A blind man could have seen this coming. This being Alicia Keys' foray into rock. Her 2001 debut Songs In A Minor was hip-hop influenced, received five 2002 Grammy Awards and most memorably left then fellow newcomer India.Arie empty handed. (Alright. Give me a second to count to 10. The latter still gets me mad.) However, Alicia has never been content. With each record, she has inched towards even more mainstream success and has prevailed.

Alicia steps outside any boundaries with "Another Way To Die," a song for the soundtrack for Quantum Of Solace, the latest James Bond saga. Teaming with Jack White of The White Stripes and The Raconteurs, they duet with their vocals and musicianship, trading Alicia's cutting piano notes with Jack's revving guitar strokes.

Alicia doesn't sit as comfortably here as she does on last year's No. 1 hit "No One," or previous favorites "You Don't Know My Name" or "Fallin'." But maybe that's because, while her vocals on "Another Way To Die" feel true to her

I never learned how to Crank That Souljah Boy, or the Batman. I looked almost as bad as Tom Cruise when I tried to do the Yung Joc dance. And I'm cool with this. I haven't been up to date on dances since I was in college nearly 20 years ago. So you have to understand the excitement I felt when I saw this video "New Era" by The Retro Kidz.

The rap group has created an authentic '90s hip-hop video. They rap over a sample of Snap's "The Power," and dress, dance and rhyme like Kid N Play, Big Daddy Kane and Redhead Kingpin.

They are doing all the dances that I used to kill at the college parties and clubs--the Kid N Play Kick Step, the Running Man, and the Whop. (You know, I did actually win a $100 Robocop contest back in 1988 to Rob Base's "It's Takes Two." Sure there were only two other contestants and the applause that named me the winner wasn't impressive, but it was the loudest and that's all that matters.)

In the video, each of the Retro Kidz is styled like a particular '90s

Ne-Yo was just awarded $700,000 by a Los Angeles judge for performing two dates on R. Kelly's "Trapped In This Concert," ahem, "Double Up" --tour last fall.

When Ne-Yo was cut from the bill it was rumored to be the result of jealously from R. Kelly's camp who allegedly felt that the new jack superstar R&B singer and songwriter's opening act was stealing too much of R. Kelly's thunder.

Since Ne-Yo was supposed to make $785,000 from the 25-date run, Superior Court Judge Malcolm Mackey ordered R. Kelly's promoter Rowe Entertainment to double up and pay Ne-Yo for his losses.

I haven't seen a payout this good since Mariah Carey post-Glitter got dropped from Virgin Records and the label giant paid out most of her $80 million contract.

Sounds like I need more contracts in my life.

Actually, I should give Judge Mackey a call. Maybe I can get a settlement. I attended the show when it hit Los Angeles and will have to admit that R. Kelly's seemingly impromptu set was so confusing and thrown

After hearing songs from Oscar-nominated actor Terrence Howard's debut album, Shine Through It, I now understand his connection to his character in the film Hustle & Flow that yielded him the prestigious nod.

The parallels to Terrence and his character DJay are obvious.

DJay was a pimp by night and aspiring, untalented rapper by day.

Terrence is a full time actor vying to break into the music business as a vocally handicapped jazz artist.

I just hope that Terrence doesn't end up in jail as did DJay. He may also have to resort to shooting people to force them to listen to this jazz record released today.

Many actors are pursuing singing careers and at least one news outlet has already compared Terrence to Jamie Foxx, who won the best actor Academy Award for Ray. But Terrence's Shine Through It won't be garnering the acclaim Jamie did for his 2005 release Unpredictable. Jamie sold more than 500,000 copies during his opening week, earned Grammy nominations and critical praise.

Terrence's