Kanye West and Justin Bieber kept Southern California's law enforcement officials busy this week. It started with an incident between the Biebz and his neighbors, who claim the pop singer and his friends egged their home. The LAPD were issued a search warrant to raid Bieber's home. But instead of finding evidence of the prank, the cops found... cocaine! It belonged to Bieber's friend Lil Za, who you may or may not remember (probably not) as the young Texas rapper who did the track "Rain Dropz."
Somewhere else in L.A., Kanye West, allegedly, physically assaulted an 18-year-old who'd verbally assaulted Kim Kardashian. But the Westdashians also had things to smile about this week: Yeezus achieved platinum status from the RIAA, and Bruce Springsteen told NPR's Ann Powers that he thinks the rapper is "incredible."
All that and more in What The Hell Just Happened In Music This Week?
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Beyoncé Gender Equality Essay
Upgrade U 2.0: Beyoncé published an essay on equal pay for women.
Date: January 13
"In the new issue of journalist Maria Shriver's The Shriver Report, Beyoncé has written an essay that focuses on equal pay for women. It is titled "Gender Equality is a Myth!" She writes:
'We need to stop buying into the myth about gender equality. It isn't a reality yet. Today, women make up half of the U.S. workforce, but the average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change. Men have to demand that their wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters earn more-commensurate with their qualifications and not their gender. Equality will be achieved when men and women are granted equal pay and equal respect.'
You can read a longer excerpt of the essay and also download a free copy of the issue."—Jordan Sargent
Juicy J Scholarship Winner
Kanye West Assault Charge
Justin Bieber Search Warrant
"Yeezus" Goes Platinum
OutKast Confirms Show Dates
Bruce Springsteen Loves Kanye
Glory Days: Bruce Springsteen said he thinks Kanye West is "incredible."
Date: January 16
"Bruce has aged pretty gracefully—not only does he look a decade younger than he actually is (64), he also does hip stuff like give a keynote talk at South By Southwest and listen to hip-hop.
In an interview with NPR's Ann Powers, he spoke on the subject a little bit, specifically mentioning his admiration of Kanye West. Powers asked about several songs on his albums that have credits that read 'loops by Bruce Springsteen,' implying some familiarity with the type of sampling techniques used in hip-hop. Bruce's answer was revealing: He's a fan of Yeezus... 'I listen to Kanye West,' he said. 'Kanye West is incredible, you know... I mean some of these, there's like, just the production. And I saw him on television, he did the song called 'Blood on the Leaves' on the Later...With Jools Holland—it was fantastic, you know. He's a very, I still find him very interesting.'"—Kyle Kramer
