"The king's baaaaack!" That's the latest catch phrase buzzing through Atlanta as news is spreading that T.I. has been released from jail.
As previously reported, T.I. was expected to be released shortly from a federal prison in Arkansas to continue to serve his sentence in a halfway house. Now just six days later, that day has finally come.
The announcement was made official through Grand Hustle executives and affiliates.
Amir Boyd, head of Marketing and Promotions for Grand Hustle, announced it through his Twitter saying,
“The KING is home y'all! Merry Christmas!”
Comedian Lil Duval, who is signed to the Grand Hustle emblem chimed in on the celebration saying,
“#Tipisfree now all u losers ass rappers can clock out GRAND HUSTLE got it from here...”
He also made sure to mention while the King is home, he isn't completely free of the shackles of the legal system. He added,
“Hold dont get it twisted #tipisfree but he aint free free yet”
The excitement continues on the Digicel Merry Mansion Game Show as persons continue to win hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Melissa Abrams a Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara mother of one out-searched five men in the Digicel Merry Mansion and walked away with $205,000 plus another chance at searching again next week Sunday.
She first found $305,000 last week when she entered the Merry Mansion for the first time and qualified for a second chance. In high praise to Digicel for paying her back, she said she will be purchasing a bicycle for her nine year old daughter and will also be putting some in the bank. But above all she said she plans to find the most monies in the next mansion search.
Jermaine Jordan who serves as a mechanic in the Guyana Police Force found $135,000 and says his money is going towards building his house and more credit.
Rocky Rampersaud a jeweller found $100,000 and said he will be having an even Merrier Christmas with more food and drinks and hopefully he will be back in the merry mansion.
America Street Money Changer Gordon Marshal found $65,000 and he says it will be used for buying baby clothes as his third child is due any day soon. Minibus driver Keith Evans found $20,000 and Orson Ward a Technical Institute student won himself $30,000. Aside from pocketing the cash that they found in the Digicel Merry Mansion finalists also took home new Nokia E63 cellular phones valued in excess of $50,000. The next Merry Mansion search is set for airing on Sunday with more than $600,000 to be found by lucky Digicel Customers.
The show is in its third week and so far over $1.8M and 15 Nokia E63’s have been won on this new television game show.
The show's exciting format, which allows five lucky contestants to run through the Merry Mansion in search of cash, has grabbed the attention of many, and persons across the country are hoping for a chance to enter the Mansion. Digicel customers are being given the opportunity to keep whatever amount of cash they find in the Merry Mansion by simply topping up with $500 or more while post paid customers gain entry by paying their bills in full.
Fifteen lucky contestants are selected on Thursday mornings at 8:00 on NCN. Once persons make it into the fifteen, they are invited to the Merry Mansion where there is a further selection process. Each of the fifteen selects a box from the Digicel elf, which contains the message Keep Topping Up or Enter the Merry Mansion. The lucky five with the message enter the Merry Mansion get to hunt for the hidden cash.
The biggest winner of the night automatically enters the Mansion the following week. So far, the two big winners in the show, Ranole Bourne and Melissa Abrams, have won close to one million dollars.
Eighteen-year-old, Bourne, a GNIC first division cricket player, was the first big winner in the Merry Mansion of $146,000 and a whopping $295,000 in show 2 making a grand total of $441,000. The very fortunate Melissa Abrams knocked out Bourne when she found $305,000 in game 2 to enter the third show and went on to be the biggest winner of that show pocketing $205,000. Her total winning to date is $510,000 so far and will be facing off with five new contestants this Sunday.
The Digicel Merry Mansion is aired every Sunday, Monday and Wednesday at 19:00 on NCN Georgetown, Linden and Berbice, HJTV, RCA Essequibo, LRTV and CCB Berbice, Tarzie in Bartica and the Mahdia Television Station. There are four more shows left in the Merry Mansion series and customers have up to January 07 to become eligible for the exciting competition. 9teh show is hosted by Entertainment personality Mondale Smith.
____________________
Mondale Smith
“Jamzone will mark it's 10th anniversary in 2010 and we have planned a series of activities to celebrate those successful years of adding to the development of the local tourism sector. “
”As a prelude to the August Jamzone Anniversary we have a calendar of activities to celebrate with our fans and committed supporters.”
