The, “New Orleans first family of funk” Neville Brothers have teamed up with a host of 13 mega-artists including, Billy Joel, The Fray, Goo-Goo Dolls, Melissa Etheridge and Jewel to create a free compilation CD, as a thank you to the US troops, veterans and their families for their continued sacrifice and service. “CD for the Troops” is available to download for free to anyone with a valid military id. Read the rest of this entry »

In more than 30 years as America’s daredevil extraordinaire, Robert Craig “Evel” Knievel Jr. survived countless attempted jumps over everything from canyons to parked cars. He overcame a monthlong coma, 40 broken bones and the unfortunate television parody Super Dave Osborne. But the beloved motorcycle stuntman couldn’t clear the latest, greatest obstacle to cross his path: hip-hop megamogul Kanye West. 

Knievel and Kanye, when everything was cool.

If at first it seems absurd to group Evel Knievel in a tragic brotherhood with J Dilla, Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls as victims of rap-beef violence, consider the facts: Knievel, 69, died November 30 in Clearwater, Fla., purportedly from complications related to “diabetes” and “idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.” But his passing comes just two days after news that a settlement had been reached in the lawsuit Knievel brought against West in December 2006 for trademark infringement. (In West’s video for the song “Touch the Sky,” the rapper appears in a star-spangled red, white and blue jumpsuit wielding the moniker “Evel Kanyevel.”)

In the suit, Knievel asserted that the video’s “vulgar and offensive” images were harmful to his reputation — presumably, that of a wholesome, thrill-seeking sexagenarian. On his 2004 debut, The College Dropout, West made it clear he doesn’t take well to personal attacks: “If my manager insults me again, I will be assaulting him,” he warns on “Spaceship.” And on “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” a song off West’s 2007 Platinum smash, Graduation, he appears to brag of his plans for Knievel: “Let the Champagne splash/Let that man get cash/Let that man get past.” Or, interpreted another way, “Let that man get passed.”

West seems to have finally graduated, all right — to murder. No one knows for sure what dollar figure persuaded Knievel to drop his 12-month grievance against West. And now we’ll never know, will we?

 by Sam Winston

A Boca Burger box and a Pillsbury pie box are where FBI agents found the now famous 90 grand in cash in Congressmen Jefferson’s freezer. But this encompassing article by Conde Nast Portfolio gives us plenty more to chew on. There’s an FBI agent posing as a limo driver for the congressman, Nigerian political bigwigs, Jefferson, and former business partner Vernon Jackson all hanging out together at the Kentucky Derby “feeding $100 bills into betting machines,” helping the Nigerians find “high-priced hookers.”

Even more noteworthy, however, is Read the rest of this entry »