Kanye West Partners With Absolut For "Be Kanye" Campaign

Superstar Kanye West teamed with Absolut Vodka to release a comical video yesterday (July 2) entitled “Be Kanye.”

The lighthearted, 1 minute commercial is an advertisement shot in retro 80’s format complete with loud colors and cheesy sound effects.

In the commercial, Kanye hawks a fictional product named “Be Kanye.”

The dissolvable tablet enables the user to receive the “famous superstar power” of West. The spot ends with a toll free number to order and pricing at the familiar figure of $19.95.

The commercial is the latest project between West and Absolut Vodka since a sponsorship deal was announced in February 2008.

The influential brand recently organized after parties for West on his Glow in the Dark tour.

Amy Winehouse Calls Kanye West A "Cunt"

Amy Winehouse’s career has been in a tailspin over the past year. After delivering one of the finest stateside debut albums in recent memory with Back To Black, Winehouse has found herself caught in the midst of controversy dealing with her health and behavior. Everything from suicide attempts, unique ailments, assault and much more have helped find Winehouse in the headlines for more than her music.

This past weekend at the Glastonbury Festival, Winehouse was at it yet again. While most of the headlines regarding the festival had to do with Jay-Z, the “Rehab” singer was making headlines of her own. Video clips of Winehouse punching a fan in the crowd surfaced shortly after the event but that wasn’t the only thing that caught people’s attention.

“Imagine if it was a cunt like Kanye West,” Winehouse bellowed during her performance. “'Cunts like Kanye' should be his next album title!”

Why Winehouse verbally attacked Kanye is not immediately known, but it has raised more than a few eyebrows. Most notably, Jay-Z. MTV News immediately reached out to Jay to get his thoughts on the matter.

“She said something about Kanye late on (in her set) but I didn’t hear it and I don’t agree with it. He’s my brother and the biggest artist on Roc-A-Fella (records) right now," explained Hov to the network. “I guess I should hook them up because he’s a great guy too. I don’t know what the problem is- I don’t know where that (comment) came from.”

Will Kanye pay the attack any attention or will he chalk it up to Amy just being Amy? Keep it tuned to DX.

Lil Wayne, Kanye, UGK Win At BET Awards

Rappers Lil Wayne and Kanye West were big winners last night (June 24) at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles during the BET Awards.

Both West and Wayne won multiple awards, with West winning the Best Hip-Hop Award During his acceptance speech, the Chicago born rapper brought out Lil Wayne, who was up for the same award.

"It feels good, like a family reunion to stand on stage with Lil Wayne, my fiercest comp," Kanye West said, with Wayne at his side. "Congratulations for selling over a million records."

Producer T-Pain treated the crowd to an interesting performance, which featured a who's who in southern Hip-Hop. T-Pain and Kanye West also took home the award for Best Collaboration, due to the success of West's single "Good Life," which was also produced by T-Pain.

Rappers FloRida, Rick Ross, DJ Khaled, Big Boi and Ludacris also made a cameo appearance during a medley of T-Pain produced hits, which featured stilt walking women in tight shorts and afros and a midget, creating a quasi freak show on the stage at the Shrine.

UGK won Video of the Year Award for their track International Players anthem featuring Outkast.

Lil Wayne, who also won the Viewer's Choice Award, closed the show with a rousing rendition of his hit single "Lollipop," taken from his blockbuster album The Carter III.

"I would be nothing without god. Cash Money Records. Everybody in here, we are nothing but god," Lil Wayne said.

Other performers and presenters during the evening included a new, shapely Lil Kim, Rihanna, SWV, David Banner, EnVouge, Alicia Keys, Usher, Ciara, Chris Brown, TLC, Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Gabrielle Union and numerous others.

Kanye West Joins Nike For Charity Race Performance

Hip Hop heavyweight Kanye West will serve as the grand finale performer for The NikePlus Human Race post race concert, bringing together both music and sport for an unprecedented, global racing event.

The NikePlus Human Race, the world's largest one day running event, will take place on August 31 in 25 different cities and a portion of the proceeds from the race will be donated to WWF, the global conservation organization, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and the UN refugee agency's Ninemillion.org campaign.

"I'm hitting the stage in Los Angeles for the NikePlus Human Race, Nike's dopest 10k run ever. This race is bringing together hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world to run and listen to some great music while serving a higher cause, and I'm excited to perform in L.A. as part of the grand finale," Kanye West said in a statement.

