, some seven or eight times the typical industry rate.

But while the sample has created a major buzz around Tariq and Gunz, the two told MTV News that it's also soured their feelings towards Steely Dan, who, according to Tariq and Gunz, have shunned working with the duo.

"I wanted to do something on 'MTV Live' with Steely Dan," Gunz said. "[They would] come out and do 'Black Cow' and then we bust into the "Deja Vu" thing. They won't even, you know? I knew they were recording in this studio, I go by the studio, you know? They're not here. So they won't even return our calls or nothing, so I threw all my Steely Dan CDs out." [600k QuickTime]

No comment yet from Steely Dan's Becker and Fagen.

Tariq and Gunz will release their debut album, "Make It Reign," on May 26.

• Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz