Francesca Spero, a woman who claims she launched hip-hop mogul, P. Diddy’s, career, is suing him for $12 million, alleging she was sacked by his firm Bad Boy for being old and disabled, after she had to undergo hip surgery in 2008.
According to the 51 year old’s claim, Diddy, real name Sean Combs, was ‘unsympathetic to her condition’ and tried to push her out of the company.
In March 2010, she was fired and replaced by a woman much younger who ‘lacked the skill set and experience Spero brought to the position.’
Spero’s lawyer Laurie Berke-Weiss said, ‘Francesca Spero opened the door for Combs’ career and, now that she’s 51, he showed her the door at Bad Boy.’
According to her lawsuit, after surgery to treat a hip misalignment, he allegedly said she earned too much money for “someone who could no longer keep up with his fast-paced lifestyle” and fired her.
Spero also admitted to checking herself into a substance abuse treatment facility in December 2008 after problems with prescription pain killers and alcohol.
Check out one of Diddy’s more recent hits with Pharrell here!
Pop superstar-turned-trainwreck-turned-superstar-again Britney Spears seems set to appear in an episode of the Fox musical-comedy television show “Glee” next season.
Show co-creator Ryan Murphy said Tuesday that he expects Spears to act in an episode that’s “reverential about her.” Murphy said recently on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show he admires how Spears has turned herself around, despite the constant public and media pressure.
The singer of pop hits such as “… Baby One More Time” and “Toxic” spent years as a tabloid headline for a series of high-profile hospitalizations and erratic behavior such as shaving her head.
On “Glee,” the cast members will be going under anesthesia at the dentist’s office, and hallucinate about Spears and being like her.
Murphy says the episode will feature Spears’ music and won’t delve into her personal life. He says, “We’re handling Britney with kid gloves.”
The Britney Spears episode of “Glee” will follow in the footsteps of other pop icons who have had their music performed on the series, including Madonna and Lady Gaga. The Emmy Award-nominated show has become a hit for Fox.
The ‘Like a Prayer’ singer adopted five-year-old Mercy from Malawi last year, and while her biological dad James Kambewa is pleased she now has a better life with the pop superstar, he is desperate to see what she looks like.
James, who has never met Mercy, whose mother died in childbirth at age 14, said, “I would appreciate if Madonna could send me pictures of how she looks like now as I don’t get any pleasure of being with her.”
”It’s emotionally painful for me as a father. I’m very happy that Madonna is taking care of her. But as a parent, from the moment I heard that she was still alive, I wanted to meet her and I’m hopeful that I’ll meet her one day.’
James, who has moved to South Africa to try to earn enough money to fly over to see Mercy in either her home in the UK or the US, was initially against the adoption. He now wants to meet Madonna to see how her life has been changed.
He told South Africa’s Sunday Time newspaper, ”As a father, I think about her every day. Having a baby is a blessing. So I go through the emotional pain of not living with her every day. I would like to make peace with Madonna so that I can meet my baby. I need someone to advise me on how to go about doing that.”
”From the time I learnt that my daughter was still alive, I’ve been longing for a chance to meet with her but how I do that? I don’t know.”
As well as Mercy, Madonna, also has adopted son David, 4, and her kids, Lourdes, 13, and nine-year-old Rocco from previous relationships.
Wu Tang Clan covered The Beatles classic ‘Come Together’ as they rounded off their UK tour in London last night (4 August).
Lead singer RZA rapped over the opener to the Fab Four’s 1969 album ‘Abbey Road’ at the end of their show at Brixton Academy for the band’s first show in three years.
The rap collective played a host of tracks from their back catalogue with much of their material leaning towards their 1993 debut album ‘Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)’.
Setting out their stall early on, RZA declared: “It is the year 2010 and Wu Tang Clan are on tour. Manchester was off the hook last night. This is the last night of our tour so we’re going to save the best for last.”
The tour was their first since 2007 and was meant to include the full line-up. However, Method Man was forced to pull out due to filming commitments for an episode of CSI.
RZA acknowledged his absence, apologizing to the crowd towards the end. “We’re sorry Method Man couldn’t make it,” he said. “He’s in Hollywood. We’re going to let him know how loud you were though.”
RZA also announced his own forthcoming movie project “The Man With The Iron Fist” to the crowd.
Earlier the band paid tribute to late member Ol’ Dirty Bastard, who died of an accidental drug overdose in 2004, by asking the audience to lift up lighters and mobile phones in his honour.
But the biggest cheer of the night was reserved for their only UK hit single ‘Gravel Pit.’
Wu Tang Clan played:
‘Protect Ya Neck’
‘Clan In Da Front’
‘Bring Da Ruckus’
‘Tearz’
‘Triumph’
‘Ice Cream’
‘Liquid Swords’
‘U God’
‘Reunited’
‘It’s Yourz’
‘One Blood Under W’
‘Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing Ta Fuck Wit’
‘Da Mystery of Chessboxin’
‘C.R.E.A.M.’
‘Baby C’mon’
‘Can It All Be So Simple’
‘Gravel Pit’
‘Come Together’
According to trends seen on Nokia’s Ovi Music Store, 2010 is tipped to be the summer of dance as festival season gets into full swing and dance music downloads soar. The genre has now jumped two places up to the sixth most downloaded music category online, behind pop, rock and hip hop.
According to Ovi, Russia is currently the biggest downloader of dance music, followed by Austria, Netherlands, UK, Switzerland, South Africa, Finland, Italy and Mexico.
