Rapper T.I. will start his prison sentence on March 27, 2009. The hitmaker will go before an Atlanta, Georgia judge on that date and he’ll officially be sentenced to jail. T.I., real name Clifford Harris, will spend a year and one day behind bars after pleading guilty to possession of unregistered weapons.

Chris Brown is taking anger-management classes.

The troubled R&B singer, who was arrested two weeks ago on suspicion of making criminal threats against girlfriend Rihanna, attended his first class in Glendale, Calif., on Monday afternoon.

According to a source, Brown opted for anger management at the behest of his spin doctor, Michael Sitrick. “Chris doesn’t actually have to go by law,” our insider tells us, “but he believes it will make him look better to the public, and he wants to try to get in a few classes before March 5,” his court date.

The Feb. 7 incident – in which Brown allegedly assaulted Rihanna and left her with cuts and bruises to her forehead, lips and cheeks – didn’t just stir up controversy. It tarnished Brown’s good-guy image so badly that several of his endorsement deals were suspended, including commercials for Wrigley’s gum and the Milk Mustache campaign. Brown’s songs have also been temporarily taken off the air at a handful of radio stations.

But insiders are rumbling that Chris shouldn’t be taking the anger management classes alone. “Rihanna is temperamental, too,” says our snitch. “They’re both too hot-headed for their own good.”

Adds another source: “It didn’t help that Rihanna grabbed the keys out of his rented Lamborghini and threw them down the street. She knew it would really infuriate Chris, and it worked.”

Look for a Chris/Rihanna reunion soon, though – at least physically. The songbird, who celebrated her 21st birthday on Friday and is hanging out at home in Barbados, will be L.A.-bound to attend Brown’s trial.

“She’ll be there – she has to testify,” confirms our snitch, who doesn’t foresee any jail time for Brown. “If Chris is convicted, it would be his first offense. He won’t go to prison.

The NYDAILYNEWS reports

TMZ obtained a photo of Rihanna after Chris Brown allegedly beat her up. SMH.

This shit is garbagggggeeeeeee….!!!! LOOOSSSSS!

After Max B’s ex-girlfriend pled guilty last week to a deadly robbery – implicating him in the crime – the Harlem rapper’s lawyer Gerald M. Saluti has taken to the net to argue his client’s innocence.

“I know there is a lot of buzz around the hip-hop community ever since the plea was taken last week of Gina Conway, that’s the co-defendant of Charly Windgate [Max B] in a murder case that’s being held in Bergen County, NJ,” Saluti said in the YouTube clip, standing next to the wavy MC. “So the public understands Gina Conway pled guilty on the day of her trial. She was facing life in prison for a grizzly murder that occurred in Fort Lee, NJ in 2006. She’s been in jail since that day and she basically cut a deal with the prosecutor’s office to testify against Charly Windgate and Kelvin Leerdam.” [Watch Below]

Saluti believes she named Max B in order to cut her sentence down. “So instead of going to jail for the rest of her life based on the 160 page confession that’s she gave to the police department, she’s chosen to testify in what I say is going to be in a somewhat untruthful fashion about my client’s role in her dirt basically,” he continued, adding that she now only faces an 18-year sentence.

Saluti alleges that Conway’s motivation for implicating Max as the mastermind behind the $30,000 heist was their failed relationship. He says she was deeply hurt when he had a baby with another woman.

Shockingly at the end of the video both Max and his attorney thank the former Byrd Gang rapper’s rival Jim Jones for posting the reported $1.5 million bail to get him out of jail.

Gina Conway copped a plea deal on January 13, admitting to taking part in a burglary that turned deadly in a Fort Lee Holiday Inn over 2 years ago along with Leerdam, whom she alleges her former boyfriend recruited for the crime, according to newjersey.com.

Max is scheduled to go to trial for murder in Superior Court in Hackensack in April. – Elan Mancini

(CN) – The 11th Circuit put to rest a copyright infringement claim against Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz over a song called “The Weedman.” A three-judge panel ruled that the freelance musician who helped write the song gave the rap group an implied license to use the track on its “Kings of Crunk” album.

Musician Redwin Wilchcombe first met the rap group at a recording studio, where Lil Jon and his group were laying down tracks for the “Kings of Crunk” album.

According to the ruling, Lil Jon came up with an idea for a song about calling a “weedman” after someone suggested they call a marijuana dealer. Wilchcombe, who was present at the time, sang a chorus and melody that Lil Jon liked. The rapper told Wilchcombe to finish the song for the group’s album.

Wilchcombe composed and produced “The Weedman,” with regular feedback from Lil Jon. After the plaintiff delivered the track for mixing, Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz added some vocal tracks and ad-libs. The album credited Wilchcombe’s production company, Red for Teamwerk, for the song. By January 2005, the “Kings of Krunk” had sold 2 million copies.

Wilchcombe admitted that he never discussed a contract or payment prior to the album’s release in October 2002. When he didn’t get paid for his contributions, he filed a copyright claim for “Tha Weedman,” based on the album version of the song. On his application, he listed himself as the sole author.

He then sued Lil Jon (whose real name is Jonathan Smith), the members of the East Side Boyz, and the labels TeeVee Toons (TVT) and BME Records for breach of fiduciary duty and copyright infringement.

