Snoop Dogg recently filed a lawsuit against Gary Barbera Enterprises for allegedly using his picture and trademark slang in a newspaper ad without permission.

Barbera, who was just recently sued by 50 Cent for also using his picture without consent, is now being taken to court by the Doggfather. Snoop is seeking $2 million, $1 million more than 50's suit.

Barbera's auto dealership, based out of Roxbourough - a small town in Philadelipia, PA - ran ads in the Philadelphia Daily News on August 22nd (only three days after 50 filed his lawsuit against the company). The ad featured an image of the West Coast emcee with Lee Iacocca, Chrylser's ex- chairman. It also contained the tagline "Is Bar-Bizzle the Sh-izzle? Boy I Gu-izzle."

Snoop and Iacocca both appear in a TV commercial for Chrysler, but according to Snoops's lawsuit Barbera never received permission to use his name or photo. Snoop's lawsuit also accuses Barbera of trademark infringement, unfair competition, and unauthorized use of likeness and trademark dilution.

Eric Gerstein, Barbera's marketing director has this to say about the lawsuit compared to the 50 incident, "[it's] the same lyrics, different beat. We've already been in contact with Snoop's people, and we're working it out." He also said that Chrysler TV spot was forwarded to them directly by Chrysler and he was just following the corporate line.

Snoop's lawyer declined to comment.

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"A couple of my homies drowned, two houses underwater, so much I gotta digest, trying to keep on a smiley face," a devastated Choppa told SOHH.com as he assesses the loss in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Reports say Hurricane Katrina is set to become the worst natural disaster to hit the United States. Experts say up to 1 million people could become homeless. Katrina is likely to surpass the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which claimed between 8,000 to 12,000 lives. According to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, the death toll "is in the thousands" so far. It will take weeks before accurate numbers are revealed. Mississippi already counts 110 deaths. Officials say thousands of homes and businesses have been demolished and food, water and power supplies are hard to come by. Katrina is also set to become the costliest natural disaster ever in the U.S.

The city of New Orleans, home to Cash Money's Lil Wayne, Juvenile and Mannie Fresh as well as Master P's No Limit family, was flooded when levees protecting the city ruptured. According to Chuck George, Chief Meteorologist of KOLD 13 in Tucson, Arizona, "the levees that protected New Orleans were never intended to withstand more than a Category 3 hurricane. Katrina pulled water from the Gulf of Mexico eastward into Lake Pontchartrain and the extra water resulted in very fast flow through the canals that carry the water through New Orleans and back into the gulf. That extra flow resulted in breakage of the levees."

Reports say the flooding caused massive amounts of people to be stranded and contagious diseases are prone to spread in the devastated areas. The city is reportedly 80% under water with some areas drowned in water 20 feet deep. With the conditions making it difficult to come by food, many have resorted to looting grocery stores and businesses to survive. The looting is presently escalating at a rapid rate. Looters are said to use garbage cans to sail away with food, TV sets, clothes and guns. There have been reports of car jacking, police officers claim to have been shot at and police say a man in Hattiesburg, Mississippi killed his sister, shooting her in the head over a bag of ice. President George W. Bush vowed a no tolerance policy against looters. About 4,000 National Guard troops were sent to New Orleans to combat the looting.

Meanwhile, the Hip-Hop world has been shaken by Katrina's deadly impact. Lil Wayne's daughter and mother are presently still in the depleted New Orleans. Other Cash Money members also have relatives stranded in the N.O. "My family was affected by the hurricane. I am waiting to see what the damage is," Wayne told SOHH.com. When trying to contact Mississippi's own David Banner, SOHH.com found a recorded operator message saying, "Due to the hurricane in the area you are calling the call cannot be completed at this time.

For Chopper aka Young City, the loss is devastating. The former Making Da Band star is assessing the damage, having lost possessions and friends.

"I got a lot of food on the table (meaning mad sh!t on his mind) so much I gotta digest. A couple of my homies drowned," Choppa tells SOHH.com.

The 19 year old rapper, the main breadwinner for his family and on the cusp of enjoying his newfound success, reports that the homes of his mother, grandmother and one of his homes was destroyed by water.

"[I] Just put a movie theatre in the house...now that's ruined," says Choppa. "Cash Money's Houses were also underwater... they live on the same block as me. I'm in the process of relocating my family to Cali [California], Atlanta, Houston and Memphis."

The Scream Tour 4 featuring Bow Wow, Omarion, Pretty Ricky, Bobby Valentino and Marques Houston was slated to stop by the Mississippi Coliseum in downtown Jackson. Instead, the concert was canceled and the venue served as a shelter filled with evacuated residents from nearby areas.

