The All-Star game took place on Valentine’s Day at the Dallas, Texas stadium (the new and biggest basketball stadium with about 90,000 seats). The goal of this stadium was to be the biggest stadium that allows the most viewers per game. It was a great pick for the All-Star game this past weekend, which was filled to capacity. Among the thousands of fans were many popular celebrities. If you were watching the All-Star game, you may have seen some A-Listers like Gabrielle Union, hip hop artist Jay-Z, Jamie Foxx, Sean Diddy Combs and Spike Lee, among others. Even Kobe Bryant was sitting on the sidelines — he was supposed to be in the All-Star game, but he ended up getting his foot injured, during a prior game.

Some of the All-Star players that made it include Lebron James, Jason Kidd, Dirk Norwitzki, Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wade and Dwight Howard, among others. The West Coast was leading the game in the beginning, but the East soon caught up, tying them twice. During the fourth quarter, they were tied up. The last couple of seconds ticked by as they continued to foul one another, and finally the East Coast took the title. Dwayne Wade was granted MVP, with 28 points, 11 assists and 5 rebounds. Not bad at all. The All-Star game was the final event of a great All-Star weekend. On Friday, it was the celebrity game and Rookie vs. Sophomore game. Then on Saturday it was the slam dunk contest, three point contest, horse and two other challenges.

Eighty-one artists have come together to remake Michael Jackson’s “We are the World”. The purpose of the remake isn’t only for its iconic status, but for the symbolism of the song and for the Haitian relief fund. The celebrities that have come together are looking to raise more money for the devastation that has occurred in Haiti. This sounds like an awesome thing to many, but not so hot to some — such as Jay-Z, who didn’t want any part in the remake. He even went as far as saying that he loves the song and that it’s like “Thriller”, and never wants to see it touched. He also said that he’s a fan of music and knows the plight and everything that’s going on in Haiti — he applauds the efforts, but believes that some things are just untouchable.

Some of the artists that are associated with the Michael Jackson remake include, Pink, Wyclef Jean, Vince Vaughn, Justing Beiber, Keri Hilson, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Hudson, Robin Thicke, Kanye West, Celine Dion, Akon, Rob Thomas, Jason Mraz, Toni Braxton, Barbara Streisand, Nichole Richie, Usher, Busta Rhymes and Miley Cyrus, among a whole bunch of others. The track has a more Southern hip hop kick to it. Michael Jackson recorded the original track about 25 years ago for the African famine relief. Back then, a great connection was made for human kind, so the hopes for this remake is to have the same effect.

Not many may have heard of Daniel Bernard Roumain, but he is a very talented Haitian American violinist. Different types of music has influenced him through his upbringing in South Florida, including Haitian, reggae, Afro-Cuban and hip hop. Other genres he was introduced to include classical, Latin and Brazilian. He went on to study music in Vanderbilt University and obtained a PhD in composition from the University of Michigan. Of course, the music he was exposed to as a youngster never left his blood. Today, he mixes up everything and most recently, he mixed up hip hop with classical at the Vancouver Olympics.

Roumain says that his music is like a Creole Dish, made up with many parts. He also said that his music reflects his heritage and modern technology, which allows people to create their own playlists. Being known as a Haitian American artist has given him much unexpected spotlight these past few weeks because of the earthquake in Haiti. He’s been known as a Haitian American violinist since 1992, but because of his heritage, he has gained a lot of spotlight. He stated that he feels guilty about what happened in Haiti and that sometimes he feels helpless or that he’s not doing enough. So he’s decided to donate a portion of his merchandise sales to Haitian relief. He and his signer Emeline Michel does have plans to visit Haiti for a series of concerts and a variety of other events in order to help their ancestral homeland.

Birdman, Bryan Williams and his brother Slim, Ronald Williams, are best known as being the fathers of Cash Money Records. Back in the early 1990s, the Williams brothers started the record label out of their New Orleans projects and since then they have been taking the music industry by storm. Altogether, the Hot Boys have gone multiplatinum and gold, selling over 45 million albums. Some of the hip hop artists associated with the record label has included Lil Wayne, BG, Juvenile and Baby, aka Birdman. With such great success in the music industry, it only makes since for Birdman to move on to bigger things. Well, word has it that he and his brother founded a new exploration and development oil company called Bronald Oil & Gas LLC.

