Is Oprah getting a bad rap?
Rappers Ludacris and 50 Cent have dissed Oprah Winfrey. Now Ice Cube has a beef, too.
“I’ve been involved in three projects pitched to her, but I’ve never been asked to participate,” he tells FHM magazine.
“For ‘Barbershop,’ she had Cedric the Entertainer and Eve on, but I wasn’t invited. Maybe she’s got a problem with hip-hop.
“She’s had damn rapists, child molesters and lying authors on her show. And if I’m not a rags-to-riches story for her, who is?”
Last month, 50 Cent complained that Winfrey rarely invites rappers on her talk show. And Ludacris said she was “unfair” to him last fall during a show featuring the stars of best-picture Oscar winner “Crash.”
Earlier this month, Winfrey defended herself on a New York City radio station.
“You know, I’ve been accused of not liking hip-hop and that’s just not true,” she said. “I got a little 50 (Cent) on my iPod. I really do. … Love that, and you know, love Jay-Z, love Kanye (West), love Mary J. (Blige).”
Swearing him in
Kanye West gave a lesson in hip-hop to a federal judge in Manhattan this week as he testified in a copyright infringement trial.
The New Jersey group I.O.F. claims that “Stand Up,” a huge hit for Ludacris that West helped create, was lifted from their song “Straight Like That.”
During West’s testimony, U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel asked him to say the first two lines of “Stand Up.” West hesitated, but finally blurted out a line laced with a harsh profanity.
“I’m sorry I asked,” the blushing judge said with a chuckle, adding: “I think I’m going to withdraw my question.”
Beanie there, done that
Beanie Sigel, the popular rapper who has been shadowed by his criminal history, was wounded by gunfire during an attempted robbery early Thursday in what his attorney called “a random act of violence.”
After leaving the hospital in a wheelchair, a bloodstained towel on his right shoulder, and getting into a black Mercedes, Sigel lowered the car window and said: “I got shot. I’m cool.”
Sigel, 32, born Dwight Grant, was released from federal prison in August after serving a year on a gun charge and was acquitted of attempted murder the following month.
Speaking of beating the rap …
Michael Jackson plans to make his first public appearance today since his acquittal last June on child molestation charges.
Jackson’s acceptance of MTV Japan’s “Legend Award” at a ceremony in Tokyo will launch an Asian tour including stops in Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
The pop star, who has been living in Bahrain since the acquittal, told London’s Daily Mirror that he’s shopping for “luxury properties” in or near the city, as well as scouting locales in Scotland and Ireland to rebuild his personal theme park, Neverland.
The birthday bunch
Actor Christopher Lee is 84. Actress Lee Meriwether is 71. Musician Ramsey Lewis is 71. Actor Louis Gossett Jr. is 70. Actor Richard Schiff (“The West Wing”) is 51. Actress Peri Gilpin (“Frasier”) is 45. Actor Todd Bridges (“Diff’rent Strokes”) is 41. Actor Paul Bettany (“The Da Vinci Code”) is 35. Rapper Andre 3000 (Outkast) is 31. Rapper Jadakiss is 31. Actor Ethan Dampf (“American Dreams”) is 12.