Bad Boy will release a remastered, 10-year anniversary edition of Notorious B.I.G.'s debut album, Ready to Die, on July 13. The CD will feature two previously commercially unavailable songs, "Ready" and "Who Shot Ya?," and will come with an accompanying DVD featuring Biggie's videos and a live performance in Atlanta. Three years after founding the nonprofit Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, Russell Simmons is reaching out to the Latino community with the Latino Hip-Hop Summit, taking place July 13 at Lehman College in the Bronx, New York. Fat Joe, Angie Martinez, Crazy Legs of the Rock Steady Crew and Rosie Perez, among others, were on hand when Simmons announced the event at a press conference in New York Monday. As Madonna resumes her tour, plans for her TV concert special are moving forward as well. The CBS two-hour special looks like it will be filmed in Lisbon, Portugal, and though there's no air date yet, a fall date "seems probable," according to the singer's spokesperson.
New York radio station Hot 97 has announced that its June 12 Summer Jam concert at Giants Stadium will now feature a fashion show, freestyle battle area and a second stage. Lil' Wayne, Erick Sermon, Dead Prez, Pitbull, Philly's Most Wanted, Posta Boy, Lyfe, James Lee and Roc-A-Fella's own Rell, Allen Anthony, Nicole Rae and Denim will kick things off early in the afternoon on the small stage before Lil Jon, Alicia Keys, Outkast's Big Boi, the entire G-Unit and others hit the big stage. Kid Rock, Cypress Hill, Nickelback, Ludacris, Our Lady Peace and Lil Jon and Tha Eastside Boyz are on board for the second annual Coors Light Mountain Jam on August 14 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, outside Denver. Last year's event boasted performances by 50 Cent, Korn, P.O.D., the Roots and Evanescence.
Former Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland plans to hit the studio to record a bunch of songs with Danny Lohner and Telefon Tel Aviv's Josh Eustis. Mellowdrone singer/guitarist Jonathan Bates is expected to join the trio later in the month. The Red Hot Chili Peppers are bringing a little something extra on their tour of the U.K. — the Godfather of Soul. James Brown will bring his time-tested funk on the journey, opening up five dates starting June 18 in Manchester and ending June 25 in Hyde Park. The search begins for America's next make-believe guitar hero next month at the second annual U.S. Air Guitar Championships, to be held in Chicago (June 3), Denver (June 10), Minneapolis (June 10), New York (June 12) and Los Angeles (June 17). The five regional winners will compete June 17 in L.A. for the American crown, and one lucky winner will receive a trip to Oulu, Finland, for the Air Guitar World Championships. Jai Rodriguez, the culture guy on "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," is returning to Broadway, but just for a two-week fling. Rodriguez will star as Angel in "Rent" starting July 5 and running through July 17. The Bad Boys didn't have too far to travel Tuesday night when they hit New York's Babalu for a LifeBeat charity concert. Loon, Mario Winans, Carl Thomas and 8Ball and MJG, who all performed, just had to walk a few steps from P. Diddy's Daddy's House studio to the club.
As Michael Jackson's Friday hearing date draws closer, attorneys on all sides are filing a flurry of motions about which court documents should be kept under seal. Both the defense and the prosecution wish to keep the grand-jury transcripts and the indictment secret, while lawyers for the media argue that those documents should be made public. Jackson's team tried to keep his motions for reduction of bail and to compel more discovery under seal, and while Judge Rodney Melville granted their requests, the motions were made public in an edited form. P. Diddy, Godsmack's Sully Erna, Staind's Aaron Lewis, Run-DMC's Darryl McDaniels, Clint Black, Macy Gray and Five for Fighting's John Ondrasik will be among the celebrity judges for this year's International Songwriting Competition. Submissions will be accepted until October 15, and the grand-prize winner will receive $10,000 in cash and $30,000 in merchandise and services. An additional $60,000 will be distributed between 49 other winners in various categories.
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