For those who witnessed Jay-Z and Kanye West at the BankAtlantic Center perform the “Watch the Throne” tour they were not disappointed. In fact, today their legs are almost surely aching from dancing, bouncing, their voices raw from singing all night with two of the greats, both equal to the throne.

The show was a phenomenal combination of innovative, technological stage designs, lights, and pyros synched to the beat, matched by outstanding performances by two nationally acclaimed artists who combined together made for a show of dynamic proportions.

From the onset, Jay-Z and Kanye West dazzled the audience by rising some 20 feet above the floor, LED lights glowing blue and streaming videos of sharks lit up the thrones. The dual stages rose from the front and mid-arena giving everyone from the floor to the rafters in the back a visual delight. I love it when these performers make it work for those unlucky people in the nosebleeds. Add to that the 20-foot-plus video screens that showed close-ups of the performers and you could see the sweat rolling down their faces as if you were in the front row.

Directions, nearby dining for Tuesday’s show in Miami | Visit this writer’s website

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It was as if Heavy D knew that it would be his last tweet.

The self-proclaimed “overweight lover” of hip hop, who became one of rap’s top hit makers with his charming combination of humor and positivity, enthusiastically told his Twitter followers Tuesday morning to “BE INSPIRED!”

He later collapsed outside his Beverly Hills home following a shopping trip, unable to breathe, before he was transported to a nearby hospital where he died. He was 44. Detectives found no signs of foul play and believe his death was medically related, said police Lt. Mark Rosen.

“BE INSPIRED!” was typical of the positive tweets Heavy D would send, and as his final tweet, it was fitting for the life that Heavy D lived.

Share your condolences | Heavy D dead at 44

The Jamaica-born rapper, who grew up in Mount Vernon, N.Y., became one of the genre’s most integral stars in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as it relied on new voices and star power to fuel its phenomenal growth in the mainstream. Heavy D and his crew — Heavy D and the Boyz — unabashedly burst onto the rap scene in 1987 with their debut album “Living Large.” Read the full story

Several news sources, including ABCNews.com and TMZ, are reporting that rapper Heavy D has died after being rushed to a Los Angeles hospital.

Heavy D was 44 years old.

Born Dwight Arrington Meyers in Jamaica, then moving to New York at a young age, Heavy D gained fame in the late 1980s with his combination of hip-hop, danceable pop and New Jack Swing, which was just starting to come into vogue. He formed Heavy D & The Boyz and had a slew of hits across the dance, R&B and pop charts, including the group’s biggest song, “Now That We Found Love”, which reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1991. The group also sang the theme song to the Fox comedy show In Living Color.
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Rapper T.I. was released Thursday from an Atlanta halfway house after spending about 10 months in federal prison on a probation violation, officials said.

The Grammy-winning artist, whose real name is Clifford Harris Jr., was released early in the morning, said Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman Chris Burke.

T.I.’s manager, Jason Geter, said the rapper is happy to be out.

“He’s out, he’s good,” said Geter, who co-founded Grand Hustle Records with T.I.

A spokesman for T.I. said the newly freed rapper is planning to celebrate his recent birthday and host a private brunch for family and friends Sunday in Atlanta. He is also expected to attend the BET Hip-Hop Awards on Saturday.

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The Game will not face criminal charges after a tweet from the rapper’s account incited a telephone flash mob that jammed the emergency phone system at one of the busiest stations of the Los Angeles County sheriff’s department, the agency said Wednesday.

Capt. Mike Parker said the department decided to drop the matter after conducting an investigation and consulting with the district attorney’s office. He also welcomed an apology the rapper made to the department.

“His willingness to help share with the media and the community that the safety of the public is what is most important is a great message,” Parker said in a statement.

The tweet posted on The Game’s Twitter account on Friday encouraged his 580,000 followers to call a number if they wanted an internship.

That number turned out to be the Compton station’s official help line.

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“They say guns don’t kill people, people do. Well if people don’t have guns, they don’t kill you. You wouldn’t seek revenge. We keep it movin’. Kill them with kindness let the cameras do the shootin’.”

