But don’t sleep on the income coming in for Hip Hop’s Finest. Some of those politicians and Hip Hop Haters are sick to their stomach at these numbers, but oh well, take your big girl pills and face the truth. Hip Hop is here to stay and the lil’ Annie & Billy in Idaho just proved it by continually filling their pockets, check the stats.

And while you may look at some of these names like “Damn he didn’t even have a song out this year” don’t forget they are writers, the are producers, they have movie deals, royalty checks don’t stop coming and neither do their endorsements or other ventures like clothing lines & soft drinks. Here’s your top 20, government names and all.

14. Hakeem “Chamillionaire” Seriki $10 million (tie)

14. OutKast $10 million (tie)

14. Jayceon “The Game” Taylor $10 million (tie)

13. Jonathan “Lil Jon” Smith $11 million (tie)

13. Jermaine Dupri $11 million (tie)

12. Aliaune “Akon” Thiam $12 million (tie)

12. Lonnie “Common” Lynn Jr. $12 million (tie)

12. Marshall “Eminem” Mathers $12 million (tie)

11. Dwayne “Lil Wayne” Carter $13 million (tie)

11. Clifford “T.I.” Harris $13 million (tie)

10. Christopher “Ludacris” Bridges $14 million

9. André “Dr. Dre” Young $15 million

8. Calvin “Snoop Dogg” Broadus $16 million

7. Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean $17 million

6. Pharrell Williams $20 million

5. Timothy “Timbaland” Mosley $22 million

4. Kanye West $30 million

3. Sean “Diddy” Combs $35 million

2. Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter $82 million

1. Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson $150 million

WILL.I.AM vs. FERGIE…WHERE’S THE BEEF
Now I should have asked Will, but we were too busy reminiscing and grooving to real Hip Hop to be talking about Fergie.

Anyhoo, “The New York Post’s Page Six” is reporting that Fergie and her budding film career is causing turmoil within her group, the “Black Eyed Peas.” Word is bandmate Will.i.am is said to be “furious” with the singer because she “won’t commit to a tour schedule to promote the album.” Fergie is currently on location in Europe shooting “Nine” with Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz and Kate Hudson, and filming is expected to go into late fall.

Now I find it hard for Will.I.Am to be hating on the girl he put on as well as the fact as he is producing for other folks, designing clothes, doing a solo project but then again maybe he’s a closet Ike Turner ruling with an iron hand and not the back hand…nah I doubt it..

LAURENCE FISHBURNE TAKES OVER CSI
Its official, the ink is dry and the contracts are all signed; Laurence Fishburne is headed to the small screen and will join cast of CSI in ninth episode this fall.

Fish (like I really know him) is replacing departing actor William Petersen. Laurence (or should I say Larry) will play a forensics scientist who is also a college lecturer and former pathologist focused on the reasons why people commit violent acts. When Fishburne’s casting was still in the rumor mill, the character was described as having a genetic profile that has been identified in serial killers

Fishburne says, “I am elated and delighted to be joining the cast of `CSI,’” adding that he anticipated a “wonderful collaboration” with the other stars of the show.

The air date for Petersen’s final episode has not been announced but will be early next year. His character, Gil Grissom, will be reappraising his life after years of high-tech forensics investigations with the Las Vegas Police Department and after facing personal turmoil. The actor will remain an executive producer on the series.

Check your local listing for “CSI” (Crime Scene Investigation) season debut. I just want Fish to hurry up and star in and direct “The Alchemist” my favorite book in the world. A good read y’all.

SHAQ & SHAUNIE BACK TOGETHER AGAIN
After filing for divorce months ago, Shaquille O’Neal and his wife Shaunie are reportedly getting back together. Now y’all even though we thought we knew all the dirty details of what went on, we did not live inside their four walls.

Forgiveness is a hard pill to swallow. I still have a hard time jumping that hurdle, but all I can say is, “ALRIGHT FOR THE STATISTICS OF BLACK

MARRIAGE/FAMILY DIVORCE/SEPARATION RATE GOING DOWN!”

Shaunie told “Extra” that “things are great, and we’re moving on to the good stuff. We’ve both learned a lot and know that our family comes first and that’s the main thing for both of us. Neither one of us could probably answer why we were getting [divorced] in the first place. Things have been going so great, that someone actually had to remind us that ‘Hey, you do remember those papers are still there.’ Literally, it was days ago,” she said. “So, we’ve agreed that before we leave Florida in a few days we’ll make sure that that’s gone away.”

Go Shaq! I’m, proud of you boo.

YUNG JOC HAS BABY MAMA DRAMA
Yung Joc’s baby mama says she’s struggling while he’s living large. Now do the math with me y’all and please don’t think I’m defending any man or woman that owes a penny for their child’s welfare but I think you may feel where I’m gong with this right? I’ll play devil’s advocate…

Rapper Yung Joc has been sued by the mother of his 7-year-old son for failure to pay back child support. Word is, Joc owes about $2,000 dollars to Fatimah Jester for their son, Amoni. Jester says it has been difficult collecting payments from the rap star.

Here’s where things get tricky. He’s 7 years old (not 7 months) and owes $2,000.00, not $20,000 but $2,000. These days to fill your gas tank up for a week feels like it costs about $2,000 so I get the need for money.

