Urban Thought Collective

LUDACRIS RETIRING ALREADY? DAMN

You know, I’ve heard it all before…the list of rappers I have on film talking about retiring exhausts me just thinking about it; (Warren G, Too Short, Scarface, Master P, Jay-Z just to name a few). Spare me with the announcement, just do it; go chill on an Island in the South Pacific and be done with it.

Now, one of my favorites, Mr. Christopher Bridges a.k.a Ludacris is claiming the he is ready to hang up his mic, but not without a game plan.

After five albums, three Grammy wins and a couple of number one spots, Ludacris says he’s prepping to leaving rap alone to focus full time on his budding acting career. He says, “I can see a point where acting is my full-time job, really, I will always be involved in music, but it may be more behind the scenes, as a producer, I will always do that, but when I look at 10 years from now, I don’t think rapping is necessarily what I want to do when I’m in my 40s.”

But acting and then having a song on the soundtrack, doesn’t count as retiring either. You can’t fool us Luda!

Ludacris will release his sixth album, “Theater of the Mind” this year. The album will feature collabs with Good Charlotte, The Game, Lil Wayne and T.I. If this is his last album, then I hope that he gets to do a collab with every artist he’s ever wanted to work with. If you’re gonna hang up your mic, then you might as well go out with a bang!

LIL WAYNE GOT HEAT IN HIS HANDS

With Lil Wayne ruling the airwaves, these days, you know all eyes are on him for real. Mad scandalous stories are surfacing about his ridiculous super star demands, no shows, or showing up late delaying productions, cursing folks out, etc. The list goes on, but as we all know, you can’t stay at the top forever. Just ask Michael Jackson…

Anyway, a police officer said she saw Lil Wayne with a gun on his tour bus last year after a concert.

Officer Diane Hornung testified in a pretrial hearing that she had gotten on the bus on July 22, 2007, because she saw and smelled marijuana smoke wafting from the bus’ open door ala Cheech & Chong or Method Man and Redman.

The officer said 15 people boarded the bus around 11:30 p.m. after the Manhattan concert ended. She said the bus left the site of the concert a few minutes later, and police pulled it over about a dozen blocks away.

When asked why she boarded the bus, and she replied, “Because I smelled marijuana and I saw someone peeking through the curtain (over one of the windows on the bus).” She claims she walked to the rear, where she opened a bathroom door and saw a man trying to flush a sandwich bag of marijuana down a toilet. She said she confiscated the bag.

Then in the back bedroom, she spotted Lil Wayne sitting on a bed in his underwear and trying to hide a bag. While he got dressed, she said, she looked inside the bag and found a loaded .9mm handgun.

Lil Wayne’s government name, Dwayne Carter, was in court for the hearing. He is free on $70,000 bail. He has pleaded not guilty to illegal gun possession, which is punishable by up to four years in prison upon conviction. Damn, when you’re 25, you definitely don’t want to creep into your 30’s behind bars.

His lawyer says police stopped and boarded the bus without probable cause and therefore the search was illegal. Because of this, she says, the charge should be dismissed. That all remains to be seen and I guess since R. Kelly got off from a gazillions child pornography charges, and Lil Wayne has got some green backs, he should be able to skate from this too.

Hornung acknowledged that when she boarded the bus she did not see anyone smoking marijuana. Lil Wayne was not charged with marijuana possession.

In the meantime, props go out to Lil Wayne as his albums which include hits like,”Tha Block Is Hot,” ”Lights Out,” ”Tha Carter,” ”Tha Carter II,” and “Tha Carter III.” A single, “Got Money,” was one of the most downloaded tunes in the U.S. last week. Keep doing your thang Wayne, but don’t burn out boo!

MC BREED LIFE’S ON THE LINE

Didn’t we just talk about health issues being the commonality between everyone rich, famous or otherwise? Well, as MC Breed said back in the

day, “Ain’t No Future in Your Frontin.” Words have power people, and you can’t front about ballin’ when your health is at stake.

Old school rapper MC Breed has been taken off life support — in a good way after being admitted to the hospital due to kidney failure.

MC Breed collapsed while he was shooting ball in Atlanta and word is,

Breed’s kidneys are only 30% functional and it’s likely he’ll need a kidney transplant.

MC Breed is still in the hospital and it seems he’s slowly recognizing faces and voices. He will be kept in the hospital for at least another week under observation. Our prayers to Breed for a speedy recovery and matching kidney.

NEWS BLAST:

Usher and Tameka Raymond expecting baby #2…

Thandie Newton will play Condelezza Rice in new George Bush biopic by director Oliver Stone…

Eric Benet records a duet with daughter India on his new album “Love &

Life…”

Chris Brown writes songs for Brittney Spears…

See ya’ll next week…

Big Lez has interviewed everyone from Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. to Mary J. Blige and Tom Cruise. She was host of and producer of BET’s landmark show “Rap City” and has enjoyed an extensive tenure in radio as co-host of The Steve Harvey Morning Show in Los Angeles, plus stints at New York’s WQHT/Hot 97, Atlanta’s WAOK/V103, LA’s Big Boy Morning Show at KPWR/Power 106 and Sirius Satellite Radio. Currently, Lez is partnered with DVA Media + Marketing as producer and host of the syndicated urban radio report, “The Urban Eye,” which launches nationwide this summer.