William E. Bachelor III directs those lyrics to his recently deceased best friend and business partner, Troy Longhurst, on the track “Back to Hollywood (A Tribute to Troy Longhurst)”.

The song recounts the duo’s recent business trip to Los Angeles but ultimately pays homage to a friend whose life was shockingly cut short. Penning the words to express a loss of such magnitude is difficult enough. When considering that the track by the South Florida band Web Three was written and recorded just days after the homicide that sent shockwaves through South Florida’s performance community, it stands as a testament to resilience and positivity.

On July 21, Longhurst went to comfort his friend and business associate Jonathan Woolfson at Woolfson’s North Miami condo. Longhurst, who had been in contact with both Bachelor and Woolfson’s mother, was trying to get help for Woolfson, who was dealing with personal problems and depression complicated by drug use. While the exact details of what transpired next will never be known, but the final outcome will always remain that Troy Longhurst was fatally shot by Jonathan Woolfson and was found by Woolfson’s mother upon her arrival at the home. After a standoff with police, Woolfson would also lose his life.

Share your thoughts in our online guestbook | Visit to help distraught friend ends in death (July 27)

“I received a call from Troy’s mom that something was going on down at Jonathan’s house. I went there and the entire neighborhood was evacuated,” Bachelor said. ”There were police, ambulances, fire trucks, a SWAT team and riot control. I felt a drop in my stomach and knew something terrible had happened. I wanted to stay positive but it was hard to. Troy’s girlfriend Nicole was in tears begging the detectives to tell her what happened. I just tried to be strong and be there for her. They finally told us that Troy had died just after midnight.”
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Grammy-winning OutKast rapper Big Boi has been arrested in Miami for possession of drugs including ecstasy and Viagra pills.

The rapper, whose real name is Antwan Patton, was charged with three counts of possession of a controlled substance and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia on Sunday. According to the Miami-Dade County Corrections website, the 36-year-old Patton was also carrying MDMA, which is the main ingredient in Ecstasy.

The rapper was booked around 1:30 p.m. on $16,000 bond.

Phone and email messages were left for Big Boi’s publicists.

Big Boi is best known as half of the groundbreaking rap duo OutKast, which includes Andre 3000. The Atlanta-based group won six Grammys and churned out six platinum-plus albums, including their “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,” which sold over 10 million copies.

Likely to be considered one of the biggest tours in hip-hop history, the “Watch The Throne” tour of Jay-Z and Kanye West will be coming to BankAtlantic Center on Nov. 14.

Tickets for the show go on sale Monday.

Jay-Z and West are releasing the album Watch The Throne on the same day exclusively to iTunes before releasing it to physical and other digital retailers on Aug. 12. The two have collaborated together before – West started out as a producer for Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records and first became famous for his work on Jay-Z’s classic LP The Blueprint.

A word to ticket buyers: Jay-Z and West have already shuffled a few dates around, including those for shows in Montreal and Washington. Jay-Z has already shot down rumors that he and West are fighting over the direction of the show, according to The Gazette of Montreal.

Tickets for the show will be for sale at LiveNation.com and Ticketmaster outlets, including Ticketmaster.com.

How would you like to gross $60 million doing what you love?

Gil Smith II and partner Adrian “AP” Porter are doing just that. They are the musical directors for one of the biggest names in rap, Lil Wayne, as well as Wayne’s Young Money labelmate Nicki Minaj.

The list doesn’t stop there: There’s Cee Lo Green, Keri Hilson and their latest addition, Frank Ocean of Odd Future. The tours Smith has directed for Wayne and Young Money alone have grossed over $60 million.

More: Visit this writer’s website | Photos from Lil Wayne’s show at Cruzan

Most of us buy tickets, mark the date on the calendar, pick out something special to wear and show up for the show. What we hope and expect is to be entertained, to feel that we were privy to an intimate experience between us and the performer, getting to hear our favorite songs live and go home with music playing in our head.
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