Two Teenagers Busted In Alleged MySpace Extortion Scheme
By now you've probably grown used to the litany of idiotic things people do on MySpace: threatening teachers, posing with guns and drugs, and sharing pictures best left in the dresser drawer.
But a pair of New York teenagers upped the ante recently by allegedly threatening to shake down the leading social-networking site in an extortion scheme.
According to a press release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office — MySpace is based in nearby Santa Monica, California — Shaun Harrison, 18, and Saverio Mondelli, 19, allegedly hacked into the site, stole personal information from MySpace users and threatened to expose the secret to accessing the information unless they were paid $150,000.
The teens were arrested Friday by undercover officers posing as MySpace employees en route to Los Angeles to allegedly pick up the payoff. They were each charged with two felony counts of illegal computer access and one count of attempted extortion. If convicted on all charges, they face more than four years in state prison.
According to prosecutors, Harrison and Mondelli — both computer programmers — operated a now-defunct, similarly named Web site that took advantage of vulnerabilities on MySpace and through which they gained access to users' personal information.
MySpace discovered the hack earlier this year and created a patch to block it, then sent a cease-and-desist letter to the hackers. When they allegedly threatened to distribute their unbreakable code unless MySpace coughed up the ransom money, MySpace approached the Electronic Crimes Task Force in order to set up the sting.
Both men pleaded not guilty to the crimes and were released on bail on Thursday. They are due back in court June 5.
Bush, Blair Admit Mistakes In Iraq; Report Says Marines May Have Murdered Civilians
With his strongest ally, embattled British Prime Minister Tony Blair, by his side, President Bush admitted Thursday that his "tough talk" in the early days of the Iraq war was probably a mistake.
The uncharacteristic mea culpa from Bush was in reference to his 2003 comments to the then-budding Iraqi insurgents to "bring it on" and his post-September 11, 2001 comments that he wanted terror leader Osama bin Laden "dead or alive."
"Kind of tough talk, you know, that sent the wrong signal to people," Bush said. "I learned some lessons about expressing myself, maybe in a more sophisticated manner. ... I think in certain parts of the world it was misinterpreted." Worse than his ineloquent comments, though, Bush said, were the abuses of Iraqi prisoners by American guards at Abu Ghraib prison, which he termed the "biggest mistake that's happened so far."
However, news broke just before the press conference about a military investigation that is expected to blame a group of Marines for the murder of two dozen Iraqi civilians on November 19. According to the Los Angeles Times, sources said the investigation could result in charges of murder, elevating the incident to one of the most serious cases of misconduct by American forces in Iraq.
Officials told the paper that preliminary results of the inquiry found that civilians in the insurgent stronghold of Haditha did not die from an improvised explosive device, as the military first reported, or in cross-fire between Marines and insurgents, as was later claimed.
The evidence points to a group of about a dozen Marines carrying out a three- to five-hour sweep in which civilian men, women and children were shot after a roadside bomb killed their fellow Marine, Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas; a separate inquiry has been launched to investigate whether the incident was deliberately covered up.
According to the investigation, after the bomb killed Terrazas, the Marines conducted a routine sweep of the area, killing several Iraqis in homes as well as five who had been sitting in a vehicle, reportedly without provocation.
A spokesperson told the Times that the battalion commander and two company commanders from the division were relieved of duty last month because of a loss of confidence in their leadership.
Although both Bush and Blair are facing all-time low approval ratings at home — with Blair dipping a few points below Bush's 29 percent, according to recent polls — they stood firm in their commitment to staying the course in Iraq.
"I understand what it means to have troops in harm's way, and I know there's a lot of families making huge sacrifices here in America," Bush said during the rare evening news conference. "But I also understand that it is vital that we do the job, that we complete the mission."
Blair is in Washington to report to Bush on his recent meetings with Iraq's new prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who suggested to Blair that Iraq could be ready to take on full control of its security by the end of next year. While Blair said he left the meeting feeling that the challenge in Iraq is still "immense," he also felt "more certain than ever that we should rise to it.'' Bush dismissed as press speculation reports that the Pentagon could reduce troop levels from 131,000 to 100,000 by the end of 2006.
Neither man, however, said that the war itself was a mistake, nor would they concede that the failure to find WMD's was a critical one.
