"Rape Remix" Raz-B's Apology/Allegations

Raz-B posing for a photo at a popular Gay Night Club in Washington D.C.



Raz-B attempts to apologize for the "Leaked" Videos!
"Rape Remix"

A day after former B2K manager Chris Stokes vehemently denied allegations that he sexually molested former members of the boy band while serving as its manager, his accuser, former B2K member DeMario "Raz-B" Thornton, has apologized. In a 30-second video posted on YouTube on Wednesday, Thornton stands outside on a city street and recants the sordid accusations he and older brother Ricardo "Ricky Romantic" Thornton had made in a pair of videos that circulated over the weekend.

"This is DeMario Thornton, publicly known as Raz-B of B2K," a solemn-looking Thornton tells the camera in the video, called "The Truth About Chris Stokes B2K Part 3." "I would like to send a public apology for some tapes that were leaked without my authority. I just want to say that those allegations are not true ... with Chris Stokes and Marques Houston, [I] apologize for any hurt this may have caused publicly [or] financially."

Stokes reacted to the new video in a statement released Thursday (December 27) morning. "I'm happy that DeMario 'Raz-B' Thornton and Ricardo Thornton realized their mistakes and admitted to lying," he said, although Ricardo Thornton is standing by his claims. "I have always supported my family and have always been a stand-up person. I knew that the truth would eventually come to light."

Thornton's abrupt turnaround came just hours after Stokes told MTV News that the allegations were false. His denials were seconded by another former B2K member, Omarion.

"I'm not gay. And I'm married. And I have four kids. I been with my wife for 16 years," Stokes told MTV in an exclusive interview. "And I'm not a child molester. So those are all false allegations. I'm gonna sue them. And I owe that to my wife and kids, period. It's ridiculous."

The truce between Raz and Stokes doesn't appear to have been extended to Ricardo. After MTV reported on the apology, Ricardo told MTV News that he stands by all the original allegations and is not recanting his story. He said he hasn't spoken to his younger brother in more than a day — which he said was unusual for the siblings — and predicted that Raz will "come back around," suggesting that the apology might not have been his brother's idea.

Former B2K Manager Accused Of Molestation, Raz-B Releases Tape

The tape surfaced in the midst of talks surrounding a B2K reality show that would feature Raz-B, Lil' Fizz, and J-Boog. On one clip, Raz (born DeMario Thornton) is on the phone breaking the news to the family of Marques Houston, who is also a protege of Chris Stokes. "It started one day when Chris said, 'Let me touch you,'" Raz-B explains. He says he was only 11 or 12 years-old at the time.

On another clip, Raz's brother Ricky "Romance" Thornton tells his side. "Chris made me take showers with the other boys," he said. "All that little sh-t that my brother was introduced to was brought to me first and I blocked that sh-t."

He went on to say, "I kinda knew what was going on over there and yet I took my brother over to Chris. I didn't protect him."

In another moment, a voice, identified as Stokes', can be heard on speaker phone arguing with Raz. "I don't do that no more," the voice says. "That ain't me. That was us years ago. I don't feel like getting on the phone and fussin' with my cousin."

As founder of TUG entertainment, Chris Stokes was known as the mind behind the boy groups IMX and B2K. He's also directed many of his clients' videos and has since moved into film, writing and directing flicks for Omarion and Marques Houston, including You Got Served and, more recently, Somebody Help Me.

When asked if he thought Stokes molested others, Raz responded, "I can't speak on everybody but I think he did."

Musician Ike Turner dies at 76‏

SAN DIEGO - Ike Turner, whose role as one of rock's critical architects was overshadowed by his ogrelike image as the man who brutally abused former wife and icon Tina Turner, died Wednesday at his home in suburban San Diego. He was 76.

"He did pass away this morning" at his home in San Marcos, in northern San Diego County, said Scott M. Hanover of Thrill Entertainment Group, which managed Turner's musical career.

There was no immediate word on the cause of death, which was first reported by celebrity Insiders. Turner managed to rehabilitate his image somewhat in his later years, touring around the globe with his band the Kings of Rhythm and drawing critical acclaim for his work. He won a Grammy in 2007 in the traditional blues album category for "Risin' With the Blues." But his image is forever identified as the drug-addicted, wife-abusing husband of Tina Turner. He was hauntingly portrayed by Laurence Fishburne in the movie "What's Love Got To Do With It," based on Tina Turner's autobiography.

Queen Latifah and Girlfriend OFFICIALLY ENGAGED!!!

It's happened. CelebrityNooz has learned that Queen Latifah and her longtime girlfriend Jeanette are OFFICIALLY ENGAGED!!! The two women have been in a relationship for more than 4 years - and they've finally decided to make it official.

