Kanye West's "Glow in the Dark" tour, with N.E.R.D., Rihanna, and Lupe Fiasco, kicked off in Seattle last night, and if the Seattle Times and Rolling Stone reviews are to be believed, he is the king of the concert universe. Can't front — based on the photos and the descriptions, it is 100 percent something I'd pay money to see.

CONTINUED »

Jamie Foxx showed up to the Pepsi Stuff launch party last night looking a bit like a Black Panther with a variety drug addictions. Maybe for a movie? Hopefully for a movie?

CONTINUED »

Lupe "What The Hell Is He Talking About" Fiasco, who can pretty brilliant in his songs and pretty ridiculous in interviews, said that he is going to do one more album and then retire to put his creativity into writing a book about a window washer. The window washer will probably not listen to A Tribe Called Quest.

"I have one more album in me and then I'm out. I've been doing this music hustle for eight years and have more things I still want to do."

"There are other ways besides putting out an album that allow me to channel my creative energy and I'm writing a book about a window washer. I will have more than enough to keep me busy."

Fiasco will name his final album LupEND, for obvious reasons. And although the topic of his book gave me pause, if every rapper out right now wrote a novel, Lupe Fiasco's would probably be the best.

All the pain and suffering and joy and jubilation that Mary J. Blige no doubt put into her latest album, Growing Pains was enough to sell 629,000 albums in her first week, but not enough to beat out Josh Groban's Oprah-backed Noel, which was No. 1 for the fifth week in a row. Don't sleep on the O Factor, y'all.

Jaheim's album, The Makings of A Man," also debuted this week at No. 11. And Lupe Fiasco's "The Cool" sold 143,000 units to debut at No. 15. This is the price one pays for not "dumbing it down."

• This is for the next time you're in Paris, if you should be so lucky… [USAT]

• "We don't need no stupid global UN Racism conference" — The U.S. [UNW]

• Did Will Smith get the Farrakhan treatment for daring to (innocuously) speak about Hitler? [HP]

• Lupe Fiasco's track about violence in video games is annoying the people at Wired. [Wired]

• Twenty-three percent of inner city black children are infected with roundworm. Very sad and very gross. [FOX]

Yesterday was apparently black music day on TRL with Keyshia Cole (in an intricate cream number), Mario, and Lupe Fiasco, who has apparently recovered from "Fiasco-Gate," in attendance. It was kind of Keyshia to take time out of her dysfunctional, weird, dramatic R. Kelly tour to say hi to the fans in Times Square.

• That's twice in one day, Tyra. [BV]

• Lupe Fiasco continues to "Dumb It Down." [Bossip]

• So the marketing people just want this album to fail? [C&D]

• Melyssa Ford celebrates her birthday, another chance to wear something skin-tight. [CL]

• Condoleezza Rice says, "Ask not what your country can do for you…" [CNN]

This one — "Electric Relaxation by A Tribe Called Quest — goes out to all the Lupe Fiascos of the world who somehow never heard it. Just trying to do my part, you know.

Lupe Fiasco flubbed Phife's verse on "Electric Relaxation" during the VH1 Hip Hop Honors tribute to A Tribe Called Quest. It was kind of a surprise, because he messed up, among other things, "I like 'em brown, yellow, Puerto Rican or Haitian," which is kind of like, the line everyone knows. Whatever, it happens. I didn't dwell on it.

Little did I know that since then, Lupe, 25, has been on a rampage of disrespect the hip hop sites have dubbed FiascoGate. Apparently, he has never listened to Tribe, who he says were before his time, never owned Midnight Maurauders, and had never heard "Electric Relaxation" prior to his performance. Interestingly, Lupe and I are around the same age, and I have been unable to go through life without being exposed, on multiple levels, to A Tribe Called Quest and their various works. And hip hop is not my chosen profession.

CONTINUED »

It must be such a victory when an artist, like Lupe Fiasco with his new "Dumb it Down" video, is able to make an extremely low budget video that's also pretty effective. Can someone send this song to Bill O'Reilly along with a frosty glass of iced tea, please? He probably won't be able to "get over it."

Nothing says, "I'm the birthday girl" like a see-through plastic dress! Now that I've taught you that important piece of birthday etiquette, guess whose 21st bday bash went down in Houston this weekend?

The A-Listers came out (well, most of them kind of had to) for the bash, including Beyonce, Jay-Z, Kelly Rowland, and rumored flame Lil Wayne. More pics courtesy of INDMIX after the jump.

CONTINUED »

I know, I know. This post is about T.I.'s album release party in LA yesterday, but I am so excited to see TGT all together in one picture that I had to make it the lead. Unfortunately, they are not in the same order as their group name, but they are a relatively new threesome, so I will cut them some slack. More pics of the actual man of honor and other guests after the jump.

CONTINUED »