After serving 10 months on a parole violation, Suge Knight is getting out of prison this week. The rap mogul served the bulk of his time at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California, after a parole board determined that his punching a parking valet was a violation of the terms of his 2001 parole. Knight had already served time at Mule Creek for committing a 1996 assault in a Las Vegas casino, itself a violation of probation for sentences on assault and gun charges. ...

Prince taped a private performance for MTV on Tuesday night in New York that was open to local members of his NPG Music fan club. He played songs from his new album, Musicology, with his New Power Generation band, plus a solo acoustic set (on a purple guitar) that included "Cream," "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" and "Sometimes It Snows in April." Later, he celebrated the release of Musicology with a party that attracted the likes of Stevie Wonder, Maxwell and the Roots' ?uestlove. ... Just as Prince is undergoing a revival, his old mate Morris Day of the Time is prepping the release of a new album, It's About Time, due June 22. The record contains old live recordings of classic hits from the Time and Day's solo career, plus four new songs written by Day and original members Jerome Benton, Jellybean Johnson and Monte Moir. ...

Mario Winans had an album-release party Tuesday night at New York's Lot 61. Foxy Brown, Carl Thomas, the Isley Brothers and members of Bad Boy's Da Band showed up to give Yellow Man his props. ... The compilation LP Totally Hits 2004 will feature the previously unreleased Justin Timberlake song "I'm Lovin' It," which was recorded during the sessions for Justified but left off the record. The disc, which comes out May 4, will also include singles by Alicia Keys, Sean Paul, Kelis, Maroon 5, J-Kwon, R. Kelly and others. ...

Is Clear Channel Communications the evil empire? A U.S. district court judge in Denver is letting a jury decide. Judge Edward W. Nottingham concluded that there was sufficient evidence to suggest that the world's largest concert promoter reduced airplay on its radio stations for artists who used the company's competition. Denver-based Nobody in Particular Presents accused Clear Channel of engaging in illegal monopolistic practices in a complaint filed in August 2001 and will have their day in court August 2. ... To christen the takeoff of a new partnership between Sony Connect and United Airlines, Sheryl Crow will perform a 40-minute acoustic set in an airplane flying between Chicago and Los Angeles on May 4. Upon landing, Crow will play a party celebrating the arrival of a new Sony digital Walkman. Soon after, fans can purchase the performances on mileageplusmusic.com. Sony Connect is Sony Music's digital online music service, offering songs for 99 cents a pop, and now that they've teamed with United Airlines, travelers can trade in frequent-flyer points for songs at Connect.com. ...

To celebrate their 35th anniversary, ZZ Top will launch a North American tour on June 25 in Wichita Falls, Texas. Dates run through September 25 in Las Vegas. In addition, ZZ Top will play the Crossroads Guitar Festival at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on June 6 with Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, B.B. King and Buddy Guy. ... Following the conclusion of the Headbangers Ball 2 Tour May 7 in Portland, Oregon, Damageplan and Drowning Pool will extend their road relationship another two weeks. The two bands have lined up a string of dates, beginning May 8 in Seattle through May 17 in Boulder, Colorado. ...

The as-yet-untitled new album from the Cure is scheduled for a June 22 release. The U.K. band's first album since 2000's Bloodflowers was recorded in London with producer Ross Robinson, best known for his work with nü-metal bands Korn, Slipknot and Soulfly. ... The first DVD to collect the videos of morose crooner Nick Cave is set to drop May 4. The 20-track "Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Videos" features "Into My Arms," "Red Right Hand," "Deanna" and "Where the Wild Roses Grow," Cave's collaboration with Kylie Minogue. ...

New York publishers are involved in a bidding war for an ambitious and massive new proposal by cultural historian and recognized Beatles authority Mark Lewisohn, in which he would write a three-volume biography about the band to be published over the next decade. The project is expected to sell for at least seven figures. ... Shane MacGowan, ex-singer for the Irish folk-rock band the Pogues, suffered a fractured cheekbone after being attacked in a London pub on Monday, the Evening Standard reported. MacGowan was assaulted by two men, who kicked him, punched him and struck him with a metal bar. The singer was taken to St. Thomas' Hospital but left before being treated. A 20-year-old and a 21-year-old were arrested and released on bail. ...

04.20.2004

And you thought Ashton Kutcher was merciless. For her brother Bryan's birthday on Monday, Britney Spears had him "arrested" by undercover cops and FBI agents in Beverly Hills, California. Bryan, who works with his sister's management company, was handcuffed and taken into custody, while Britney acted shocked and horrified. But the phony police actually took him to his own birthday party, where all was revealed. ...