Other performances will include the All-American Rejects in New York, Kelly Rowland in Paris, Moby in London, and over 20 other performers in different cities across the globe.

To take part in the 10k race visit www.nikeplus.com for more information and to register for the race.

Kanye West Poorly Received At Bonnaroo Music Festival

Many Kanye West fans booed their hero as the Chi-Town producer/emcee hit the stage on Sunday night (June 15) at the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee

The was delayed two hours, much to the dismay of fans. Kanye was scheduled to hit the stage at 2:45 AM on Sunday morning, but did not manage to start his show until about 4:25 AM - by which time, most fans had fallen asleep.

Chants of "Kanye sucks!" were heard throughout the venue, as fans threw glow-in-the-dark sticks at the empty stage, according to BBC News. Later that day, guitarist Robert Randolph encouraged more "Kanye sucks" chants from the crowd.

The cause of the delay was a combination of difficulties with taking down Pearl Jam's set (the band played an hour late), as well as difficulties in setting up Kanye's elaborate stage.

Other acts at Bonnaroo this year included Chris Rock, Jack Johnson, Metallica, M.I.A., Talib Kweli, Lupe Fiasco and many more.

Technorati Tags: Kanye West, Chris Rock, Jack Johnson, Metallica, M.I.A., Talib Kweli, Lupe Fiasco

Kanye Speaks On "Flashing Lights" Video Leaks

Just in case there was any confusion, Kanye West wants fans to know that the only version of the “Flashing Lights” video that he wanted released was the one he released himself.

“I shot [three] vids for “Flashing Lights” [‘cause] I ain't like the first [two],” Kanye typed on his blog. “No rant's here just an explanation of why y’all getting those other vids [right] now that I ain't approve and why I ain't finna post neither on my blog. So I hope whoever leaked them got the shine they was looking [for] ‘cause that's all they'll get now.”

Two other videos for the song leaked earlier this week. The first leak shows a woman’s dual life of glamor and instability, while the second tells a supernatural murder mystery. Published reports said that the last video to leak was actually the first video that was shot, while the previous leak was the second version filmed.

In the blog, Kanye said that he enlisted Sam Speigal—brother of Spike Jonze, director of the released video—to remix “Flashing Lights” so that that the music would match the latter video. Speigal also co-orchestrated the music on the Glow In The Dark Tour.

Kanye, Common, Method Face the Music

Not such a rapper's delight, this.

Kanye West, Common, Method Man and Redman, along with their respective Universal Music Group record companies, were sued Thursday by the daughter of late jazz musician Joe Farrell for sampling his music sans permission.

Adding further unoriginal insult to copycat injury, each of the rappers used snippets from the same tune, Farrell's 1974 composition "Upon This Rock."

The lawsuit, filed by scorned offspring Kathleen Firantello, claims West sampled the tune in 2005 on Late Registration's "Gone," Common in "Chi-City," a bonus track on his 2005 album Be, and Method Man and Redman in their 1999 joint track, "Run 4 Cover."

Firantello is seeking punitive damages of at least $1 million and an order that no more copies of the offending songs be made, sold or performed.

This sort of thing would never happen to Diddy.

Kanye ND Glow in the Dark Tour Date Canceled

Fans in Fargo, North Dakota will miss the chance to see superstar rapper Kanye West on his critically acclaimed "Glow in the Dark" tour, as the date in the city has been canceled.

West was supposed to play The Fargo Dome this Sunday (May 25), but promoters said the date has been canceled due to West's hectic travel schedule, as well as low ticket sales.

Promoters said they were worried about the date from the start, as the rapper performs in Chicago on Saturday, and Winnipeg on Monday.

The show, which is hauled around from state-to state by 15 trucks, also suffered from poor ticket sales in Fargo.

“I can’t really make it a secret that ticket sales were not as anticipated," Fargodome manager Rob Sobolik told Fargo’s Forum newspaper. “Obviously, we talked about ticket sales.” Another promoter wasn't exactly sure of West's reasoning for canceling the performance over the holiday weekend.

“I honestly can’t say what the exact reasoning is," said another promoter of the Glow in the Dark tour in North Dakota.

“Maybe it’s just a vacation day. Who knows?”

Phone and internet tickets purchased via Ticketmaster will receive automatic refunds, while tickets picked up at a box office should be returned to their original point of sale.