• Kanye West, Will.i.am, John Legend, Stevie Wonder, and others are contributing to a CD to benefit the Barack Obama campaign. It seems like overkill, but it's really just a creative way to raise money until November 4th. [EUR]

• Sacramento mayoral candidate and former NBA player Kevin Johnson made some hateful people mad when he decided not to back California's gay marriage ban. [QT]

• Now that Nahla Aubrey has been officially seen by the public, she's everywhere. [Jezebel]

• Sixteen percent of black households are unprepared for the television's digital switch next year. Since nothing comes between Americans and their television, those black households (and all of the other households that are probably equally as unprepared) will figure out it in due time. [BV]

• Travis Barker and DJ AM are expected to make a full recovery from injuries they sustained during a deadly plane crash in South Carolina over the weekend. [SP]

Good news for Kanye West: Looks like he's going to get off without a felony charge after getting into a scuffle with the paparazzi at Los Angeles International Airport last week. According to a law enforcement source, "The thing Kanye had was a detachable flash. It's not of felony value. It wasn't worth $400."

His road manager, Don Crowley, won't get off that easily, because he smashed the body of the photographer's expensive camera on the ground and went on to swipe at the TMZ camera.
CONTINUED »

Kanye West and his assistant were arrested at LAX for felony vandalism after snatching and smashing a photog's camera at the American Airlines Terminal.

After the jump, read how it all went down, courtesy of TMZ. It should come as no surprise that their cameraman was there to witness the whole thing.

CONTINUED »

• All you have to do to gain Bill O'Reilly's respect is go on his show and let him bark at you for an hour! [BO]

• Solange, let the beef with Las Vegas go. They care enough about you to follow you around! [TMZ]

• Alicia Keys chats about Secret Life of Bees. [E!]

• Sometimes animal-rights activist Russell Simmons is well-aware that his clothes "are not especially animal friendly." Uh, knowing is half the battle? [BB]

• For the fanatics: Kanye's new album is already on presale at Amazon and Target. [EUR]

• Kanye West calls his new song "Love Lockdown," which he wrote a week and a half before his performance at the VMAs, his "favorite song 2 date." [MTV]

• Universal and Prince really need to let some things on YouTube go. [EUR]

• If young guys are going to get arrested for sagging, then this is fair game. [Jossip]

• Jordin Sparks knows that people who don't wear purity rings aren't "necessarily sluts," but she meant what she said at the VMAs and she isn't sorry. [EW]

• All right, Georgia politicians. I'll say it slowly. Stop. Calling. Black. People. Uppity. [TPM]

Fashion week and its parties — many celebs find it difficult to resist it or them. Most of the people in the pictures below look happier to be attending the events than Kanye West, who is probably smiling on the inside. Fashion's his passion!

The Video Music Awards aired on MTV last night for the 25th year in a row. I have come to two possible conclusions about the show. They are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
1) The VMAs are not good anymore.

2) I am too old to fully enjoy them.

For those of you who actually busied themselves doing something productive last night, here's a rundown of what you would have seen if you had more time on your hands: Lil Wayne hopping about the stage with T-Pain in an outfit that would have gotten him arrested in Rivera Beach and then hitting the stage again with Kid Rock, Kanye singing his new song "Love Lockdown" (people will be critical, and he will throw a tantrum), famous-in-the-UK host Russell Brand making a lot of political/chastity jokes and inspiring promise-ring-wearing Jordin Sparks to imply that those of us without promise rings are sluts, Rihanna performing twice, much to the delight of Chris Brown, MTV inexplicably scheduling good artists like Lupe Fiasco during commercial breaks, Christina Aguilera remixing Genie in a Bottle and then lip-syncing her new song, Jamie Foxx acting like an idiot, and a lithe Britney Spears woodenly accepting three pity awards. The end. Photos after the jump.

CONTINUED »

If Kanye West were a politician he'd be a flip flopper. Since he's a mercurial, egotistical pop star, no one will pay that much attention to the fact that he has decided to return to MTV to close out Sunday's VMAs. You might remember that last year, he had a tantrum at the VMAs because Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake got better performance slots than he did ("can a black man get a chance?" he yelled backstage). He vowed never to return to MTV. He's over it now, so let's all just forget about and enjoy the show. K? [EUR]

Entertainment Tonight last night sent its blackest reporter out to interview every African American celebrity he could find. Lucky for him, many of them had converged on Denver's football stadium to watch Obama's speech.

Did you know celebrities are all friends? They are! Oprah was hugging Mary J Blige! Kanye was answering questions for Oprah! And then Forest Whitaker came out of nowhere to use words like "pride," "humanity," "beautiful," "core" and "destiny."

Check out the video after the jump. My favorite part is when Kanye literally bum-rushes Oprah's interview, at first screaming from off-camera, then pushing through the crowd until he's also in the shot. His important message: Obama's inspired him to be a better, more selfless person, of course. Ha!

CONTINUED »

• From now on, Kanye West will only make videos that adults and eight-year olds can enjoy together. [E!]

• TBS is rolling out another Tyler Perry sitcom. The good news: it can't possibly be worse than House of Payne. [BV]

• Even people named Superhead need to retire at some point. [NB]

• Michelle Obama can't catch a break. [MM]

• It looks like one black Republican politician is about to become an independent. [FN]

• Here's a sneak peek of Kanye West's new clothing line, Pastelle. Don't say anything bad about it. He's sensitive. [Clutch]

• Anyone who takes medical advice from Grey's Anatomy needs to see a doctor. [Jossip]

• F. Gary Gray has signed on to direct the film version of Julius, an urban graphic novel based on the story of Julius Caesar. [DS]

• Of course Britney's back to perform at the VMAs. [MG]

• Oh, Laurie Ann. That's so unfortunate. [NB]

• What exactly is L'Oreal advertising with this photo — some sort of race-reversal cream? [CF]

• I don't know. Maybe you're bored at work and want to see a video of Nelly's Sean John underwear photo shoot. [TLF]

• Kanye West wants everyone to stop discriminating against gays… and Soulja Boy. [MTV]

• Here's how the blogosphere — including one of you guys — responded to Vogue Italia. [BV]

• Joe says R. Kelly tried to sabotage his career. [EUR]

Usually too bogged down by his own egomaniacal, impossibly-high expectations to enjoy or appreciate any career accolades that come his way, it's sort of a shock to see Kanye West so genuinely overjoyed and humbled after Vanity Fair included him on its "International Best Dressed List."

In fact, the honor has rendered him unable to adequately express himself on his blog: "I've sat in front of this computer for 20 minutes trying to put into words how I feel… who all to thank… and how to celebrate… this is a true honor and I am humbled by it!!!" He does know that acceptance speeches aren't required, right?