Multiple-award-winning rapper and Chocolate City's frontline act, MI, will relaunch his sophomore album, ‘MI2: The Movie' in London next weekend. According to a statement from his record label, the rapper, whose album is currently receiving rave reviews, will be performing an album release concert at Indigo O2 in London.
"We bring the best of Africa to the world and MI is arguably the biggest African Hip-hop star who we believe can hold his own against any of his international counterparts," Ropo Akin, the chief executive officer of Cokobar, the event promoter, said.
The concert will feature performances from Chocolate City label mates, Jesse Jagz, Ice prince as well as soulful singer, Waje.
MI2: The Movie was released in Nigeria in November 2010 with hit tracks including, ‘One Naira' featuring Waje, ‘Number One' featuring highlife singer, Flavour and ‘Action Film' featuring Brymo.
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***Hip-Hop World Awards changes name
Popular urban music awards organised by Smooth Promotions, Hip-Hop World Awards, has now adopted its moniker, ‘The Headies', as its running name. According to the entertainment website, thenetng.com, Ayo Animashaun, chief executive officer of Smooth Promotions believes the name change wouldn't come as a surprise to many.
"It was just a matter of time. Everyone in-house has been calling the award that name [since] forever; because that's what we christened our [statuette]. I think the name is more hip and trendy, and it helps us place proper focus on the prize, which is the [statuette]," Animashaun told thenetng.com.
Animashaun also used the opportunity to announce that the annual event will not be hosted in Lagos this year. Although the host city is yet to be named, Animashaun revealed that the awards ceremony will be hosted in another city to help show it is a national award.
"This will be the second time we're leaving Lagos. We had the show in Abuja in 2009 and Abuja showed us love. Since then there's been clamour from different regions for us to come stage the awards there. And as a truly and proudly national brand we're very open to moving the show all over Nigeria. So when the opportunity came to move again, we happily grabbed it," Animashaun said.
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***Lindsay Lohan out on bail
Lindsay Lohan was briefly jailed again on Friday after a roller coaster day in which a judge downgraded her jewellery theft charge, but sentenced the actress to four months behind bars for violating her probation.
Looking confused and distressed, Lohan - who was locked up for two weeks last summer - was taken immediately to jail from court after a day-long preliminary hearing on charges that she stole a $2,500 gold necklace from a store in January.
The "Mean Girls" actress was ordered to stand trial on June 3 but the jewellery charge was reduced to a misdemeanor from a more serious felony, and will cut to one year her maximum time behind bars if eventually convicted.
Los Angeles judge Stephanie Sautner, however, felt the evidence on Friday suggested Lohan intended to steal the jewellery.
She therefore ruled Lohan had violated her probation for a 2007 drunk driving and cocaine possession incident, and sentenced her to 120 days jail and 480 hours community service in a morgue and women's prison.
Lohan's lawyer filed an immediate appeal and Lohan's camp scrambled to post $75,000 bail and secure her release from custody pending an appeal hearing.
She was released late on Friday after about five hours, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department website.
Lohan, 24, has strenuously denied that she deliberately walked out of a Los Angeles store wearing a necklace without paying. Her lawyer on Friday argued that she was distracted and absent-minded when she left with the item around her neck.
Lohan's assistant returned it to police after news leaked that a search warrant was to be served on Lohan's house.
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***Mel Gibson breaks silence
Mel Gibson has broken his silence on his damaging domestic violence scandal, calling the leak of angry personal phone calls with his then-girlfriend last year a "personal betrayal." The Oscar-winning director of "Braveheart" described the leaked tapes, in which Gibson was heard ranting, swearing and threatening Russian girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, "terribly humiliating and painful for my family." Gibson added that he did not care if he ever acted again.
"I've never treated anyone badly or in a discriminatory way based on their gender, race, religion or sexuality - period," Gibson told Hollywood journalist Allison Hope Weiner in a lengthy interview for website Deadline Hollywood on Friday.
Gibson last month pleaded no contest to a charge of hitting Grigorieva, the mother of his baby daughter, as their relationship broke down in early 2010.
He was sentenced to three years probation, a year of counselling and community service.
In his first public comments on the saga, Gibson said the tapes of phone calls leaked a year ago were edited, adding; "It's one terribly, awful moment in time, said to one person, in the span of one day and doesn't represent what I truly believe or how I've treated people my entire life." "Who anticipates being recorded? ... Who could anticipate such a personal betrayal?" Gibson said.
Gibson's longtime manager left him, his movie "The Beaver" was delayed for months, and actors on the sequel to comedy "Hangover 2" refused to work with him because of the fall-out of the sexist and racist remarks on the tapes.
They were leaked to the media as Gibson was trying to make an acting comeback after making vicious anti-Semitic remarks during a 2006 drunken driving arrest, and the end of his 28-year marriage.
Actresses Whoopi Goldberg and Jodie Foster were among the few Hollywood stars to publicly defend Gibson at the height of the Grigorieva scandal last year.
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