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.

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.

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.

Doug E. Fresh is one of the most notorious hip hop legends that are still around and doing big things. He was the first human beatboxer ever. He interacted with various artists in his day and still have close contact with some, like Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Now, he has an upcoming performance with other notables, such as M.C. Lyte, DJ Kool, Big Daddy Kane and Slick Rick. The performance will feature DJ Sean Knight and will be hosted by Uncle Rail. The show is being presented by Unique Entertainment of Merriville and Dallas. The performers at this show are only a few that have helped to set the foundation of hip hop, making it into a big movement that has influenced people in all walks of life.

Back in 1989, M.C. Lyte released an album called “Eyes on This”; the popular single from it was called “Cha Cha Cha.” She is going to be one of the highlights of the show. Fresh, too, delivered a hot single called “The Show.” He kept up with the momentum by releasing “Keep Risin’ to the Top.” Back in the day, Fresh claims that hip hop was all about celebration, which is indeed true. If you look at a lot of the singles that were released throughout the years, you’ll notice that a lot of them were party tracks and were played in the clubs a lot. They were feel good music. Doug E. Fresh feels that he helped to continue the the hip hop industry after the original guys started it. He also says that he learned a lot from the different groups that came out decades ago when hip hop was first established.

What do you think about gospel being implemented into hip hop? Some people are thinking, it’s about time something good and useful is being said in hip hop, but then there are others who may think that it’s pretty lame and that it won’t get far. It’s been proven that gospel hip hop isn’t a popular favorite and if you ask me, it seems a bit hypocritical. A lot of the preachers and rappers preaching in songs aren’t practicing what they preach. On the screen or in front of people, they are this way and then behind closed doors or when they “clock out” for the day, they become someone totally different (a lot of people may agree). For two people, gospel in hip hop is a revolution waiting to happen.

Terverius Black is an entrepreneur, who believes that hip hop gospel is something to invest in and grow. He even sold his first house in order to pay for the expenses to start up his Christian-themed entertainment company called Xist Worldwide Record Label with his partner Sean Simmonds. The 34-year-old took a big risk with this and the two believe that he could be like other top entrepreneurs like Diddy, Jay-Z and Russell Simmons. They all branched out from music to create other lines, such as clothing, shoes, TV shows, etc. Black and Simmonds have already branched out with a gospel cruise, film and reality television show. They’re also doing a syndicated 2-hour radio talk show. The company has sold over 500,000 hip hop gospel records digitally and in CD form. They are hoping to reach the “unchurched” people and give hip hop gospel a place in the music industry.

Rihanna’s new album “Rated R” is scheduled to be released on November 23rd and already, there are lots of speculation and excitement about it. In this album, she is portraying herself in a tougher image, unlike her previous glamorous self. On the music video of her single “Wait Your Turn” shows a grainy, sexy clip of Rihanna that shows her as a tough renegade. This is the type of image she and her music-video collaborator, Anthony Mandler, were going for. The video was shot in the middle of October on a cold day in the Big Apple. The first video is just a preview of what’s to come. The two talked about creating something that’s a bit more raw and gritty, so they decided to create a more “Street” video than a classic beauty piece.

They reviewed early hip hop videos and liked how they weren’t created with few resources — they mostly used their environment and surroundings; the textures and shapes. In the video Rihanna is wearing an eye patch and heels, giving a hard-edge feel to he usual glam self. Some of the videos that inspired her featured artists like Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep and Nas. The words behind the song were carefully thought up in order to create the same image audio-wise: aggressive bravado. Rihanna is a young artist that is always pushing boundaries. She has changed her identity so many times, so you never know what she’ll come up with next. She is a true artist, someone that knows how to transform the picture and make it into anything she wants to portray.

Hip hop has long since been related to the violence in African American communities and artists like Lupe Fiasco has been tooting the same note. Not sure if you heard about the Derrion Albert murder in Chicago — he was a teen walking home from school and got caught up in a gang fight and was beaten to death.The young man was not a gang member and he was a good student in school. Lupe Fiasco was on the Chicago radio station WGCI saying that it was a possibility that hip hop influenced that incident. Lupe is from the Windy City and says that it has to take some credit for it. He claims that there is a lot of violence in hip hop itself and it attributes much of the negativity that is found in the hood.

