TRENDING NAIJA GIST

GNATCATCHERS LATEST UPDATES

MUSIC:Lil Wayne Doesn't Want To Be 'Best Rapper Alive': 12 CRWN Revelations

'I have awesome artists, simple and plain, and I'm not trying to outshine them at all,' Tunechi says.

As Young Money's CEO, Lil Wayne — who's been rapping since he was first signed to Cash Money at age 9 — now oversees one of the hottest record labels in the game with a star-studded roster that includes Nicki Minaj and Drake. Now, though, the 31-year-old is gearing up for his Tha Carter V LP and rap retirement.
Maybe that's what got Tunechi in a reflective mood when he sat down with Elliott Wilson for the latest installment of his CRWN series. Weezy opened up about his rise to hip-hop superstardom and how he wants to be remembered when he hangs up his mic for good, among other eye-opening topics.
Here are 12 things we learned:
1. Lil Wayne Took A Meeting With Jay Z, But Didn't Sign
According to urban legend, back when Jay Z became the president of Def Jam, he tried to sign Wayne. But Wayne clarified that, saying, "It wasn't like that. It wasn't like Jay was reaching out for me, like I want you over here. He expressed interest and you know me, I was a super [Jay Z] fanatic, I was on the first thing smokin'. I went over there, we met, I met with Jay, but history turned out to be what history is."
2. Lil Wayne Hears All Your Criticism
All the hip-hop greats have been criticized, so Wayne doesn't expect to escape the same fate. "Who am I to be any different?" he said. "They gon compare my new stuff to my old stuff like an athlete. They compared their new play to their old play, but when you finish, they can't do nothing but say, 'Ooh, look at what he done.' So I know what I've done, I know what I did and I know what I can do ... and they do, too."
3. There's No Drake Vs. Kendrick Battle In Wayne's Eyes
After Kendrick Lamar dropped his incendiary "Control" verse where he called out Drake, among others, by name, there was a little rift between K.Dot and Drizzy. But for Wayne, there's no real battle there. "Ain't nobody versus nobody. Everybody do they own thing to me. Music is music. See to me, the music and battling is different. I don't think that battling, unless it's a classic battle, I don't think that that's music. I don't think people wanna hear it more than once or twice. If you're battling you're talking about somebody, you're going at somebody or you saying you're this, that and the third. OK, it's good for the time. But it's not music. Music lasts forever."
4. Wayne Hopes He Fits In With Biggie, 'Pac, Jay, Eminem
Biggie, Tupac, Jay Z and Eminem are the pinnacle of rap royalty, and Wayne believes he belongs in the same breath. "I definitely look at it like that. I don't think that the new artists even putting us in their competition. When I say 'us' I hope that I fit in that 'us.' I hope I fit in that and if I do, I hope they look at it as I'm trying to get there. Me, I still look at it like I'm trying to get there."
5. Lil Wayne Wishes He Could Perform With That Kanye West Mask
Wayne went to Kanye West's Yeezus concert in Atlanta and found himself nearly out of breath from the experience. Oh, and he was beside himself over the masks he wore. "That ni--a did a whole show with a mask on. I was like, damn, I wish I could do some sh-- like that, just go out there with the mask on like that ni--a had that mask on. If the show was two hours, he had that bitch on for a hour and 57 minutes. He revealed himself when Jesus came out ... you know you gotta take that mask off for Jesus."
6. Wayne Makes A Lot Of Sports References When He Talks
Lil Wayne doesn't just love sports: He lives sports. So it's no shocker that he raps about and uses sports metaphors when he speaks. After all, if it doesn't come on ESPN's "SportsCenter," Wayne "doesn't know it happened." He compared Jay Z to Kobe and Jordan and Kendrick Lamar's battle moment to Allen Iverson's infamous crossover of Michael Jordan.
7. Lil Wayne Wants To Be Reincarnated As ... Lil Wayne
When recounting his platinum success as a 14-year-old with Tha Block Is Hot on up to present day, Wayne revealed that if reincarnation was a real thing, "If I had to go back and do it a billion times, I hope I come back as this same ni--a and do it again."
8. Wayne Won't Stop Rapping About The P-Word
Anyone who's listened to Wayne's lyrics knows that he's enamored with p---y. But if people think he has any intentions of stopping, well, you don't know Wayne. "What the f--- else you want me to talk about? If you wanna hear somebody talk about some p---y, I'm your man. You let me do a solo album called P---y and I'm outchea. I'll do five of them bitches, P---y I."
9. Wayne Doesn't Want To Be The Best Rapper Alive Anymore
When he was making his bones as an MC after Hov "retired," Wayne declared he was the best rapper alive. But now he doesn't want to be that anymore because "I have awesome artists, simple and plain, and I'm not trying to outshine them at all. I have artists that I feel like I want you to be better than me. It's about them, it's about us."
10. Lil Wayne Was Early For 'Soldier' Verse
Wayne considers his "Soldier" guest spot to be the platform that shot his career off into another orbit. Why? "Because it was Beyoncé. That sh-- was big." Needless to say, he and co-collaborator T.I. were on it. "We was there early!"
11. Wayne Couldn't Rap How He Wanted Before Tha Carter
There's a very noticeable difference between Wayne's flow pre-Carter and post-Carter. The reason for that is nobody wanted to hear anything outside of the Cash Money collective's signature New Orleans sound. "I actually used to couldn't rap how I wanted to rap. We had to have that 'Woadie,' that was our thing. After 500 Degreez, I was still having to be that Cash Money, New Orleans trendsetting whatever. Then from there, Tha Carter, I'm doing my own thing now and I'm rapping how I wanna rap on that bitch."
12. Lil Wayne Just Wants To Be Remembered As 'Cool'
Wayne used to shoot for being remembered like Biggie or 'Pac, but now that his history "already done that," he just wants to be remembered as a "humble spirit, a good spirit, good soul like a Willie Nelson." He wants people to say, "Man, that n---a was cool and he did great music."
gnatcatchers.blogspot.com