"We did not find the weapons of mass destruction that we all believed were there, and that's raised questions about whether the sacrifice in Iraq has been worth it,'' Bush said. "Despite setbacks and missteps, I strongly believe we did and are doing the right thing."
DMX Considers Changing Name For Spiritual Reasons
Since DMX barreled into the rap scene in 1998, his fans and friends have affectionately called him "the Dog." But pretty soon, that might be his official name.
As he explores spirituality, X said, he's thinking about switching his stage moniker but wants to keep it simple.
"I think I'm going to have to do that soon for spiritual reasons," X told MTV Europe about shedding the Dark Man X name. X also said he was thinking about the name Dog, but he wasn't sure.
"It's just the whole Dark Man thing," he continued. "Because if you look at it, from a spiritual point of view, the Bible teaches us that we can speak things into existence. ... And Dark Man, you know, it may not be the best name for me."
X's album Year of the Dog, Again is slated for the end of August (see "DMX Signs With Columbia, Will Release Long-Delayed LP This Spring"). His new single, "Lord Give Me a Sign," is produced by Scott Storch and addresses his quest to get closer to God.
"The Scott Scorch thing ... he charges $80,000 a beat, very expensive," X said. "We bought two [beats], and he gave me the beat [for 'Lord Give Me a Sign'] for free. So it was ironic that the potentially biggest song on the album would be given to us for free. On every album, there's a gospel song or a prayer. The song's either a conversation with the Lord or just a reference to how much I love the Lord and what I'm willing to do. ... We got the beat, and I heard the beat, and I was like, 'Lord, give me a sign!' The beat created the song, and I just ran from there, you know.
"I think this album is a little more insightful as to who I am and what I'm about," he added. "There's this one song called 'Life Be My Song.' It's crazy. How I live is simple: 'Walk through the streets/ Talk to the beats/ It's New York I'm going to eat/ Never had a problem surviving/ No problems getting down busting my gun/ Rough riding.' It's like a real talk."
DMX said he still battles some demons. He was arrested and let go with a warning during his recent trip overseas for arguing with a flight attendant. He said he is fighting a war within and constantly calls on God for help.
"It's a war," he said. "It's always a war going on between good and bad, you know. I've said it on one of my songs: 'Deep inside I've got something that's working against everything I know is right/ ... That's when God replies to me, "That's why you got to fight/ Harder than you ever fought before/ That's what you got going on inside you, that's a war/ Between good and evil, be careful of those who want to be you/ They smile but they're not really happy when they see you/ Be careful of the ones that always want to get you high/ Because when the time comes, that one will let you die." ' "
DMX — the good and bad sides — is the centerpiece of "DMX: Soul of a Man," a new BET reality series that debuts this summer.
"They'll get a better understanding of me through watching it, but it will just show more of the person that I am," he said. "It will clear up a lot of misconceptions. I'm just a regular dude."
Beanie Sigel Recuperating After Being Shot During Robbery Attempt
Beanie Sigel is recuperating from gunshot wounds to the arm after an attempted robbery on Thursday morning (May 25). The rapper was treated at the University of Philadelphia hospital early Thursday and released several hours later.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sigel was dressed in a hospital robe, with his arm in a sling and a hospital blanket covering his head, when he left the hospital. "I'm shot. I got shot. I'm cool," he told reporters.
A Philadelphia police spokesperson told MTV News Thursday morning that Sigel was in his vehicle at the intersection of 22nd and Sigel streets (the street that inspired his stage moniker) around 7:10 a.m. that morning when five black males approached him in two vehicles, one of which was detailed as a dark Dodge Mirada with tinted windows.
One of the men — described as a bearded black male in his 30s wearing jeans and Timberland boots — opened fire, and one or two bullets struck Sigel in his upper-right arm. Sigel was able to flee the scene and drove himself to the University of Pennsylvania hospital.
The rapper's representatives could not be reached for comment.
Sigel (Dwight Grant) was released from prison in August after serving a year on weapons charges (see "Beanie Sigel Released From Prison") and was acquitted of attempted murder the following month (see "Beanie Sigel Acquitted In Attempted-Murder Trial").