Driving this rapid rise is French DJ turned global superstar, David Guetta. The research, conducted by Nokia across 36 countries, revealed that Guetta, famous for his chart-topping dance songs ‘When Love Takes Over’ (featuring Kelly Rowland) and ‘Sexy Bitch’ (featuring Akon) ‘ currently dominates half (50%) of the top ten most downloaded dance tracks on Ovi Music. This makes David Guetta the most downloaded dance artist of all time on Ovi Music, outselling the next four most popular dance artists combined.
TOP TEN DANCE MUSIC ACTS OF ALL TIME (based on Ovi Music downloads)
1. David Guetta
2. Cascada
3. La Roux
4. Ministry of Sound
5. Basshunter
6. Tiësto
7. Scooter
8. The Chemical Brothers
9. Calvin Harris
10. Faithless
In terms of total downloads on Ovi, dance music is currently the sixth most popular genre, up from eighth place the same time last year ‘ ahead of Indie and Latin music.
“This trends snapshot reveals a growing interest in dance music across the world which has traditionally been a niche genre online’ said Ovi Musicologist, Geoff Roberts.
‘Artists such as David Guetta are helping bring dance music to the masses, spiking an increase in downloads over the past year. This is only going to increase as we get deeper into festival season ‘ last year dance music downloads peaked between May and September, and this trend looks like it is set to continue this year.’
Win the chance to see David Guetta live this month at London’s LED Festival by clicking here!
Canadian producer Deadmau5 has been rushed to hospital after collapsing on-stage during a Washington DC show.
He was performing at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC when he suddenly collapsed with exhaustion and began vomiting. Medics believe that Deadmau5’s scare might have had something to do with the giant, full-head mouse mask that he often wears while spinning discs.
Deadmau5, real name: Joel Zimmerman, was rushed to hospital by a medical team from the venue and placed under supervision.
The progressive house producer’s management posted on his Facebook that on the advice of doctors he will have to cancel his next nine shows. These include two Summersonic festival shows in Japan and European sets.
No word on whether they will be rescheduled as yet.
“Like” this blog to wish Deadmau5 a speedy recovery!
This past weekend saw thousands of metal fans gather in Knebworth for the 2010 edition of the popular Sonisphere Festival. Fans gathered from all over Europe and the world to view this year’s headlining acts, including Rammstein, Placebo, Alice in Chains, Pendulum and Iron Maiden.
Despite a slightly underwhelming crowd (Alice in Chains lead singer William DuVall seemed visibly disappointed in the tameness of this year’s audience, and scheduling problems made acts like Rammstein end almost 30 minutes early), the music was loud enough and the drinks were plentiful enough to keep everyone’s interest.
Take a look at some pictures from this year’s festivities taken by our very own FanShake Guru, who was in attendance amongst the madness. Click on the picture to enlarge it…
Can’t wait til next year’s Sonisphere! Keep an eye out for more exclusive on-site festival pictures on FanShake!
John Lennon’s 70th birthday is set to be marked with a special time capsule ceremony which will see his post-Beatles recordings preserved until his 100th birthday in 2040.
Fans are also being invited to submit birthday wishes, commentary, musical performances and personal thoughts on the late singer’s legacy over the next couple of months for The John Lennon Time Capsule project.
“I am delighted to support this effort to help share John’s music and messages of peace and love with the children of today and tomorrow,” said his widow Yoko Ono. “I know that John’s work, life and dreams will help inspire them to bring a better world for everyone. Children Power!”
The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Museum in Ohio will host a time capsule dedication ceremony on October 8, the day before the artist’s birthday. The capsule will be preserved and stored there until it is opened in a ceremony on Lennon’s 100th birthday – October 9, 2040. Two other capsules will be stored in additional worldwide locations.
In the past Ono has buried similar capsules at a ‘light tower’ in Iceland dedicated to the late singer.
Belgian one-hit-wonder Plastic Bertrand confesses that he never sang on his one hit.
In mystifying news, an expert linguist has spent three years analysing the 1977 hit ‘Ça Plane Pour Moi’ in order to figure out whether it was actually sung by Plastic Bertrand.
The question stemmed from an ongoing lawsuit from the label AMC, who sued Lou Deprijck, the original producer of the song, over a 2006 cover version.
Deprijck then claimed that it was his voice on the original version and it all came down to an expert on accents.
The expert said in court, ”The way the phrases end on each record show that the song could only have been sung by a Ch’ti, otherwise known as someone from the Picard region of France.”
Deprijck hails from a French-speaking region of Belgium that is known for the Picard accent. Plastic Bertrand was born in Brussels, where people do not have this accent.
Plastic Bertrand (né Roger Jouret) has since been forced to admit that he did not sing on the song.
But he also claims that Deprijck was the one who continued the deception, promising to release a version with Jouret singing that never happened.
C’est la vie, Jouret. Listen to the song in question below!
Producer Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins has announced he’s setting to work on unreleased Michael Jackson songs.
The producer, who worked on Jackson’s 2001 album “Invincible,” told VladTV, “It’s definitely going to come, but it takes time. You got to do a lot of the red tape but there’s definitely going to be an unreleased Michael Jackson [album]. There’s definitely going to be stuff to come and hopefully I’ll be a part of that.”
Jackson was working on a comeback tour and album at the time of his death, working with producers Ne-Yo, Akon and will.i.am as well as rumoured collaborations with Kanye West, T-Pain and Chris Brown.
There is a presumption that unreleased Jackson material might date back decades, as every album would’ve had offcuts and b-sides that never made it out.
In March this year, Sony signed a new deal with Jackson’s estate to release ten albums of unreleased material and new collections of previously released work. The first album is reportedly due for a November 2010 release, with the final album due out in 2017.
It’s the most expensive music contract of all time, Jackson’s estate earning $250 million up front as well as a slice of forthcoming royalties.
Jackson’s future output is sure to overwhelm the material he released when he was alive.