”For our 10th year we the Hits and jams entertainment group will be upping our game yet again in the interest of promoting tourism in Guyana. As such for 2010 our event will feature delegates from Latin America and the Caribbean competing against a Guyanese beauty ambassador for the coveted Miss Jamzone title.”
“We plan to have eliminations to select Guyana’s representative to the pageant” said Kerwin Bollers. Preliminaries will be held in all participating countries. The prizes will amount to US 15,000 including US$13,000 cash. “
As was done this year the event will continue to be dubbed ‘Jamzone Summer Break Weekend’ and will feature four nights of super concerts, beach parties and one fantasy pageant. Planning is on going. “The queen takes home a Motor car or US $10,000”, Bollers said. More details as plans progress.
So Kartel think this is school days when he could have just not show up and think everything would be ok...... Well GSB.com has caught wing of various reports which says that local promoters plan to team up with other promoters in the Caribbean to sue Vybz Kartel for his recent spree of no-shows.
His most recent cancelation of a show was right here in Guyana where he was expected to perform at the National Park last Saturday.
Report from Source below:
Irate show promoters in St Lucia and Guyana are planning to sue dancehall artiste Vybz Kartel for a series of no-shows over the weekend. Kartel and members of his Portmore Empire were reportedly booked for a concert in Guyana on Saturday night, after which they should have moved on to St Lucia to perform on the last evening of a three-day event called Love Fest.
Reports are, however, that while some members of the Empire turned up, Kartel missed his flight to Guyana, not once, but twice, after which the promoter was asked to send a charter. According to one report, this was done, but the plane sat on the tarmac on Saturday and the deejay refused to leave Jamaica. Conscious Minds Promotions in Guyana reportedly suffered tremendous losses when they were forced to cancel the show. The Sunday Stabroek in Guyana noted that "a press release advised that persons who purchased tickets for the show will receive full refunds beginning Tuesday at all ticketing locations".
The promoters are quoted as saying, "We again express our deep regret at the disappointment that our supporters must feel and pledge that we will make good with other promotions."
Meanwhile, the St Lucia promoter Andrew Hayles, in an interview last evening with the Observer, said that he had spent over US$20,000.00 on plane fare just to ensure that Kartel would be present for his show, Love Fest, which has built up a solid reputation during its eight years.
"Naturally, the Guyana promoter and myself have been communicating, since I was supposed to bring Kartel in from there. So those tickets went down the drain. Then I made direct contact with Kartel and he told me to send two first-class tickets for him and Jahvinci to travel from Jamaica. At 11:00 pm on Saturday we got the travel agent to open up her business place so we could purchase the tickets. Then plans changed and we were asked to get a charter and this was done. Then the next thing we know we hear on Sunday that Kartel had posted a statement on YouTube saying that he was not attending Love Fest in St Lucia and it was not the promoter's fault," Hayle said, still sounding bemused at all that had transpired.
A quick look at YouTube shows a 33-second clip with Vybz Kartel who identifies himself and then goes on to say "we a mek the people dem know from now that we won't be attending Love Fest in St Lucia ... but it's no fault of the promoters or the promotion which is Hot FM ... it's just circumstances beyond our control."
Hayles said he was aware that there were some "security issues and threats" and he had assured the deejay that he would have been closely guarded throughout his visit to the island.
"And then he doesn't even get in contact with us ... somebody told us that there was a statement on YouTube and that's how we knew that he was not going to take the charter. Well, we promoters have aligned ourselves, we have spread the word, we have even contacted BBC 1Xtra. And we are going to sue Kartel for our money. He charged us US$25,000.00 and he was paid his 50% deposit. We have to deal with Kartel," Hayles said.
He stated, however, that the concert would go on last night since there were other big names on the bill. However those persons who wanted a refund would be accommodated.
It was in May this year that Kartel was banned from Grenada for the event, Rap-it-Up, which was to mark the official launch of his Daggerin condoms in that island. Government officials reportedly refused to issue a work permit because of his violent lyrics.
GSB.com has contacted the promoters and they have comfirmed that Vybz Kartel and the Portmore Empire will be in Guyana to perform for the show tonight. What we can tell you for sure is four of the members from the Portmore Empire have already arrived and according to the promoters Vybz Kartel himself will be in Guyana before 6:00pm this evening.
Photos above showing preparations for the concert.Stay tuned.....