In October, his stepfather, Samuel Derry, was murdered in Philadelphia (see "Suspect Charged In Murder Of Beanie Sigel's Stepfather"). Sigel was also briefly jailed in November for failure to pay child support.
Who Is Gnarls Barkley? Well, He Likes Hash Browns, Owes Cee-Lo $35
Suicidal thoughts, sex with a dying woman, Transformers and bogeymen all tied together by a fictional character that looks like psychedelic children's show character HR Pufnstuf and is at least $35 in debt? You don't have to look any further into the minds of Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse, collectively known as Gnarls Barkley.
The two met three years ago, when Danger called Cee-Lo to work on a remix. The vibe was so right, they started thinking about a whole album. The result is their innovative debut, St. Elsewhere, which draws on influences as varied as hip-hop, electric pop, acid jazz and rock and roll.
"The entire reception has passed my personal expectations," Cee-Lo said on Wednesday about Gnarls' lead single, "Crazy," which has spent eight weeks as the top record in the U.K. and is becoming an across-the-board hit in the States. "It's great. I'm glad. I'm satisfied."
Cee-Lo said the record is about living.
"Soul is your life. It's your life's experience, your life's work," he explained. "Of course life imitates art. It's not about one thing. I tried to word [the song] generally so it may pertain to so many different circumstances. To me, I think we're born into a grand degree of uncertainty, which is life. One degree is chance. If you're not gonna take any chances, you're standing still. To stand still for your whole life is crazy."
While "Crazy" is about life, "Necromancer" takes a look at death.
"It's naughty/ Very naughty/ Necrophilia," Cee-Lo sings on the song. "Without a care/ I'm compassionate about killing her/ ... She was cool when I met her/ But I think I like her better dead."
"That song is about this figment of my imagination," Cee-Lo explained. "This woman, in her spare time, only complained about the life she wasn't living. After she picked her poison, whether it be a drink, smoke, et cetera, she becomes more bold, more outspoken, more sensual, funny, charming. All these different things. She realizes everyone is more receptive toward her. She wants to be like that every day. So there goes your habit. So it's storytelling, not so literal.
"A lot of the album is true to life, but a lot is this vivid imagination I have and good clean fun," he added.
Mouse and Cee-Lo's roles on St. Elsewhere were very clear: Danger came up with the craziest beats he could concoct, and Lo would get just as wild with the lyrics, whether it meant singing or rapping. Over the past three years, the two did about half the album together and the other half by mailing each other files back and forth. The result: a record about salvation, going to the disco, the contemplation of suicide and freedom, among other things.
"Gnarls is a character — kinda the idea that Cee-Lo and I had when we were doing music," Mouse said. "[The music] was different than me and him — a different voice, feel — and when we looked to see the influence of what we were trying to say, not just to each other but to people who would be listening, it became easier to let Gnarls speak for what we're trying to do."
Part of Gnarls' background info is that he owes Cee-Lo $35, and he's an older gentleman who looks like HR Pufnstuf and likes hash browns.
"It made more sense that way," Mouse said. " 'Cause we could not make sense [of the music] ourselves. At the end of the day, we gave credit where credit was due. We basically did the best we could in explaining what the experiment was. Kinda like Frankenstein."
"The Gnarls I know is visibly older than Charles," Cee-Lo added about the similarity in names to NBA legend Charles Barkley. "But I also heard a rumor that Charles was named after Gnarls."
Gnarls, Danger and Cee-Lo are going to do a few concerts in the U.K. in June and say they are thinking about a U.S. tour soon. Their next single could be the Violent Femmes cover "Gone Daddy Gone" or "Smiley Faces."
Primus' Les Claypool Skewers Jam Bands In New Mockumentary
During his maiden voyage as a filmmaker, Primus bassist/leader/songwriter Les Claypool experienced something that every director — from Hollywood super-mogul to the most indie auteur — knows intimately: "If anything can go wrong, it will."
"The process of making this film was one kick in the n--s after another," he said. "Two trips to the hospital, a hit-and-run, a crew member had a nervous breakdown and threatened to throw all the footage in the fireplace. We had a gremlin following us around. It's like building a house with apprentice carpenters, and the building materials were on fire."