But this isn’t the only hip hop artist that thinks this way. Others like Nas, Twista and Common have the same views. They all condemn the “culture of violence” hip hop has established and is believed to have led the group of teenage gang members to commit that horrendous crime that day. Lupe also argues that the artists themselves are partially responsible for inciting various influences, from poverty to violent films. It’s true that hip hop does have some positive songs and messages out there, but the negative far outweigh the good. And the negativity in hip hop is a lot more popular because it is considered more “hard” or “gansta”. The communities are too at fault for taking hip hop too seriously and trying to implement them into their own lives.

We’ve heard those words before,”I’m going into retirement”, from sooo many different hip hop artists, such as Jay-Z, Master P, Eminem and so forth. But for some reason, they just can’t leave the game alone. They all come back one or two years later with a debut album. Jay-Z is by far the worst, if you ask me. He has retired like 4 times, but just keeps coming back. I don’t and won’t believe it anymore if he says it again. Now, it just seems like a big publicity stunt to get people to buy their CDs because it’s the last time they will hear from them.

Now, Lil Wayne is claiming that he will retire, but no time soon. His retirement plan says that he will stay in the game no longer than 8 more years.Wayne claims that he always said that he wouldn’t rap anymore after the age 35. Ha, he says that now. A lot of people agree that rappers and hip hoppers shouldn’t be old and should retire to allow new game to come into the industry. But Jay-Z being an old head, of course, doesn’t agree. He says that it shouldn’t be made easy for the youngsters coming into the hip hop game. If they want to be on top, they’re going to have to work hard for it. Heck, it wasn’t made easy for Jay. Back then, there wasn’t as much competition as there is now, even if a lot of them are low-level rappers. People like these stars because they make good club bangers. After Lil Wayne retires, he’s looking to own a basketball team.

So it seems hip hop artistLil Wayne has been quite busy producing these past two years — no not music…babies! With all of the rumors and speculation surrounding Lil Wayne’s and Nivea’s hook-up, it has been recently confirmed that the two are now expecting a baby. This will be Lil Wayne’s fourth child and Nivea’s first. Come to find out, she is so far along that they already know that it will be a Lil Wayne jr. Yes, a lil boy is on the way, how glorious. But this boy won’t get the blessing of being the first, he is actually the third son of Lil Wayne in a little over a year. And Nivea makes the fourth baby momma. Wow…hasn’t someone been busy? With all of this counting, you could easily get thrown off track. Okay, let’s try this.

Lil Wayne’s first son was born last October in Cincinattti and then in September of ‘09, his second son came from the actress Lauren London and now Nivea is having his third son. He has a daughter, Reginae, from an older relationship with his ex-wife Antonia “Toya” Carter. When Lil Wayne was asked if Nivea was pregnant with his child, his response was “Yessir”. Then one reporter stated, “Two women pregnant at the same time. Congratulations.” Lil Wayne replied “Three.” No, he doesn’t have three women prego at the same time, what he actually meant was that it would be son number three. Hopefully all goes well and he takes care of his children and be a bit more responsible. Marry one of these women at least!

After three years of secret dating, Ashanti and Nelly are rumored to have broken up. Neither of the two have confirmed or denied the rumor. The N.Y. Daily News reports that the two allegedly broke up because of a disagreement about their future. Supposedly, pop princess Ashanti was ready to settle down (of course) and hip hop rapper Nelly still wanted to play the field a bit longer. There have also been reports that Nelly was hanging around model-actress Melyssa Ford in Miami and spending time with Melody Thornton, lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, in Las Vegas. So there is speculation that the two women could have played a role in the breakup.

Rumors of Ashanti and Nelly dating began in 2003 and wasn’t confirmed until 2008. The two have been dating on the low for three years and when Nelly came out to confirm that they were dating, he stated that they were in a “serious” relationship. I don’t know about everyone else, but it seems like he used the wrong word to describe their relationship. After all, serious in today’s world means there’s a marriage in the future. There was supposed talk about an engagement and wedding some time ago…wonder what happened. Well within the next couple of days or weeks, we may get a confirmation and, if we’re lucky, an explanation about the breakup.

Other breakups that have been reported are Omarion and Young Money Records and Kim Kardashian and Reggie Bush. More to come on those topics.