Florida Sentinel Bulletin

Diddy’s Bad Boy Records and media conglomerate Viacom have agreed to fork over $7.5 million dollars to settle a lawsuit over the MTV series “Making The Band”.

A bankruptcy judge awarded the hefty sum to the bankruptcy trustee of Trans Continental Television Productions founded by Lou Pearlman. Pearlman starred, in the inaugural season of Making The Band, when the format was geared towards forming the next great boy band. The first two seasons aired on ABC before transitioning to MTV when Diddy took over the helm changing the search to a hip hop group.

Following his removal from the show, Pearlman’s end soured and he was convicted of a huge Ponzi scheme in 2008. Trans Continental then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The company’s lawyer filed a breach of contract lawsuit last year, claiming that they were cut out of profits for the series’ final seasons.

Heavy D died Tuesday after collapsing in his California home. He was 44.

The Westchester County-raised entertainer was taken by ambulance to Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles about 11:25 a.m. and died 90 minutes later, cops told the Daily News.

Heavy D was conscious and talking when officers responded to a 911 call from his Beverly Hills condo, said Lt. Mark Rosen of the Beverly Hills Police Department.

Rosen said the portly rapper, whose real name was Dwight Arrington Myers, was having difficulty breathing as paramedics rushed him to the hospital.

The performer had just returned from Europe and was battling pneumonia, KTLA news in Los Angeles reported.

Rosen said Heavy D had come home from a shopping trip Tuesday and began laboring for breath as he walked into his condo building.

“He collapsed in an exterior hallway,” Rosen said. “There doesn’t appear to be any foul play. We believe it was medically related.”

The actual cause of death is pending an autopsy.

Born in Jamaica and raised in Mount Vernon, Heavy D rose to stardom in the 1990s as the frontman for Heavy D & the Boys.

CLEVELAND — Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin has been honored with a star-studded tribute at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
Lauryn Hill, Dennis Edwards of the Temptations and Chaka Khan were among those who entertained. The 69-year-old soul singer was not scheduled to perform, but toward the end of the three-hour event she took a seat at a piano and traded verses with Edwards in a rendition of “A Song for You.”

Franklin received a key to the city from Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson during the Saturday event and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Case Western Reserve University.

The show ended a weeklong American Music Masters tribute to her.

Broadway, New York’s great white way, is getting a splash of color this season.

A record number of shows by Black playwrights and directors, all featuring a multi-cultural, cast of actors, are slated to open between early October and well into next year.

Among them is a new production called “Stick Fly,” which is expected to draw Black audiences, both locally and nationally.

Walker International Communications Group has contracted to help the Alicia Keys backed production succeed when it makes its debut in December.

LOS ANGELES — Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman is taking home a new prize — a lifetime-achievement honor at the Golden Globes.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced Wednesday that Freeman will receive the group’s Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 69th annual Globes ceremony on Jan. 15.

The 74-year-old Freeman is a five-time Oscar nominee who won the supporting-actor prize for 2004’s “Million Dollar Baby.” Freeman’s Oscar nominations include best actor for 1989’s “Driving Miss Daisy,” for which he won a Golden Globe.

Producers Dr. Dre and will.i.am opened up the new Beats by Dr. Dre pop-up store in New York City.

Dr. Dre showed off the brand’s holiday lineup which includes the new wireless beats by Dre headphones and celebrated with a cake in the shape of a headphone.

The Black Eyed Peas frontman was also in attendance as he could possibly be working with Dre as he works on his new solo album.

Public Enemy’s Chuck D has filed a class-action lawsuit against Universal Music Group in U.S. District Court, alleging that the label didn’t pay fully its artists and producers in licensing deals for digital downloads and ringtones.

The suit claims UMG owes its artists “hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties” because of the discrepancies.

According to the suit, Universal’s artists and producers are entitled to 50% of the net receipts from digital downloads and ringtones. Problem is UMG has treated digital sales like sales of physical product and billed their artists for deductions like CD packaging, which aren’t part of the cost in digital downloads.

Reuters also reports that Chuck D claims under UMG’s current method of accounting, artists and producers receive $80.33 for every 1,000 downloads, when the correct amount should be $315.85 per 1,000.

On the ringtone side of things, the discrepancy is even more drastic. The suit claims that UMG’s current accounting method yields $49.89 per thousand downloads, as opposed to the $660 per 1,000 that the suit claims is actually owed.

Chuck, who claims breach of contract, is demanding a jury trial.

Evelyn Lozada, star of VH1’s #1 Hit Reality Series, “Basketball Wives” which is set for an explosive fourth season, has just signed a multi-platform six-figure deal with Cash Money Content for literary and feature film projects.  Lozada is the girlfriend of Chad Ochocinco.

Music moguls Bryan “Baby” Williams and his brother Ronald “Slim” Williams are founders & CEO’s of Cash Money Content, the publishers that are overseeing the book deal.

The first of the projects is Evelyn’s book series, “The Wives Association,” co-authored by novelist and former Law & Order: Criminal Intent writer, Courtney Parker, which will follow Evelyn’s alter ego, character Eve Inez-Landon and will fictionalize aspects of real life events that have come from years of dating a professional athlete.

Although the books are not considered “tell-alls”, Evelyn reveals they will be an exciting mix of her own experiences and that of other athlete wives and girlfriends.

“The stories that you hear- what goes on in these relationships, and just being in that circle- I decided to let everyone experience a piece of it for themselves by writing this series of juicy novels,” said Evelyn.

“We will support Evelyn’s project, 100%” said Cash Money Founder and CEO, Williams.

“By partnering with Baby and Cash Money Content, we have the potential to turn these ‘novels’ into a full-fledged brand,” Lozada explains. “Everything Baby and CMC touches turns to gold, and our brands together will be magical.”

Cash Money Content is a groundbreaking partnership that pairs the Cash Money Records brand with Atria Books, a division of the publishing powerhouse, Simon & Schuster.

The hip-hop world is buzzing with theories over who may have murdered a man who allegedly assaulted Compton, California rapper Game, but investigators say he is not a suspect.

Jomo Adoula Zambia aka “RoseMo,” was shot and killed in Inglewood on Wednesday, November 3. RoseMo died after he was shot in the torso.

He crashed his car into an unmarked police cruiser and eventually died in a nearby hospital. According to the Los Angeles Times, the officer had to be extricated from his vehicle. He was released from the hospital after suffering minor injuries.

RoseMo was killed just two months after he posted videos of himself bragging about knocking out Game during a confrontation at the Fox Hills Mall, as the rapper was shopping with his son.

RoseMo, who was associated with 1017 Bricksquad, was once again involved in a Twitter feud with Inglewood rapper Boskoe. CTE affiliated rapper, 2Eleven, filmed Boskoe being attacked by RoseMo, resulting in Boskoe receiving a broken arm and other injuries.

Although the RoseMo and Game also sent threats back and forth over Twitter, investigators say the rapper is not a suspect as of press time.

“Our investigation is leading us in a different direction,” Police Detective Gabriel De La Torre told the Los Angeles Times.

RoseMo’s murder is the second high-profile death involving a rapper in Inglewood, in the past several months. In May, Montae “M-Bone” Talbert of the group Cali Swag District was gunned down in Inglewood. In that unsolved murder, a suspect drove up to M-Bone as he sat in front of an Inglewood liquor store and shot him twice in the head.

As of press time, police are seeking suspects in the death of RoseMo and M-Bone.