Before I continue, here’s what else she has to say. “I never thought he would be putting me through some of the stuff I’m going through now. I

can’t even get in contact with him for things for my baby…it’s just hard. Mr. Robinson has all kinds of cars, Bentleys, Mercedes Benz, Range Rovers, two Range Rovers.”

So my points are:

Why go to the press if you can have his wages garnished? It should be easy to track through the record label. Is she working? Has Joc been a father to his child or just the sperm donor and check writer for 7 years? Will we be seeing her in court in a few months requesting $25,000 month in child support?

Fatimah says that despite his lavish lifestyle, she and Amoni struggle financially on a daily basis. Yung Joc, who’s government name is Jasiel Robinson, is due in court on Sept. 11.

Now on the flip side, ghurl get your money…every penny counts. I just hope the money is for the child and not a Fendi bag. Hopefully he won’t throw a fist full of dollars in her face.

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.

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A good friend of mine recently called wanting ideas on ways to secure a spot on a new reality TV show. Of course, there would be hundreds of people applying, and he wanted to make sure the casting team noticed him. After a quick brainstorming session (during much of which, I was drawing a blank), he revealed some of the plans he had already conjured that would cause a ruckus and definitely get him the attention he wanted. Possibly arrested too.

For a split second, when he was describing the big shebang-a-bang, I realized that the person he illustrated isn’t the person I know him to be. So, I warned him about getting caught up in the allure that Jay-Z talked about on “The Black Album” – that psychosis plaguing so many folks. And not just in the hip hop community. It’s got a lot of black leaders too. I told him I have lost and am currently losing a few friends to it, and if he wasn’t careful, he’d also get swallowed up in his own illusion.

I asked if he remembered the movie “Deep Cover.” That was such a classic movie, not only because it introduced Dr. Dre’s protégée, Snoop (Doggy Dogg), but it also showed everybody what could happen to us if we do the wrong things for the right reasons. Laurence Fishburne’s character was an undercover cop trying to nab Jeff Goldblum’s character, and the only way it could be done was to send him in to infiltrate Goldblum’s drug smuggling operation. He eventually became the #2 man, his friend and confidant. But by then, he was caught up in the allure, using the product he was selling and couldn’t tell where the facade ended and he began. Classic tale.

After we got off the phone, I wondered what would happen to him if he just showed up as himself. No glitz. No glam. Just him and his hunger to get on the show. Him just plain bringing it! Isn’t that what Barack Obama did?

I was reading a few articles that analyzed exactly what Obama did right to guarantee becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, as well as the missteps Hillary Clinton made. One said that in the beginning he told Betsy Myers, who became his chief operating officer, before he announced running for president back in January 2007 that, “we could try some things in a different way and build an organization that reflected my personality and what I thought the country was looking for.”

The article also said that he laid down three guiding principles: Run a respectable campaign; build it from the bottom up; and finally, no drama. Respect? No drama? In a political campaign for the presidential nomination? This seemed pretty naïve, leaving him vulnerable to being destroyed by the campaign that was the Clinton Establishment. But he proved skeptics wrong.

Didn’t he just show up, y’all? He came with the ‘audacity of hope’ that he, not some caricature of himself, was good enough. And even through that ‘rock star’ phase, he could have been hittin’ up all the parties, appearing in a gang of music videos and leaving Michelle at home so he could partake in a little groupie love. But he stayed on course. Thank God.

I wondered how many life-transforming moments I have missed out on in my life because I didn’t think I was good enough. How many opportunities have I passed up because I felt I didn’t have the right credentials, the right background or the right connections? Better yet, how am I in my life carrying on a facade for fear that if I show up as my true self, I would be rejected?

I believe when I act out of fear or insecurity, the person present in that moment is my facade because it’s causing me to be someone I, at my core, truly isn’t. After all, when we decide not to face the fear, doesn’t it hide parts of who we are? I can look back and see that I am not fully present in certain situations because of fear. And I know that, because of the fear, certain people aren’t experiencing all of Yaminah. Parts of me are still hiding in the shadows. I’m a work in progress.

What’s fascinating about Obama is that – unlike Clinton, whose campaign was based on her and her husband’s star power (an allure, at one point, some black folks were fixated on) – his campaign is primarily based on who he says he is, and that’s an agent of change for all people. Isn’t that God Almighty? I believe we all (us Obama supporters) are gravitating towards that God energy that he is allowing to shine through him. And deep within us we recognize it in ourselves, making our vision for our lives more clear. I don’t think we could have seen the possibilities in ourselves to create the life and world we want if Obama went ‘deep cover’ on us.

I’m dreaming of one day living in a world where we can just show up, without explanation, as the conduit of God and it is more than enough to live out our passions for the greater good of us all.

Wait. Obama just proved that we live in this kind of world right now. Praise God!

Envisioning you with much love, light and fulfillment. See you next week.

Yaminah Ahmad is editor-in-chief of The Atlanta Voice and contributing editor to Collective Voices, a newspaper published by the non-profit, SisterSong: Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective. More information on the group can be found at www.sistersong.net. Ahmad can be reached at missyaminah@gmail.com.

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