An American concert promoter claims he and his son were abducted at gunpoint in Angola … all because rapper Nas failed to show up for a heavily promoted New Year’s Eve concert.

A rep for AllGood Entertainment CEO Patrick Allocco tells TMZ … Patrick and his son were snatched by hired goons working for a local “concert impresario” named Henrique “Riquhino” Miguel … who anted up big bucks for the NYE show.

Allocco’s people claim Nas and opening act Jemiah Jai were paid $315k to perform two shows … but failed to board their flights in the U.S. in time to make it on stage in Angola.

According to Allocco’s team … Miguel was PISSED … and didn’t want Allocco to leave the country without resolving the whole money issue … so he sent his people to take them into custody at gunpoint.

Allocco’s people claim Patrick and his son were handed over to local authorities, where they were detained and interrogated for nearly seven hours.

The local U.S. Embassy finally stepped in and got them sprung.

A rep for the U.S. Embassy confirms … Patrick and his son are now “in residence” at a local hotel while the two sides try to resolve the money situation.

Allocco’s people gave up this statement from him … “The hope is that Nas and Jemiah Jai will return all of the monies that were wired to them immediately so that our ransom may be paid and our safe return to the United States may be facilitated.”

Calls to Nas and Jai have not been returned.

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Rappers turned actors are a dime a dozen these days, but there’s a new subculture of sorts cropping up in the hip-hop world — doting dads.

Ludacris (whose real name is Chris Bridges) is the latest to join the ranks, announcing the launch of his newest “and most personal” project, KarmasWorld.com , an educational website for kids.

Bridges says the site is dedicated to his 10-year-old daughter, Karma, who inspired the idea after visiting him in the studio and expressing her dreams of one day entering the music business like him.

“She kept telling me how she waned to be a singer, so I thought ‘this is perfect, but it needs to be about what’s going on in your life’ and her life right now is pretty much school,” Bridges says.

The site features original pop songs with clever educational lyrics that teach kids lessons in math, seasons and weather, gravity and space, and planets and the solar system, as well as ethical and social responsibilities like manners, honesty and not bullying.

Bridges also saw the venture as an opportunity to nurture his daughter’s entrepreneurial spirit and business savvy.

“She’s the CEO and I’m the VP,” he jokes, describing her role in creating the site as very hands on with input on character names, such as “Smartacus” and “L’il Luda.”

“My mother taught me [about entrepreneurship] at an early age and I’d like to pass on the same thing to my daughter,” he says. “It’s about creating wealth, it’s about putting her in a position where she can be her own boss and learn early about business, and I think that’s the greatest way to do it. It’s a crash course.”

For the kids KarmasWorld caters to, it’s also a crash course in subjects like science and geography that Bridges says is being taught in a totally new way, over original songs that he, Karma and his creative team produced. “We’re talking about a revolution in my opinion,” he says.

The site is designed for children in grades 1 through 6 and also includes lesson plans for teachers and parents, groups who Bridges says consulted with him throughout the year it took to create the site.

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The police found no signs of foul play. According to Rosen, Heavy D “was returning home from shopping. He experienced difficulty breathing while walking into his condominium building. He was being assisted up to his apartment by building personnel when he collapsed in an exterior hallway.”

Heavy D’s death comes almost a month after a comeback performance at the 2011 BET Hip-Hop Awards, when he performed a medley of his best-known singles, among them “Nuttin’ But Love,” “Is It Good to You” and “Now That We Found Love.”

On Twitter, he was known for posting affirming messages. His final tweet appeared early Tuesday morning.

HEAVY D @heavyd
HEAVY D
BE INSPIRED!
November 8, 2011 6:29 am via web Reply Retweet Favorite

Heavy D was born in Jamaica, and moved to Mt. Vernon, NY, when he was a child. Heavy D & The Boyz, the group which he fronted, was the first act signed to Uptown Records, the record company started by Andre Harrell.

“I remember getting him to work with then-choreographer Rosie Perez and him looking at me, like, ‘Should we really do this?’,” Harrell told Essence. “And I said, ‘a big man dancing is going to be really fun for people. It’s gonna make them love you.’”

The group enjoyed widespread fame in the early 1990s, and scored prominent cameos on hit songs with Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson. Heavy D also appeared on the theme songs for the popular sketch comedy shows “In Living Color” and “MadTV,” and later went on to run Uptown, the record label on which he’d spent much of his career.

But tragedy befell the group at the beginning of its commercial success. Troy Dixon, a member of the group known as Trouble T Roy, died in an accident after a show when he fell from an exit ramp. Dixon’s death was the inspiration for Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth’s “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.),” which is widely considered one of the greatest hip-hop songs of all time.