Update # 1
Our source is telling us the show is off until further notice.....
Update # 2
Show officially canceled.
See report from the Promoters below.
Dear all,
As we express appreciation for the support we have received from our sponsors and fans we the management of Conscious Minds promotions regret to announce that the Vybz Kartel Peace Concert scheduled for today, Saturday December 12 at the National Park has been CANCELED.
This announcement comes even as several members of the Portmore Empire have arrived in Guyana.
We are advising that persons who purchased tickets for our event will receive FULL REFUND starting TUESDAY at all ticketing locations.
We again express our DEEP REGRET at the DISAPPOINTMENT that our supporters must feel and pledge that we will make good with other promotions.
Details regarding the Cancellation will be forthcoming.
A detailed press release will be issued on MONDAY.
DEEPEST Regrets
Mondale Smith
for
CONSCIOUS MINDS
GT's very own road march Queen Vanilla is still out there and she is not stoping for no one, Vanilla recently had a sit down with Kaiture News reporter Mondale Smith.
And dished out all that she has been up to and what she has plan for Mashramani 2010.
It seems that there are simply no boundaries for young Guyanese daughter Melissa Vanilla Roberts. The two times Road March Queen and second place winner in this year’s Soca Monarch competition is now a Certified “International Sports Science Association” trainer with an outstanding 86% in her final exams. This is the latest in a series of successes for Vanilla this year.
She has been pretty low profile after Mashramani and with good reason too. Thanking her supporters, she successfully completed her first aid and Adult CPR courses, placed second in this year’s Miss Body Fitness competition and has established ‘V Fitness,’ an entity dedicated to providing personal training services.
Vanilla also completed The University of Guyana/ Ohio University Television production Workshop a three week programme hosted by the two Universities and saw attendance by many media operatives.
The question that has been asked often enough is whether she was still pursuing a singer career? The answer is yes. She has recently released a single titled ‘Pressure’ which is played regularly on local radio and is receiving steady rotation in the Caribbean. In addition Vanilla will be releasing three new songs and supporting videos for Mash 2010. She also has five songs on an album “Tropical Caribbean Party” featuring fifteen tracks produced by Kross Kolor Artistes and released in Amsterdam/ Holland September 2009.
What’s next for this lady? She is eagerly looking forward to entering the Soca Monarch and Road March competitions come 2010. She is also enjoying applying her skills she recently acquired to filming and editing the new video releases by KKR and generally getting set to pursue her many and varied ambitions.
Dancehall stars Mavado and Vybz Kartel have given the Government a commitment to end their lyrical feud, which has spilled over into violent clashes on the nation's streets.
The two are leaders of the groups known as Gaza and Gully and their supporters have been at odds since 2006.
Yesterday, the dancehall stars used a meeting with three government ministers at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) to announce an end to the derogatory lyrics they have traded, while calling on their supporters to end the fuss.
"I never throw a stone at Vybz before and he never did the same to me. It is just about music but ... we have the fans out there and people take it to a different level, so me and Vybz will have to talk to these fans and do things to mend the situation," Mavado, whose correct name is David Brooks, told the ministers.
Upcoming collaboration
He was supported by Adidja 'Vybz Kartel' Palmer who announced plans for the two artistes to collaborate on another track shortly.
"People need to realise that David and I have never had any personal animosity over the years. Sometimes people take things out of context, especially impressionable minds," Kartel said in obvious reference to the school gangs which have engaged in some violent clashes because of their links to either 'Gaza' or 'Gully Side'.
The two DJs were summoned to the OPM yesterday where they met Information Minister Daryl Vaz, National Security Minister Dwight Nelson; Minister of Education, Andrew Holness; head of the Peace Management Initiative, Bishop Herro Blair; chairman of the National Transformation Programme, Reverend Al Miller, among others.
Measures to deal with tension
Following the meeting, Vaz announced that five measures have been developed to deal with the tension related to the Gaza/Gully conflict.
These include a paint-out day where the Gully/Gaza graffiti will be replaced, a joint song to appeal for an end to the violence, a t-shirt with images of both artistes and a peace concert.
"I must say that the meeting was very amicable and all have agreed and resolved to have this matter put behind us," Vaz said.
The Government called the two dancehall stars to talks after several groups expressed concerns about the impact of their lyrical feud on communities across the island.
