Some our most successful recording artists were in Lagos, Nigeria, over the weekend to perform at the ThisDay Africa Rising Festival. Rihanna and Jay were there, along with Mary J. Blige, Chris Brown, and Usher. On the fashion front, designer Ozwald Boateng and models Oluchi, Naomi Campbell, and Tyson Beckford were there. The latter two can also be seen below visiting the Lagos Island Maternity Hospital. Naomi is nice around babies.

Suddenly, after several years of being at the bottom of the fashion heap, black models are back on top. In a big way. Not only are they exclusively populating the pages of this month's super-hyped Vogue Italia, Wintour & Co. also begrudgingly gave them some attention. At Milan's Men's Fashion Week, the designers of Dsquared used a group of models, led by Tyson Beckford, made up almost entirely of black men. And rumor has it that Lanvin's show next week has an "all-ethnic lineup."

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Tyra would be so disappointed. America's Next Top Model's Cycle 7 winner, CariDee English, learned nothing during that obligatory media-training episode. She spilled to Page Six that her deadbeat hometown boyfriend moved in with her from North Dakota, stole $10,000 from her bank account, and spent it all in Las Vegas. Then she willfully admitted that Tyson Beckford is her new boyfriend. Keep it to yourself until they find out, CariDee. Or maybe that last bit of news was so unbelievable she thought it was okay to let it loose. There's something so wrong about an actual model dating a fake model cast member from ANTM, but I suppose it shows how the world of "reality television" is infiltrating actual reality.

Toni Braxton's been having some heart trouble, and, as I was informed in the comments section, this song is a much better way to illustrate that than "Breathe Again." Duh! Enjoy the melodrama — and Tyson Beckford! — with your morning coffee.

Really? Already? Tyra, the CW, and all of us who are unfortunately compelled to watch America's Next Top Model are already gearing up for Cycle 10 of the best/worst competition show on television.

I started watching Bravo's Tyson Beckford and Nikki Taylor-hosted Make Me A Supermodel recently, and it's crazy how the caliber of contestants on that brand new show is already so much higher than ANTM's mediocre wannabes. It looks like there could be some winners in this cycle's crop, though. Check 'em out after the jump.

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• How could anyone question the "blackness" of Barack Obama when he's a member of a church (okay, he's separated himself from it since he began his campaign) that lets Common spit holy freestyles? [XXL]

• Donna Brazile's accused of being honest about how something made her feel playing the race card after she called some of Bill Clinton's Barack Obama comments "depressing." [Politico]

• Stedman's not getting any monetary rewards for sticking by Oprah Winfrey all that time. [MSNBC]

• Genarlow Wilson, who was college-bound before he was jailed for statutory rape after having oral sex with another student at his high school. Now that he's out of jail, he's headed to Morehouse. [AJC]

• Oh really, Tyson? [FWD]

Tyson Beckford is all set to host a new modeling competition show on Bravo, but lets hope he has polished his rough edges a bit since this 1998 appearance on The Chris Rock Show. Fortunately, we already know that he's long since ditched those glasses.

Tyson Beckford is going reality television on us. Thankfully, he'll be hosting a show, not starring in the Surreal Life or something. He and former model Nikki Taylor will host a Bravo competition show that should be named The One That's Not America's Next Top Model but is actually called Make Me A Supermodel.

Unlike the CW's Tyra Banks-fronted America's Next Top Model, where a panel of judges decide who stays and who goes each week, Supermodel results will be determined by viewer voting. Each week, one would-be catwalker will be sent home, until only one contestant remains.

I hope the producers are prepared to get a bunch of ANTM rejects in the casting room for the first few seasons. Tyra might have drained the entire market of people who aren't good enough to be models on their own but are either pretty or tall enough to play at it for 12 weeks.

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• Jay-Z wishes he looked like (a human version of) that. Beyonce should be glad she doesn't. [C&D]

• Prodigy gets hit with a three and a half year sentence after pleading guilty to illegal weapons charges. Maybe his legal team needed more people. [AHH]

• Oddly sexy for a tire ad, but I'll take it. [Bossip]

• Samuel L. Jackson reps Star Wars until the day he dies. [SP]

• Why do all close male friends have to attract gay rumors? Omarion, though? I'm not sure… [QT]