Swizz Beatz

Long-running hip hop producer Swizz Beatz, who has worked with Jay-Z, T.I., Busta Rhymes and many others, has been named the Global Ambassador for New York City Health and Hospitals (via Black Celebrity Giving). He'll be formally presented as the new Global Ambassador at a fundraiser at Mural Pavillion at Harlem Hospital Center on Thursday (9/27) at 7 PM. Executive director Joe Shick said Swizz "is committed to using his creativity, his innovation, and his international stature to help spread the HHC message on a global scale to promote better health in our city and our world."

Swizz Beatz will also be performing at a Bud Light Lime-presented 'End of Summer' party at Beekman Beer Garden on Saturday (9/29) with Araabmuzik, Jermaine Dupri, and DJ Kiss. Admission is free but RSVP to turnupsummer@engineshopagency.com is required.

This Saturday's party is Araabmuzik's last show before he kicks off his tour with Sleigh Bells, which begins at Port Chester's Capitol Theater on October 5. Tickets for that show are still available. All Araabmuzik dates are listed below.

In related news, Megaupload, which was shut down earlier this year and which Swizz Beatz was involved in, is allegedly on its way back. Kim Dotcom, who launched the site, recently tweeted, "Quick update on the new Mega: Code 90% done. Servers on the way. Lawyers, Partners & Investors ready. Be patient. It's coming." He followed that with multiple tweets, saying, "Dear Megaupload friends please RT to tell @BarackObama & @MittRomney that you want #InternetFreedom and #Megaupload back." Though "the new Mega" may also be in reference to Kim's new Megabox music service, which he just posted a trailer video for today (9/26). You can watch that video below.

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"http://www.justice.gov & universalmusic.com TANGO DOWN! You should have EXPECT US!" - AnonOps

"Anonymous's favorite weapon for these attacks is what's called for a "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attack, which directs a flood of traffic to a website and temporarily crashes it by overwhelming its servers. It doesn't actually involve any hacking or security breaches.

The Anonymous attack came soon after the DOJ announced the indictment of seven individuals connected to Megaupload for allegedly operating an "international organized criminal enterprise responsible for massive worldwide online piracy of copyrighted works."" [CNN]

"Hacktivist" collective Anonymous are retaliating for the closing of Megaupload, claiming responsibility for taking down the websites of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), the US Justice department, Universal Music Group (and a French affiliate) and MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America). All of those sites are currently unreachable, and there are current threats against Senator Chris Dodd's website, Whitehouse.gov, FBI.gov, Vivendi France, and many others.

Federal prosecutors in Virginia say they have shut down one of the world's largest Internet file-sharing sites, Megaupload.com, and charged its founder and others with violating piracy laws.

An indictment accuses the company of costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films and other content. -[New York Times]

This strangely/coincidentally/ironically/suspiciously/somethingly comes just one day after more news of Universal being pissed off which was also the same day (yesterday) that the internet protested the related SOPA & PIPA bills (which were somewhat successful in helping that issue).

Megupload is run by, no shit, CEO Swizz Beatz who recently helped create a video promoting the site with testimonials from the likes of Kanye West, Diddy, The Game, Ciara, and Alicia Keys. That video was controversially removed (by Universal) and then put back on YouTube in December (by Google). Universal Music Group and Megaupload are now suing each other, though it looks like that's the least of Megaupload's problems at the moment. Universal says the endorsements were "unauthorized". Watch the video in question below...

Continue reading "Megaupload shut down by the feds (not long after its public fight with Universal began)"