Ericka Lee, revealing herself to be Drake’s ex-girlfriend, has stepped up, saying she was the voice on the other end of the phone call. The woman is now suing Drake for excluding her from sharing co-writer royalties on one of his biggest recent hits.

Lee filed the lawsuit on Thursday in California federal court claiming the two had a romantic and business partnership between early-2010 and mid-2011. During the relationship, the two are said to have traded poems and song lyrics and discussed joint creative projects.

Last year, Drake allegedly agreed to work with Lee on “Marvin’s Room” and split the proceeds. Lee says she was asked to record the song’s “hook” as well as the opening monologue that would serve as the thematic framework for a song about Drake’s yearning for an ex-girlfriend and how his fame interfered with his love life. “Plaintiff’s contribution is highly significant to the overall work,” says the complaint.

Drake supposedly acknowledged Lee’s contributions in text messages sent to her. One read, “U basically made that song.” Another read, “It’s s–t without you.”

Drake purportedly gave Lee credit as a “vocalist” on the song as “Syren Lyric Muse.” Additionally, the parties are said to have registered the sound recording at the  U.S. Copyright Office.  On July 11, Lee made a claim there, saying “My works and voice are used on this work.” About six weeks later, Drake’s label, Cash Money Records made its own claim, saying that the song authored was an “employer for hire.” Read rest of story…

You may remember last year Eminem had a commercial with Chrysler that aired during the 2011 Super Bowl. It’s notable on several levels including Em isn’t exactly a huge endorser like that. For one of the most successful musicians of all time, he’s obviously one who enjoys not being in front of a camera (“Say Goodbye To Hollywood” from The Eminem Show was some honest music now that I look back on it). The second reason is that, even with what you read in the previous sentence, when he does endorse a product, it’s most of the time highly successful. With that said, there’s always a penalty of success though. And as it relates to the Chrysler commercial, Marshall’s facing a $9M (handwritten) lawsuit.

Follow me now:

1. Stephen Lee Pieck is apparently a homeless man from Westchester, New York.

2. Pieck was in a seafood restaurant (Legal Seafood) in White Plains, New York, on September 9, 2010. According to the suit, Jordon Bratman and Christina Aguilera were also in the establishment.

3. Aguilera called Eminem and supposedly handed the phone to Pieck who soon convinced Em to run with his “Born of Fire” commercial idea.

4. Pieck listed two numbers on the legal document. One went to his mother’s house (who refused to talk about the lawsuit) and the other was a cell phone, which had a woman answer and then hang up.

That’s the story and now the question is this? Is anyone actually going to believe it? And in the chance someone does believe this story, how much bread will he take home (wherever that may be)?

To read the entire lawsuit, head over to AllHipHop.

For weeks, one of the more intriguing questions in Hip-Hop has been whether or not Drake would respond to Common’s “Stay Schemin’” freestyle/remix where he openly took shots at him after weeks of subliminal shots. Well, we’ve finally got our answer – a definitive “no.” Drizzy sat down with Nah Right’s nation to speak about the beef and how, more than anything, he was disappointed Com even took the situation to the lengths he did. He also shed light on the line that has taken on a life of its own, the one directed towards Vanessa Bryant (soon to be ex-wife of Lakers star, Kobe Bryant).

So people want to know: will you respond to Common?
No. Because despite how it’s been worded by him that situation is not a “hip hop moment” or a “battle for the sake of musical integrity”…it’s a ploy for attention around the release of an album. More than anything it was just disappointing cause what kid isn’t a fan of what Common has done for our genre. A guy who made such an incredible career for himself based off expressing genuine feelings about life and love is now targeting me for sharing my story.

There’s a line from your “Stay Schemin” verse about Kobe’s soon to be ex-wife Vanessa that has gotten some negative attention. Can you speak to what you were trying to express with that line?
That line came from a conversation about being this young and making this much money and the fear of losing it all. I just used his potential situation to address my own life. I never intended to offend Vanessa or anyone else. That line had everything to do with me and what goes on in my head as a 25 year old man with this much income flowing in. Kobe is and always will be a friend and an icon to me.

Head over to NahRight to read the remaining portion of the brief interview where Drake reveals what the future of OVO/XO and kills all rumors of him firing his entire staff following the release of Take Care.

Peter Gunz confirmed to MTV yesterday his son, Young Money artist, Cory Gunz, was arrested around 2 p.m. for firearm possession. The elder Gunz claims, while details surrounding the arrest are still being gathered, the search was illegal. The chain of events leading to Gunz’s arrest have many questioning the motive for law enforcement’s action. According to Peter, “…what I’m hearing from him is that they got a phone call at the station saying they should ‘look out’. According to [the officer], they didn’t know he was Cory Gunz. They just saw a bunch of kids following him around.”

