Jay-Z

Nineteen-year-old British socialite Peaches Geldof (daughter of Live Aid impresario Bob Geldof) announced that she married 23-year-old Chester French frontman Max Drummey in Las Vegas last weekend. [P6]

In other Vegas news, Jay-Z is in talks to sell 50 percent of the Nevada branch of his 40/40 club for $44 million. [P6]

Sources are saying that Rielle Hunter's child looks like "John Edwards in a onesie." [NYDN]

Worldwide Entertainment Group is suing Paris Hilton for $74,000 over her prescient failure to promote her 2006 film National Lampoon's Pledge This! [TMZ]

Last month, Celeste Williams, a former waitress at Jay-Z's 40/40 Club filed a class-action suit claiming that the Chelsea club failed to pay overtime or even minimum wage to its employees. And earlier this month, the New York Post reported that a Manhattan judge ordered the rapper to hand over records of all employees over the last three years to see just which of the clubs employees may have been mistreated.

But now, the Post is reporting that the club's general manager, Desiree Gonzalez is trying to cover up information, threatening several employees not to take part in the lawsuit or else.  read more »

Mariann Florio, widow of former Condé Nast C.E.O. Steve Florio, is reportedly in a dispute with the company over payouts following her husband's death last December. [P6]

Gossip Girl had a casting call in Southampton this past weekend and no one showed up. [Daiyl Intel]

Jay-Z dined with Governor Paterson at the Spotted Pig. [P6]  read more »

Vogue intern and New York Ranger, Sean Avery, says the magazine is "a real, tight-knit family," and he hasn't had to fetch a cup of Starbucks yet! [Intelligencer]

Drea De Matteo was overheard saying that one of NBC's better known spin-off disasters, Joey, ruined her career. [P6]  read more »

Marc Jacobs' friends tell Page Six that he's out of control with his boy-chasing and partying ways, afraid he'll "pull a Halston." [P6]

Donatella Versace wishes Hillary would give up the pants. [P6]  read more »

Lou Reed secretly married his long-time girlfriend Laurie Anderson in Colorado on April 12 and then celebrated back here in New York with friends like Julian and Olatz Schnabel and Richard Belzer of Law & Order. [P6]  read more »

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Jay-Z and Beyoncé really did get married on Friday! Well, we think. Mary J. Blige supposedly confirmed the news to her fans while performing in North Carolina over the weekend and witnesses have been leaking details to US Weekly and People.com. [NY Daily News]

Socialites coping with recession: Ivanka isn't the type of person to buy Ferraris and large hats, Claire Bernard will walk her own dog, Arden Wohl thinks it's one big lie. [Intelligencer]  read more »

Manhattan has gotten too expensive even for Carrie Bradshaw. Sarah Jessica Parker tells The Daily News that the outer boroughs is where it's at now for young things trying to imitate the idealized lifestyle her character once advertised. [NY Daily News]  read more »

If Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee, it’s a pretty safe assumption that he’s going to have overwhelming support from the hip-hop community.

Vibe magazine crystallized his status as an icon in the rap community, remixing his first name into the hipper “B-Rock,” and shortly before the crucial primary and caucus in Ohio on March 4, Jay-Z recorded a robo-call saying that “it’s time for Barack Obama.” The Chicago-based rapper Common told CNN that there’s simply “a love for Obama” among fans and practitioners of the genre.

The question is, will Barack Obama return the embrace if and when he becomes the nominee?  read more »

boomp3.com
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Editor's Note: This story originally reported that the Clive Campbell who filed the claim was the real name of D.J. Kool Herc, a founder of hip hop. In fact, it is a different Clive Campbell. Mr. Campbell is a Brooklyn-based activist. The story has been corrected.

Brooklyn activist Clive Campbell is seeking $5 billion from rapper Jay-Z, developer Bruce Ratner and Barclays bank, filing a “claim of lien” in property records that seeks the money for slavery reparations.

Mr. Ratner, Jay-Z, and Barclay’s are all linked through the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, for which Mr. Ratner plans to build a Frank Gehry-designed basketball arena for the Nets and more than 6,000 apartments. Jay-Z, a partial owner of the Nets, has been a major supporter of the project, appearing at press conferences to tout its merits. Barclays owns the naming rights to the arena, and has been accused of having links with the slave trade—an accusation the bank denies.  read more »

"We didn't make the product -- the product made us," Ian Schrager told The Observer about becoming a famous hotelier.

What does the godfather of boutique hotels think of the latest wave of aspiring celebrity hoteliers, Robert De Niro, Giorgio Armani and Jay-Z?

"I think when people hear Jay-Z's name, they have a certain level of expectation of the kind of music they're going to hear. I don't think they have a lot of expectation about what kind of hotel they're going to get," he said.  read more »

Actor Robert De Niro used to be just another famous guest in the world of swanky hotels.

Now, he’s opening his own posh lodge in downtown Manhattan.  read more »

Over at Milan Fashion Week, Bergdorf Goodman’s fashion director of men’s wear, Tommy Fazio, was “unceremoniously asked” to give up his front-row seat at Saturday’s Versace runway show. Why? Because of Beyoncé, of course!

