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Disco legend Donna Summer dead at 63
NEWSCORE

Last Updated: 1:00 PM, May 17, 2012
Posted: 11:43 AM, May 17, 2012


Disco diva Donna Summer in 2006.



Disco legend Donna Summer, a five-time Grammy winner with such hits as "Last Dance," "Hot Stuff" and "On the Radio," who helped define the dance music of the '70s and '80s, died Thursday at 63 after battling cancer, FOX News Channel confirmed.

Summer, who was both a songwriter and singer, was believed to be in Florida at the time of her death, according to TMZ, which first reported the news.

She had a beach house in Venice, Fla., south of Sarasota, CBS News reported.

Summer is survived by her husband, singer and producer Bruce Sudano, their daughters, Brooklyn and Amanda, and Summer's daughter, Mimi, from a previous marriage.

"Early this morning, we lost Donna Summer Sudano, a woman of many gifts, the greatest being her faith," her family said in a statement.



Donna Summer poses with three awards she won at the American Music Awards in 1979.


"While we grieve her passing, we are at peace celebrating her extraordinary life and her continued legacy. Words truly can't express how much we appreciate your prayers and love for our family at this sensitive time."

Often called the Queen of Disco, Summer was born LaDonna Adrian Gaines on Dec. 31, 1948, in Boston. She began singing early in the church choir and by her teens had formed several musical groups.

Her first album, "Lady of the Night," arrived in 1974 in Europe, and 1975's "Love to Love You Baby" brought her worldwide fame.

In the 1978 disco film "Thank God it's Friday," her song "Last Dance" won Summer her first Grammy.

Summer's soaring vocals on "She Works Hard for the Money" brought her a Best Pop Vocal Performance Award in 1984.

In the mid-1980s, Summer encountered controversy when she was accused of making anti-gay comments related to AIDS. She claimed she had been misquoted but not before thousands of her records were returned and dance clubs boycotted her music.

Summer holds the record for most consecutive double albums to hit number one on the Billboard charts (three) and was the first female to have four number one singles in a 12-month period: three as a solo artist and one as a duo with Barbra Streisand, CBS said.

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peace.

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Chuck Brown Dead at 75
By: Jenée Desmond-Harris | Posted: May 16, 2012




WJLA reports that Chuck Brown, known as the "Godfather of Go-Go," passed away today. His daughter confirmed the news:

Brown's passing comes about a week after the Washington Post confirmed that the musician, considered the pioneer of Go-Go music, had been hospitalized with pneumonia.

Brown's 1970 hit, "Bustin' Loose," hit #1 on the MCA charts. The song was later sampled in the 2002 Nelly song, "Hot in Herre."

He had recently postponed numerous shows due to his failing health.

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Rapper guilty in ’93 slay
By LAURA ITALIANO

Last Updated: 9:02 AM, April 18, 2012

Posted: 3:05 AM, April 18, 2012




Former Bad Boy rapper G. Dep was convicted yesterday of a decades-old murder — a cold-case East Harlem shooting that was solved only when he walked into a station house two years ago and turned himself in, to square himself with God.

The 37-year-old father of three now faces the mandatory minimum sentence for murder — 15 years.

“I told him to not regret his decision and that God won’t abandon him,” said his lawyer, Anthony Ricco. “Trevell Coleman is a very courageous person,” he added, using the rapper’s given name.

Coleman’s confession had been so bizarre, so startling, that cops at first didn’t believe him. At around the age of 18, he told them, he bought a .40-caliber pistol and tried to mug a stranger at Park Avenue and 114th Street, firing three shots. He asked if the person had lived or died.

The confession matched the 1993 shooting of John Henke — and cops broke the news that his victim had died

video: [www.nypost.com]

^^video of his police interrogation.



Read more: [www.nypost.com]





peace.

• Use the sample provided and any additional samples and beats you want but the sample must be prevalent enough to recognize it as the primary sample.
• Sample can be altered (sped up, slowed down, effects added) but still should be recognizable.
• approx 3 minutes or less, we don't want an epic production, just a great beat.
• Any software or hardware is permitted.
• Song should be in high quality mp3 and uploaded to a third party hosting site (Like sendspace, etc.)
• Obviously the resulting work still belongs to the producer, cratedigging.co has no interest in jacking beats.

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Coachella 2012: Tupac hologram joins Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre onstage at music festival
The late rapper made a surprise appearance alongside some major names at the Indio music festival

By Joyce Chen / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Monday, April 16, 2012, 9:52 AM
Updated: Monday, April 16, 2012, 12:15 PM



Late rapper Tupac Shakur resurrected onto the Coachella stage this past Sunday night to perform a few of his hit songs alongside music maven Snoop Dogg, to the shock and disbelief of the music festival's 75,000 fans.

