Nas Says Common's Fox News Critics Are 'Just Miserable'

Complaints about Common's White House appearance show detractors 'are not open to change,' Nas tells MTV News.
By Rob Markman, with reporting by Sway Calloway


Nas
Photo: MTV News

Common might be the latest rapper targeted by Fox News, but he isn't the first. Years before Fox News described the largely progressive Chi-Town MC as a "vile rapper" on its website, Nas faced similar criticisms.

In an exclusive sit-down with Nasty Nas, MTV News' Sway Calloway got the Illmatic rapper's take on Fox's reaction after Michelle Obama invited Common to the White House for a May 11 poetry reading.

"The people who feel like Common shouldn't be performing are really old in their thinking," Nas said. "It's like your grandparents have a microphone, and not even smart grandparents — just ignorant grandparents."

Nas faced similar criticism in 2007 after he performed a free concert in support of students in the wake of the now-infamous Virginia Tech shooting. Fox News correspondent Bill O'Reilly denounced the performance and criticized Nas for his violent lyrics.

"Things change. So, a smart grandparent is gonna say, 'OK, I get it.' Ignorant grandparents who are just stuck in their own ways, they just need to die," Nas said. "There's a new America: There's a real good America that's here, and they don't want it to happen because it means that they are gone.

"It scares the hell out of them. They feel like an endangered species in their way of thinking," he continued. "People that are not open to change are just miserable."

Regardless of the criticism, Common went on with his scheduled White House appearance last week. He has declined MTV News' requests for comment.

Sound off on this story in the comments below!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1663963/nas-common-white-house.jhtml

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All Up In The Upfronts: The Fall TV Shows We're Pumped For, Part 1

NBC's

My dear readers, I have a confession to make: my name is Kate and I am a television addict. Even though my living room is less than 200 square feet, I have a 40-inch television. On Friday night, I briefly considered canceling my birthday party because I'd accidentally scheduled it for the same time as the series finale of "Smallville." And truth be told, I am looking forward to the return of "True Blood" this summer as much as I am going to the beach. See, I love television. And yes, I would marry it if I could.

For my fellow television enthusiasts out there, this is a big week. This week, the major networks are holding their upfronts, grand events—think big presentations and musical numbers—during which they unveil their lineups for the fall and winter. NBC and Fox upfronts are today. ABC presents on Tuesday. CBS is Wednesday. And The CW takes their turn on Thursday. For advertisers, this is how they decide when they'd like to run commercials. For the press, it's time to get the lowdown on what's coming down the pipeline. And for television addicts, it's a big old tease since most people won't be able to actually watch the new shows until September. But who cares? It's still like being able to see into the television future! So, every day this week, I'll be bringing you five new shows that have me a tad bit giddy. Check out today's offerings after the jump.

Source: http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-all-up-in-the-upfronts-the-fall-tv-shows-were-pumped-for-part-1/?eref=RSS

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?90210?s Trevor Donovan Likes To Redecorate While Shirtless

90210 star Trevor Donovan felt inspired to do a bit of redecorating at his home here in SoCal and he decided that he didn’t need to wear a shirt while doing so. Trevor needed to take some measurements of his balcony before he could hang up his bamboo curtain. It would appear that Trev had [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pinkisthenewblog/~3/UADkkKh5HcM/

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DJ AM's Sister Dies After Battle With Colon Cancer

Filed under: DJ AM, R.I.P.

DJ AM's older sister Lara Long -- the woman who created the DJ AM Memorial Fund -- passed away last week after a battle with an extremely rare form of colon cancer ... TMZ has confirmed.

0516_laralong_djam_EXD_Getty

TMZ spoke with Jenni Weinman, a rep for the estate and Lara's family -- who tells us, "It is with unbearable sadness that I can confirm that Lara Long, the sister to DJ AM passed away late Monday night, May 9th after a fierce four month battle with an extremely rare colon cancer."

Weinman continues, "She was just two months shy of turning 41. Lara was responsible for keeping the memory of her brother alive with the creation of the DJ AM Memorial Fund. She was the driving force behind his eBay shoe sale as well as his record sales, working tirelessly to make sure he would not be forgotten.

"Lara was an amazing woman, with a huge personality, a heart of gold and an incredible laugh. There are no words to explain how she will be missed. We ask that you please respect the privacy of the family at this most devastating of times.”

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Source: http://www.tmz.com/2011/05/16/dj-am-sister-family-lara-long-dead-dies-died-death-colon-cancer/

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'The Tree Of Life': The Cannes Reviews Are In!