The 16-year-old who carjacked Eminem's mom early this year has been sentenced to at least four years and three months behind bars. The incident occurred January 22 when James Antonio Knott dragged Debbie Nelson from her car on Detroit's 8 Mile and stole her vehicle. Nelson suffered bruises and a broken foot. Knott, who didn't realize he was assaulting Eminem's mother, was also fined $3,473. ... Nas' trial on a second-degree assault charge has been set for April 30. The charge stems from an incident at a nightclub in New York's West Village in December 2003, in which Nas allegedly struck a man with a bottle. ...

An electric guitar owned by Kurt Cobain from 1990-92 sold for $117,500 at an auction held in Dallas last weekend. The guitar was the first of the Nirvana frontman's instruments to go on sale since his death a decade ago. ... The recording industry unceremoniously canceled its "Clean Slate" amnesty program for illegal file-sharers earlier this month. On Friday, lawyers for the RIAA asked a judge to dismiss a complaint filed by a California man claiming fraudulent business practices, because the Clean Slate program, which stipulated that file-sharers who admitted their guilt in writing and deleted the infringing files would be protected from the costly copyright-infringement lawsuits, was no longer in effect. Critics of the program had argued since its inception in September that a trade organization could not legally offer protection from lawsuits filed by the copyright-holding record labels. ...

Suge Knight is working with various rappers and record labels to put together a hip-hop compilation benefiting the financially troubled families of U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq. "I'm not taking any kind of political stance on the war, however, with so many soldiers now in Iraq for more than a year, I'm concerned about the families they've left behind," Knight said in a statement. The album will be released before Christmas, he added. Meanwhile, the mogul's next project, Kurupt's Against the Grain, is due June 29. ... Sevendust had to cancel a show in McAllen, Texas, on Sunday after their tour bus caught fire on the way. A store clerk helped extinguish the flames and no one was injured. The Atlanta rockers are touring in support of the CD/DVD package Southside Double-Wide Acoustic Live, which drops May 4. The set was recorded in Athens, Georgia, in September. ...

The Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins checked out the Darkness' brand of spandex-clad rock Sunday in Los Angeles, along with the Eagles' Timothy B. Schmit. The next day, the U.K. phenoms made perhaps the shortest appearance ever on the syndicated radio show "Loveline," when they abandoned ship after roughly 20 minutes. Apparently the callers' questions about STDs, masturbation and other sexual topics made the band "uncomfortable." Now in England, the Darkness are writing for the follow-up to Permission to Land before taking on the European festival circuit in July. ... Japanese beatboxer Dokaka has lent her percussive vocal talents to Björk's untitled next album. The LP, expected to drop later this year, follows 2001's Vespertine. ...

Members of the Ramones, Dictators, Television and Dead Boys will play Ramones songs to celebrate the band's late frontman, Joey Ramone, who died of lymphatic cancer in 2001. The fourth annual Life's a Gas - The Annual Joey Ramone Birthday Bash will take place May 19 in New York. Ramone would have been 53 on May 19. Also on the bill that night are Alkaline Trio, the Dickies, Supersuckers and Bebe Buell. ... Danger Mouse has teamed up with indie rapper Murs to record a remix of the song "To a Black Boy," from the '60s group the Free Design. The track is dedicated to Marcus Dixon, an 18-year-old black scholar and high school athlete who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Georgia for having sex with his 15-year-old high school girlfriend, who is white. The song will appear on the compilation Free Designed Redesigned Volume 2, which also features remixes by Belle & Sebastian and Madlib. ...

Busta Rhymes will release a DVD titled "Everything Remains Raw" on May 18. The DVD features live footage from several performances over the last year. ... Three months after reducing its suggested retail price for CDs from $18.98 to $12.98, the Universal Music Group has bumped the cost to $13.98. Attempting to stimulate a business that had been down for three years, Universal expected merchants would pass the discounts on to consumers and other labels would follow suit. Neither has happened, according to the conglomerate. ... Broken Sounds, the label founded by New Found Glory's Chad Gilbert and Ian Grushka, dropped its maiden releases Tuesday: Memories of Better Days, from melodic punk rockers Breakdance Vietnam, and Only Time Will Tell, from hardcore quintet Suffocate Faster. Both bands will play select dates on this summer's Vans Warped Tour. ...