The oil venture company has properties in Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Oklahoma and South America. Bronald Oil & Gas has yet to gain any investors or staff, since it is still in its beginning stages. Although, they do hope to partner up with other developers to “jointly exploit significant additional assets by leveraging Bronald’s infrastructure.” It seems that Birdman is so into his oil company that he got a tattoo of an oil well on his head.

“I want to make this a full-fledged entertainment and music company for all genres of music, from pop and rock to country and gospel,” says Slim. “I also want to make the film company just as big, if not bigger, than the record label. I want it all — music, publishing, film, videogames, DVD.” Hopefully the oil investment won’t be a big regret like with his prior investment in R. Kelly.

Wyclef Jean is famous for being a Haitian-born rapper/singer, and is sometimes referred to as the face of Haiti. His charity called Yele Haiti, is a charity that’s been around for some years, helping the third world country build money for food, education and other things that are needed. Now, more than ever, all the help Haiti can get is needed. It was hit by two earthquakes, one was 7 in magnitude and the other a 6.1 magnitude (January 12th and January 20th), devastating millions of Haitians in and around the capitol of Port-Au-Prince. Millions of people are left homeless, hungry, injured and thirsty.

Although Yele Haiti is making its contributions to the disaster in Haiti, Wyclef Jean has been facing a lot of fire about where exactly the charity money is going. On Monday, a teary-eyed Wyclef spoke at a press conference to his fellow Haitians back home, asking them to be patient. There has been a lot of criticism and finger pointing in his direction regarding profiting from the misery of his people. During the press conference he said, “Have we made mistakes? Yes. Did I ever use Yele money for personal benefit? Absolutely not.”

He denies the allegations of these claims to the fullest. It all began when his tax returns were viewed from three, four and five years ago. On there shows costs, like the one to his Manhattan recording studio in the amount of $31,000 — a little far from Haiti, don’t ya think? Then there’s his TV production company in Haiti that showed six digit payments from something called “outreach” — quite a big share of the foundations money. So far, Yele Haiti has accumulated over $2 million for Haiti’s earthquake victims.

There are plenty of celebrities that are teaming up with charities and even starting their out foundations to help the large amount of Haitian individuals and families that are in need. The devastating scale 7 earthquake that hit the small island’s capital, Port-Au-Prince, on January 12th has left the country in peril. Then 49 aftershocks at 4.5 or lower levels took place afterward. Then on January 20th, another earthquake hit Haiti at a 6.1 magnitude, so you can imagine all of the chaos that has been taking place there. The palace (similar to the White House in America) was completely destroyed, along with hundreds of other buildings in the capitol. Millions of Haitians are left homeless and just as many are starving and extremely thirsty. Aid has been coming in to assist the devastated Haitians, but a whole lot more will be needed.

Celebrities like Rihanna and Jay-Z will be participating in the “Hope for Haiti” organization that was created by George Clooney. It is the largest benefit and is located in three locations, L.A., NY and London. There will be a London telethon that will feature performances by Bono from U2 and ColdPlay. They will be performing a Haiti tribute called “Haiti Mon Amour”, which was produced by Hip Hop artist Swizz Beatz. George Clooney will be in L.A. hosting a segment of the program, which will feature Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera and Taylor Swift. Then, of course, Wyclef Jean has his foundation called Yele Haiti, which is an organization that was created solely for the people of Haiti. In NY, Wyclef will be hosting the segment that will feature other artists like Shakira, Jennifer Huhson and Bruce Springsteen.

After the highly publicized breakup between Rihanna and Chris Brown, there have been numerous rumors of them getting back together or hooking up with others. Now, it has been confirmed by Rihanna that she is indeed dating Matt Kemp, a baseball player. The two have been denying their relationship and were claiming to be “just friends”. The two were seen watching a basketball game between the L.A. Clippers and Cleveland Cavaliers over the weekend. She was also seen sporting a new hair do; it’s still the same bob, but now has a bush on top, which has been colored blond.

The two lovebirds were sitting courtside, smiling and talking, while ignoring cameras and the watching fans. She did however at one point, stand up and wave to the camera and the watching public. Rihanna and Matt were also spotted vacationing on a Yacht in Mexico, during the holidays — when they were supposedly “just friends”. It is said that the couple met during a birthday bash hosted by Tyrese Gibson and Tank.

