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Abracadabra

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Posts posted by Abracadabra

  1. Rapper behind 'Roxanne's Revenge' gets Warner Music to pay for Ph.D

    BY WALTER DAWKINS

    SPECIAL TO THE NEWS

     

    alg_roxanne_shante.jpg

     

    Roxanne's revenge was sweet indeed.

     

    Twenty-five years after the first queen of hip-hop was stiffed on her royalty checks, Dr. Roxanne Shante boasts an Ivy League Ph.D. - financed by a forgotten clause in her first record deal.

    "This is a story that needs to be told," Shante said. "I'm an example that you can be a teenage mom, come from the projects, and be raised by a single parent, and you can still come out of it a doctor."

     

    Her prognosis wasn't as bright in the years after the '80s icon scored a smash hit at age 14: "Roxanne's Revenge," a razor-tongued response to rap group UTFO's mega-hit "Roxanne, Roxanne."

    The 1984 single sold 250,000 copies in New York City alone, making Shante (born Lolita Gooden) hip hop's first female celebrity.

     

    She blazed a trail followed by Lil' Kim, Salt-N-Pepa and Queen Latifah - although Shante didn't share their success.

     

    After two albums, Shante said, she was disillusioned by the sleazy music industry and swindled by her record company. The teen mother, living in the Queensbridge Houses, recalled how her life was shattered.

     

    "Everybody was cheating with the contracts, stealing and telling lies," she said. "And to find out that I was just a commodity was heartbreaking."

     

    But Shante, then 19, remembered a clause in her Warner Music recording contract: The company would fund her education for life.

     

    She eventually cashed in, earning a Ph.D. in psychology from Cornell to the tune of $217,000 - all covered by the label. But getting Warner Music to cough up the dough was a battle.

    "They kept stumbling over their words, and they didn't have an exact reason why they were telling me no," Shante said.

     

    She figured Warner considered the clause a throwaway, never believing a teen mom in public housing would attend college. The company declined to comment for this story.

     

    Shante found an arm-twisting ally in Marguerita Grecco, the dean at Marymount Manhattan College. Shante showed her the contract, and the dean let her attend classes for free while pursuing the money.

     

    "I told Dean Grecco that either I'm going to go here or go to the streets, so I need your help," Shante recalls. "She said, 'We're going to make them pay for this.'"

    Grecco submitted and resubmitted the bills to the label, which finally agreed to honor the contract when Shante threatened to go public with the story.

     

    Shante earned her doctorate in 2001, and launched an unconventional therapy practice focusing on urban African-Americans - a group traditionally reluctant to seek mental health help.

    "People put such a taboo on therapy, they feel it means they're going crazy," she explained. "No, it doesn't. It just means you need someone else to talk to."

     

    Shante often incorporates hip-hop music into her sessions, encouraging her clients to unleash their inner MC and shout out exactly what's on their mind.

     

    "They can't really let loose and enjoy life," she said. "So I just let them unlock those doors."

    Shante, 38, is also active in the community. She offers $5,000 college scholarships each semester to female rappers through the nonprofit Hip Hop Association. She also dispenses advice to young women in the music business via a MySpace page. "I call it a warning service, so their dreams don't turn into nightmares," she said.

     

    Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons said Shante is a shining role model for the rap community. "Dr. Shante's life is inspiring," Simmons said. "She was a go-getter who rose from the struggle and went from hustling to teaching. She is a prime example that you can do anything, and everything is possible."

     

    source

     

    these retards managed to screw her out of her royalites, but put a clause in there that they'd pay for her education for life? morons

  2. By the way, is there some rule that only mexicans ride the bus in LA?

     

    basically everywhere in california (except san francisco) the bus is only for poor people. for a long time i was using the bus to get around and people i work with were freaked out. they're scared shitless to ride the bus cos it's full of scary brown people

  3. That looks bigger than Temecula. The big question is, how are they going to keep the sand out of the bowls?

     

    maintenance douches with leaf blowers once or twice a week same as any other park. shitty thing is, being that it's LA, the helmet patrols will be retarded and it'll be buzzkill central

  4. Wait wait wait.... El Mamerro you are in Los Angeles?

     

    Dude, you have to hit me up.

     

    Guess who...

     

    :)

     

    dude, how do you have negative rep? ps, i'm thinking of doing a quick little roadtrip down to la next month for the weekend at some stage, i think i still have your didgits

  5. i think the smart thing to do would be to not go on a website dedicated to a criminal activity while you're at work. you may as well write "i'm a bad employee, fire me" across your forehead, and then take a shit in your boss's lunch

  6. for those that were griping about the ps3 costing way too much, sony has finally smartened up and made the fucking thing affordable

     

    Sony officially announces $299 PS3 Slim

     

    ps3slimports_610x219.jpg

     

    At a press conference Tuesday in Cologne, Germany, preceding the opening of the Gamescom Expo, Sony finally took the wraps off the much-rumored PS3 Slim and gave it the more affordable $299 price tag that consumers have been clamoring for.

     

    Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kaz Hirai performed the unveiling, taking the stage and announcing the PS3 was "getting a new model" and that indeed it was called the PS3 Slim.

     

    The Slim is hitting stores the September 1 in North America and will cost $299 (or for those who live in other regions, 299 euros or 29980 yen). Hirai says it has the same features and functions as the "old" PS3 but is 33 percent smaller, 36 percent lighter, and comes with a 120GB hard drive.

     

    Sony says that in order to achieve the new form factor the internal design architecture of the new PS3 system has been completely redesigned--"from the main semiconductors and power supply unit to the cooling mechanism." The PS3 slim is powered by a new 45nm version of the Cell processor, which runs at the same speed as the 60nm processor in the "old" PS3 but is smaller and more energy efficient. According to company reps, power consumption for the Slim also been cut to two-thirds, "helping to reduce fan noise," which is important.

     

    On the cosmetics front, this model has a textured surface finish that gives the PS3 a fresh, "casual" look that the company hopes will make it more appealing to a wider audience (read: casual gamers). As previously rumored, the PS3 logo has undergone a redesign and Sony's changing the PS3 brand name from "PLAYSTATION 3" to "PlayStation 3" (we've actually been calling it the PlayStation 3 for a while).

     

    Like the 80GB and 160GB models, the 120GB PS3 Slim has built-in WiFi and 2 USB ports (sorry, Sony didn't add IR). You can also upgrade/replace the hard drive without voiding the warranty, though Sony has moved the hard drive from the side of the unit to the front for "easier access." (To get remove the hard drive, you simply unscrew to screws). The one feature missing from the Slim is the ability to install another operating system (i.e., Linux)--Sony is doing away with that feature.

    With earlier PS3s, you could prop your unit up vertically or lay it down horizontally. Out of the box, the Slim is only designed to used in a horizontal position, but Sony will sell a $24 stand that allows you to stand it up vertically.

     

    In making the move to the PS3 Slim, Sony will be upgrading the firmware to 3.0 and phasing out its legacy 80GB and 160GB models, selling them for $299 and $399 respectively. John Koller, Director of Hardware Marketing, Sony Computer Entertainment America, says that they've been able to run down inventory of older models, but he didn't have the best answer as to why someone would buy an old 80GB model over the new 120GB Slim. "Some people want a unit right away and they may like the look of the old unit," he said. "People will have their reasons for wanting one."

    To wrap things up, check out this video from SCEA President and CEO Jack Tretton, as he touts the new hardware:

     

    http://www.viddler.com/simple_on_site/14382d8f

     

    source

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