*New daddy, Jay-Z, confirmed he’s going on ‘maternity leave’ to spend some time with his baby Blue Ivy.

He’s taking a break from music for now to enjoy his life with his new family.

“I thought I would be more inspired to have all these new feelings to talk about, but I really just want to hang out with my daughter,” Jay-Z told Billboard Monday. “I want to enjoy this time for what it is.”

RELATED: Video: Jay-Z Praises Obama for Backing Marriage Equality

Right now, fans will only enjoy “Glory,” his dedication to Blue. He’s not revealed if an album this year is in the works.

But you never know. He said he’ll return to the studio if he get’s that itch.

“I’m sure that bug to get back in the studio will come back at some point,” says Jay Z.

*On May 8, Jill Scott took the stage at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom to share stories and perform some of her hits for a broadcast of “VH1 Storytellers.”

Billboard reports the following:

It was clear that Ms. Scott wasn’t going to just run down her extensive catalog of soulful music. Instead, she was creating something new with each song.  Before her smooth rendition of “Come See Me,” the songstress, now wearing a collared shirt and big glasses with wavy black hair, informed everyone that she was a world traveling PhD recipient. The scholar was obviously uptight, until a man came along and changed all that. Her glasses soon came off and Scott began to sing “Crown Royal,” with so much energy that she almost started scatting in the tradition of jazz greats at the end.

By the time she got to “Cross My Mind,” Jill Scott had everyone in the room wrapped around her finger. Backed by a 15-piece band, the singer’s show flowed effortlessly. This time donning a short bob, the R&B star sang two unique versions of “Quick” before taking her time with “The Fact Is (I Need You).”

But it was an anxious bride to be who delivered “The Way You Love Me” and “He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat).” Singing the last lines in Spanish, she hit operatic notes as only someone deeply in love could. In a long flowing black dress, Scott re-emerged one final time to take the audience to the highest heights with “Love Rain,” “Golden,” and “I’m So Blessed.” “I woke up in the morning feeling fresh to death, I’m so blessed,” she sang, as the crowd rose to their feet.

In the short span of one night, Jill Scott managed to embody many different women. Her seamless transitions were complemented by vibrant renditions of songs that her fans love. By the end of her ‘VH1 Storytellers’ performance, premiering on May 21 on 11 pm EST, the singer felt like an old friend.

Watch a clip below.

*The annual hip-hop concert tour Rock The Bells announced its lineup today (May 16), with Nas, Kid Cudi and Wiz Khalifa topping the bill, and a special performance due by Missy Elliott.

Elliott, who revealed her battle with Graves’ disease last year and whose seventh studio album has been seven years in the making, will be making an “exclusive North American festival performance” at the festival series, which will roll through San Bernardino, Calif. on Aug 18-19, Mountain View, Calif. on Aug. 25-26, and Holmdel, N.J. on Sept. 1-2. The rapper’s longtime producer and collaborator, Timbaland, will join her for the performances.

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony are also in the lineup and are expected to perform their 1995 classic album “E. 1999 Eternal” in its entirety. Method Man and Redman will team up to perform their 1999 album “Blackout!” as well.

Other notable performers at this year’s festival include Lupe Fiasco, Salt-N-Pepa, Dipset, and all four members of the Black Hippy squad — Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul and Jay Rock.

The event will be hosted by RZA and Supernatural.

Tickets for this year’s Rock The Bells events go on sale this Friday (May 18).

President Barack Obama speaks during a roundtable discussion with small business owners at the Taylor Gourmet restaurant in Washington, DC, May 16, 2012.

*MTV announced that it will move the start time of its “Video Music Awards” on Sept. 6 in Los Angeles so it won’t conflict with President Obama’s acceptance speech the same night at the Democratic National Convention.

“We will be airing the “VMAs” on Thursday, September 6th from 8-10 p.m. as opposed to our traditional 9-11 p.m. time slot to avoid conflict with the Democratic National Convention proceedings that evening,” a MTV spokesperson told Deadline.

The DNC has not said when exactly the president is scheduled to speak at the convention in Charlotte, N.C. Past nominees traditionally begin around 10 p.m. EST. This is the second broadcast schedule move around the president’s speech; the NFL said in February it was moving its 2012 regular-season opener on NBC from Sept. 6 to Sept. 5 (a Wednesday) to avoid conflicting with Obama.

The Democratic convention runs Sept. 3-6.

*Chuck Brown, the legendary Washington D.C. musician known as the “Godfather of Go-Go,” has died,  his daughter confirmed to DC’s ABC7.

