Saint Louis rapper Nelly may be coming to the small screen with his own variety show titled Nelly’s Night in Vegas.

The weekly show, which is being created with The Daily Show co-creator Madeleine Smithberg and 25/7‘s Dave Broome who also produced the hit TV series The Biggest Loser.

According to Variety, Nelly‘s Night in Vegas will be shot in Planet Hollywood’s Las Vegas hotel and will feature performances, guest appearances, a gaming element and Nelly’s own house band.

“I was thinking about what was missing on TV, and when this idea came about, it made sense for me,” Nelly said. “We do have talk shows, but no one’s speaking from the pop culture perspective. Let’s get a little more pop, a little more edge, a little bit younger, and not look like you’re sitting in the principal’s office.”

A number of variety shows are launching this season.

CBS is launching a series based around John Mayer, Fox will debut a new show starring the Osbournes, while MTV recently launched Snoop Dogg’s Dogg after Dark.

No air date has been revealed for Nelly’s Night in Las Vegas, as it is still being shopped to various networks.

Tracy Morgan’s apartment nearly went up in flames on Wednesday (February 18) due to a defective light in the comedian’s large fish tank.

Morgan was at his luxury, Upper West Side New York apartment when the fish tank’s electrical outlet began sparking shortly after 8:30AM yesterday.

Luckily, the fire’s growth was stifled by the property’s sprinkler unit, which activated soon after the blaze ignited.

Even with the sprinklers, New York firefighters battled the fire for over 30 minutes before getting the potential deadly situation under control.

Morgan, a star of the popular 30 Rock sitcom series and 4-time host of VH1’s Hip-Hop Honors, was more than grateful to New York’s Fire Department for their efforts in saving his home.

“A fire broke out in my Manhattan apartment this morning, apparently with a lamp attached to my fish tank,” Morgan explained in a prepared statement. “The sprinklers promptly activated and the NYFD came by to make sure it was contained. Fortunately, the fire did not spread and no one in the building was injured, even the fish are okay. My thanks to the New York Fire Department for their quick action.”

Reportedly, Morgan’s fish tank is large enough to contain exotic animals such as sharks, and the tank’s massive size likely is the source for the light’s electrical shortage

Embattled Hip-Hop mogul Marion “Suge” Knight pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor domestic battery charge on Tuesday (February 17) in Las Vegas.

Knight entered into a plea deal with Las Vegas prosecutors, which allowed him to avoid three felony charges, including two drug charges.

Knight was involved in an altercation with Melissa Isaac in August of 2008, in which officers found the mogul holding a knife, while standing over a naked woman, who told police Knight had assaulted her earlier.

Knight was sentenced to 48 hours of community service, fined $340 and ordered to attend domestic violence counseling.

Prosecutors noted that it was difficult to convict Knight, as they lost contact with Isaac.

Knight also claimed the drugs found on him that evening belonged to Isaac.

“Domestic violence is a serious issue in our community, and anytime we can get a domestic violence conviction without a victim cooperating, we’re happy,” District Attorney David Roger told The Las Vegas Sun. “We’re hopeful the defendant will never batter a woman again, or he’ll face more serious charges and consequences.”

The news comes just days after Knight suffered facial injuries during a fight with an associate of Akon in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Although two other men were arrested as a result of the altercation, Knight was not charged with a crime.

Mere hours after supposedly being arrested for failure to pay child support, Hip-Hop pioneer Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell is painting the incident as a conspiracy to prevent his community outreach activities.

In an exclusive statement to AllHipHop.com, Campbell accused the Miami Herald and the city judicial system of releasing disinformation about his alleged arrest, which he said stemmed from legal bills, as opposed to back child support.

“This is another attempt by the courts of Miami-Dade county to stop me from working with the community,” Luther Campbell told AllHipHop.com. “Jennifer Lebovich from the Miami Herald erroneously reported that I went to jail for failure to pay child support when in fact I’m the first person I know of to go to jail for failure to pay attorney’s fees and not child support. The matter at issue pertained to attorney’s fees. Please note that my payment of $11,613.10 for actual child support was paid back in October 23, 2008. Therefore, my payment as to child support was and is current.”

Campbell has been active in various communities in Miami-Dade county, including the Liberty City projects, where he was raised.

Just last month, a masked gunman used an AK-47 assault rifle to murder 2 teenagers and injure 7 people in Liberty City.

Following the deadly shooting, Luke made a public promise to further entrench himself in the community to prevent further bloodshed.