And there's more. According to insiders the two are planning on PUBLICLY coming out to the world about their engagement. Word is that once Queen Latifah's finished promoting her current movie, The Perfect Holiday an announcement will be made.

Rapper Pimp C Found Dead in Hollywood Hotel Room

Pimp C, real name Chad Butler -- and one half of the rap duo UGK, was found dead in a hotel room this morning. He was 33.

L.A. County Fire responded to a 911 call at the Mondrian Hotel, located on trendy Sunset Strip in Hollywood. They arrived to his sixth floor hotel room to find him dead in bed.

UGK is best known for appearing on the Jay-Z track "Big Pimpin'" in 2000, and more recently with Outkast on the song "International Player's Anthem (I Choose You)." Pimp C had just performed with fellow rapper Too Short at the "House of Blues" in L.A. on Saturday night.

Story developing ...

Kanye at Kid Sister's first video shoot

Look Who's Finger Dancing Now


Kid Sister performs "Pro Nails" at Fool's Gold CMJ showcase
All the plate glass on the front of Nails R Us was covered with black plastic, but when I opened the door it was like I’d been gang tackled by color and light. The salon had been repurposed for the day as the set for the first video by local rapper Kid Sister, and it was a lot to take in: the walls were stunningly orange and covered with racks of nail polish in every possible shade, and the place was stuffed with lighting rigs and cameras and technicians and stylists and dancers dressed like In Living Color Fly Girls in multicolored DayGlo flight jackets.

When I walked in, Kid Sister—aka Melisa Young, 27—was in a spa chair, rapping along to her new single, “Pro Nails.” Two white-coated Asian women, actual employees of the salon, mimed giving her a pedicure. “Pro Nails” came out last week on the Brooklyn-based start-up Fool’s Gold, run by Nick Catchdubs and A-Trak, and this was the label’s first video production. Catchdubs, a former Fader writer, is tastemaking royalty, a DJ and blogger who can break an act single-handedly. A-Trak, one of the most technically skilled DJs in the world, spins for Kanye West. (He’s also Kid Sister’s boyfriend, though they had a musical relationship first.)

Everyone else in Nails R Us had already been through “Pro Nails” at least a dozen times by the time I showed up. At first I only knew the chorus—“Got her toes done up and her fingernails matchin’,” delivered in a slowed-down, Houston-style slur—but like most people on the set, I could soon rap through the verses, which are about not only having good-looking nails but encountering the kind of jealous hating you get when you have nice things like good-looking nails. Even after hearing it all day long, most of us singing along still smiled while we did it.

Fool’s Gold is a reasonably professional operation, but the budget for the “Pro Nails” video was still minuscule compared to a major-label project—Catchdubs guesses it won’t end up costing more than $2,500. Though there’s a salon actually called Pro Nails just south on Western, across Addison, Nails R Us won out for its wide-open layout and orange walls—and because the owners would rent it out cheap. Director Ruben Fleischer, one of the creators of the MTV series Rob & Big, knows Catchdubs and agreed to work for free—he even brought in a camera operator on his own dime.

Considering he had one day to shoot, Fleischer had a lot planned. As soon as he got a couple good shots of Kid Sister getting her nails done, he rounded up the Fly Girls and had them wreath her face with their own elaborate acrylics. From off to the side where I was standing, it looked corny, but on the playback monitor it was super slick. “It looks like a Maybelline commercial,” A-Trak said, beaming.

Then Fleischer was on to the video’s big hook: the finger dancing. Before I saw the MySpace bulletin calling for finger dancers that went out a week or so before the shoot, I had no idea what finger dancing was. It turns out to be one of those odd useless talents that become trends on YouTube—the basic deal is that you pretend your index and middle fingers are the legs of a little person, then make that little person do dance moves.

The scruffy dude I’d seen hanging around the set—his name’s AJ and he likes to do magic tricks—had answered that casting call. Like me he’d never heard of finger dancing before he saw the MySpace bulletin. “I looked it up on YouTube and thought, ‘I could do that,’” he said. With the camera rolling, two of the actual dancers made impressive attempts, and then AJ stepped up and totally killed it. He made his finger guy do the Matrix, the moonwalk, and a truly lifelike windmill on a piece of cardboard the size of a CD case. On the playback monitor it looked freakishly like a real person dancing—especially after someone got the idea to outfit his fingers with a pair of little plastic Nikes from a High School Musical doll. When AJ finished he got what must’ve been the biggest round of applause in the history of finger dancing.

