8 Years Ago Today

R&B princess Aaliyah died when her plane crashed seconds after take off in the Bahamas. An autopsy showed the pilot had cocaine in his system and alcohol in his stomach. The plane was also found to have been overweight with luggage and not up to date on its maintenance checks.

Michael Jackson's Death

has officially been ruled a homicide by the LA coroner.

New Life for The Game?

BET is in talks with CBS Studios about ordering new seasons of The Game.

Where Are They Now

Gary Coleman is the new face of Canadian restaurant New York Fries.

Dave Chappelle

turns 36 today

Roxanne Shante gets her PhD on Warner Music's Dime

It's time for Hip Hop history class y'all. Before there was a Salt N Pepa, MC Lyte or a Queen Latifah there was Roxanne Shante, who shot to fame after she recorded an answer track to UTFO's classic rap Roxanne Roxanne. [<--please report to Youtube for further research] Roxanne Shante signed a recording contract with Warner Music when she was 14 and you know what happened next: she got stiffed on her royality checks and ripped off by lawyers, managers and label execs. Still, Rox was able to enforce a forgotten clause in her orginal contract where Warner had agreed to pay for her education for life. In 2001 Roxanne earned a Ph.D in psychology from Cornell University and forced Warner to stick to their agreement by threatning to go public with the story after they initally balked at paying her $217,000 tution.

The Pending Divorce

seems to be agreeing with him. More pictures of Usher sans the wife or kids frolicking in St. Tropez here

New Jay Z featuring Drake

Wives? What Wives?

Usher and Snoop spotted partying like two single guys in St. Tropez over the weekend. More party pictures here

Vanessa Williams Naked on Ebay

The photographer who took those naked pictures of Vanessa Williams that caused her to forfeit the 1984 Miss America crown must be on hard times because Photographer Guy put the negatives from that shoot up for sale on Ebay. The starting bid is $200,000.00. Click here to see Vanessa's pictures from back in the day and here to bid on the negatives.

Adventures in Divorce Court

David Alan Grier's wife of two years, Christine Kim, filed for divorce last month and is seeking sole custody of their 1 year old daughter, child and spousal support. David wants shared custody and has requested the court deny any spousal support at all. The case is pending.

The Real Reason Julius Went Off

Norman Oosterbroek, the owner of the protection agency that employs Beyonce' bodyguard Julius be Boer, [Norm is that big white guy who's usually one step behind Jay Z] says what you couldn't hear on the video showing Jules' confrontation with Croatian papparazzi that was that the Croatian paps were calling them niggers. The full version of the video is below.

The Carters did not to cut their vacation short and were still in Croatia yesterday. Julius paid a $100-something dollar fine for disorderly conduct and inital assault charges against him were dropped.

High Five Singer Shot Five Times

There's a joke in that title but now's not the time to tell it. Treston Irby, one of the guys from 90s group High Five was shot five times outside a New Haven, CT nightclub last week. If you go by the official story from the New Haven Register [click here], Treston was an innocent bystander who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But if you go by the comment section of The Register [click here], you get the idea that Treston was the target and he knows why.