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Aspiring rappers Pacman, Peso film video in North Korea

U.S. rappers Pacman, left, and Peso perform a dance at the Beijing Capital Airport after coming back from Pyongyang, North Korea, on Saturday. (Associated Press)
From Wire Reports
U.S. rappers Pacman, left, and Peso perform a dance at the Beijing Capital Airport after coming back from Pyongyang, North Korea, on Saturday. (Associated Press)

Two aspiring American rappers said Saturday that they had filmed part of a music video in North Korea, hoping the novel locale will make a hit.

The rappers known as Pacman and Peso did not say where and how they filmed the footage, which their fundraising proposal suggested would be done on a karaoke party bus in Pyongyang.

Their custom trip was arranged through a travel agency specializing in taking Westerners to North Korea, according to the proposal.

Americans are able to travel to North Korea on arranged tours and are constantly accompanied by North Korea minders.

After an elderly American was detained in the country, the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning on Nov. 19, advising against all travel by U.S. citizens to North Korea.

The two rappers said their trip shied away from politics.

“I mean we did not go there to be political. We just go down there to shoot our video and that’s about the reason why we went, not political,” said Pacman, whose real name is Anthony Bobb.

The duo from the Washington, D.C., area spoke to reporters at an airport in Beijing upon their return from a five-day trip to North Korea.

‘Born to Run’ manuscript at auction

A handwritten working manuscript of Bruce Springsteen’s 1975 hit “Born to Run” will be offered at auction Thursday, with a presale estimate of $70,000 to $100,000, Sotheby’s said.

The seller was not revealed. The auction house said the document used to be in the collection of Springsteen’s former manager, Mike Appel.

Sotheby’s said most of the lines in this 1974 version, written in Long Branch, N.J., are apparently unpublished and unrecorded, but the manuscript does include “a nearly perfected chorus.”

“Although Springsteen is known to have an intensive drafting process, few manuscripts of ‘Born to Run’ are available, with the present example being one of only two identified that include the most famous lines in the song,” Sotheby’s said.

The birthday bunch

Singer Billy Paul is 79. Actor-director Woody Allen is 78. Singer Dianne Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) is 74. Rock singer-musician Eric Bloom (Blue Oyster Cult) is 69. Rock musician John Densmore (The Doors) is 69. Actress-singer Bette Midler is 68. Singer Gilbert O’Sullivan is 67. Actor Treat Williams is 62. Actress-comedian Sarah Silverman is 43. Rock musician Brad Delson (Linkin Park) is 36. Actor Rock/Christian music singer-songwriter Mat Kearney is 35.