Vanessa and Angela Simmons are expanding their Pastry apparel brand and have announced the launch of handbag collection that will be released in 2008. The Simmons’ partnered with handbag industry giant The Betesh Group for their foray into the handbag category. The Simmons’ are the daughters of pioneering rapper Reverend Run of Run-DMC fame and star in MTV’s top rated reality series, Run’s House. The sisters launched their Pastry brand in March of 2007. The company is expected to earn over $25 million dollars in sales this year, company representatives told AllHipHop.com. Pastry Footwear recently launched a television commercial advertising their new “hi-top” Fab Cookie Pastries sneakers.
Rapper Bow Wow will miss several more dates on Chris Brown’s sold-out “Up Close and Personal” tour due to an infection in his appendix. The rapper missed a performance on December 7 in Chicago, Illinois, after suffering from what was originally thought to be stress and exhaustion. Representatives for Bow Wow announced today (December 10) that he is currently recovering from the infection and is expected rejoin the tour on December 13 in Memphis, Tennessee, but will miss dates in Detroit and Baltimore. Other artists on the tour include Sean Kingston, Lil Mama, Shop Boyz, Hurricane Chris and Soulja Boy
The 8th Annual Holy Hip-Hop Awards will take place from January 18-19 at the Center Stage Arena in downtown Atlanta. This year’s nominees include Kay Bizzy, DJ Rapzilla, Da Truth, Tha GIM, Rev.Rap, K-Drama, Mike Mike and others. Veteran rapper Kurtis Blow and Eddie Velez “Da Preachin Puerto Rican” will host the 2008 Holy Hip-Hop Summit during the week, which will take place at the Crowne Plaza Atlanta-Marietta hotel. The weekend’s events kick off Thursday, January 17 at 7:00 pm. http://www.HolyHipHopWeek.com.
Sean “Diddy” Combs and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin are among the guests confirmed to join V103’s Frank Ski for his 4th Annual Wine Tasting and Live Auction fundraiser for Ski’s Frank Ski Kids Foundation. Wine connoisseurs and novice’s will gather for the auction of rare wine and autographed memorabilia from a number of athletic icons. Others confirmed to attend include Morris Chestnut, Malik Yoba, Ne-Yo, members of New Edition and others. The event takes place on Sunday (December 16) from 3:00pm-7:00 PM. For more information visit www.frankskids.org.