According to a dispatch posted on T Magazine’s Web site today, Mr. Fazio was forced from his seat by a “clipboard Nazi,” who needed the chair for a member of the 26-year-old diva’s entourage. In apparent protest, the fashion director immediately refused to buy anything from the show and canceled his upcoming showroom appointment. (Considering Donatella Versace’s seemingly unconventional managerial methods, extensively profiled in a recent, riveting New Yorker profile, one can assume that heads will likely roll.) Then, after the show had ended, Beyoncé and her “boo,” Jay-Z, burned rubber out of a GQ party because there was no V.I.P. room at the affair.

In related news fresh out of the Italian city, the Spice Girls are expected to show up at the Roberto Cavalli runway show today. At a concert in London last week, Victoria Beckham reportedly sent up several shout-outs to the Italian designer. Because of Posh’s ability to fit into small boxes normally reserved for, say, a pair of shoes, she could pop up at any moment.

 

 

Last week Tamsin Lonsdale, founder of the upscale social networking service The Supper Club, described a recent experience at the Spotted Pig.

“We were having a very civilized dinner,” she recalled to the Transom, “and suddenly, uh, the music got cranked up, and there were 50 movers and shakers on the dance floor, and Jay-Z and Beyoncé were hanging out with us.”

On Tuesday, Dec. 10, a witness who was at the Spotted Pig that legendary night called offering further information about the time Ms. Lonsdale and her party spent in the vicinity of Jay-Z, who is part-owner of the restaurant, and his girlfriend, pop singer Beyoncé Knowles.  read more »

There’s no question—Beyoncé Knowles enjoys a truly ridonkulous lifestyle. What with Jay-Z as your man, hotness as your bod, Sirens as your voice and gold buillon as your pennies, it must feel like the sun rises and sets in your gilt bidet. So don’t let this American Express commercial make you think any differently. Nobody—no matter how radical your ways and off-the-hook your style—should be forced to live like the woman in this minute-long spot. Heck, considering the second-hand motion sickness, fatigue and cramps—what?—we experienced after sitting through the ad, nobody should be forced to watch it, either. (Scratch that, it’s definitely worth a peep.) Does AmEx actually think people want to go directly from the Madrid airport with an obnoxious blonde assistant, only to hop into an impromptu dance class to break a shoe? They won’t even let her visit the Prado! At least in their other celebrity-driven campaigns Ellen DeGeneres gets to chill with exotic animals and Wes Anderson appears a lot cooler than he is.  read more »

If you're yearning for some Jay-Z at your cubicle next Tuesday, Nov. 20 at 2 p.m., head over to music.msn.com/jayz, where a webcast of Jay-Z's American Gangster concert at the Hammerstein Ballroom on Sunday will be posted.

XXL Mag gives us the goods:

During the performance the Def Jam president was joined onstage by his live band, the Rock Boyz, Sean “Diddy” Combs and Lil Wayne. The online broadcast will also feature an exclusive backstage interview with Jay.

His album is not just the back story to the story; it’s the soundtrack that should have been.  read more »

Today is a big day for Brooklyn! A native son, three borough residents, and one co-opted band have albums coming out today.

Bed Stuy native Jay-Z releases American Gangster, an album of original music inspired by the movie. It’s his second release in a year—this is retirement?—and if the box office is any indication (and the 1.5 million copies he sold of his last album, Kingdom Come), this one is going straight to the top of the charts.

The band from Iceland—the eighth borough!—Sigur Ros release Heima/Hvarf-Heim, a movie and double-cd campanion album. The band traveled all around Iceland to use their homeland as a backdrop for their performances of songs from each of their four albums. The companion CD is a collection of rarities and unplugged versions of their favorites songs. If the barrista at your local coffee shop is looking especially glum today, let it go.  read more »

Jay-Z, whose new album inspired by American Gangster comes out next Tuesday, gave the Los Angeles Times' Richard Cromelin a personal tour of Brooklyn.

Jay-Z, 37, doesn't return often to this Brooklyn neighborhood, where he grew up as Shawn Corey Carter. Stardom and wealth have taken him away to a Manhattan home and the globe-trotting life of a hip-hop star and major-label record executive.

It's his role as a recording artist that's brought him back on a warm fall day, to rehearse for a taping of the "VH1 Storytellers" show on a soundstage at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. As the car inches through late afternoon traffic, past the courts where he used to play basketball and the corners where he once sold drugs, he finds that his emotions are stirred.

"Yeah, man, it's the place that made me," he says softly.

Did Jay-Z’s Flatiron District nightclub 40/40 fire a sales associate because she was pregnant? According to Folake Oghundiran and her brand new lawsuit, her job at 40/40 was terminated because her burgeoning physique did not fit in with the other workers’ “sexy” and “unattached” looks. She’s suing for “unspecified damages.”

But—gasp!—it doesn’t look good for Ms. Oghundiran. While one source said that she simply stopped showing up for work, 40/40 legal eagle Ron Berkowitz reportedly said that, as with other lawsuits brought against Jay-Z, it “will likely be dismissed.”

