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MUSIC/DANCE BITS: Juelz buys HipHopSodaShop; Ying Yang to get ‘2 Live’; M.I.A. banned from the USA: Diddy auctions himself; Dance Theater of Harlem given grant.
*Rapper Juelz Santana and Chicago Bulls’ guard Ben Gordon are joining forces to run a HipHopSodaShop flagship store on 125th Street in Harlem. The pair is teaming with partners H3Enterprises, Inc. for the spot located at the ESPN Zone in Manhattan "It's time for every one of us to start giving back," said Gordon in a statement. "HTRE is all about investing in our own culture and in our own communities, keeping everything healthy and affordable. The store on 125th alone will create about one hundred new jobs where people can feel good about going to work each day.”
*The Ying-Yang Twins are looking forward to recording their third album, to be called "2 Live Crew." The set is tapped to pay homage to the infamous Miami group of the same name. "We're gonna take 'em back [to] 'As Nasty As They Wanna Be,'" D-Roc tells Billboard.com, referring to 2 Live Crew's controversial 1989 album. "We ain't actually working on the album [yet] but outside of just working with [producer] Mr. Collipark, we're getting together and doing songs on our own."
*Sri Lankan artist M.I.A., whose international hit “Galang” is featured in a Honda Civic commercial, was reportedly banned from entering the United States by American immigration officials after her bid to secure a U.S. visa was turned down. The U.K.-born urban artist wrote on her MySpace Web site: "I was mennu work with timber startin' this week...I'm locked out! They won’t let me in! Now I'm strictly making my album outside the borders". M.I.A's debut album, “Arular,” is believed to have been titled after her father's code name. He is a member of the Tamil Tigers, who continue to fight for independence in Sri Lanka.
*Sean “Diddy” Combs auctioned off his company for a weekend at his New York home during a charity event hosted by soccer star David Beckham and his wife, Victoria. With a bid of $152,000, English soccer player Wayne Rooney edged out Sharon Osbourne to win Diddy for his fiancee Colleen McLoughlin. The auction collected more than $3.6 million for charity. Other items auctioned included meals cooked by Ozzy Osbourne and chef Gordon Ramsay.
*The Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) has received a $1 million grant from The Ford Foundation through its education and community outreach program. Over the next four years, the DTH School will develop and implement a strategic recruitment plan, augment its curriculum to offer more robust training and artistic experiences including guest faculty and choreographers for its students. It will also formulate a comprehensive K-12 curriculum for use in rendering its education activities and residencies in New York City and around the world.
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