Brown’s passing comes about a week after the Washington Post confirmed that the musician had been hospitalized with pneumonia. According to Brown’s manager, he died between 2 and 2:30 p.m. today in the intensive care unit of John’s Hopkins hospital in Baltimore. He was surrounded by family, including his wife Jocelyn and four children.

Brown had recently postponed numerous shows due to his failing health. He first went to the hospital complaining of arthritis, but doctors discovered he had blood clots in his legs and promptly removed them through surgery. But, he developed pneumonia while in intensive care and his condition deteriorated.

A bandleader, singer and guitarist, Brown was one of the rare go-go artists to gain national attention. Leading the Soul Searchers in the 1970s, Brown was fundamental in the creation of go-go music.

He hit No. 1 on the R&B charts with “Bustin’ Loose” in 1978 and had another hit with “We Need Some Money (Bout Money)” in 1984.

Brown received his first Grammy nomination in 2010 for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals  for “Love,” featuring Jill Scott and Marcus Miller, from the album “We Got This.”

Below, vintage Chuck…

*Morgan Freeman is in talks to join Michael Douglas and Robert De Niro in the cast of “Last Vegas.”

The film is about four friends of retirement age who reunite in Sin City for one last blowout at the bachelor party of the only one of the pals who has stayed single.

Jon Turtletaub will direct, according to Deadline.com. Lawrence Mark and Amy Baer are producing with CBS Films and Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane’s newly announced Good Universe.

*Jennifer Lopez, just named by Forbes magazine today as the most powerful celebrity, is reportedly ready to call it quits at “American Idol.”

E! News’s Marc Malkin is citing sources who say she will not return for a third run as judge.

“She’s just too busy,” one source said.

She’s currently preparing for a mega tour with Enrique Iglesias that launches this summer in Latin America and the U.S., with plans to go worldwide in the fall.

Lopez will reportedly be on the road, at the very least, through the end of the year. The next round of “Idol” auditions are scheduled to begin while she’s overseas.

J.Lo also wants to take some time off next year to be with her twins. reports E!

During interviews for her new film “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” she explained how tough it is to balance her busy schedule with motherhood.

According to E!, Fox wouldn’t comment on Lopez’s future with the show. Meanwhile, a source close to the production tells E! News that “Fox does not want to let her go. They love her.”

Lopez has been on Idol for two seasons with one-year contracts for both.

Celebrity interviewer and singer, Harmony Love Bailey

*7-year-old Harmony Love Bailey is called “the future of jazz” by jazz & blues legend Barbara Morrison after performing with her on this past weekend at LA’s John Anson Ford Amphitheatre on Pip’s Mother’s Day Sunday Jazz & Blues concert.

Watch the vid below – at the end of the performance you’ll hear Barbara call Harmony the future of Jazz.

*Oklahoma City Thunder star James Harden is breaking through this post-season as a player to watch.

The team overall, whose stars include Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, is barely known sometimes due to the large amount of press the two stars receive.

But after Harden willed the Thunder to victory this past weekend against the defending champion Dallas Mavericks, he has become the hot, new player in the league.

Here are a few things you didn’t know about the bearded man.

1. Looks up to fellow left-handed ball player Manu Ginobili from the San Antonio Spurs.

When Harden was drafted, many analysts compared him to Spurs shooting guard Manu Ginobili because of their similar games.

Harden went on to say that Ginobili was one of the players he looked up to and modeled his game after.

2. Harden was born in Los Angeles, California.

Harden joins the long list of great players to come out from the state of California.

Here are a few: Baron Davis, Kevin Johnson, Gail Goodrich, Jason Kidd and Dennis Johnson to name a few.

3. James Harden appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s College Basketball Preview issue in his sophomore year.

Not every college athlete gets the honor of being on the cover of sports’ major magazine. Harden got the honor of appearing on the magazine after leading an Arizona State Sun Devils team to the tournament after analysts had them finishing out of it.

4.  He led his High School AAU team, Pump and Run Elite, to the 2006 Las Vegas Adidas Super 64 championship.

Like most high school players, Harden was part of an AAU team; but not all of them lead a team to a championship and that’s just what he did defeating teams with Michael Beasley and Kevin Love on them to name a few NBA players.

5. He was the 2009 Pac-10 player of the year.

Harden joined the long list of great players who have won the award including Brandon Roy, Kevin Love, Jason Terry and Mike Bibby.

*R&B singer Will Downing has been in the game for a long time.