Ms. Oghundiran may soon discover that hindsight is always 20/20.

Ex-Worker Says It’s a Hard Knocked-Up Life at Jay’s Club [TMZ]

Jay-Z previwed tracks from his upcoming American Gangster album at a VH1 Storytellers lot in Brooklyn, according to the AP.

On a studio lot for VH1's ''Storytellers'' series, Jay-Z, along with a full band, performed several tracks from the album inspired by the upcoming Denzel Washington-Russell Crowe flick.

''American Gangster,'' in theaters Nov. 2, chronicles the rise and fall of notorious Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas. Jay-Z said watching the film made him reflect on his own drug-slinging days and the dangers of that lifestyle.

''I was watching the movie and I was pulling emotions from the film,'' the 37-year-old rapper told the crowd, which included girlfriend Beyonce, on Wednesday night.

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Will Oldham has always been fascinated with pop icons (check out this video for Kanye West’s “Can’t Tell Me”). He’ll take on R. Kelly, Danzig, and Bjork with his Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy outfit release Ask Forgiveness. It will include eight covers in all.

New York Mag inspires us to finish The Brothers Karamozov starting tonight. We swear!

Jay-Z will come out of his 23rd retirement to perform at the Hammerstein Ballroom on Nov. 13.

iTunes revs up their film archives. Selma Blair’s boobs, which star in Ed Burns’ new movie Purple Violets, are going to look mighty tiny on the iPod screen.

A documentary about Karl Lagerfield will screen at Film Forum tomorrow night, with the director on hand for discussion about black clothes and Nicole Kidman.

Ages of Consent    read more »

Ages of Consent    read more »

Ages of Consent  read more »

Ages of Consent    read more »

On what was supposed to have been his last album ever, Jay-Z made a little joke: “When I come  read more »

On what was supposed to have been his last album ever, Jay-Z made a little joke: “When I come back  read more »

No figure embodies the ambiguous last decade of popular music quite like Pharrell Williams.  read more »

Hip-hop and streetwear mogul Damon Dash is getting into the real-estate business. He wants to rent out his apartment in Tribeca's Sugar House lofts for $18,000 a month. Just a few days ago, the price was $20,000.

When Mr. Dash purchased the 2,888-square-foot Laight Street triplex for $1.775 million in March 2004, he was still riding high as partner to Shawn (Jay-Z) Carter--running both Roc-A-Fella Records and the Rocawear clothing line. But in the last two years, the famous partners severed their business ties. Mr. Dash now has several business ventures, mostly in clothing.

The apartment's first floor is composed of a living room, a windowed state-of-the-art kitchen, and a powder room. Upstairs, there are two bedrooms with skylights. Other notable features include hardwood floors, oversized windows, walk-in closets, and a marble bath.

Prudential Douglas Elliman brokers Claudine DeMatos, along with Raphael DeNiro and Lauren DeNiro Pipher (yes! They're related to Robert) have the Laight Street listing, which requires a one or two year lease from any takers. Ms. DeMatos declined to comment.  read more »

A spokesperson for Mr. Dash declined to comment.

- Michael Calderone

On Saturday, July 1, rumors flew about Martha's Vineyard. Busboys and waiters everywhere said that Jay-Z and Beyonce were getting married on the island.

Locals said they saw an enormous tent being erected on Sunday on Chappaquiddick, a small island barely attached to Martha's Vineyard and accessible by ferry.

Throughout the weekend, industry worker types said things like, "I got a buddy who was hired to put up tents," but nothing as concrete as an engraved wedding invite or cake invoiced to Roc-A-Fella was ever produced. The weather on the island was gorgeous on Sunday, July 2—the day that a source for Jossip named for the wedding day. —Sara Vilkomerson

• Mayor Bloomberg wants more, more, more near the WTC site. And, he's willing to shell out an equal amount for it. Developer Joseph Moinian might receive $50 million in Liberty Bonds for his hotel and condo tower. (The New York Sun)
• The brick layers and asbestos cleaners have a whole new building for themselves. (New York Daily News)
• The Nets wants to move to Brooklyn to make more money. Jay-Z is their inspiration, and financier. (The New York Times)
• The Corcoran Sunshine Group has two new leaders. We know you can't wait to find out... (New York Post)
• Years from now, Larry Silverstein will be deemed correct. Meanwhile, shall we scorn? (New York Post)
• Well-heeled Upper East Siders may have to learn how to open their front door while carrying their Barneys bags. (Gothamist)
• Patricia Field sexes up the Bowery. (The Village Voice)
• Williamsburg is not what it once was. Now, it's not just Hasids in the real estate game. Prudential Douglas Elliman is opening an office in the hood. (The Real Deal)
• Brad Pitt wants to be Frank Gehry, and Gehry wants to be Jay-Z, and they all want to capitalize on this thing we like to call a boom. (Yale Daily)

- Riva Froymovich

The latest front in the Hip-Hop Wars may lack the drama of a downtown studio shoot-out, but for the  read more »

Mr.  read more »

One thing that you can say about hip-hop these days is that it's full of drama queens.  read more »