Ya Heard: OUCH! — Fat Joe calls Daddy Yankee a sellout

"Problems are only opportunities in work clothes."

—Henry Kaiser

Reggaeton artist Daddy Yankee attracted the wrath of fellow Puerto Rican artist Fat Joe after Yankee endorsed Sen. John McCain at a Phoenix high school last week.

During his brief speech, Yankee told the crowd, "I believe in his ideals and his proposals to lead this nation. He's been a fighter for the Hispanic community."

OK fair enough, the man has a right to his opinion. However, in the court of Fat Joe, that opinion doesn't sit well.

Last week, while attending the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Joe told MTV, "Put this in the MTV News headline: 'Fat Joe Says Daddy Yankee Is a Sell-out…' I opened the newspaper and got sick to my stomach. I felt like I wanted to vomit when I seen that. The reason why I called him a sellout is because I feel he did that for a [public-ity] look, rather than the issues that are affecting his people that look up to him."

Joe went on by saying, "How could you want John McCain in office when George Bush and the Republicans already have half a million people losing their homes in foreclosure? We're fighting an unjust war. It's the Latinos and black kids up in the frontlines, fighting that war. ... We over here trying to take the troops out of Iraq and bring peace. This guy immediately wants war. If not with Iraq or Afghanistan, he'll start a new one with Iran. I feel real disgusted that Daddy Yankee would do that. Either he did that for a look, or he's just not educated on politics."

Joe also went on to challenge Yankee to a political debate by saying, "If he believes John McCain is the better candidate for the Latinos, we could sit down. Even if he wants to get into a debate, we can debate anywhere—New York, Puerto Rico."

As for Joe's views of the Obama-Biden ticket, Joe affectionately expressed his liking for Obama's plan for universal health care.

"My own sister—to me she was murdered by doctors," Joe claimed. "She was having a baby in the Bronx, and they gave her an epidural—a normal procedure that was sup-posed to numb her from the waist down. They numbed her from the waist up, because they had amateurs learning in the Bronx hospitals. Not even real doctors—students murdered my sister in the inner city, in the Bronx. I love what Barack is doing with the heath care system. Once he gets universal health care for everybody, then we gotta step up our system to make it the best in the world…Why should my man Daddy Yankee be endorsing McCain? This is the only urban guy in the universe to endorse John McCain. You got people who look up to [Yankee]—young teenag-ers that look up to him and might make the wrong choice. John McCain is the wrong thing to do. I don't think the Republicans care much about minorities. I can't believe [Yankee] went and endorsed this guy."

Joe summed up his views, by stressing the importance of voting. "Fat Joe says it's not an option to vote," he told MTV. "We have to vote and change this country around. Everybody has to get out there and register. I'm not asking, I'm telling you to go vote. I'm forcing you."

Daddy Yankee has yet to respond.

PAUSE FOR A DIDDY MOMENT

Your boy Diddy recently posted another YouTube.com video that finds the dapper entrepreneur videotaping himself flying a commercial jet. Diddy, who owns his own jet, sited soaring gas prices as the reason he's parking it.

"Can you believe this, I'm actually flying commercial, that's how high gas prices are!" Diddy says. "So I feel you! Look, I'm at the gate right now. This is really happening…"

"Gas prices are too [expletive] high," he said as he boarded an American Airlines plane. "So tell whoever the next president is, we need to bring gas prices down."

I don't know about you, but that sounds like a nice problem to have. Now back to the pro-gram.

JAY RESPONDS TO UNFLATTERING REMARKS

Jay-Z made headlines again this week when he responded to separate comments made by two former employees; the first being the former "Bonnie" to his "Clyde" Foxy Brown and the other Tierra Mari.

Starting with Foxy, in the August issue Source Magazine, the troubled emcee was quoted as saying, "There are times when I just really needed him and he just wasn't there. That broke my heart more than anything. When they sent me to jail, I just knew he would be there. Everyone came, but he never showed up."

Jay addressed both situations by saying, "As far as Foxy or Tierra Mari, these are people that I have given chances to. It's understandable that they would be upset, but you got to look at it from my point of view as well. I gave Tierra Mari the same shot I gave Rhianna. Some-times it works and sometimes it doesn't."

Tierra Mari explained her feelings toward Jay-Z to the same Web site in July. In the interview, Mari claimed Jay-Z never called her or took her phone calls when Def Jam Records dropped her. Mari was one of the first artists Jay signed when he was named president of the company, but was later released prior to Jay stepping down from the position.

Jay also went on to say, "You know that stuff is going to happen, eventually it's going to happen. What I'm happy about is, that no matter what people say, no one has ever said that I am dishonest or that I have taken one dime from them… I've never cheated anyone out of a dime. No one's ever said that, right?"

How bossy is that? "Eventually it's going to happen?" Business is business… I guess you take this as his success taking shots at him.

NE-YO-DOLLARS

R&B star Ne-Yo is $700,000 richer today after a Los Angeles judge ordered Rowe Entertainment to pay him that amount as the result of a lawsuit he filed last year. Ne-Yo filed the lawsuit after he was dropped from R. Kelly's "Double Up" Tour after only two shows.

Apparently, Ne-Yo claimed he was dropped because Kelly felt Ne-Yo's opening act was getting more attention and fan participation than his. No reasonable justification was given for Ne-Yo's removal nor did Rowe Entertainment respond to the lawsuit. Hence, Ne-Yo is to be cut a nice check.

According to E! News, Kelly was not named as a defendant in the suit.

HIP-HOP TRIVIA VERSE

"So I took blah-blah's word for it at this time

I thought just havin' a friend couldn't be no crime

'Cause I have friends and that's a fact

Like Agnes, Agatha, Germaine, and Jack

Forget about that, let's go into the story

About a girl named blah-blah-blah that adored me

So we started talkin', getttin' familiar

Spendin' a lot of time so we can build u

A relationship or some undderstandin'

How it's gonna be in the future we was plannin'"

Whose verse is it? Be the fifth person to send me an e-mail with the correct answer and receive two free AMC movie tickets courtesy of the Potomac News and Manassas Journal Messenger. Love is love; real recognize real, for everyone else: Read a book! Until next week, peace!

Dennis Winn can be reached at 703-200-4928 or .