But by no means does Claypool regret making "Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo," a mockumentary that follows a fictitious jam band by that name, satirizing the sprawling patchouli scene the way "This Is Spinal Tap," "CB4" and "The Rutles" series did for heavy metal, hip-hop and Beatlemania, respectively. Claypool's movie took the Best of Festival - Feature, Audience Award at this year's Malibu Film Festival.
Many people assumed that the thousands of dubiously odored, financially carefree nomads that followed the Grateful Dead for 30 years would have dispersed upon the band's demise 11 years ago. But Phish grabbed the Dead's baton, and the jam-band subculture has mushroomed in the decade since, supporting not only the likes of moe, Leftover Salmon and the String Cheese Incident, but bands that never embraced the Dead's influence, like Ween and Claypool's multiple prog-rock/funk projects.
"It's a fabulous subject," Claypool said, "one that I know quite a bit about and one that hasn't been examined before. I could do the same thing for Ozzfest. Character study is my existence."
He noted that there's an ample potential audience for the film. "Bonnaroo is the highest grossing music festival in the United States, and it does so with only Internet advertising," he continued. "And it's not just hippie bands — Radiohead and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are playing this year."
Claypool's film will be screened at Bonnaroo in June, where he will also perform solo and play a set with Oysterhead, his supergroup with Phish's Trey Anastasio and former Police drummer Stewart Copeland.
The film tracks the progress of Electric Apricot from a gig at the storied Bay Area club the Sweetwater Saloon to sessions for their first album to "Festeroo," a jam band-heavy festival (these scenes were shot last year at the High Sierra Music Festival in Quincy, California).
Along the way, we get to know the bizarrely nicknamed members of the band (who are played by Claypool and three Bay Area musician pals): Herschel, the keyboardist and purest hippie of the bunch; Aiwass, the pseudo-intellectual bassist fond of quoting Wittgenstein and remarking, "I feel like Hitler at Waterloo"; and Lapdog, the archetypal drum nerd (Claypool).
Then there's the guitarist/singer, Gordo. "He drinks beer, wants to party and worships Jerry Garcia," Claypool said. Gordo looks likely to become the film's breakout star thanks to a scene in which he gets gangsta on a character who doesn't show sufficient reverence for Garcia.
Claypool devised the film's general plot, but much of the dialogue was improvised. "Electric Apricot" features cameos from Seth Green ("Robot Chicken," "Austin Powers") and "South Park" co-creator Matt Stone, playing a pair of concert "tapers," as well as brief turns from jam-scene icons including the Dead's Bob Weir, former Phish bassist Mike Gordon and Gov't Mule's Warren Haynes and Matt Abts.
But most characters are portrayed by Claypool's friends, non-actors who nonetheless capture the essence of the rock and roll periphery: a hapless manager, a hanger-on desperate to go on tour, a Yoko Ono-style girlfriend and a band therapist who not only sports blindingly ugly sweaters, but attempts to ingratiate himself into the band (Claypool swears that any resemblance to therapist Phil Towle, from 2004's Metallica documentary "Some Kind of Monster," is coincidental).
When the inevitable comparison to "Spinal Tap" is brought up, Claypool says his approach was inspired more by Ricky Gervais' acclaimed BBC series "The Office." "Are they parodying people who work at a paper supply company?" he asked, "Or are they portraying true characters in a certain setting? ['Electric Apricot'] is an endearing look at the jam scene, poking fun at these people and how they look at their universe so seriously."
The film is just one of several Claypool creative endeavors that will arrive in the coming weeks. He's also releasing his first proper solo album, Of Whales and Woe, on May 30, and will publish his first novel, "South of the Pumphouse," which he describes as "a cross between 'Deliverance' and 'The Old Man and the Sea,' " in July.
Judge Says Notorious B.I.G.'s Family Misled Court
In the latest bizarre twist in the long-running lawsuit by the family of late rapper Notorious B.I.G. against the city of Los Angeles, the federal judge who declared a mistrial and ordered the city to pay $1.1 million to the rapper's family said Tuesday that she had been deceived about evidence in the wrongful-death lawsuit, according to the Los Angeles Times.