With large parts of Louisiana and Mississippi still under water, relief efforts are coming from all angles. Weezie said that he and Baby will likely start relief efforts once they secure their loved ones' safety. Houston's Astrodome is set to take in 25,000 refugees previously packed in New Orleans Superdome. The operation was set to begin today, but was halted due to gunshots and fires outside the arena. Buses are on the way to take the refugees from New Orleans to Houston. Reports say that 78,000 people are presently in shelters since the storm hit. FEMA sent over 50 disaster assistance teams to the devastated areas. The organization also sent over 25 urban search and rescue squads amounting to over 1,000 people to help save lives. The United States Coast Guard is also conducting searches. The Coast Guard is working in conjunction with local officials and local assets. They have rescued up to 2,000 people to date.

The National Guard presently has 11,000 Guardsmen helping governors and local officials with safety and disaster relief efforts. FEMA is also working with the Army Corp of Engineers and local officials to repair breeches in the levees in hope to stop the flooding in New Orleans. The Department of Transportation is also sending in 400 trucks to move 1,000 truckloads containing 5.4 million meals ready to eat, including 13.4 liters of water,10,400 tarps, 3.4 million pounds of ice, 144 generators and 20 containers of prepositions disaster supplies with 135,000 blankets and 11,000 coats. More relief efforts are expected to follow.

Despite the heavy burden he is bearing, Choppa is "trying to keep on a smiley face" and stay strong for his family. The rapper has already donated $100,000 to the Red Cross and is interested to do a benefit concert.

"In N.O., they always said that one day the city would be underwater. We never pictured this one...never like this."
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Last night, two of music's biggest names, Sean "Diddy" Combs and Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, joined together to donate $1 million to the American Red Cross. However, reports of racism on behalf of relief workers is said to be thwarting efforts to get desperately needed water, food and medical supplies to the people of New Orleans.

Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and Sean "Diddy" Combs join together to donate $1 million to the American Red Cross to help the victims and refugees of this national disaster. In addition, both stars have pledged immediate donations of clothing from the Roc-a-wear and Sean John clothing collections, in order to provide essential dry clothing to those who have lost everything.

The stars remarked that, as African American men, they could not stand by and do nothing as communities they knew waited for help.

"This event has devastated hundreds of thousands of people. We, as African American men and leaders of our community felt it was a necessity to join forces and help. Diddy and I are committed to supporting our people in whichever way we can," said Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter.

But much needed aide has failed to get to the areas most desperately affected, namely the New Orleans Superdome where necessary food and water has not reached the mainly African-American population of women, men and infants in four days. Many, including Chris Matthews of NBC's Hardball, are calling the failures "racial."

"We talk about 'the big one' out in San Francisco.... Well the big one in America is race -- that's the San Andreas fault of this country. And to see it so vividly displayed between poverty and middle class and white and black, right out there with those people begging for water, a basic human need, and to see that in way that looks like it's racial, really rips the scab off of this country," said Matthews on The Today Show this morning. "This is the thing we don't want to face, and now we're going to have to face it."

This morning, President Bush stated in an address that "the results are not acceptable." He will tour Biloxi Mississippi but will only fly over New Orleans, supposedly over security concerns.

Carl Quintanilla, a reporter in New Orleans, spoke on the Today Show about the overblown reports that the New Orleans area is "a riot zone."

"This is not a death trap, these people are not criminals, they need help and all of their frustrations are centered around that."

Quintanilla also remarked that his news crews went outside the city to where ambulances and buses with relief are staged doing nothing. "I'm not going in there," Quintanilla reports one relief workers as saying, "I've told my wife I'm not going in there."

The racial theme became a headline early on in the disaster, starting from disparities in the captions of pictures on Yahoo showing desperate black and white people trying to get food. The captions on the photos of white people stated they "found bread" whereas the black people where captioned as "looters." Yahoo issued this statement:

"Since the controversy began, the supplier of one of the photos - AFP - has asked all its clients to remove the photo from their databases. Yahoo! News has complied with the AFP request. Yahoo! News regrets that these photos and captions, viewed together, may have suggested a racial bias on our part."

NBC Photojournalist Tony Zumbado, spoke to the Today Show this morning about the desperation he captured as he toured the Superdome with his cameras calling the filth, death, despair and devastation he saw "the saddest situation I've ever seen, stateside." He refuted reports of lawlessness saying that people were helping one another and that "There is no security problem in this area at all."

"Imagine a bathroom in a baseball stadium not operating for 4 days with 25,000 people using it," said Zumbado. "Katie, I could not videotape half of the things I saw... it was the most horrific thing I've seen."

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