Cory was transferred to Central Booking after initially being taken to the 43rd Precinct. While this is Cory’s first time on the wrong side of the law, his father is still nervous about the gun charge. His cause for concern is warranted seeing as how New York has some of the strictest firearm laws in the country. Lil Wayne served time in Rikers stemming from a 2007 gun charge and even New York Jets wide receiver did time for his infamous club shooting incident. We’ll continue to update this situation as it arises.

If you recall about a month ago, a die hard Drake fan tatted the rapper’s name on her forehead. “So he knew it was real.” Once Drizzy found out the tattoo was real and words were exchanged between Drake and the tattoo artist Kevin Campbell. But yesterday, Drake stopped by the shop to squash the issue with the tattoo artist. Kevin took to twitter to confirm the beef was squashed.

Read rest of story…

Rihanna has paid homage to rapper Tupac Shakur by getting the same tattoo as him. The We Found Love hitmaker has had Thug Life etched on her hands, the same inking that the slain rapper – who was killed in a drive-by shooting in 1996 – had on his stomach.

She tweeted a picture with the caption “? All these b****es screaming that 2pac back ? #THUGLIFE (sic).”

She also posted a separate message – reportedly in reference to Drake’s single Free Spirit which mentions Tupac’s girlfriend Kidada Jones, who used to have a tattoo of his face on her arm.

She wrote: “Tat my f***in name on u girl so I know its real!!! #MINE (sic).”

The 23-year-old is a huge fan of tattoos, with approximately 14 visible inkings including a musical note, a Pisces, the word ‘love’, a trail of stars and the French saying ‘Rebelle Fleur’ – which means rebellious flower.

The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul Mary J. Blige is not happy with the academy who she believes snubbed her for an Oscar nomination.

In 2011, the singer/songwriter penned an original song for the movie The Help titled “The Living Proof” that she obviously believed was Oscar worthy.

On Monday the Oscar nominations were announced and her track wasn’t mentioned in the ‘Best Original Song’ category, a group with five slots for nominees.

Instead of five songs however only two were nominated and a snubbed Mary tweeted that she thought it was intentional.

“I’m so thankful for true fans like you all. It saddens me & feels like the Academy is being mean. 2 only nominate 2 of the 5 slots is….”

She also added a link to a HitFix.com article that criticized the academy for insulting contemporary songwriters by only offering two nominations.

“Hey Fam pls read this. So unfair. I still don’t see how they justify the action. “

A portion of the article reads,

“We can’t for the life of us figure out how five songs from this year’s eligible batch didn’t make the cut. We’d like to see a little transparency from the music branch and have its members explain exactly what they’re looking for since it seems incredulous that they couldn’t come up with more than two tunes.”

The Help was nominated for ‘Best Picture’ and actresses Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer were nominated for ‘Best Actress’ and ‘Best Supporting Actress.’

[Source]

According to Billboard, Ne-yo has made the transition from his deal at Def Jam, to pursue responsibilities as senior VP and A&R of Motown. It’s a big move especially trying to fill the void of Smokey Robinson who has always been one of Ne-yo’s role models. In addition to this move, he will also bring his Compound Entertainment imprint to the label.

“I’m honored that I¹ve been given such a prestigious title and trusted with such responsibility; terrified because I know that playing this role in the fashion of one of my career role models, Mr. Smokey Robinson — these are big shoes to fill. But trust, I can handle it.” But trust, I can handle it.”

Diddy is planning to take over the world of cable television according to a new report from a broadcast news website.

BroadcastingCable.com reports that Sean “Diddy” Combs is prepping his Revolt music themed cable network for launch later this year.

The site contends that three sources have confirmed that the channel is aiming to launch at the end of the year–12/12/12, to be specific.
Sources tell B&C that Revolt will be a music and music news channel with an urban skew and related it to the “old days of MTV, but for more of the African American audience.”

The venture is said to be well funded and will be aided by Former MTV programming chief Andy Schuon.

That pretty motherf*cka is back, this time gracing the cover of Complex magazine.

The A$AP crew head is featured in the mag alongside stylist Jeremy Scott who speaks on what led him to style the likes of Rihanna, Kanye and Nicki Minaj.

“J: I always felt there was a fire burning inside me that was different, that was stronger. I grew up on a farm. I was removed from everything.

“A: That is fuckin’ amazing! You grew up on a farm? You see what I’m saying right now? He grew up on a fuckin’ farm! I grew up in Harlem and my music sounds like it’s from Houston, from Cali, or Westbumblefuck, for that matter. He grew up on a fuckin’ farm and look at this. Look at this.”

To read the full article click here.