“More people died [on that day] in the city of Miami then in Iraq. The sad thing is they are kids,” Campbell explained to AllHipHop.com in January. “This needs to stop and we know how to stop it. To fight a war you have to be on the front lines.”

However, Campbell claims his efforts have blocked by the city of Miami, and the alleged child support arrest is the last straw.

“At this point I am tired of fighting the city of Miami,” Campbell admitted. “I’m putting my house up for sale and getting the hell out. If you want to buy it let me know.”

If he makes good on his promise, Luke will be leaving Miami after cultivating a musical legacy as a label CEO, promoter, artist, and free speech trailblazer that extends back to 1985, when he founded legendary label Luke Skyywalker Records.

Bone Thugs N Harmony has recorded with everyone from Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. to Phil Collins.

Now, the groundbreaking Cleveland collective are set to make their riskiest collaborations to date with Britney Spears ex and paparazzi favorite K-Fed.

In a recent interview, Layzie Bone with K-Fed in tow, explained their plans for the new project.

“It’s gonna be viewed and doubted by a lot of people,” Layzie stated. “As Bone Thugs N Harmony with a brand new platform, we’re coming to show everybody what type of real hitmakers we are. We’re gonna make a multi-platinum album and party with the paparazzi. We coming to prove y’all wrong TMZ! Kevin Federline is gonna be platinum when Bone Thugs N Harmony is done with him.”

Federline echoed Layzie’s words, expressing his desire to make art that will be taken seriously by fans and the media.

“I appreciate these guys coming and looking at this project for what it is,” K-Fed stated. “All I really want to do is make music.”

Producer LT Hutton confirmed the theme for the first track will be the stalking tactics of the paparazzi.

“We got a song we’re about to do called ‘Paparazzi music,” Hutton verified. “It’s a soundtrack for when you’re chasing people down.”

Also, K-Fed’s new album may receive production from Mo Thugs Records producer’s Thin C and HC The Chemist.

Bone Thugs N Harmony is one of the most decorated groups in Hip-Hop history, having sold over 20 million records worldwide with three multi-platinum albums (Creepin on ah Come Up, E. 1999 Eternal, The Art of War), one platinum album (BTNHResurrection), and one gold (Strength & Loyalty) album.

At press time, a tentative release date has not been announced for the K-Fed/Bone project.

The Reverend Al Sharpton has condemned a cartoon in today’s New York Post (February 18), which features two policemen shooting a monkey and making a comment on the recently passed stimulus package.

The imagery, created by cartoonist Sean Delonas, features two police officers, one holding a smoking gun over a blood-spattered monkey that has been shot two times.

The caption above the cartoon reads: “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”

A sign in the background reads “beware of dog.”

The cartoon is an apparent satire of yesterday’s news that a 55-year-old woman in Connecticut was critically injured, when her 200-pound pet chimpanzee went on a rampage and tore half her face off.

The chimp was eventually shot dead by officers on the scene.

“The cartoon in today’s New York Post is troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys,” Rev. Sharpton said in a statement released to the media. “One has to question whether the cartoonist is making a less than casual reference to this when in the cartoon they have police saying after shooting a chimpanzee that ‘Now they will have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill.’”

Sharpton noted that the stimulus bill was the first legislative victory for President Barack Obama, the first African-American president in United States history.

“Given that the New York Post cartoonist came under heavy fire in the past for racially tinged cartoons including the infamous cartoons depicting 2001 mayoral candidate Freddy Ferrer and me in very unflattering ways that were used as a divisive campaign tactic, one cannot ignore their history when one finds out what they could possibly mean by this morning’s cartoon. The Post should at best clarify what point they were trying to make or in fact reprimand their cartoonist for making inferences that are offensive and divisive at a time the nation struggles to come together to stabilize the economy.”

Additionally, the cartoon comes almost a month after Johannes Mehserle, a white transit police officer, shot and killed Oscar Grant, an unarmed black man, in Oakland, California.

The cartoon, which was on page 12 of The Post, has made national headlines.

During an appearance on MSNBC this morning, Sharpton requested that The Post comment on the story, or face a possible advertising boycott.

“If I or any civil rights organization printed in our literature anything that was offensive or inferred a stereotype against a group, they would be telling people don’t donate to us, don’t support us,” said Rev. Sharpton.

Sharpton led boycotts in May of 2008, when three detectives were acquitted of shooting and killing Queens, New York native Sean Bell in a hail of 50 bullets in November 2006.

“You can’t do this and then turn around and act like you’re an objective paper that’s fed all of your readership,” Sharpton said.

At press time, The New York Post has yet to comment.

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