The federal court in Georgia dismissed the lawsuit on the basis that Wilchcombe gave the defendants an implied nonexclusive license to use the song. The plaintiff moved for reconsideration, but the court again tossed out Wilchcombe’s claims. Wilchcombe unsuccessfully argued that he had revoked any implied license when his attorney sent TVT a cease-and-desist letter 72 days after the album was released.

He also claimed he had never granted an implied license to TVT, the nation’s largest independent record label. Lil Jon owns part of BME Records, which has an exclusive contract with TVT over the rap group’s recordings.

The district court said the claims were “new arguments that plaintiff could and should have made before this Court issued its judgment.”
When Wilchcombe raised the same arguments on appeal, the federal appeals court sided with the lower court.

“The district court properly rejected these arguments,” Judge Birch wrote, “and we likewise refuse to give Wilchcombe a ‘second bite at the apple.’”
The court agreed with the conclusion that Wilchcombe had given Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz his implied consent to use “The Weedman” in their album.

The court also pointed out that the plaintiff had asserted solo authorship for his copyright claim, but then said the song was co-authored in order to establish a confidential relationship for his breach of fiduciary duty claim.

The defendants asked the court to grant them summary judgment on the copyright claim for two additional reasons: Wilchcombe can’t copyright a song taken from their album containing their ad-libs; and he can’t allege copyright infringement on a co-written song.

The court ruled that it “need not determine whether summary judgment was also warranted on this claim,” because it was affirming judgment for the defendants based on the existence of an implied nonexclusive license.

Chris Rock is best known for two things: being funny and being crass.

“This is what people come to see. I’m just doing my show,” the comedian said with a laugh.

He’s also known for his political commentary, but there’s one person he’s having a lot of trouble making fun of — president-elect Barack Obama.

This is apparent in his new DVD “Kill the Messenger,” which combines three shows from his international tour: New York; London, England; and Johannesburg, South Africa.

“It was a tour nobody wanted to do… because the general perception is that comedy doesn’t translate,” Rock said.

But thanks to the Internet, the world is a lot smaller than it was even 10 years ago. And people are digging the same jokes, he said, including ones about John McCain and Sarah Palin.

As the DVD readies for release on January 20, CNN talked with Rock about his lack of Obama jokes, Inauguration Day and why racism will never die. The following is an edited version of that interview:

CNN: I watched the special last night, and I noticed that you did a lot of jokes about John McCain — his age, his war hero story — but not so many about Barack Obama. Is it harder to make fun of Obama?

Chris Rock: He’s just one of those guys, you know, like Will Smith. There’s no Will Smith jokes. There’s no Brad Pitt jokes. You know, what are you going to say? “Ooh, you used to have sex with Jennifer Aniston. Now you have sex with Angelina Jolie. You’re such a loser.” What do you say? “Ooh, your movies are big. You make $20 million.” There’s nothing to say about Brad Pitt.

CNN: Why is Obama like that?

Rock: It’s like “Ooh, you’re young and virile and you’ve got a beautiful wife and kids. You’re the first African-American president.” You know, what do you say?

CNN: As time goes on do you think it will get easier?

Rock: Of course, as time goes on. At some point he’s going to — there’s always slip-ups. No one can survive that level of scrutiny without occasionally making it easy for a comedian.

CNN: Let’s talk about the inauguration. Are you going?

Rock: No, I have to go to Sundance [Film Festival]. I’ve got a movie premiering at Sundance. So I have to go to the whitest place in America — Utah.

CNN: What’s it going to be like for you on Inauguration Day?

Rock: It’ll be a cool day. It’s weird. I’ve never watched an inauguration. I’ve never watched anyone get sworn in. You know, it’s like Election Day and then you look up and somebody else is the president two months later. It was never like, “I can’t wait till tomorrow. Oh my god! They’re going to swear in Jimmy Carter!”

BY JACQUE WILSON
CNN NEWS WIRE

From BallerStatus.com — The pending divorce of Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade and wife Siohvaughn is getting ugly.

According to the Miami Herald, the NBA star’s soon-to-be ex accuses him, via legal papers, of abandoning his children, committing adultery, and infecting her with an unspecified sexually transmitted disease. Now, she’s demanding he reveal the names of “all of his sexual partners” during their six-year marriage.

Wade petitioned for the divorce last May in Illinois, six years after the pair wed in Chicago in May of 2002.

In response to the allegations, the baller’s attorney, James Pritikin, issued a statement, denying them. “These malicious allegations are absolutely false and we look forward to the opportunity to dispute them in court,” he said.

Both are 27, and have two boys together — 6-year-old Zaire, and 1-year-old Zion. Since separating last year, Siohvaughn has moved back to Chicago with the kids.

While Wade’s Heat salary is somewhere around $14 million and makes millions more from endorsements, Siohvaughn claims to have been cut off financially.

She says that the ball player spends millions on family members and friends, but she and the kids have been left to fend for themselves.

Siohvaughn, according to the Herald, said that Wade has gone “months” without seeing his child, and that “failure to spend time with them … has resulted in the children at times being afraid of him; in fact, Zion . . . does not recognize or know Dwyane.”

She is seeking sole custody, and support.

While Wade’s attorney’s call Siohvaughn an “angry and bitter woman” who’s trying to “publicly damage Mr. Wade,” her lawyer offered that “a person’s public persona does not necessarily reflect his behavior in private.”

Source: http://www.ballerstatus.com/article/news/2009/01/6156/