This business should have never even gotten started
Jay-Z and R. Kelly‘s “unfinished business” likely will be resolved in the courts. The tumultuous tour pairing the platinum-selling singers came to an abrupt end over the weekend after Kelly walked offstage during a show and allegedly was blasted with pepper spray by a member of Jay-Z’s entourage.
R&B singer Kelly and rapper Jay-Z last month released their second joint album, “Unfinished Business.” The title referred to their original Best of Both Worlds tour, scrapped two years ago after Kelly was charged with 21 counts of child pornography.
The new tour was troubled from the start, with several dates canceled because of technical difficulties cited by Kelly.
On Friday night, Kelly abruptly dropped his microphone and walked off the stage at New York’s Madison Square Garden, claiming he had seen two men in the crowd waving guns at him. Kelly later admitted he hadn’t actually seen any guns but had received a threatening call that day.
After he walked offstage, Kelly and two bodyguards were assaulted with pepper spray by a purported member of Jay-Z’s entourage and had to be treated at a hospital. Kelly’s lawyers were filing a criminal complaint and considering other legal action.
So … Eminem melted in his hands?
There’s a reason why Eminem has stayed out of trouble for the past couple of years – he was scared straight.
After landing in court on assault and gun possession charges, the rapper born Marshall Mathers III tells Vanity Fair, “Nothing woke me up more than standing in front of a judge, and my life is in his hands.”
Eminem recently shelled out $5.3 million for a house in the Hollywood hills to help further his film career but says he’ll never leave his native Detroit.
“I don’t want to go to L.A. and get caught up in the party scene,” he says. “All I ever wanted to do was to make enough money from music to be able to support myself and make a living, and have a future for my daughter. … (G)etting this big – I never planned it.”
Avril the latest to give Ashlee some lip
While she’s not naming names, Avril Lavigne clearly has no use for such fellow female singers as Ashlee Simpson, caught in a “Saturday Night Live” lip-synching scandal.
“I know for a fact there are some young female artists who don’t even sing on their own records and who don’t sing live. And that is pathetic,” Lavigne says.
“I got signed because of my voice. That’s what Arista head Antonio ‘L.A.’ Reid signed me on. He said, ‘Wow, you are only 15 and you can really sing. I’m going to sign you.’ And I’ve never lip-synched once.”
Another Vegas gamble gone bad
A Las Vegas woman has been found guilty of trying to extort $13.5 million of dollars from singer Celine Dion‘s husband with a threat to go public with a rape allegation.
Yun Kyeong Kwon Sung faces up to 16 years in state prison. Prosecutors portrayed her as a greedy woman who reneged on a $2 million confidentiality agreement reached after she alleged that Dion’s husband, Rene Angelil, assaulted her in March 2000.
Angelil’s lawyer insisted the initial payment was not an admission of guilt but was made to protect his and his wife’s health and public images.
Quoteworthy
Rapper-turned-minister Ma$e, on how God doesn’t mind flashy jewelry: “He don’t have no problem with you blinging. … His gates are pearly, his house is about 10 stadiums big, the streets are gold – you do the budget on that kind of place.”
The birthday bunch
Actress Stefanie Powers is 62. Keyboardist Keith Emerson (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) is 60. Singer k.d. lang is 43. Actor David Schwimmer is 38. Rapper Nelly is 30. Rapper Prodigy (Mobb Deep) is 30.