Though he has never scored a platinum hit, fans can count on Downing to bring quality and craftsmanship to each release.

Recently our Lee Bailey sat down with the crooner as he gears up to perform at various venues, including JazzFest West in July. It was 1988 when he released his first album, which was self-titled, on Polygram. Fast-forward to the present and it’s been over two decades of grinding for Will. He tells us a lot has changed in that time frame.

“It’s in disarray,” said Downing of the state of the music industry. “The one thing that we thought would be around to support the industry is no longer there. People seem to not to be buying in the numbers we used to sell at. That’s very disheartening. The machine that we built is going to come back and haunt us. The music industry is so ‘disconjointed’ nowadays. People have so many different outlets to get it from that it’s suffering. Obviously, you don’t see as many gold and platinum albums as you used to. It’s almost a rarity these days to see someone’s album reach that plateau. With the advent of the internet there’s so many things for people to divert their attention to that music has almost taken a backseat.”

According to Downing, because of the Internet, and sites that cater to the crowd that loves free music, many artists are suffering.

“Years ago, when people got their checks on a Friday, they would say ‘Oh man, I gotta go to the record store and pick up that new album’,” said Downing. “The mere fact that I said record should tell you something, records don’t even exist anymore (as a dominant format). You can talk to 10 different people and they will tell you they get their music in 10 different ways or from 10 different sites. Some legally, some illegally. It’s a very interesting time.”

“I believe the internet is one of the greatest inventions ever to have been created,” he continued. “But, at the same time, it’s also one of the worst inventions ever to have been created. On the internet, everyone is in the left lane. Everyone! Everyone thinks they’re Lee Bailey, everyone think they’re a recording artist, everyone thinks they’re a know it all, everyone has a say so. Everyone is driving in the left lane, and it’s clogging up things. It’s clogging the lane for people who really have something to say, people who really have some substance to offer. There’s so much out there that you’re not even paying attention to it. Everything is momentary. 10 minutes later something else is up, and I’m probably giving it 9 minutes too many.”

Judging by Lee’s conversation with Downing, he clearly isn’t feeling the world wide web. And he has company. Especially when you consider how easy it is get free stuff on the web. stuff that’s not necessarily supposed to be free.

“For every one or two people that are successful (using the Internet as a primary business platform),” explained Downing, “I think there are 1000 people who are complete failures at it. I think I’m somewhere in the middle. I’m doing OK, but I’ve never worked this hard before in my life to sell products.”

Because he is no longer signed to a major label Downing has to do all the legwork to get the word out about his respective projects. He tells EURweb.com that he has discovered a new found respect for those behind the scenes individuals that make everything happen at major labels because now he is the “behind the scenes” individual.

“These last two EPs that I’ve released ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Today’,” said Downing. “I’ve released independently and I have a new respect for those that used to run the streets and run my records to radio stations and do the promotional end of it. Now, I’ve got my daughter and I’ve got my wife and we’re sitting here all day long either mailing things out, promoting, and trying to make something out of this thing that we have. We’re trying to make it bigger than what it is and trying to get people to pay attention to it as opposed to going to YouTube. It’s like, ‘C’mon guys and listen to the music over here! I know you can get it free on YouTube but why don’t you come over here and get the real thing?’ People can’t seem to differentiate between what they hear over there and the real thing. But they don’t really care anymore. It’s scary, and I hate to keep using that phrase, but it’s very scary and very disheartening.”

Not only is Will disheartened by the lengths to which he now has to go to promote himself and his works, but the state of the game itself. This fact was alluded to in a prior paragraph. Every so often, all industry vets are approached by a fan or aspiring musician and asked what is the secret to their success. Will tells Lee Bailey that he isn’t quite sure what to tell them anymore.

“Everywhere I go someone is asking me ‘How do you make it in the industry? How do you make it these days?’ And there used to be some kind of formula that you can say to them. But you can’t even do that anymore. There is no normal format anymore. There’s nothing. How does a person make it these days? I can’t imagine what it’s like for a young person to try to make it. People are getting found from making a YouTube video or something got streamed online. People are getting discovered that way as opposed to ‘Alright, well, let’s do a demo and send it out, have a showcase and invite people’ that stuff is almost non-existent. I don’t know how people are making it, to be honest with you.”

We’re sorry to have to do this to our dear readers, but we’re going to cut this piece short, but there’s more to come as we continue with our conversation with Will Downing. Come back for more later this week when Will tells us about his new two EPs: “Yesterday” and “Today.”  In the meantime, get more info and listen to the tracks at www.WillDowning.com.