Director Terrence Malick's first film in more than 20 years is getting widely mixed reactions after its Cannes premiere.
By Eric Ditzian


Brad Pitt and Laramie Eppler in "The Tree of Life"
Photo: Fox Searchlight

It is the film Terrence Malick has reportedly been working on for almost four decades, the first movie of his to hit the big screen since 2005, the buzziest of all the buzzy projects opening at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

After all the waiting and all the hype, "The Tree of Life," premiered early Monday morning (May 16) at Cannes, and reviews have begun pouring in. Perhaps inevitably at this point, they have been mixed. Some critics have piled rapturous praise on the film and its director, acknowledging its challenging nature even as they celebrate it. Others, however, have dubbed "The Tree of Life" a pretentious work, with Malick more attuned to presenting beautiful imagery than developing believable characters.

The end of Monday's screening reportedly was met with boos from the audience, a negative reaction that was soon drowned out by festivalgoers more taken in by what they'd just seen. The movie, if it wasn't already abundantly clear, is polarizing. It's also difficult to summarize. The plot, such as it exists, begins with a father (Brad Pitt) and mother (Jessica Chastain) raising their family in 1950s Texas. One of their sons eventually dies, while another grows up to become a sad-faced man played by Sean Penn. Before flashing back to the midcentury storyline, the film takes a hallucinatory trip into the creation of the world, complete with wild astral projections and a journey down an evolutionary road, from the rise of jellyfish to dinosaurs and beyond.

A summer blockbuster, this one ain't. Here's what the critics have to say about it.

The Narrative
" 'The Tree of Life' is shaped in an unconventional way, not as a narrative with normal character arcs and dramatic tension but more like a symphony with several movements each expressive of its own natural phenomena and moods. Arguably, music plays a much more important role here than do words — there is some voice-over but scarcely any dialogue at all for nearly an hour, whereas the soaring, sometimes grandiose soundtrack, comprised of 35 mostly classical excerpts drawn from Bach, Brahms, Berlioz, Mahler, Holst, Respighi, Gorecki and others, in addition to the contributions of Alexandre Desplat, dominates in the way it often did in Stanley Kubrick's work. " — Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

The Characters
" 'The Tree of Life' is a gargantuan work of pretension and cleverly concealed self-absorption, featuring some absolutely gorgeous photography ... Malick, characteristically, doesn't seem to care much for people at all. Desert rock formations, rushing streams, sunflowers waving gently in the sun, and all sorts of cradle-of-life folderol are the things that really rock his world — he cuts to them whenever he needs to try to explain the inexplicable, which is often. This is a movie about spiritual searching, about reckoning with the nature of God and his frustrating insistence on allowing suffering in the world. We know that because the movie's characters tell us what they're thinking, repeatedly, in voice-over." — Stephanie Zacharek, Movieline

The Comparisons
"I must confess to being underwhelmed. Though it has scenes of great beauty, and just about keeps you compelled with a sense that something important is about to be disclosed, it resembles a Malick-hater's parody of a Malick movie, an overwrought compendium of topographical and cosmic imagery that awkwardly sits alongside an assiduously constructed, but far from exceptional depiction of emotionally repressive small-town life in 1950s America." — Sukhdev Sandhu, The Telegraph

The Scope
"Terrence Malick's mad and magnificent film descends slowly, like some sort of prototypical spaceship: It's a cosmic-interior epic of vainglorious proportions, a rebuke to realism, a disavowal of irony and comedy, a meditation on memory, and a gasp of horror and awe at the mysterious inevitability of loving, and losing those we love ... This film is not for everyone, and I will admit I am agnostic about the final sequence, which suggests a closure and a redemption nothing else in the film has prepared us for. But this is visionary cinema on an unashamedly huge scale: cinema that's thinking big. Malick makes an awful lot of other filmmakers look timid and negligible by comparison." — Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

The Final Word
"Few American filmmakers are as alive to the splendor of the natural world as Terrence Malick, but even by his standards, 'The Tree of Life' represents something extraordinary. The iconoclastic director's long-awaited fifth feature is in many ways his simplest yet most challenging work, a transfixing odyssey through time and memory that melds a young boy's 1950s upbringing with a magisterial rumination on the Earth's origins. Result is pure-grade art cinema destined primarily for the delectation of Malick partisans and adventurous arthouse-goers, but with its cast names and see-it-to-believe-it stature, this inescapably divisive picture could captivate the zeitgeist for a spell." — Justin Chang, Variety

Check out everything we've got on "The Tree of Life."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1663927/tree-of-life-cannes-film-festival-reviews.jhtml

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Rapper M-Bone, Cali Swag District Member, Killed in Drive-By Shooting


Rapper Montae Talbert, better known as M-Bone of the hip hop group Cali Swag District, was killed in a shooting Sunday night in the Inglewood area of L.A.