Speculation of the two dating began during the Christmas holiday when they were seen in Mexico. Then apparently at the b-ball game, the two showed a lot of body language of a couple, but there was no kissing or cuddling. But they weren’t fooling anyone. Hopefully, the two will last and work out a lot better than the Chris Brown era.

Starting in May, Devar Hurd, a 31 year old man from Indiana, started sending celebrity Ashanti and her mother Tina Douglas crude text messages and x-rates photos. He sent over 30 texts to the two, exposing himself and making graphic comments — supposedly, he was doing this to win Ashanti over (what a way to do so). He claimed that women liked sexting (sexual texting) and that Ashanti never asked him to stop and that many of his female friends enjoy it. Ashanti only cussed at him one time, he says.

He is a wanna-be hip hop singer/rapper and was given Tina Douglas’ number (who is also a Ashanti’s manager) by Irv Gotti, after he got in touch with them and sang for them. Back in 2003, Devar went to Chicago concert and saw Ashanti there — they made eye contact and from that point he “had to meet her”. He began sending text images of his genitals and him pleasuring himself while watching one of her concert videos. Devar even went as far as to send naked girl pictures to Ashanti’s father. His main defense in court is that Ashanti never protested against receiving the texts from him. So basically, she welcomed the texts he claims. Devar says that Tina hardly resisted his calls to her. He sang for her and asked if she liked him.

Well, the jury wasn’t buying any of this — and who would? He was convicted of aggravated harassment and is set to serve up to 2 years in prison. He is has been locked up at the Riker’s Island prison since July.

Kwanzaa is an African American celebration that takes place each year, on the day after Christmas. Maya Angelou created a documentary called “The Black Candle”. Just like during Hanukkah, families that celebrate Kwanzaa light 7 candles and celebrate the holiday for 7 days, each day lighting one of the candles. There are three red candles, three green candles and one black candle in the middle. The movie Maya Angelou created talks about Kwanzaa and the people of Kwanzaa, as far as where they were, are and going.

About 20 million people celebrate Kwanzaa around the world each year, including in countries like France, Canada, South Africa and Jamaica. Two of the main misconceptions about the holiday is that it has religious origins or that it is an alternative to X-mas, but various black churches and temples did play a role in the growth of Kwanzaa. Hip hop also played a role in the growth of Kwanzaa, during the 80s and 90s. Plus, during the making of Maya Angelou’s film, she received a lot of support from the hip hop community, including from Dead Prez and Chuck D. Dead Prez talked about learning about Kwanzaa from hip hop and Chuck D discussed how hip hop made them culturally aware and educated them. Many people think that Kwanzaa is only for and celebrated by Blacks, but people of all races partake in the celebration each year. If you would like to learn more about Kwanzaa, you should definitely check out the film by Maya Angelou, The Black Candle.

There’s been a lot on the plate of Lil Wayne, dealing with everything from court dates, hip hop albums and his new rock album (yeah, he’s dipping in pretty much everything these days). You may not have heard a lot from him this year, but we have heard from others like Gucci Mane (who’s been sentenced to 12 months in jail for violation of probation) and Drake who have been said to have taken Lil’ Wayne’s template for their own use. So far, it looks like it’s working. In some songs, Drake even sounds like Lil’ Wayne, like in the song “You the Best” (I thought it was Lil’ Wayne when I first heard it). The Carter came back to release “We are Young Money”, which features various artists. It was created by Cash Money, Young Money and Universal Motown. Lil Wayne has been working with various artists, piecing together the group Young Money– two of them being Drake and Nicki Minaj. Nicki is taking charge in the female rapping industry and is known as today’s hardest working female rapper. Other artists in Young Money include Gudda Gudda, Jae Millz, Tyga, Lil Chuckee and Lil Twist.

Also on Lil’ Wayne’s plate is his rock album, called “Rebirth”, which was accidentally leaked onto the internet when Amazon shipped out 500 or so pre-ordered CDs to customers. Rebirth was made by Universal Motown and Cash Money Records. Next year, Lil’ Wayne is scheduled to appear in court on Feb 9th for a gun possession charge that occurred in 2007. He is also set to start his sentence the same day. So far, his new group Young Money has produced two hits, “Every Girl in the World” and “Bedrock”. Hopefully Lil’ Wayne’s absence won’t slow down their productivity.