Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., was spared time in an Arizona jail under a plea deal stemming from his January 2008 arrest at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in the state.
Under the deal, the27-year-old Grammy winner pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a dangerous drug. Three other drug and weapons charges were dismissed.
Wayne appeared in court via a video hookup from New York, where he has been jailed since March after pleading guilty to attempted criminal possession of a weapon.
James Tilson, Carter’s Arizona attorney, said he was pleased with the court’s action.
“We’re quite glad that we were able to wrap everything up,” Tilson told Reuters. “It’s a favorable plea agreement that will allow Mr. Carter to pursue his career.”
Carter will begin his Arizona probation following his New York sentence, Tilson said.
The rapper’s tour bus, carrying 11 others, was stopped and searched by Border Patrol authorities after they said they were alerted by a drug-sniffing dog. Agents found nearly four ounces of marijuana, an ounce of cocaine, 41 grams of Ecstasy and a .40-caliber pistol registered to Carter.
Kelly Rowland may be enjoying her independence as a solo artist, but there was a time when the R&B star had to lean on her fellow Destiny’s Child groupmate.
Despite constant rumors pitting them against one another, the “Grown Woman” says she and Beyoncé have remained friends. “We were always civilized,” she tells Entertainment Weekly. “That’s what I’m most proud of. From the rumors to the lawsuits to false accusations, it was really tough.”
Even when legal issues arose with former members LeToya and LaTavia, the two stayed close. “We were strong because we had each other,” she tells the magazine. “There were times when I couldn’t even be strong enough, so I had B. She was the only thing I knew. She was my only friend.”
As for the Destiny’s Child reunion that her former manager Mathew Knowles shut down, Kelly says she would be open to it “if the fans wanted it to happen.”
Rowland also admits in the article that her former label Columbia Records dropped her and it was not a mutual split as the press release stated. “In all honesty, they let me go. The records that I put out probably didn’t perform as well as maybe they wanted them to,” she reveals. “We live in an industry where you’ve got to bring in money. You can’t be pushing out so much money and not bring anything back. I get it.”
Kelly Rowland’s self-titled third solo album is due September 21 on Universal Motown, featuring the singles “Commander,” “Grown Woman,” and “Rose Colored Glasses.”
Ciara fans, mark your calendars. The R&B diva has finally set a release date for her fourth album Basic Instinct.
Ciara took to Twitter to make the August 24 date official. “BASIC INSTINCT ALBUM RELEASE DATE!!!! AUGUST 24!!” she wrote.
The first single “Ride” is currently No. 56 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the remix with André 3000 was released to iTunes this week. A follow-up single is due before the album’s release. “Get ready to dance off the freaking roof,” she told Rap-Up TV of the unnamed track.
The album, executive produced by Tricky Stewart and The-Dream, marks a return to her roots. “Now it’s time to go back, it’s time to throw on my sneakers, it’s time to just really get bossy for a couple of seconds,” said CiCi.
West Coast rapper Game recently discussed stalling his Black Wall Street movement and explained why the label's first release won't be until next year.
Game believes the best strategy for his label is to make a strong underground impact first.
"I think about early 2011," Game said when asked about an official Black Wall Street imprint debut. "We just now starting to get these mixtapes rolling. We did one with DJ Skee, The Red Room, that was crazy, and online critics loved it. And then we about to put out another mixtape with [DJ] Drama then one more with Skee, and that'll cover the rest of the year. Then at the top of the year, we will be coming out with probably a compilation or before next summer, or something like that, depending on how everybody's work ethic is and how my touring is. We got the cover of Murder Dog this month, and you know I'm laying the foundation."
Game reportedly launched the Black Wall Street imprint following his 2005 departure from G-Unit.
After leaving G-Unit Records, Game launched The Black Wall Street in the hope of competing with his former label and label mates. The name "Black Wall Street" was inspired by the historic black community of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was one of the most affluent all-black communities in the USA.
Last April, Game talked about having female rapper Kanary Diamonds join DJ Skee and Nu Jerzey Devil on Black Wall Street.
"She been putting' it down for a while out here in L.A., she from Watts so I always liked her style and I always gave her advice over the years like she could be a little more confident, and a little more charismatic and feline' herself. She finally got it down so I pulled her in, and we did some stuff for the mixtape. Look for her soon, everybody diggin' her though. Just look out for her."
Game is currently working on his new album, R.E.D., which he plans to drop this August.
"Oh & by the way....... R.E.D. Album in stores August "Kobe's #" ha ha ha.... That's August 24th for anybody that don't speak LAKER fluently," Game revealed in an early June tweet.
"I pushed my album back so it would land on Kobe's #'s .... 8 & 24 n it's year 10' n that was his Olympic #. R.E.D. In stores 8-24-10 ! #KOBE."
Check out footage of Black Wall Street down below:
Southern rapper Rick Ross has opened up about recently creating a Twitter account and revealed his interest in re-tweeting what other people are speaking about.
Ross claims that he uses Twitter to try and stay in contact with fans.
"People been trying to get me on Twitter for the last two years but I never really felt the need for it. I been getting so much love, people been embracing my sh*t, my music. The least I can do is try to stay in contact with my supporters even more so. That's where @RickyRozay came into play. I came up with the name. I been doing it for less than a month so motherf*ckas call up [Ed. Note: We think he means tweet up], make requests, do sh*t like that so it's love. I can't say I read everything but some shit I do retweet. Motherf*ckas say something that I might've thought before, 'Oh d*mn that makes sense,' retweet it. It's not really marketing. You can only do so much tweeting. I feel a lot of that sh*t be overrated. You only gon' retweet so many people and actually tweet [back to] so many people but for the few motherf*ckas you do touch they gon' f*ck with the Boss"
Last February, Diddy talked about maintaining over two million Twitter followers.
"Yeah, I mean, it's just a point in my life, being in the industry, I have nothing but good things to say to people," Diddy explained. "I have nothing but positive energy to give, I don't care if you like me, you don't like me. I love you and I'mma keep doing my thing. Hopefully you'll get it one day but I've been blessed to have a lot of fans and a lot of people love me and I just want my injection to be what I feel is great about people. I wanna inspire people -- I don't wanna bring them down. I don't wanna talk about no BS. I don't have no time for none of that. I wanna uplift us."
Kid Cudi previously explained why he deleted his popular Twitter page last year.
"I have an iPhone and I don't even utilize all of the applications on it," Cudi explained. "Just alone on an iPhone you can have multiple e-mails -- I have two e-mails -- text messaging, some people have AIM on there, MySpace, Facebook -- and I don't even have those things...With Twitter, my two e-mails, text messaging, and my phone ringing, that's just overwhelming. And you gotta think of it like this, what did they do before there were cell phones? Use a pay phone or write a letter. Or you catch 'em at the crib....I think I want to take it back to that. Sometimes it just shouldn't be that easy for you to get in contact with me."
Last year, Jim Jones spoke on how he used the social networking tool to promote his music.
"I released the song called 'Dancing On Me,'" Jones explained in an interview. "It's one of my new singles from this summer album that we're doing. We put it up on iTunes and for me to try to get a spike on it, I tweeted that the record was now on sale on iTunes. It started at the 100's and slowly but surely in a few days it started climbing in the 50's and 40's, you know? So appreciate everybody for going and buying that record off the help of the tweet."
Rick Ross' Twitter currently has over 68,000 followers.
