Kanye West
Photo: Roc-A-Fella

Want to meet Kanye West? He's making an appearance at the Tower Records in New York's Lincoln Center location on Tuesday, the same day his Late Registration hits stores. He'll sign copies of the album for fans at 5 p.m.; the line is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. ...

Diddy wants to keep the Miami vibe going on long after the MTV Video Music Awards are over — so he's teaming up with Emilio Estefan to create Bad Boy Latino. "The Latino market in the U.S. is such a beautiful, diverse and powerful market and I am blessed to have a partner like Emilio," Diddy said in a statement. "He is an amazing example of how creativity, combined with hard work and a belief in one's self, can spark an entire cultural movement. That's what he represents, and it is my hope that together, we can create a new cultural movement that unites these audiences." The two plan to recruit, produce and market an artist roster for Bad Boy Latino as well as develop content for television and other media outlets. ...

Snoop Dogg is launching his own line of skateboarding products as part of his new business endeavor, the Snoop Dogg Board Company. The line, which will be released in September, will include long and short skateboards, backpacks and accessories. Additional products, including a full line of high-end Snoop Dogg luggage and travel bags, will launch in January. ... Mashonda, who has worked on records for Jay-Z, Eve and Lil' Kim in the past, is finally releasing her own album, January Joy, on October 18. Collaborators include Kanye West, Nas, Jadakiss, Raphael Saadiq and Snoop, who is featured on the first single, "Blackout." ...

The trial of brothers Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, the owners of the Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, where 100 people were killed in 2003 by a blaze started by the band Great White's pyrotechnics, is set to begin on September 30, according to The Associated Press. The court proceedings, to take place in Rhode Island's Workers' Compensation Court, will determine whether the Derderians are capable of paying tens of thousands of dollars to the families of workers killed in the fire. The brothers owe more than $180,000 in workers' compensation claims, and were ordered to pay death benefits to the families of the four employees who perished. ...

Jennifer Lopez is auctioning off two VIP tickets to her next big event — the grand opening of her first U.S. boutique, in Chicago, on September 22. The tickets cover $1,000 toward travel and accommodations; entry into the show; premier seating; and "the potential chance of meeting her in person." The winner will also get samples from Lopez's first Sweetface fashion show. The seven-day auction, which benefits Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, starts Thursday at noon at auctions.overstock.com/jenniferlopez. ... The music of the Bravery, Bloc Party, CKY, Avenged Sevenfold, Thrice, Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects, Pennywise and others will be featured in Electronic Arts' upcoming game "Burnout Revenge." A new Yellowcard track called "Lights and Sounds" will be making its world premiere in the game when it hits stores September 13. ...

Radiohead have finished up their six-day stint working in an undisclosed studio, according to a post by frontman Thom Yorke on the band's blog, Dead Air Space. Yorke, writing in his own, um, unique style, details a couple of new songs, including "Mornin' Mi Lord," which features "speaker cracking sleaz bass," and "Pigs Ear," which includes mentions of "black birds flying in the lobby" and "a black sea of sticky Saudi oil." There are also lots of pictures of guitarist Jonny Greenwood and his dog. According to Yorke's post, Radiohead will start up recording sessions again "in a couple of weeks." ... On September 6, Jimmy Eat World will release Stay on My Side Tonight, a digital EP featuring three unreleased tracks, a cover of the Heatmiser song "Half Right," plus a "chopped and screwed" remix of "Drugs or Me," from last year's Futures album. For fans lacking in iTunes capability, the EP will also be available in record stores on October 4. Jimmy Eat World are on tour with Green Day until October 6, and will begin working on a new album as soon as they're off the road. ...

Long-suffering fans of Fiona Apple are no doubt anxiously counting the minutes until October 4, when her long-delayed third album, Extraordinary Machine, hits stores. But to make that wait a bit easier, Apple has loaded her Web site, Fiona-Apple.com, with a ton of downloads. Fans can watch the video for the song "Parting Gift" and check out exclusive behind-the-scenes clips. ... Video director Floria Sigismondi (Marilyn Manson, Christina Aguilera), has directed videos for three songs on the Living Things' new album, Ahead of the Lions, including the first single, "Bom Bom Bom." Due October 4, the album was produced by Steve Albini (Nirvana, the Pixies). ...

