The gold-plated Promethean coffinAs fans celebrate the late James Brown's 80th birthday May 3, it's a suitable occasion to remember the final time that the King of Soul went gold.

That was when a horse-drawn carriage bore Brown's body in a procession through the streets of Harlem on December 28, 2006, before a memorial service at the Apollo Theatre that drew thousands of fans to line up and file past his body. Some of them might have been angling to get a look at the casket as much as at Brown himself.

Brown was decked out in a casket called the Promethean, which is plated in 14-carat gold, with a body of solid bronze, lined with blue velvet. Retail value: $22,000-30,000, making it one of the world's most expensive coffins, if not the most pricey, at the time.

Michael Jackson spent five hours in the funeral home when the body was returned to Augusta, Georgia, studying the lifeless visage of Brown and, no doubt, the coffin as well. Little wonder, then, that as Jackson had followed in Brown's nimble footsteps in life,

By Jon Wiederhorn

photo: Jason Merritt/Getty ImagesBeyoncé has been pretty particular about controlling her environment in the past. For example, for her Super Bowl performance, she reportedly demanded that her daughter Blue Ivy’s nursery be decorated with rose-scented candles and that the infant's crib be shipped from New York to New Orleans. Also, apparently Beyoncé asked that her dressing room be stocked with expensive cigars and liquor for her husband, Jay-Z. And after the show, she tried to prevent the press from using unflattering photos of her performance.

Now, the diva seems to be upping the ante on those demands (which the NFL dismissed as fantasy). According to the U.K. tabloid Daily Star, Beyoncé’s rider for her London residency at the O2 arena (which runs through May 5) includes some fairly bizarre and expensive items.

Chris Smith (l), Chris Kelly (r) of Kris Kross [Photo: Paul Natkin/WireImage]

The latest news on Kris Kross rapper Chris Kelly's death isn't pretty – it's being investigated as an apparent drug overdose.

Yahoo! Music has obtained the police report from the Fulton County Police Department officer who arrived on the scene of the 34-year-old's home south of Atlanta on Wednesday after his mother, Donna Kelly Pratte, called 911 asking for medical assistance.

When paramedics arrived, Kelly was sprawled on his living room couch "unresponsive." He "had no life signs," the report described.