Police say it's too soon to say if M Bone was targeted or if it was a random act of violence, but he was shot in the head as he sat in a car around 10:30 p.m.

Lt. James Madie of the Inglewood Police Department said the following: "We have identified the victim as Mante Ray Talbert. He was born July 17, 1988."

"Reports that it was a random shooting are unconfirmed at this time."

M Bone Dead

R.I.P., M-Bone (1988-2011).

"Officers are going through lots of information, sorting out good information from bogus information. Honestly, we are overwhelmed at this time."

“It is still early in the investigation, and we have been getting conflicting statements about what happened. So far, we do not think that anybody witnessed the actual shooting, and we could be looking for a red or white vehicle."

“We will be working the case hard today.”

Detectives on the scene were checking to see if any cameras from stores across the street had caught anything on tape that might help them.

A resident who lived behind the liquor store M-Bone was parked at before he was shot twice in the head said, “I heard two shots like a popping noise then a car screeching away,  but nobody wants to get involved with what happened.”

Talbert was found slumped over the steering wheel in the driver’s seat of his car and police have not ruled-out that he might have known the shooter.

The incident took place at 416 N. La Brea Boulevard in Inglewood.

Cali Swag District's "Teach Me How to Dougie" hit number 28 on the Billboard charts in 2010, and established the dance as a hip hop staple.

Story developing ...

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/05/rapper-m-bone-cali-swag-district-member-dead-in-drive-by-shootin/

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Cali Swag District Rapper M-Bone Killed In Drive-By Shooting

Bone, 22, died of two gunshot wounds to the head in his hometown of Inglewood, California.
By Rob Markman


M-Bone
Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Early Monday (May 16) morning hip-hop fans were stunned by the news that Cali Swag District member M-Bone died Sunday night, the victim of a drive-by shooting.

Bone, born Mante Talbert, was one-fourth of the group that rose to fame with their 2010 single "Teach Me How to Dougie." Cali Swag frontman C-Smoove tweeted, "Ma life changed drastically in the blink of an eye. rip mbone," early Monday morning.

Inglewood Police Department Homicide Sgt. Brian Spencer confirmed to MTV News that the 22-year-old Bone died of two gunshot wounds to the head in his hometown of Inglewood, California.

M-Bone's life in photos.

At about 10:30 p.m. PT Sunday night, police were called to the 400 block of North La Brea in Inglewood. When police arrived on the scene, they found Talbert seated in the driver's seat of a black unspecified vehicle with at least two gunshot wounds to the head. Paramedics then took him to a local hospital where Talbert eventually succumbed to his injuries.

Witness accounts confirm that the rapper was seated in his car when the gunmen pulled alongside him in a separate vehicle and let off at least two rounds. The suspects fled northbound on La Brea.

Signed to Capitol Records, Cali Swag District made their name with the platinum dance hit "Teach Me How to Dougie," an ode to the dance popularized by hip-hop legend Doug E. Fresh. The record's remix featured Jermaine Dupri, B.o.B, Bow Wow and Red Cafe, and their debut album, The Kickback, is slated for a 2011 release.

The Inglewood Police Department is asking anyone with information to come forward and call its homicide division at (310) 412-5246 or its 24-hour anonymous hotline number, (888) 41 CRIME, or (888) 412-7463.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1663922/cali-swag-district-m-bone-shooting-death.jhtml

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Elizabeth Olsen's Big Night at Cannes

It was a big evening for Elizabeth Olsen last night (May 15) as she attended the premiere of her new movie ?Martha Marcy May Marlene? in Cannes, France.

The sister of Mary Kate and Ashley looked excited as she mingled at the 64th Cannes International Film Festival and posed with Louisa Krause, Brady Corbet, and director Sean Durkin.

In career news, Elizabeth is gearing up to star in Naomi Foner?s ?Very Good Girls? along with ?New Moon? actress Dakota Fanning, Peter Sarsgaard, Dustin Hoffman, and Sissy Spacek.

Olsen will play a high school girl who is on a mission to lose her virginity following graduation, and ends up falling in love with the same guy as Fanning?s character.

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/elizabeth-olsen/elizabeth-olsens-big-night-cannes-506213

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