DMX sentenced to 15 days in jail
The next time DMX decides to do the right thing and turn himself in to police, he'll remember to clean out his pockets first. DMX, who had a warrant out for his arrest in Cheektowaga, N.Y., stemming from a missed court date in March, allegedly had marijuana in a pack of cigarettes he was carrying when he was being processed by police on Wednesday. He immediately was charged with possession and fined $250. Earlier in the day, DMX was sentenced to 15 days in the Erie County Correctional Facility in upstate New York after pleading guilty to charges of driving with a suspended license and marijuana possession stemming from a March 3 arrest. He also was fined $350. DMX's lawyers filed an appeal and were attempting to get a stay of sentence granted. X had missed the first court date because he was in Houston with the Ruff Ryders/Cash Money tour.
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Lauryn Hill will make her first court appearance June 21 in connection with a lawsuit filed by New-Ark Entertainment alleging that Hill "used their songs and production skills but failed to properly credit them for the work" on her five-times-platinum debut album, The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill. Hill will be asked under oath whether or not she wrote the songs on her album. Hill claims she wrote and produced the entire album, but New-Ark's suit says that they should have received credit as songwriters and producers. Members of the New-Ark production team are credited as supplying "additional production," "additional musical contribution" and "additional lyrical contribution" to the Grammy-winning album. 
50 Cent is in stable condition at Jamaica Hospital in Queens after being shot once in each leg and once in the jaw Wednesday morning. A spokesperson for the hospital said that at the family's request no information would be made available. However, a police spokesperson reported that 50 Cent was sitting in a parked car around 11:20 a.m. when a man in a blue car pulled up and fired nine shots from a 9mm handgun. A passenger in the car sustained a gunshot wound to the hand. 50 Cent is best known for "How To Rob," a song detailing an episode in which he jacks the likes of Jay-Z, DMX, Master P and Lil' Kim. 
Priority Records has confirmed that Mack 10 and TLC's T-Boz finally have set a wedding date The couple will marry on August 19, 10 days before Mack 10 is scheduled to release his next solo album. It also has been confirmed that T-Boz is four months pregnant. 
With his No Limit clothing line suffering from a decline in sales nationwide, Master P is using some new tactics to spark interest. BET personality Rachel Stuart is featured in ads for NL Jeans and Twisted Denim inserted in the new 504 Boyz album, Goodfellas, and the brand is mentioned several times on the disc, including in two skits that sound like radio commercials. Rachel is the former host of "Planet Groove" and "Caribbean Rhythms" and currently co-hosts "Live from L.A." 
With Jay-Z and Nas being two of the most consistent suppliers of hip-hop product, it should come as no surprise that both are expected to drop new albums by the end of 2000. Jay-Z, who has released a solo album in every calendar year since 1996, apparently is preparing a disc under the working title Vol. 4... You Have Been Watching that might end up being a double album before all is said and done. Vol. 4 will feature production from DJ Premier, Dr. Dre and Timbaland and is rumored (again) to be Jigga's final chapter. Meanwhile, Nas, who released two albums in 1999, is in the lab preparing Stillmatic 2001. 
Capone and Noreaga finally have finished The Reunion, the long-awaited follow-up to their 1997 debut, The War Report, but it looks like a behind-the-scenes catfight might steal its thunder. Apparently, Foxy Brown decided to use the first single from C-N-N's new album to call out friend-turned-rival 
Black Rob was arrested on charges of drug and weapons possession in Manhattan on Sunday, May 21, after undercover police officers saw a gun inside Rob's car. According to the New York Post, Rob had pulled his car over to sign autographs, but was arrested when police allegedly saw him pass a .22-caliber handgun to a man in the passenger seat. Upon searching the car, police discovered the gun and several tablets of what was suspected to be Ecstasy. Both Rob and the passenger in his car, Kwamie Thomas, were charged with criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a controlled substance. Black Rob's debut album, Life Story has sold more than 670,000 copies since its release in March, and the next stop on his solo tour is scheduled for May 25 in Fort Wayne, Ind. 
Reports are circulating that Death Row escapee RBX has been signed to Korn's Elementree Records and is expected to drop an album in early 2001. However, a spokesman for Reprise Records, which distributes Elementree, refused to confirm or deny the report. RBX made his debut on Dr. Dre's 1992 classic, The Chronic, but left Death Row after his solo debut was pushed back repeatedly, and has released two albums during stints at three different labels. RBX released his debut solo disc, The RBX Files, on Premeditated in 1995. He joined Aftermath when Dre launched it in 1996, but only appeared on two tracks on the initial compilation and never dropped an album. In 1999, RBX finally released a follow-up, No Mercy, No Remorse, on Street Solid Records, a small label that also included Above the Law's Cold 187um (a.k.a. Big Hutch). 
Jay-Z and Ice Cube will headline an outdoor performance at KS 107.5's "Summer Jam 2000," which will take place June 10 at Fiddlers Green in Englewood, Colo. The show starts at 6 p.m. and promises to go on "rain or shine." Additional performers are expected to be announced at a later date. Seats for the concert can be purchased online for $4-$35 at 
DJ Quik will join an impressive list of performers at the 4th Annual Urban Focus Music Conference on June 24-25 in Los Angeles. Quik, whose fifth album, Balance and Options arrived in stores Tuesday, was added to a lineup that already included Common, De La Soul and Talib Kweli. UrbanFest L.A., which will take place on the campus of USC, is expected to draw 10,000 to 12,000 people each day. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Urban Focus Music Foundation, the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, Music & Kids Inc. and Temple of Hip-Hop Kulture. Tickets for UrbanFest L.A. are on sale now at Ticketmaster.com. 