If you're sick of waiting two or three years between new records by your favorite bands, the Warner Music Group might have the perfect solution. Warner Music Chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr. announced at a technology forum on Monday that later this year his company will launch an "e-label" that will issue clusters of new songs from up-and-coming bands as downloads in place of traditional CDs. The plan is to release bunches of songs every few months by the acts, whose names have not yet been revealed. ...

08.23.2005

Alicia Keys has set an October 11 release date for her "Unplugged" album, which will feature Common, Mos Def and Maroon 5's Adam Levine. The album's first single, "Unbreakable," will hit radio stations in mid-September. ...

Someone could go to jail following Michael Jackson's lengthy molestation trial after all ... just not the pop star. The mother of the accuser was charged Tuesday (August 23) with five felony counts of welfare fraud and perjury for allegedly collecting nearly $19,000 in payments while making false claims, according to the Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles County prosecutors, who began the investigation after a lawyer working for Jackson forwarded evidence of the alleged fraud, claimed the woman had received a $150,000 settlement in a 2001 lawsuit against a department store at a time when she was claiming to be poor. When questioned about the issue during the Jackson trial, she invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination. After the trial, several jurors said part of the reason for acquitting Jackson was they found it hard to trust the mother.

David Banner has joined the cast of "Hustle & Flow" director Craig Brewer's next movie, "Black Snake Moan." Justin Timberlake, Christina Ricci and Samuel L. Jackson are also on board. ... Ying Yang Twins are shooting a guest spot on the UPN's "Cuts" this week, to air this fall. Marques Houston stars in the show. ...

Pamela Anderson wears many hats. Model. Thespian. Scribe. Producer. Now, add songstress to her growing list of accomplishments. According to his management, Bryan Adams' forthcoming greatest-hits album, Anthology, will feature a duet with the blond bombshell. The Canadian duo teamed up two weeks ago in Los Angeles to record a new version of "When You're Gone," a song that Adams had originally performed with former Spice Girl Mel C. Adams and Anderson met back in the late '90s when Adams snapped a few shots of her for his 1999 book, "Made in Canada," and have been friends ever since. ... Kid Rock has shown up unannounced to spin records and Jamie Foxx and the Olsen twins have partied there. Now the owners of Rokbar Miami are flying the concept to the West Coast. Tommy Lee, one of the hipster nightclub's investors, is partnering with Dave Navarro to open a Hollywood Rokbar on Hollywood Boulevard, according to USA Today. The pair are also reportedly in negotiations to open Rokbars in New York and Las Vegas. ...

Rod Smallwood, who manages Iron Maiden, issued a statement on Tuesday concerning the band's final Ozzfest performance Saturday in Devore, California, where audience members pelted the British heavy metal legends with eggs, lighters and bottle caps. "The scale, viciousness and concentration of the throwing made it obvious that this was a premeditated and coordinated attack," Smallwood wrote in the statement, posted on Maiden's Web site. "Assaulting musicians while performing is vile, dangerous, criminal and cowardly. It is incredible that Ozzfest security apparently did nothing about it. For musicians to join in this assault on other musicians is a shocking disgrace akin to treachery. You should all be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves. We know who continually turned off the power, interrupting [the band's] set at crucial moments. It is a good thing that the power was turned back on before there was a riot." ... On Sunday, Los Angeles police arrested Poison guitarist C.C. DeVille at his Van Nuys home, charging the rocker with felony corporal injury on a cohabitant. In other words, as a police spokesperson explained, DeVille, real name Bruce Johannesson, is alleged to have assaulted an ex-girlfriend. DeVille spent all of Sunday night in police custody and was released the following morning on $50,000 bail. No return court date has been set. ...

Missy Elliott is offering 26 of her songs as 30-second ringtones via Cingular Wireless. The Missy tones include "Lose Control," "Get Ur Freak On," "Work It," "Gossip Folks," "All N My Grill," "Beep Me 911" and her next single, "Teary Eyed." ... Twista shot the video for "Girl Tonight" — the first single from his new album, The Day After, due October 4 — over the weekend in Los Angeles. Director Erik White described the video, which also features the song's guest star, Trey Songz, as an urban version of George Michael's "Freedom." ...