"What up, Coachella?!" the bare-chested Tupac hologram greeted a roaring crowd, before joining Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre on classic single "Hail Mary."

The faux Shakur wore acid-wash jeans and Timberland boots circa 1995, just around the time he was shot dead on September 13, 1996, at the young age of 25.

Shakur also joined Snoop for songs "Come With Me" and "Gangsta Party," stalking around the stage and showing off his buff physique.


"i can't even begin to imagine what this Tupac hologram is doing to all the people at Coachella that have been on acid for 3 days straight," one festival-goer wrote.

Snoop also ushered in a bold-faced lineup, including 50 Cent, Warren G, Kurupt, Tony Yayo and Wiz Khalifa, who brought out an oversized blunt to smoke onstage during their performance of "Young, Wild & Free."

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Jim Marshall, Maker of Famed Fuzzy Amplifiers, Dies at 88
By DOUGLAS MARTIN

Jim Marshall, who made rock ’n’ roll rawer and noisier by inventing the amplifier that helped define guitarists from Jimi Hendrix to members of countless garage bands, died on Thursday at a hospice in London. He was 88.


Jim Marshall in 2002 with one of his amplifiers.


His death was announced by the company he founded, Marshall Amplification. The Associated Press said the cause was cancer.

Mr. Marshall was part of the English music scene as a drummer, drumming teacher and owner of a store in London that sold drums as the new rock music was gathering momentum in the early 1960s. Musicians urged him to add guitars and amplifiers to his wares. One of them, Pete Townshend of the Who, said he told Mr. Marshall that he wanted something “bigger and louder.”

“I was demanding a more powerful machine gun” to “blow people away all around the world,” Mr. Townshend told NPR in 2002. “I wanted it to be as big as the atomic bomb had been.”

With his sixth prototype, Mr. Marshall and his helpers came up with a harmless-looking black box with a speaker inside and controls on top. It would become the basis for the formidable wall of amplifiers used by Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and almost every other major rock guitarist in the ’60s and ’70s and by the next generation of guitarists as well, including Kurt Cobain, Eddie Van Halen and Slash.

This acoustic artillery came to be called the “wall of Marshalls” or “Marshall stacks.” Mr. Marshall became known as “the father of loud.”

The Marshall amps were cheaper than the ones made by Fender, which produced a more precise sound. But the emerging rockers wanted something rougher and rowdier. In a tribute on Twitter, Mötley Crüe’s bassist, Nikki Sixx, said Mr. Marshall had been “responsible for some of the greatest audio moments in music’s history — and 50 percent responsible for all our hearing loss.”

James Charles Marshall was born in London on July 29, 1923, to parents who owned a fish-and-chips shop. He was stricken with tuberculosis of the bones and spent much of his early youth in a plaster cast from his knees to his armpits. When he was 13, sinking family fortunes forced him to take jobs in a scrap-metal yard, a jam factory and a shoe shop. Having learned to tap dance at 14, he was hired as a dancer and singer with a 16-piece orchestra. He took up drumming and rode his bicycle to performances, pulling his drum kit in a trailer.

During World War II he worked at an engineering firm after failing his draft physical and read engineering books on his own. After the war he taught drumming and eventually had 65 students.

He used his teaching profits to buy his music store. One of the musicians who came into the store regularly was Ken Bran, who visited with his band, Peppy and the New York Twisters. Mr. Marshall hired him as a service engineer.

Mr. Bran suggested that they build their own amplifiers, and brought in a young engineer, Dudley Craven, to help them. They collected ideas from musicians about creating a fuzzier, more rambunctious sound then in demand. The sound became known as “the Marshall crunch.”

The first model, made in 1962, attracted 23 orders the first day. Two years later Mr. Marshall had 16 people in a factory making 20 amplifiers a week. Exports began in 1964 with an order from Roy Orbison. More growth followed as the company supplied mammoth sound systems to acts like Deep Purple and Elton John.

One of Mr. Marshall’s biggest breaks came in 1967 when Hendrix visited his showroom. In just months Hendrix would have a huge hit with his album “Are You Experienced,” but at the time, Mr. Marshall recalled, he thought the guitarist was “just another American chap wanting things for free.” Hendrix assured him that he intended to pay, and ultimately bought four complete stage setups.

“He was our greatest ambassador, without a doubt,” said Mr. Marshall, who considered Hendrix the best guitarist ever.

Mr. Marshall is survived by two children, two stepchildren, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren, The A.P. reported.

A connoisseur of Cuban cigars and a single-malt Scotch bottled for him, Mr. Marshall many times refused to sell Marshall Amplification. “You can’t take it with you, you can only live in one house and drive one car at a time,” he said. “It’s the name that means something to me — because it is my name.”