Diddy, Kanye West and Snoop Dogg are among the loads of Hip-Hop's finest slated to take over Detroit this weekend for hosting duties, concerts and exclusive star-studded shindigs celebrating Super Bowl XL.

'Ye is getting an early start tonight (February 2), sharing the stage with rockers Nickleback and Goo Goo Dolls for the Pepsi Smash Super Bowl Bash at Detroit's State Theatre. Elsewhere, Juvenile will be hosting a party at the Bleu Room Experience.

Starting Friday (February 3), Diddy is partnering with Executive One to throw one the weekend's biggest bashes. For three days, The Captains Bar & Grille will officially be known as "Diddy's House." Previously able to accommodate 700 patrons, the venue has now been redesigned to hold up to 2,500 Super Bowl party-goers. Diddy's House will also provide a continuous shuttle service for party goers to travel back and forth from its location.

On Friday, Diddy's House will hold A Black Affair hosted by Young Jeezy. The event will also feature a performance by Bun B. Diddy's House will present Diddy's Fifth Annual Players Ball on Saturday and hold Diddy's Diamonds & Furs soiree on Sunday. Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is set to host the Furs event and is expected to give away a mink coat to one lucky partygoer.

Part of the revenues from Diddy's three-day event will be donated to Detroit's St. JohnsHospital and the Coalition of Temporary Shelter. Diddy and Executive One will also award a MackenzieHigh School student with a scholarship.

Also holding festivities on consecutive nights, Snoop is set to headline the Bud Bowl 2006 at Tiger Stadium on Friday and Saturday. The show is slated to take place prior to Detroit's professional football championship.

Meanwhile, The Fugees are set to hit the stage at Clutch Cargo on Friday. Kanye, John Legend and the D's own Slum Village will join the trio on the bill. The Diddy will momentarily step away from his own house to host the $200-per person Cashmere Party at Elysium Lounge. Chris Rock, Adam Sandler and actor Terry Crews ("Everybody Hates Chris") are scheduled to make appearances. Fergie of Black Eyed Peas will team up with Ja Rule to host the 10 Party at the Bleu Experience Room. Lastly, Mannie Fresh and Doug E. Fresh are set to appear at Detroit's Main Event at Hoop City Grille. The soiree is hosted by former Detroit Lions Larry Tharpe, Barry Sanders and Lomas Brown will stop by. Finally, a mix of dirty south, east coast and Midwestern artists are set to take the stage for the "Rap Bowl" concert. Ludacris, Twista, Juelz Santana and Juvenile are all expected to take stage at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

More parties and concerts are scheduled to take place on Saturday. Legend will be at it again as he joins Jamie Foxx, Nelly and legendary acts such as Four Tops, the Miracles and Martha Reeves for Motown's Music Fest at the MasonicTemple.

Superstars are also scheduled to come out for game day Sunday. Kanye, Stevie Wonder and the Rolling Stones will take the stage at Detroit's Ford Field at halftime of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks game. While the Stones will headline the show, Wonder is slated to team up with new generation soul singers such as Legend, Joss Stone and India. Arie for his set.

For those who don't have tickets to the big game, Eminem's Shady Records will host a Super Bowl fiesta at State Theatre on game day. Shady artists Obie Trice and Stat Quo will be on hand while Biz Markie will spin at the event. It is uncertain whether Em will make an appearance. Meanwhile, Em's labelmate Busta Rhymes will hit the Bleu Room Experience to celebrate the release of his CD, The Big Bang.

While hip-hop seems to have Detroit Rock City on lock this weekend, some parties will not be going off as planned. Earlier this month, SOHH.com reported that a Super Bowl weekend party hosted by Jay-Z was denied across to the Detroit Public Library. MMG concert promoter Demetrius Carrington said library officials were "scared because of the scope of the event."

Super Bowl XL will kick-off Sunday, February 5 at 6pm on ABC.
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Hip hop icon and Run-DMC co-founder Darryl "DMC" McDaniels will reveal the life-altering discovery of his adoption via a VH1 documentary entitled "DMC: My Adoption Journey."

While gathering information for his autobiography in 2000, DMC's "mother" revealed to the then 35-year-old that he was adopted. The revelation sent DMC on a journey to find out more about his biological family, and a VH1 film crew was there to capture it all.

"My Adoption Journey" will air on February 25, at 9 PM and will be VH1's first reality TV documentary under the VH1 Rock Doc Series. As previously reported by SOHH, the series will also do a feature on TLC's Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, which will air later on in the year.

DMC will also be releasing his long overdue solo album titled Checks, Thugs and Rock n Roll in March. The album will be released through his own label Rags 2 Riches Records, and will feature appearances from Sarah McLachlan, Ms. Jade, Kid Rock and actor Gary Dourdan ("CSI," "A Different World"), among others.

DMC's former partner-in-rhyme Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons enjoyed enormous success when his reality show "Run's House" debuted on MTV late last year. According to Daily Variety, the first four episodes of the show averaged 2.1 million viewers.

The show focused on Run as he juggled between his rapping career and raising his five children. MTV ordered a second season of Run's House which is slated to air later on this year.

"DMC: My Adpotion Journey" will air on VH1 on February 25 at 9pm, while DMC's solo album, Checks, Thugs and Rock n Roll, is due on March 14.
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Spike Lee denounced Snoop Dogg and pimp culture Wednesday night (February 1) during a Black History Month event at the University of Florida.

