Monday Morning Newsletter (7/28/08)

If you hadn’t heard, Fox doesn’t like brown people, but it takes Nas to man up to the redneck media behemoth. On behalf of Moveon.org, Nas delivered a 600,000-signature petition to the Manhattan studios of Fox. The petition calls out Fox for their blatant racist remarks against African Americans. José would like to point out that when a rapper is pointing out your faux pas, you have gone too far.

Mugison will be releasing a new album, Mugiboogie, August 19^th on Ipecac Records. Jose Fritz has officially called dibs. If anyone, even Eavvon O'Neal attempts to poach it, Jose will hand out a beating.

Rap star DMX is going to spend some time in the pokey. A grand jury has charged DMX, aka Earl Simmons, with one count of theft and one count of identity theft. Earlier this month, Simmons was arrested for failing to appear in court, failure to pay fines, driving without a license, and animal cruelty. Searches of his home allegedly turned up weapons, drugs, dog carcasses and abused pit bulls. The indictment is the latest in a string of crack-head decisions for the 37-year old rapper.

Nine Inch Nails' The Slip became available this week as a CD with bonus DVD. The Gatefold LP comes out August 12th. Only 250,000 individually numbered units will be pressed. The bonus DVD includes several live performances. It’s the perfect gift for retards that paid $300 for the Ghosts triple LP.

Just this week Yeah Yeah Yeahs front-woman Karen O finally debuted her side project Native Korean Rock. For the past 3 years, she has been recording lo-fi pop songs under the pseudonym. The coming out ceremony was a 30 minute set at Brooklyn’s Union Pool.

Producer Scott Storch, 34, is on the run. A warrant was issued for his arrest when he failed to show up in court in a child-support case last month. He also owes over $500,000 in real estate taxes. Previous to his tenure as a bandito, Storch has produced for Mariah Carey, Fat Joe, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, Christina Aguilera, Lil Kim and others.

Alice Cooper's new album dropped this week. He recruited former Kiss drummer Eric Singer, with bassist Chuck Garric and guitarists Keri Kelli and Jason Hook. Infamous guitar-wanker Slash also appears on the track "Vengeance Is Mine.” While José prefers his Billion Dollar Babies era material he is pleased the old geezer tries to rock.

Take it from José: do not sample the Rolling Stones. Stones music publisher Abkco Music is suing the crap out of Lil Wayne for sampling their song "Play With Fire." The suit claims that Lil Wayne's version is clearly derivative of the music and lyrics. Universal Music Group stands accused of copyright infringement and unfair competition. Jagger is seeking a cease and desist order, unspecified damages and satisfaction.