U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper ordered one of the family's lawyers, Perry R. Sanders Jr., to explain information in a document that appeared to undercut a key claim he made in the trial last year on behalf of relatives of the rapper, who was killed in an unsolved drive-by shooting in 1997 (see "Notorious B.I.G. Gunned Down In Los Angeles"). In the trial, Sanders had claimed that he had no information on an alleged police conspiracy behind the murder of the rapper outside the Petersen Automotive Museum in downtown Los Angeles almost a decade ago.
Judge Cooper declared a mistrial last summer in the family's lawsuit after finding that a Los Angeles police detective had hidden statements linking the killing to LAPD Officers David A. Mack and Rafael Perez (see "Notorious B.I.G. Wrongful-Death Case Declared A Mistrial"). In January, she had ordered payment of attorney fees and costs as sanctions for withholding evidence (see "Notorious B.I.G.'s Family Awarded $1.1 Million From City Of L.A.").
But, according to the Times, Cooper said Tuesday that she had been deceived by the family and the city now says B.I.G. family attorney Sanders had information on the alleged conspiracy long before the trial. As evidence, the city gave Cooper a four-page investigative report prepared in November 2002 by a private investigator working for Biggie's family. The report contains details of an interview with a prison informant that the family said it had not seen, according to Vincent Marella, a lawyer representing the city.
"This shows beyond any question that everything they said they never had, they had," Marella told the Times.
Sanders denied the claims, telling the paper that his firm was "not hiding anything from anybody," and that the document was one that he had given the city before trial. "We made our entire file 100 percent accessible [to police], not in an attempt to file a lawsuit, but in an attempt to solve a murder," Sanders said.
Game Arrested On Weapons Charges
The Game was arrested in Burbank, California, over the weekend for possession of a deadly weapon.
The Compton rapper, born Jayceon Taylor, was pulled over for a traffic violation in the Los Angeles suburb on Saturday around 9 p.m., according to a Burbank Police Department spokesperson. While searching his car, police found brass knuckles.
Further details on the arrest were not released because the case is still under investigation, but police did say no one else was arrested in connection with the rapper.
The Game was released on $20,000 bail and is due in court in approximately 30 days.
Last month, an arrest warrant was issued for the rapper in Greensboro, North Carolina, after he missed a court date relating to disorderly conduct and resisting-arrest charges from October (see "Warrant Issued For The Game After He Misses Court Date").
He was also sued last month, along with Snoop Dogg, by a fan who claims he was beaten up by the rappers' handlers during a concert (see "Snoop Dogg, Game Sued For Alleged Onstage Beating").
And the Game, who is working on his second major-label release (see "Game Working On The Dr.'s Advocate With ... You Guessed It ..."), sued Koch Records in March over a record dispute (see "Game Sues Koch Over Release Of His Early Recordings").
Record Deal Wet Pants
 
It was Megan Rochell's determined drive that inspired her to gamble with fate and pursue a lifelong dream of signing that record deal's dotted line. But the rest of the 20-year-old R&B songstress' career has been propelled by a series of fortunate accidents — and a single, very unfortunate one.
When Rochell was 11, she was asked to perform on "It's Showtime at the Apollo," tackling Monica's "Before You Walk Out of My Life." She'd been singing since age 7, as a soloist in her grandmother's church's choir, and she walked away from the Apollo's amateur night a winner five times. But when she was auditioning for the program, with the prospect of having her image funneled into the homes of viewers nationwide, Rochell's nerves got the best of her.was so nervous that I literally pee-peed on myself, that's how nervous I was," recalled the singer, who cites the likes of Brandy, Faith Evans, Mary J. Blige, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Aretha Franklin as influences. "It was so embarrassing, it really was. But things happen."
And things did happen for Rochell, who, upon turning 17, tugged up her roots, kissed the grandmother who'd raised her and encouraged her to nurture her passion for singing, and left her native Brooklyn for Philadelphia. There, she stumbled across the son of soul legend and session pianist Leon Huff, who, after one audition, agreed to produce her debut album.
"I was walking down the street, [and] I just bumped into him and I just so happened to ask him, 'Do you have anything to do with music?,' because he looked like he was somebody involved in music," she recalled. "He's like, '[I] have a studio right around the corner,' and I told him I would love to sing for him, that he needed to listen to me just for a few minutes and he'd like what he heard. So I sang for him and he was like, 'You weren't lying, girlfriend — you've got it.'