While Lee is best known for directing films-nearly one a year since making She's Gotta Have It in 1986--he's also gained a reputation for outspoken social critique, and his comments at the University of Florida's O'Connell Center were no exception. In addition to making a few jokes about President George W. Bush and his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Lee also used the opportunity to criticize the portrayal of blacks in mass media.

"We are bombarded by these ('gangsta') images again and again and again and again . . . They do make a difference on human behavior," Lee told the crowd of over 2,000. "No one gets upset that pimpdom gets elevated on a pedestal."

Among Lee's other targets was Soul Plane star Snoop, who he made repeated reference to while deriding the stereotypical images promoted by films and videos. Lee, who has also directed music videos, took issue with the rap music genre's portrayal of women in videos as "hoes" and went so far as to accuse rappers of "cooning" in music videos.

"African-Americans are known all over the world from these videos," he said.

Aside from his issues with the representation of blacks in media, Lee also advised students to, "find a profession you love so much, you'd do it for free," adding that he felt blessed by his career. "Not many people on this Earth get to do what they love."

With a career spanning two decades, Lee has been twice nominated for Academy Awards; first for the 1989 screenplay of the controversial Do The Right Thing and in 1997 for the documentary 4 Little Girls. In addition to his work as a director, Lee is also a faculty member at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he earned a Master's Degree in Film. For the last four years Lee has served as artistic director of the school's Graduate Division of the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television. He's also established grants for minority students.

In related news, Lee will also take part in Nickelodeon Network's Black History Month programming, appearing on the "That's What I'm Talking About," a roundtable mini-series hosted by Wayne Brady, which will discuss the perception of Blacks in the US.
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When Nas' first album under his new Def Jam Recordings pact is released later this year, it will be on his own imprint, the Jones Experience. The joint venture is a key component of the newly minted agreement between the artist and Def Jam president Jay-Z, which has Nas switching labels from Columbia to Def Jam. The jump follows on the heels of the rap icons' headline-making, onstage truce last October during a New York concert.

"I've been in this business a long time and know what a great deal is," Nas (born Nasir Jones) tells Billboard in his first interview since news of the pact was reported. "I signed a significant and excellent situation."

The deal's terms have Def Jam parent Island Def Jam and Columbia parent Sony Music participating as financial partners in Nas' first two albums under the four-album deal. Def Jam will provide A&R, promotion and distribution for the two sets, while the labels will share marketing.

The recording budget for each album is $3 million. It has been reported that the $3 million includes advances for Nas, but sources familiar with the deal say the rapper received a separate, substantially higher advance.

Sony retains ownership of the masters from Nas' 11-year tenure with Columbia as well as the right to release a greatest-hits collection not shared with Def Jam. Under terms of the pact, Nas will deliver two new tracks for a Sony hits package. Sony may also include up to three tracks from the joint albums on a hits compilation. The company's executives declined to comment.

"Hip-hop needed this," says Mark Pitts, who, along with his management partner Wayne Barrow, scheduled a pre-truce sitdown between their client Nas and Jay-Z last fall. Barrow hopes the truce between the rappers can usher in a "different sensibility to hip-hop and take it back to the origin of what a beef is. Battling over lyrical prowess is one thing, but to turn it into a violent scenario is another. Kids are mimicking these situations as if they're real."

As for the Jones Experience imprint, it will concentrate "first and foremost on hip-hop," Nas says, adding that he is open to other genres. Signings will be announced shortly. "This is so much bigger than me and Jay-Z," he adds. "We're both excited by what this could potentially mean for hip-hop as a whole"

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Miami Beach police arrested Bryan C. Williams aka Birdman on weapons and fraudulent driver license charges last Sunday.
According to the Miami Herald, Officer Kevin Millan spotted a maroon Maserati ''parked in the right lane of traffic'' on South Pointe Drive. ''The Maserati had no tag, and the [vehicle identification number] was covered,'' Millan's report says. Williams, 36, said he owned the Maserati, and that his license and paperwork were inside the car.
From Millan's report: ``After opening the glove compartment, defendant reached across to driver's side. While doing so, he removed a .40 cal. Glock semi-auto pistol from his waist band with his right hand and dropped it to driver's floor board. . . . Gun loaded w/ 8 rounds.''
Police say Williams had three ID cards and two driver licenses from Louisiana -- under the names Bryan Williams, with a birthdate of Feb. 15, 1975, and Thomas Corey, with a birthdate of Feb. 15, 1969.
Williams told officers his real name is Bryan Christile Williams, born in '69. He said he recently purchased the Maserati in Los Angeles, but ''it has no tag and has not been registered.'' He also said he had a prior felony conviction, the arrest report says.
Cops charged him with: carrying a concealed firearm; possession of a firearm by a convicted felon; unlawful use of a license by presenting another's driver's license; possession of a fraudulent license; and failure to have vehicle registration.
Defense attorney André Crenshaw says the allegations are untrue. ''There are some conflicting stories as to his possession of a handgun,'' Crenshaw says. Williams ''denies saying that he has a felony conviction,'' Crenshaw adds. ``He never made that statement.''
In 2003, Birdman got sued in Miami-Dade civil court by King Jewelers. He allegedly ordered thousands of dollars in custom jewelry -- including a $23,500 gold pendant with the initials BM in diamonds, and nine gold-and-diamond pendants worth $54,000, with the inscription ''Cash Money Records'' -- but never picked up the order or paid for it. The parties settled, according to news reports. King Jewelers got $57,500, and Williams got his jewelry.
A hearing in the criminal case is set for Feb. 21.

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