In what is, no doubt, very sad news, comedian Bernie Mac passed away early this morning due to complications from pneumonia, his publicist has confirmed:

Bernie Mac’s publicist says the actor and comedian has died. The entertainer passed early Saturday morning at Northwestern Memorial hospital after recently being hospitalized for pneumonia.

Bernard McCullough or Bernie Mac as his fans knew him, was known for his edge and off-color comedy routines. Mac made many supporting appearances in films during the 90’s such as “Friday” and “Booty Call,” but it was his recent acting in blockbusters like the ‘Oceans Eleven’ franchise and ‘Transformers’ which rocketed the comedian to super stardom.

Mac had several movies coming out in the coming months including “Soul Men” with Isaac Hayes and Samuel L. Jackson and “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” starring Ben Stiller, David Schwimmer and Chris Rock. {Source}

Bernie has long stood as one of my favourite comedians; this is really really sad. Our sincerest condolences go out to his family.

With the Pussycat Dolls set to release their sophomore effort ‘Doll Domination’ on September 16th , the cover for the set has surfaced. The ladies look every inch the fierce five-some they are. Great cover.

As per the title of this post, feel free to drop anything and ‘errrrrthing’ in the comments section.

So, anything from your thoughts on the site, to random ramblings, particular views on any story (music, politcs, sports etc), share a story/new song, shameless promotion of your own site/material lol…not to be limited to music alone…a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g!

During his headlining set on the Glow In The Dark’s NYC tour stop, rapper Kanye West condemned homophobia, urging people to ‘open their minds’:

“Open your fucking minds. Open your minds. Be accepting of different people and let people be who they are. You know how many people came to me calling me gay cause I wear my jeans the fresh way? Or because I said hey, dude, how you gonna say ‘fag’ right in front of a gay dude’s face and act like that’s ok. That shit is disrespectful. Coming from Chicago, where if you saw somebody that was gay you were supppoed to stay ten feet away. It should be time to break out of the intuitions that I was sayin’, the steretypes, or the fear, the backlash that I would get if you don’t believe in what I believe in, acceptin’ people for who they are…they’re very talented and if they do something special in the world and they’re discriminated. I’ve flown across the world y’all, and I’ve come back here to tell you — open your minds and live a happier life…” {Source}

Your thoughts?

Despite the controversy that has ensued regarding Beyonce’s unrecognisable ad for L’Oréal, the French cosmetics giant have denied altering the shot:

“We highly value our relationship with Ms. Knowles. It is categorically untrue that L’Oréal Paris altered Ms. Knowles’ features or skin-tone in the campaign for Feria’s hair color.”

A rep for the 27-year-old Knowles declined to comment beyond the L’Oréal statement.

The ad is appearing in this month’s Elle, Allure and Essence. So far the magazines have not said anything about possible Pantone issues. {Source}

As the press and public alike continue to speculate on the supposed ‘relationship’ between young stars Rihanna and Chris Brown, the pair are generating a buzz elsewhere – more specifically, on this week’s charts.

According to Nielsen Soundscan, Rihanna’s ‘Disturbia’ jumps #4-#3 on the Billboard Hot 100 (hitting the top spot on the Hot Digital chart, after selling through 140,000 digital downloads this week too). Meanwhile Brown inches one spot closer to the top of the Hot 100 with ‘Forever’ climbing #3-#2.

While this is undoubtedly a major achievement for both, especially when considering this being a relatively early stage of their career, I can’t help but be left with a salty taste in my mouth. Pardon my bluntness, but both ‘Forever’ and ‘Disturbia’ are absolute garbage IMO. Both artists are capable (one more than the other) of much better material. Yet the masses seem to be eating up the rubbish served up to them. Will ‘real’…or better yet, half-decent, music ever get a chance in the contemporary musical climate? I hope so, though my thinking may just be “dum, dum, dee dum dum dum dee dum dum”. SMH…

You know the deal; That Grape Juice, once again, wants to see what you all are listening to. Which 5 tracks have you got on constant rotation at the moment? Remember, it doesn’t have to be limited to Urban music; could be something new, throwback, even something you made yourself LOL. Drop a comment in the comments section. Mine are – in no particular order:

As many of you know, the video for Danity Kane’s latest single ‘Bad Girl’ premiered recently. A behind the scenes look at the making of the vid surfaced today. Check it out below:

The Queen of Hip-Hop/Soul Mary J. Blige has been hit with whopping $2 Million fine over the ‘illegal’ placement of a track from her most recent LP ‘Growing Pains’:

Producer Theron (NEEF-U) Feemster wrote the music for the song “Work That,” but the tune is owned by Dream Family Entertainment Inc., according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Manhattan Federal Court.

The court filing claims the New York-based firm never gave Blige, Feemster or Geffen Records, the distributor, rights to use the song.

“Mr. Feemster created the music while he was under contract with Dream Family. Dream Family then owned the music, yet the music was used without permission in a Mary J. Blige release recording,” said Dream lawyer Brian Caplan.

“It was released as an album, a single and in a commercial,” Caplan said.

Rights to the lyrics of the song – which was featured with Blige in an iPod commercial – are not in question.

Geffen Records, Feemster and representatives for Blige didn’t return calls.

Caplan said it was unclear if Blige knew the music belonged to someone other than Feemster, and said the producer “had no rights to the music he used.” {Source}

It’s always somewhat baffling to see issues like this arise with such renown and high-caliber artists. You’d think all the ‘formal stuff’ was tended to prior to the album dropping. Randomess: ‘Work That’ wasn’t even all that great IMO anyway lol…