HHDX News Bits (Wednesday)

Making the most of the holiday weekend, Big Pun, Stacey Dash and Dallas Austin all seem to be in the news for reasons they'd rather not be facing.

Late rapper Big Pun is in the news again, this time about a new album featuring unreleased tracks from the lyrical behemoth. After his wife, Liza Rios, made headlines for allegedly auctioning off personal items of the late rapper and commenting in interviews about their troubled past, the rapper is in the news again because the producer and owner of the unreleased tracks is refusing to negotiate with Sony Records.

The producer, John "Jellybean" Benitez is holding up the potential project because, "he didn't think of the idea himself." Representatives for Sony stated that "Sony owns Big Pun as an artist, but Jellybean owns the publishing rights to many of the songs, Sony wants to do another album, but (Benitez) hasn't returned calls. He's playing the game.

Benitezs reps were no available for comment.

Pun, born Christopher Rios, died from a heart attack in 2000. The Terror Squad rapper made history after he released his debut album, Capital Punishment in 1998; he was honored as the first Latino rapper ever to go platinum.

In other, where have you been news: Stacey Dash, most famous for her role in the indie-hit movie Clueless as well as the TV show of the same name , other roles in Mo' Money and Renaissance Man, most recently she starred in Kanye's All Falls Down video. She's Roc-A-Fella money-man, Damon Dash's, cousin and she's also an assistant producer with the label. Lately, she may have been out of the news, but she'll soon be the focus of hundreds of thousands of eyes.

The 40-yr old actress has said that in addition to starring in a movie with Michelle Pfeiffer, directed by Clueless director Amy Heckerling, coming later this year, you will also be able to see her in Playboy.

In a statement made via her personal website, the heavily traversed site, http://www.staceydashonline.com/, her or her webmaster told her fans, "You'll be able to see Stacey in Playboy magazine later this summer." Whether she will go the route of a sophisticated lay-out or the classy, but risqu photo-shoot is yet to be seen, but this may be the necessary boost to bring back her back in the mainstream.


Hard-partying R&B producer Dallas Austin, followed in the steps of all the superstars who have gotten into trouble and then gotten themselves out in remarkable time.

Austin was being held in a Dubai jail in the United Arab Emirates after being found with 1.26 of grams of cocaine. The producer has been pardoned on all charges and his lawyer, Joel A. Katz, told reporters "He is on the plane and safely out of the country,"via email to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Ruler of Dubai Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum pardoned Austin on Tuesday, hours after the Grammy-winning producer was sentenced to four years in prison for possession of cocaine.

Austin told the court on Sunday that he made a mistake and did not mean to break the law in the United Arab Emirates. Whether Austin was unaware that Dubai and the US forbid the trafficking of illegal drugs, is undetermined at this point. The media reported that on his way to supermodel Naomi Campbell's birthday party at the Burj al-Arab hotel, he was arrested (May 19) at the airport.

Since his arrest Austin had been held without bail at Dubai's al-Rashidiya Police Station. He's on his way home now and there's no word on whether or not he'll face any charges at all for his posses ion of cocaine.

SIDE NOTE:

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David M. Blake
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