Eight hours into the shoot, the Fly Girls finally got to be the center of attention, and their garish jackets made their choreographed spins seizure-inducingly dazzling. A-Trak set his turntables up on the receptionist’s podium in front of a large potted palm, and the dancers improvised a party sequence. “Keep it ghetto, people,” Fleischer directed. After a costume change they headed outside to the alley—where it was unfortunately chilly for their outfits—to shoot a teaser for “Switchboard,” a juke-heavy track that’s slated to be Kid Sister’s next single. But though the lights weren’t that bright, the music wasn’t very loud, and it was only about 10 PM, the cops showed up and threatened to ticket the production. Fleischer told them he’d stop, then ran the dancers through the song three more times.

All day long, through all the setups and retakes and makeup sessions, Kid Sister projected a charisma I’d have to call star power if she were already a star. She’s only been performing since early 2006—her brother Josh is half of Flosstradamus, and she started out joining them at their Town Hall Pub gigs—and her rap skills are still developing. But onstage or on camera, she radiates an infectious energy that makes you really believe she’s having the best time of anyone on earth at that moment. The Fool’s Gold guys can definitely feel it. “We knew that she was going to be the marquee artist,” Catchdubs says. “When MTV did My Block: Chicago they had Melisa on, a totally unsigned artist, no records out, just a MySpace page and these crazy performances at these awesome parties. This is the moment where that nebulous buzz gets solidified into something different.”

That process ought to get a big bump from Kanye West, who rapped on “Pro Nails” when he put it on his Can’t Tell Me Nothing mix tape this summer, then made sure his verse stayed in when the song came out on Fool’s Gold. Kanye happened to be in town to accept an award at a Recording Academy event honoring Chicago artists—he’d invited Flosstradamus along to spin a tribute set—and afterward he rolled over to Nails R Us to jump into the video. He came with an entourage, but he wasn’t too stuck-up to jam his expensive-looking blond leather gloves into the little plastic Air Force Ones for some finger dancing. Curt Cameruci, Floss’s other half, sighed and said, “Man, from shitty-ass Town Hall Pub to here.”

After Kanye ran a few verses and choruses with Kid Sister—and frankly got outshined on camera—he and his crew took off. By then it was pushing 1:15 in the morning, 13 hours into the shoot, and as Kid Sister and her dancers assembled under a black light for one last routine she was visibly exhausted. But as soon as the system started pumping “Pro Nails”—God knows how many times she’d heard it that day—she broke into a smile that looked as fresh as it had on her first take

Four arrested in Taylor shooting

Venjah K. Hunte, 20; Eric Rivera Jr., 17; Jason Scott Mitchell, 19; and Charles Kendrick Lee Wardlow, 18 have been arrested in the Sean Taylor shooting case. (Miami-Dade Police Dept., HO / Associated Press)