Heavy D was name-checked on the Notorious B.I.G.’s first hit single, “Juicy,” in which Biggie Smalls remembered growing up and wanting the kind of fame enjoyed by rap pioneers like Heavy D and Salt ‘N Pepa. A young Biggie Smalls appeared on Heavy D’s 1992 album “Blue Funk.”

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In partnership with Katrise Jones, the two co-own Salon Se Swa and recently opened up their fifth location in Charlotte, North Carolina according to All Hip-Hop.

Already successful in Raleigh, Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Rocky Mount it only makes sense to expand to Charlotte. “This new location allows us to cater to a larger customer base and better serve the needs of not only Charlotte, but also its surrounding areas,” said Jones.

But what about beyond the south?

Jones revealed they’re looking to turn the salon into a major franchise — allowing salons to pop up all over the nation.

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Rapper Rick Ross opened up on BET’s “106 & Park” yesterday, discussing, for the first time, the two seizures he suffered on an October 14th flight to Memphis. “It was a case of me not getting enough rest, enough sleep,” he said.

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, seizures are often triggered by factors such as lack of sleep, alcohol consumption, and stress. For women, hormonal changes associated with the menstrual cycle can also act as a trigger.

While these seizure triggers do not cause epilepsy, they can cause breakthrough seizures in people who otherwise experience good seizure control with their medication. “Sleep deprivation in particular is a universal and powerful trigger of seizures,” NINDS says.

The National Sleep Foundation explains, at greater length, the inherent relationship between sleep and epilepsy:

Sleep activates the electrical charges in the brain that result in seizures and seizures are timed according to the sleep wake cycle. For some people, seizures occur exclusively during sleep. This is especially true for a particular type of epilepsy known as benign focal epilepsy of childhood, also known as Rolandic epilepsy. When seizures occur during sleep, they may cause awakenings that are sometimes confused with insomnia. Epilepsy patients are often unaware of the seizures that occur while they sleep. They may suffer for years from daytime fatigue and concentration problems without ever knowing why.For people with epilepsy, sleep problems are a double-edged sword; epilepsy disturbs sleep and sleep deprivation aggravates epilepsy.

“For this reason, people with epilepsy should make sure to get enough sleep and should try to stay on a regular sleep schedule as much as possible,” NINDS recommends.

Rick Ross says he hasn’t had a good night’s sleep in 5 years. And although his doctor has given him a clean bill of health, Ross says he’s making room for naps, according to TMZ.

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At this weekend’s “Rock the Bells” concert in New York City, where the musician performed with Talib Kweli, Mos Def revealed that he’s retiring his name by the end of 2011. The new name? Yasiin.

“I’m retiring the Mos Def name after 2011. I’m actually doing it,” he told Sucker Free. “Mos Def is a name that I built and cultivated over the years, it’s a name that the streets taught me, a figure of speech that was given to me by the culture and by my environment, and I feel I’ve done quite a bit with that name and it’s time to expand and move on.”

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According to US Weekly..

Beyonce Knowles better brush up on her lullabies. The 29-year-old singer is pregnant with her first child, the new Us Weeklyreports. Despite the happy news, no one was more surprised than the singer herself.

“B was shocked. She loves kids, but she wasn’t ready to be a mother just yet,” says a source of the singer, who married rapper Jay-Z in 2008. “She really wanted to get her album done and tour the world again.”

Still, another insider says that the singer, who is in her first trimester, realizes that “this is a gift from God and she’s so happy.”

Friends of the couple are already expressing their well-wishes for the parents-to-be.

“Jay has been all about family since I met him, and he’s always going to be,” record executive Kevin Liles, who has known the rapper for years, tells Us. “I wish them the best.”

Knowles’ sister Solange — and mom to Julez, 6 — agrees. “She’s got the most beautiful heart,” she tells Us of her big sis. “She’ll be a great mom.”

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We all know that the rapper TI recently began his 366 day prison sentence in an Arkansas prison. Merged with the brilliance of TI is the darker side of his existence, the part that makes him willing to risk losing his family and freedom in the midst of all of the chaos in the hip hop industry.

In this conversation for “The Bottom Line with Dr. Boyce”, we discuss the broader meaning behind TI’s arrest, as well as how TI’s experience reflects the state of rap music in America. There is also the question of whether or not “keeping it real” is good for business, and whether TI is actually remorseful for his personal choices.

We can broaden the discussion to other issues in hip hop as well: Is it right that Rick Ross has been penalized for not being a criminal? Does TI have a lot in common with Tupac (beyond the fact that they are both talented artists)? If so, how can he be sure to avoid Tupac’s fate? We explore all this and more.

Click to listen!

 

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