Hot Off The Presses: Jermaine Dupri, G. Roberson, Kyambo 'Hip-Hop' Joshua, Notorious B.I.G. & More

Jermaine Dupri is being honored with the Golden Note Award at the 22nd annual American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Pop Music Awards on May 16 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Past recipients of the award include P. Diddy, Stevie Wonder and Elton John. ...

G. Roberson and Kyambo "Hip-Hop" Joshua, record execs who founded Hip-Hop Since 1978 (HHS78), have extended their label deal with Atlantic Records. The duo have a long history in the hip-hop industry including stints at Roc-A-Fella Records, and most recently Atlantic Records, where they served as Vice Presidents of Urban A&R. HHS78 is the production/management company that birthed the talented Kanye West and is the production home of Just Blaze. HHS78's first project was Kanye's debut classic The College Dropout. The pair signed West to a production deal in 1998. ...

Voletta Wallace, mother of Notorious B.I.G., is reportedly making progress with her lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department for the wrongful death of her son. According to MTV, the trial was initially supposed to begin this April, but was continued because of the unavailability of a key witness, and is now scheduled to go to trial on June 14. Also, Wallace inked a book deal with Simon & Schuster. ...

Master P and brother, Silkk the Shocker, were arraigned Wednesday (March 30), and plead not guilty to a felony charge of carrying loaded, unregistered weapons, according to the Associated Press. The two were arrested January 27 at UCLA after being stopped by campus police for not having a license plate on their car (see "Master P, Silkk The Shocker Arrested On Gun Charges"). Upon a search of their vehicle, police said they found two guns. Both are currently free on bail. ...

Alicia Keys has settled a lawsuit from last year that alleged that she had used an agent to sign a deal with a book publisher, while already in contract with another. According to MTV, the singer used former literary agent Noah Lukeman to sign a deal with Bantam to publish her book, but after changing her mind, teamed up with a second agent for a more lucrative deal elsewhere (Putnam). ... In other Keys news, she is slated to be honored by the Songwriters Hall of Fame with the Starlight Award, a prize given to gifted young songwriters making a significant impact in the music industry. The ceremony will take place June 9 in New York. ...

Russell Simmons, Reverend Run, Nicole Wray, Jim Jones and Juelz Santana of The Diplomats will be visiting Perth Amboy High School in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, on Tuesday (April 5). Simmons, along the aforementioned, will announce the official launch of the state's Be Powerful, Be Heard youth-voter initiative. They will also introduce a spoken-word contest about the importance of voting; the winner will be announced at the New Jersey Hip-Hop Summit in September. ...

The Black Eyed Peas' Will.I.Am recently did a remix of ,b>Bob Marley's "Africa Unite," but Will did it because he was asked by Marley's widow, Rita. That's not it, she also sang on the record with the rapper. The track will be released Friday (April 1) on the Internet, with portions of the proceeds from the downloads of the song being be split between the Bob Marley Foundation, the Rita Marley Foundation and the Will.I.Am Foundation. ...

Mariah Carey is trying to drop her album with a bang. The veteran singer will be shutting down New York's Times Square to perform five songs from her new album, The Emancipation of Mimi, for ABC's "Good Morning America." Songs she is expected to perform include "We Belong Together" and "It's Like That." ...

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