The Cleveland Show Brings You: Kenny West !!!

According to the famed Chicago Hip Hop blog Fake Shore Drive, Chicago rapper Kanye West may possibly be lending his voice for a character on the Family Guy spin-off, "The Cleveland Show". Informed of the possible Kanye appearance by a “reliable source”, Fake Shore Drive was told that Kanye will be playing a character named Kenny West. Aside from appearing in "State Property 2" & possibly "The Cleveland Show", Kanye has rarely appeared in any movies or television shows. Created by Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane, The Cleveland Show will revolve around the lives of Cleveland Brown & his family as they move from Rhode Island to Virginia. Aside from the possible Kanye appearance, The Cleveland Show already boasts an impressive list of actors which will include Sanaa Lathan & Nia Long as Cleveland’s wife & daughter. The Cleveland Show developers Seth MacFarlane & Mike Henry will also lend their voices for the show. The Cleveland Show is expected to air some time this Fall.

Album Sales, Blogs & MySpace: Hand In Hand

When Ghostface Killah professed his disappointment last year about the lack of sales for The Big Doe Rehab compared to the amount of friends he had listed on his MySpace page, questions on the real influence the giant networking site had already been raised. In a recent study titled, “Does Chatter Matter? The Impact of User-Generated Content on Music Sales,” New York University researchers looked to reveal this problem concerning online content & sales, & whether or not there was a way for music Web sites to increase sales inadvertently through independent content. With MySpace being one of the major resources for fans to check out their favorite artists, researchers hypothesized that, “On average, a band with thousands of friends on MySpace to be more popular with MySpace users than a band with a handful,” thus selling more albums in the first month. Using the rankings of Amazon.com, one of the world’s largest online retailers, researchers determined the outcome of their studies surprising to say the least. For one, they found that an increase in MySpace friends for an artist did not correlate to an increase in sales. Not only that, but the amount of MySpace friends did not serve as a strong indicator for album sales in general. On the other hand, blogs that posted content of artists repeatedly on their sites, termed “blog chatter,” resulted in relatively more sales for the artist. Through this study, it would seem that Ghostface’s concerns & artists expectations in general for sales should now be attributed to blogs rather than label-invested outlets.

Who U Tryna Fool, Uncle M ?..

Former Roc-A-Fella Records rapper Uncle Murda, who now goes by the moniker Uncle M, was convicted yesterday over an attempt to use a fraudulent California identification card, according to the Los Angeles Times. The charge, which happened in May of 2008 at the Los Angeles International Airport, occurred when an L.A.X. screener became suspicious as Uncle M, real name Leonard Grant, presented his ID card. While the photograph matched the name, police investigating the claim soon discovered that the ID number belonged to another person. Pleading “no contest,” Uncle M was found guilty for one count of possession of a counterfeit ID, with Uncle subsequently being sentenced to 50 hours of community service to go along with 18 months of probation. Frank Mateljan, spokesman for the city attorney’s office, explained the reasoning behind the city’s decision. “It was a legitimate ID. But it was the ID of another individual.” Added Mateljan, “He was trying to pass it off as his own. His motivation for doing so is unknown.”

Ickett ... 1 Helluva Name, M.I.A.

According to Latina, rapper M.I.A. has named her newborn baby boy "Ickett." The boy was born February 11th. Before giving birth, she blogged: "MY EARLY STAGE LABOUR KICKED IN AROUND 2 AM. MY BABY WAS BORN WEDNESDAY (FEBRUARY 11). HE IS HEALTHY, FINE, BEAUTIFUL & THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER ON THIS PLANET, OF COURSE IM HIS MUM!!!" The "Paper Planes" rapper famously performed "Swagga Like Us" with Jay-Z , T.I., Lil' Wayne & Kanye West at the Grammys Feb. 8 -- the same day she was due. Ickett is the first child for M.I.A, whose real name is Mathangi Maya Arulpragasam & her fiance, musician Benjamin Bronfman.

Stock Market Headed For Disaster ?!!!!

Stocks plunged today, with the Dow Jones industrials briefly falling as much as 331 points & ending at levels not seen since April 1997. The slump was built on steep declines in financial stocks -- Citigroup briefly fell to 97 cents, & the fear that General Motors might collapse. At the same time, many investors around the world were disappointed that China did not announce an expansion to its economic stimulus program. The expansion had been expected & was a major reason why stocks rallied on Wednesday. The Dow finished down 281 points, or 4.1%, to 6,594, wiping out all of its gains on Wednesday & dropping to its lowest close since April 15, 1997. The blue chips were off 300 points on Monday. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was off 30 points, or 4.3%, to 683, its lowest close since September 1996. The Nasdaq Composite Index was off 54 points, or 4%, to 1,300, its first close below 1,300 since March 12, 2003. The sell-off sets Friday as potentially a very volatile day of trading. The government will report on U.S. unemployment & nonfarm payrolls before Friday's open. The consensus estimate is for the unemployment rate to hit 7.9%, up from 7.6% in January, & for payrolls to drop by 650,000.
So far this year, the Dow is down 25% & is off 53% since peaking in October 2007. The Dow, S&P 500 & the Nasdaq have fallen in 11 of the last 15 sessions. The sell-off in U.S. markets mirrored heavy selling in Europe & parts of Asia. The selling also sent many frightened investors to seek safety in U.S. government securities, gold & silver. Gold closed up $21.10 an ounce to $927.80; silver was up 21 cents to $13.12 an ounce. The yield on the 5-year Treasury note fell to 1.81% from 1.97% on Wednesday. The yield on the note has fallen more than one-tenth this week.
Crude oil fell in sympathy with the market, closing down $1.77, or 3.9%, to $43.61 a barrel. The drop pulled energy shares lower. Two of Tuesday's winners -- Caterpillar and Joy Global -- were down 7.7% to $23.49 & 4.9% to $16.69 after China disappointed investors by not announcing a second economic stimulus plan today.
Exxon Mobil (XOM, news, msgs) fell 5.3% to $62.22, subtracting nearly 28 points from the Dow. Chevron's (CVX, news, msgs) 4.8% decline to $56.46. pulled 22 points from the blue chips.

Build-A-Baby: Free Shipping & Handling

Do you want blue eyes with your baby? That's one of the questions a fertility clinic will be asking, when it begin offering custom-designed babies to would-be moms & dads. Dr. Jeff Steinberg, who operates clinics in Manhattan & Los Angeles, says that within six months he plans to let customers choose their baby's eye, hair, & even skin color. Steinberg, who helped produce the first test-tube baby, admits the technology is not 100 percent perfect, & says best results are couples with Scandinavian heritage, whose gene pools are least diluted. Critics, though, have blasted the idea of designer babies, likening it to the pursuit of a master race.

Awwwwz ... Look At The Cute Lil' Baby

This is my godson, Jahsil. Not much to say, actually ... I mean look at him. Isn't he adorable ?..