MIAMI (AP) - Police said the four people arrested Friday in the shooting death of Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor went to his home intent on stealing, not killing.
The suspects didn't expect Taylor to be there, said Miami-Dade County police Director Robert Parker, but Taylor was recuperating from a knee injury and had returned home from Washington. When Taylor surprised them, he was shot.
"They were certainly not looking to go there and kill anyone," Parker said. "They were expecting a residence that was not occupied. So murder or shooting someone was not their initial motive."
Police spokeswoman Linda O'Brien identified the four suspects as: Venjah K. Hunte, 20; Eric Rivera Jr., 17; Jason Scott Mitchell, 19; and Charles Kendrick Lee Wardlow, 18. O'Brien said the charges for each had not yet been determined, but "we are talking murder and burglary."
Authorities said they had more than one confession, but Parker would not elaborate.
The four were arrested Friday in southwest Florida, about 100 miles from Miami. They will be booked into the Lee County Jail and eventually will be returned to Miami, O'Brien said. She did not have any information on when they would appear in court, their hometowns or if they had attorneys.
Janelle Hall, a spokeswoman for Miami-Dade County jail, said security reasons prevented her from releasing information regarding when the suspects would be transferred to Miami.
The 24-year-old Pro Bowl safety died Tuesday, one day after being shot at his home in an affluent Miami suburb during what officials said appeared to be an attempted burglary.
Police have been investigating a possible link to a Nov. 17 break-in at Taylor's home, during which they said someone pried open a front window, rifled through drawers and left a kitchen knife on a bed.
"We're looking into whether or not one or more of the individuals had been at the residence before," Parker said.
Family friend Richard Sharpstein said at least one of the suspects was at Taylor's house when his sister recently had a party, but that Taylor did not know the men.
"It's a burglary, and they targeted him for his wealth," said Sharpstein, who's Taylor's former attorney. "It makes his death even more pathetic, unnecessary and just actually disgusting."
Sharpstein had not spoken with Taylor's family regarding the arrests, but said he doubted it provided any comfort.
"I know they are just saddened and appalled. The fact that they arrested his killer is no comfort to them," he said. "It probably inflames them more, because it tells them people were trying to steal from him.
"They are murderers. They should be treated like murderers and put in the Miami River and floated away."
The Miami Herald reported on its Web site that Mitchell and Wardlow had connections to Taylor. Mitchell cut Taylor's lawn and did other chores at the house, Mitchell's twin brother, Scottie, told the paper. Taylor's sister, Sasha Johnson, dates Wardlow's older cousin Christopher, and Scottie Mitchell told the paper the couple invited Jason Mitchell to Johnson's birthday party within the past two months.
A woman who identified herself as Jason Mitchell's mother told the Naples Daily News her son was at a birthday party at Sean Taylor's home a couple months ago. She also said her son was at home all week and last weekend.
"I don't know where he's at, I don't know why he's being held," she told the Naples paper. "No parent should see this happen to their child."
O'Brien would not confirm the reports when contacted by The Associated Press.
Taylor and longtime girlfriend, Jackie Garcia, were awakened early Monday by loud noises at Taylor's home in an affluent Miami suburb. Taylor grabbed a machete he keeps in the bedroom for protection, Sharpstein said. Someone broke through the bedroom door and fired two shots, one missing and one hitting Taylor in the upper leg. Neither the couple's 18-month-old daughter, also named Jackie, nor Garcia were injured.
The bullet damaged the femoral artery in Taylor's leg, causing significant blood loss. Taylor never regained consciousness and died a little more than 24 hours later.
A public viewing for Taylor is scheduled Sunday in Miami, and the entire Redskins organization plans to fly to Florida to attend Monday's funeral at Pharmed Arena at Florida International University.
The Redskins also announced that fans attending Sunday's game will receive a towel with Taylor's No.21 jersey on it, and his name will be displayed prominently in one end zone.
Redskins owner Dan Snyder said the team will contribute a minimum of $500,000 to a fund to benefit Taylor's daughter, and he released a statement late Friday acknowledging the arrests.
"This is another step, but not a conclusion, in a very personal and painful tragedy," he said. "I also want to thank everyone who has joined us in mourning the loss of Sean. People from all over the world contacted the Redskins to share our grief and offer their prayers for Sean and his family. We will never forget the courage his family, especially Jackie, Pete and Donna, have shown. Their composure has been a source of strength for us all."

Spice Girls announce tour for December, January

Spice Girls announce tour for December, January

LONDON -- The Spice Girls wannabe stars again.

Following a calculated publicity buildup, the original Girl Power group of the 1990s announced Thursday that they have agreed to reunite for 11 concerts around the world in December and January.

The shows will be their first concerts since breaking up in 2001, and the first with all five of the original group since Geri "Ginger Spice" Halliwell quit to pursue a solo career in 1998.

The group said shows would be in:
Los Angeles on Dec. 7;
Las Vegas on Dec. 8;
New York on Dec. 11;
London on Dec. 15;
Cologne, Germany, on Dec. 20;
Madrid, Spain, on Dec. 23;
Beijing on Jan. 10;
Hong Kong on Jan. 12;
Sydney, Australia, on Jan. 17;
Cape Town, South Africa, on Jan. 20;
and Buenos Aires, Argentina on Jan. 24.

Halliwell appeared with Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham, Melanie "Sporty Spice" Chisholm, Emma "Baby Spice" Bunton and Melanie "Scary Spice" Brown to pose for photos and announce tour plans.

"We wanted to say thank you to our fans. It just feels very right for us," Chisholm said.

"Obviously it's nostalgic. But equally, if new fans want to come along, that's fantastic," Halliwell said. "I like to think our songs are universal and they are timeless."

The group's first single, "Wannabe," was released in 1996 and was followed by a string of No. 1 hits.

But their last album, "Forever," released in 2000 and without Halliwell, fared poorly.

You could now call them the Spice Mums. Beckham said the tour will be designed to accommodate the band members' seven children. Bunton is now pregnant with her first child.

"Our priority is going to be our families. We want to have fun," said Beckham, who has three sons with her husband, soccer star David Beckham. "That's one of the many reasons for this, for our children to see what we used to do."

Donda West's Last Words

They are the haunting final words from Donda West who died shortly after cosmetic surgery. As INSIDE EDITION reports, the voicemail message seems to indicate that Kanye's mom was excited about the surgery that came just hours before her death.