Something Corporate singer Andrew McMahon, who was diagnosed with acute lymphatic leukemia in June, has launched Project Flip Flop, a nonprofit organization established to support and bring awareness to cancer research, specifically the Pediatric Cancer Research Fund. Those who make a donation will receive a pair of custom flip-flops. ... Members of Finch, Mu330 and RX Bandits will join Asian Man Records founder and punk activist Mike Park on the Bike for Peace Tour, a benefit for a youth center in San Jose, California, beginning September 8. The musicians will perform at clubs along the West Coast and will also play acoustic sets at beach campgrounds, but the musicians will travel only on bikes. Park's new album, North Hangook Falling, was released Tuesday (August 23). ...

Evan Dando has reunited his on-again off-again band the Lemonheads for the first album from the group in nearly a decade. This being the Lemonheads, the lineup is, of course, totally different than in the past, this time featuring Descendents members Bill Stevenson and Karl Alvarez. The punk veterans are recording an album with Dando in Colorado, due out in the spring. The group is also slated to play the Across the Narrows Festival in New York on October 2. ... Pro-wrestler-turned-rapper John Cena is releasing the anti-beef cut "Right Now" as the second single from his debut album, You Can't See Me. For the video, he said, "We had a keg party at my old man's house, the house where I grew up in. We spliced a lot footage of me when I was a little kid, with my brothers, my family." ...

• Kanye West
• Snoop Dogg
• Jennifer Lopez
• Fall Out Boy
• Mashonda

Swizz Beatz
Photo: MTV News

BEVERLY HILLS, California — Eve is signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment, but she's not leaving behind her favorite Ruff Ryders music maker.

"She's over there with Aftermath, but she's still family and there's still all love and we still gonna make history," hitmaker Swizz Beatz said recently. "Me and Dr. Dre is doing the album — it's classic already. We're about seven songs deep. She's very focused. That's my sister."

Swizz, who has been working with Eve since he was 16, said the rapper-turned-actress is changing up her sound for the follow-up to 2002's Eve-Olution, which is due later this year.

"I told Dre I don't want to do an album that's not believable," Swizz said. "She can't talk about being in the 'hood and this and that when she's got a TV show and she's living the good life. Rap about the good life and how you got there, and give messages out to the young female youth coming out — but [make sure it's] still nice to dance to. She's making a very believable album."

Along with Eve, Swizz has been in the studio with several acts, including Beyoncé, Nas, Kelis, Q-Tip, Mary J. Blige, Twista, Cassidy, Young Gunz, Memphis Bleek and, of course, his longtime collaborator DMX.

"I produced 80 songs from January to now," said Swizz (real name: Kasseem Dean). "I'm just grinding. I got almost every single out right now."

Well, maybe not every single, but with Cassidy's "I'm a Hustla" (see "Swizz, Mary J. Keep Bangin' On Cassidy's 'I'm A Hustla' "), T.I.'s "Bring Em Out" (see "Swizz Beatz Back In The Spotlight Thanks To T.I., Cassidy") and Mashonda's "Blackout" (featuring Nas), he's certainly hot.

"I just want to let the industry know that Swizz Beatz still be doing it 10 years straight," said Swizz, who's also worked with Jay-Z ("Money, Cash, Hoes," "If I Should Die"), Busta Rhymes, Foxy Brown and just about the entire Ruff Ryders roster over the years. "I keep giving away my hits, though. 'Bring Em Out' and 'Hustla' were [supposed to be] on my next album. So I'm gonna take time out to do my album."

First, though, he's wrapping up production duties on DMX's Here We Go Again, due July 19 (see "Mase Advises DMX To Rap Again, Wait For The Lord's Call"). Swizz's contributions include the first single, "Pump Ya Fist."

"It's a Public Enemy track, but I flipped the beat a little bit," Swizz said. "It's got a lot of energy. Public Enemy always had that energy, and when I thought of this next DMX album, he had to come like a rebel without a cause."

Swizz is also behind some tracks on another high-profile July 19 release, Busta Rhymes' The Big Bang. "I don't want to ruin it, but he's got a song with Stevie Wonder," Swizz said. "That's the level he's taking it to."

Finally, the latest Ruff Ryders release, Redemption: Volume 4, due July 26, also features Swizz, along with DMX, Jadakiss, the LOX, Akon and others.

• Swizz Beatz
• Eve
• Nas
• Mary J. Blige
• T.I.