Eminem.com has put out a bootleg alert regarding Slim Shady's latest album, The Marshall Mathers LP. Apparently, an incomplete version of Eminem's sophomore joint has been circulating on the streets of New York. The site reports that the bootleg "is merely a copy of The Marshall Mathers LP snippet tape" and is missing key songs like "B Please II" and "Stan." The authentic version arrives in stores May 23. 
If you've been trading Dr. Dre files recently on Napster, don't be surprised if you're soon blocked from the service. Like Metallica before him, Dre has hired U.K.-based software company NetPD to compile a list of Napster users that are trading his copyrighted materials. Dre is expected to submit a list of more than 200,000 names to Napster on Wednesday. After Metallica, which is represented by the same lawyer as Dre, delivered their list of more than 300,000 offenders to the company's San Mateo, Calif., office, Napster had no choice but to ban them from using the service. However, 20,000 users have appealed the ban, and unless Metallica pursues each individual case, their service will be restored in 10 days. Any users banned as a result of Dr. Dre's list likely will go through the same process. 
Outkast's Andre "3000" Benjamin and Antwan "Big Boi" Patton have teamed with David "Mr. DJ" Sheats and Elektra Records to launch Aquemini Records. The first artist to debut on the Atlanta-based imprint will be Slimm Calhoun. "Our goal is to bring the freshest talent to the world in a way nobody has ever seen before," Big Boi said. Andre added, "Aquemini Records is a specialty label based on quality as opposed to the factory approach of chasing the latest trends." Slimm Calhoun's album, The Skinny, is scheduled to hit stores this fall. "Slimm is the dawning of the age of Aquemini," said Michael "Blue" Williams, Outkast's manager and general manager of the new label. "He is a hip-hop artist, rap star and musician all rolled into one. He's the perfect representative to kick off the label founded by Outkast. Let the revolution begin." Calhoun can be heard on Outkast's upcoming fourth album Stankonia and also appeared on the "Light It Up" soundtrack. 
Public Enemy's Chuck D will testify May 24 before a congressional committee on online music, according to a report on Sonicnet. The informational hearing will be open to the public. Although the hearing was not specifically organized to address the Napster controversy, the topic will more than likely come up now that Chuck D is involved. The Public Enemy frontman has been the most vocal supporter of Napster and MP3 technology. Last year, Public Enemy's There's a Poison Goin' On became the first major album released in MP3 format. 
Ice-T has agreed to provide the voice of the main character for Fox Interactive's upcoming science-fiction/adventure game, "Sanity: Aiken's Artifact." The game is set thirty years in the future and Ice-T will play Agent Nathaniel Cain, a government agent with psychic powers that players use to track down criminals with similar abilities. The game is expected to be released for both Windows and Macintosh this fall, but a definite release date has not been set. Ice-T will appear at Fox Interactive's booth at the Electronic Entertainment Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center on May 12 from 2 to 6 p.m. PT to promote the game.
Russell Simmons is stepping up his efforts to politicize urban youth with the help of 360HipHop.com, his highly anticipated online venture set to debut in June. The new web site, which Simmons touts as "the ultimate destination point on the Internet for all things hip-hop," will join Rock The Vote in sponsoring Rap The Vote 2000, an expansive campaign aimed at getting thousands of young people across the country into voting booths this year. 360HipHop.com will stage political forums and fundraising events all geared toward educating and empowering the hip-hop community. "With issues like racial profiling and police brutality taking a center stage in this year's elections, the hip-hop community needs to mobilize, move as an army and make their voice heard," Simmons released in a statement. The slogan for the campaign will be "Register. Vote. Represent." 
Queen Latifah won $250,000 for charity during celebrity week on ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." Latifah's winnings will go to The Lancelot Owens Scholarship Foundation, a charity promoting youth education that's named after her brother. Record-breaking numbers of people tuned in for the first celebrity edition of "Millionaire." Monday's show had 35.8 million viewers, the most ever to watch the game show, and for the first time had more viewers than all of the shows on CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN and the WB combined. 
For the second time in less than a year, a major hip-hop publication has closed its doors. Vibe/ Spin Ventures announced Thursday that it was shutting down Blaze because the magazine failed to meet circulation and advertising goals. Blaze started off on the wrong foot in the fall of 1998 and has been a center of controversy ever since. The magazine thought it would be a good idea to get artists' reactions to reviews before they were printed and publish the two alongside each other. However, the idea backfired. Three weeks before the premiere issue, Blaze's editor in chief, Jesse Washington, accused Wyclef Jean (pictured) of pulling a gun on him in a recording studio after Jean was presented with a negative review of Canibus' debut album (which Wyclef executive-produced). In November 1998, Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie allegedly assaulted Washington after Blaze ran a photo that identified Angelettie as the artist known as the Madd Rapper. Washington was fired shortly after hiring a man accused (but cleared) of killing the son of Time Warner executive Gerald Levin as an intern. At the time, Time Warner owned Vibe/Spin Ventures, but the trio of magazines has since been sold to Miller Publishing Group. In October 1999, Larry Flynt Publications shut down Rap Pages. However, the magazine was sold late last year and is expected to make a return this summer. 
The Los Angeles Police Department is no longer investigating Amir Muhammad in connection with the fatal shooting of Notorious B.I.G., according to the Los Angeles Times. The Times first reported in December 1999 that the police were looking into the relationship between Muhammad and David A. Mack, a former L.A. police officer currently serving time in prison for bank robbery. The article reported that Muhammad was hired by Mack to kill Biggie, who allegedly had ties to Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight. Muhammad angrily denied the report, declaring that he was "a mortgage broker... not a murderer." Knight, who is serving a nine-year prison term for a probation violation, also has denied being involved. Notorious was shot and killed outside of a Vibe party in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997. No arrests have been made.