It wasn't longafter that chance meeting that Rochell happened upon the man who would, in time, start overseeing her future: Boyz II Men's Nathan Morris.
"I was leaving my producer's house, and Nate was driving down the street and calling out to me: 'Yo — what's up?' I look back, and I'm like, 'Wow, this is the guy from Boyz II Men,' " Rochell remembered. "I walk up to the car and he asked, 'What do you do?' I told him I sing and he was like, 'Well, come to my studio later and sing something for me.' I went down there, sang something for him, and it was, 'You've got to let me manage you,' straight off the bat."
Morris used his connections to get Rochell a little face time with former Def Jam CEO L.A. Reid. Rochell was overwhelmed and couldn't believe the speed with which things were happening.
"This is someone that I've always admired in music," she said of Reid. "He's jumpstarted so many careers, from Usher to TLC, Toni Braxton, Ciara, and to be in front of this man, who is a visionary, it was an honor. It took everything within me to make sure that I just sang my heart out, and when I opened my mouth and those notes came out ... after the song was done, he just stopped and looked at me for like two minutes and was like, 'You can sing, you've got it.' I walked out of the building and he calls [Morris] and says, 'We want to do the deal.' And that moment right there just changed my entire life."
Fast forward a few years and Rochell's debut LP, You, Me & the Radio, is set to hit record stores next month. The singer explained that the album is a "diary into a young woman's mind."
"The songs are all experiences that I've gone through or have seen someone else my age go through," she said. "So it's kind of like, it makes so much sense, and it's so relatable. A lot of young girls can relate to the music because it's real life, it's real situations, so it's definitely a diary because I've been through it — some of the weirdest experiences — and each song talks about something different."
Rochell worked with producer Rodney Jerkins (Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears) on the album's first single, "The One You Need," which features guest vocals by Fabolous. Other collaborators on the album included Ne-Yo, the Corner Boyz and the Underdogs. Plus she's fresh off a string of tour dates, including six dates on Chris Brown's most recent trek.
"I couldn't have asked for a better tour, this being my first tour," she said. "And all of the venues sold out. It is a blessing. I'm a new artist, I'm the only female on the tour, so it's like, when I first come out, it's an all-female audience. They're like, 'Who is this girl? We don't know her yet. Where's Chris Brown?' It's so fun working with Chris, and he and I are becoming real familiar with each other. We call each other and say what's up from time to time. He's an amazing artist, and an amazing person."
Even though she's relatively new to the game, Rochell's playing it like a seasoned veteran. She realizes she needs to stay focused on her career, because "a lot of times, artists get caught up thinking that this person and that person is your friend, but at the end of the day, you're in it to do what you have to do, whether it be because you're doing it for your money, or because you're doing it for the love," she said. "For me, it's definitely for the love, because this is something that I've always dreamt about doing since I was a baby.
"If I die tomorrow, I want people to know that Megan Rochell is a singer," she continued. "If anybody says my name, I want them to say, 'Yo, that girl can blow like she was doing her thing,' because dancing and entertaining, and trying to win a crowd over, I want people to know that my vocals were tight and I'm a real person at heart."
5/19/06 DDK Crossover Chart
This Last TITLE Artist Company Week Week 1 2 Walk Away (Remixes) Kelly Clarkson RCA 2 1 S.O.S. Rihanna Def Jam 3 3 Sorry Madonna Warner Bros. 4 4 I Want More Amuka Kult 5 5 Stupid Girls Pink LaFace 6 12 Check On It Beyonce Music Work 7 7 Fade Away Sarah Atereth Beguile 8 14 Waterman Olav Basoski Robbins 9 13 Faster Kill Pussyca Oakenfold Maverick 10 11 I Will Stand Claudja Donna Jean 11 6 Kiss The Sky Danielle Bollinger EsNtion 12 15 Be Without You Mary J. Blige Geffen 13 8 Take Me Or Leave Me Rent Warner Bros. 14 10 Beep The Pussycat Dolls A & M 15 9 Give Me Your Love Carl Cox Koch 16 21 So Special Judge Jules Koch 17 42 Push It De Lorean Robbins 18 Miracle Cascada Robbins 19 24 Forever Young Ella Marian | |
