The Jackson Five are to reform for a reunion tour, complete with Michael Jackson, his brother Jermaine Jackson has confirmed.

Jermaine Jackson told the British Broadcasting Corp. that the brothers were working on an album to be released to coincide with the tour, and that Michael was "absolutely on board."

The last time the original members performed together was at a concert in 2001 which celebrated Michael Jackson's 30 years in the music business.

There were reports of arguments between the siblings prior to the concert and doubts that Jermaine Jackson would in fact take part, the BBC said.

He said that it had been blown out of proportion and that he was not arguing with his brothers about the concert.
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In hopes of appealing to "tweens," girls 8 to 12-years old, Mattel Inc. is coming out with Flavas, a new collection of Hip-Hop dolls. The Flavas are a far cry from the conservative bombshell Barbie kids have been accustomed to for the last 44 years. Instead of the requisite blonde hair, and fair skin, dolls now wear extensions, highlighted hair and sport the latest trendy fashion, implying that they "pop their collars."

Meanwhile, the two boy Flavas dolls are quite thuggish, wearing earrings and serious facial expressions and sagging pants with their boxers showing on top of their cargo pants. Tika, a 10 inch tall b-girl who could easily be mistaken for Asian or Latina, sports an airbrushed jean jacket, shell-toe sneakers and rocks bling bling around her neck.

"She's like ... hip-hop," 10-year-old Crystal Audigier told the San Fransisco Chronicle as she examined the first batch of Flavas dolls to land at a Los Angeles FAO Schwarz store last week. In addition to wearing sweats and heavy links, the Flavas have names like Tre and P. Bo instead of Skipper or Ashley.

In her six decades, Barbie has seen quite a few changes, from getting a tan 30 years ago to introducing Black and Hispanic dolls. In 1998, her makeover even went as far as breast reduction and widened hips. "Mattel is recognizing that there are other trends besides Barbie that girls want to play with," Manny Francione, divisional merchandise manager for Toys "R" Us Inc., Paramus, N.J told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Hip-Hop is one of those trends."

Mattel's new direction was incited by Barbie's newly stiff competition, The Bratz, a MGA entertainment Inc. doll with a bigger head and fuller lips who has successfully catered to the "tween" demographic. While sales of Barbie dolls, clothes and accessories generated an unprecedented $1.9 billion in 1997, accounting for 90 percent of the fashion-doll market share, Barbie's share has now dropped to 70 percent.

Interestingly, MGA claims The Bratz were conceived by one of Barbie's former employees. Apparently, Mattel originally planned a similar project before it was scrapped at the testing stage five years ago. Yet, now Mattel is banking on Hip-Hop's increasing prominence to propel the Flavas over the Bratz. At one point in the Flavas' rushed process, Matt Bousquette, president of Mattel's brands unit insisted that the dolls had to look more Hip-Hop than the prototypes.

The Flavas come in boxes plastered with black and white photos of urban settings shot around Venice Beach. Once put together, the boxes reveal a grafftiti that reads "Fa Sizzle," a spin off on "Fa Shizzle." "The only thing that's missing is a cocaine vial," Isaac Larian, MGA's chief executive told the San Francisco Chronicle regarding the Flavas. You think of Mattel, you think of Barbie and you think of sweetness. ... This is like 'gangster' Barbie, and I think it's going to backfire."

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A Monroe, Louisiana City Councilman is planning to question the city's obscenity laws after Trina allegedly groped an audience member at a performance on July 12.

City Councilman Ben Katz said that he was "appalled" after a local newspaper ran photos of Trina's performance at the Monroe Civic Center, in which she straddled an audience member and unzipped his pants in front of the crowd.

"I saw pictures of acts I consider to be unsuitable for young people," Katz told the News-Star. "The pictures embarrassed me and I found that kind of act to be a disgrace. That kind of act shouldn't be seen in our public facilities. If it isn't an obscenity, we certainly need to revisit our standard for obscenity."

Other officials said that they had no tolerance for "conduct of that nature" and said that if they knew prior to the performance, they would have taken steps to prevent it.

With his new album “He’s Keith Murray” just hitting stores last week and the Def Jam Vendetta tour successfully ending after touring the early part of the summer, Keith Murray seemed to be in a good position with his record label, Def Jam.

Unfortunately, looks are deceiving since Def Jam has ended its deal with Keith Murray. Keith Murray claims he was let go from the label after a verbal argument with a label employee who told the label executives he felt threaten by Keith Murray. "The employee put a letter into human resources saying he couldn't work with me and he's scared of me and he can't work under those circumstances," Keith Murray told MTV. "Universal and Def Jam have been going through certain issues with Murder Inc. and with TVT Records so I guess they didn't want no controversy at their label. They didn't want the controversy [and] all the unpredictability of the situation getting any worse from the letter he wrote."

Although Keith does not have a deal yet he is working on an album independently and he has no current desire to hook back up with another major label. Not yet anyway. “I've always had aspirations to go independent but when I came home, I needed money. I had to go get a record deal and I felt Def Jam was the best place to be. At this point in the game I'm not trying to compete with those that want fame or the glitter. I want the money. It's all about me reaping benefits from my intellectual property. The new album is more about not worrying if the label's gonna push it, if this person's gonna like the record. It's me, full fledged, it's free. It's mentally free. [The album] is what I feel”.
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Thought the music industry was bluffing when it threatened to sue Internet pirates? Then maybe you're one of the 871 file traders hit with a federal subpoena this month.

And with 75 new subpoenas being approved each day, according to a U.S. District Court spokesperson, the figure is expected to crack four digits any day now. The court orders, levied on Internet service providers and colleges, are one of the first steps in the Recording Industry Association of America's promise last month to sue the most fruitful file swappers.

"This should not surprise anyone," an RIAA spokesperson said. "Filing information subpoenas is part of the evidence-gathering process that we announced a few weeks ago in anticipation of the lawsuits that we will be filing against people who illegally make copyrighted music available on P2P networks. We're doing exactly what we said we'd do."

The first wave of lawsuits, which can carry penalties as high as $150,000 per infringement, or shared song, are expected to arrive at defendants' doorsteps in mid-August.

An earlier court victory for the recording industry compelled ISPs to surrender the names and addresses of subscribers suspected of illegal file-sharing, pursuant to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The flood of subpoenas is so overwhelming that the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., has called in administrative reinforcements to handle the paperwork. Other civil suits filed with that court are likely to be transferred to another jurisdiction.

But just as car thieves manage to stay one step ahead of theft-deterrent systems, online pirates have devised ways to stay out of the RIAA's reach. The latest version of Kazaa Lite has a way of hiding some of the shared music files on a user's hard drive and can purportedly prevent users with an IP address associated with the RIAA from scanning the list of active users.

The copyright-infringement lawsuits the RIAA seeks are of the civil variety, but that may change if two congressmen have their way. Last week Democrats John Conyers and Howard Berman introduced a bill that would impose criminal penalties of up to five years in jail and a $250,000 fine against convicted swappers.

It's unclear how far the legislation will get, though. "I would not support criminal penalties for the person who just shares music files," said Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona. "If there's some kind of organized and orchestrated organization that does this as a profession to make a profit, then that probably would be appropriate. Look, these artists deserve a return for their talents and their abilities; we've got to try and make that happen. But to throw people in jail because they file-share, in my view, is a terrible overreach."