VIDEOS:The Rock Is Stylin' In This First Still From 'Hercules: The Thracian Wars'

Dwayne Johnson looks good in a loincloth, but he looked even better in a tutu.

Oh. My. Demigod. The first photo of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in "Hercules: The Thracian Wars" hit the internet last night, and it is a beautiful thing to behold.
In a post on Twitter, Johnson did the honors of releasing the exclusive first look at his star turn as this summer's fiercest ancient Greek superhero. The photo from "Hercules" shows its titular strongman in full-on battle mode, ready to tear apart some unseen foe.
Of course, this isn't the first time The Rock has played a figure straight out of ancient myth. How does his take on Hercules stack up against those other characters? Let's take a look.

Fierce: The Scorpion King
With six pack abs and an impenetrable exoskeleton, Johnson's appearance as a half-man, half-insect at the tail end of "The Mummy Returns" was terrifying — but also, unfortunately, kind of hilarious, since the filmmakers apparently ran out of time to do a motion-capture performance with the actor, and instead decided to use an incredibly silly computer-generated version of The Rock's face superimposed on the scorpion body.
They later got it right for the "Scorpion King" solo feature, just dressing The Rock up in —: well, basically just a loincloth.
Fiercer: Hercules
The body armor! The bulging biceps! The teeny, tiny leather loincloth! Oh yes, there's much to love about The Rock in our first peek at him as Hercules. But with the picture very inconveniently cropped high up on its hero's upper thigh, it's impossible to see Herc's footwear — which, as we all know, can make or break your whole look.

Fiercest: The Tooth Fairy
When it comes to the actor's spate of mythological roles, it's his turn as the Tooth Fairy that wins everything. Because no matter how fierce his war face, and no matter how sharp his scorpion claws, The Rock has never been more intimidating than in this film: where he pranced across the screen decked out in a pair of shimmery wings and a pretty pink tutu.
"Hercules," starring The Rock, hits theaters July 25.

1. The Rock as the titular character in "Hercules: The Thracian Wars"
   

   Photo: Paramount Pictures

   
   

   
   

   
   

   SHARE THIS

   • 
     
   • 
     
   • 
     
   • 
     

   • Print
   • Email
   • More sharing

   BREAKING NEWS:528 Muslim Brotherhood supporters sentenced to death in Egypt

   
   

   

   Muslim Brotherhood and ousted President Mohamed Morsy supporters in Cairo on November 29, 2013.

   STORY HIGHLIGHTS

   • The charges are related to riots in the city of Minya last year
   • The riots took place after security forces cracked down on protesters
   • The defendants can appeal their sentences

   (CNN) -- An Egyptian court sentenced at least 528 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood to death Monday on charges related to violent riots in the southern Egyptian city of Minya last August, including the murder of a police officer, the country's official news agency said.
   

   The riots took place after a deadly crackdown by security forces on two large sit-ins in Cairo, where demonstrators were supporting ousted President Mohammed Morsy.

   While the official MENA news agency reported 528 death sentences, other Egyptian media said 529 people were sentenced to death.

   Egypt in transition

   The semiofficial Ahram Online news site said it was the largest set of death sentences handed to defendants in the modern history of Egypt.

   Not all of the defendants are in custody, according to EgyNews. The defendants can appeal their sentences.

   The court also acquitted at least 16 other defendants.

   SPORT NEWS:Was Wayne Rooney lob better than David Beckham's?

   After scoring a sensational goal on Saturday that had pundits struggling to find enough superlatives, Wayne Rooney's modest response was simply: "I wouldn't say it's my favourite."

   Continue reading the main story
   

   “Wow. It's a Beckham. It's another Beckham one”

   Hull boss Steve Bruce

   The England striker's lob from just inside West Ham's half was reminiscent of a similar goal scored by David Beckham for Manchester United against Wimbledon back in 1996.

   But when asked if his was better than Beckham's, Rooney quipped: "Of course."
   BBC Sport takes a look at both goals, plus four other stunning lobs, and asks which is the best?
   Have your say via #bbcfootball  and let us know what the best goal you ever scored was.
   

   Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)

   West Ham 0-2 Manchester United, Premier League - 22 March, 2014
   

   Play media
   

   

   Modest Rooney on 'nice' goal

   On a day when 30 goals had already been scored in the Premier League, it might have been easy to believe that the late game between West Ham and Manchester United would be a case of after the Lord Mayor's show.
   Evidently, Wayne Rooney had other ideas.
   Barely 10 minutes into the game, the England striker outmuscled James Tomkins on the halfway line and let the ball bounce in front of him before launching a pin-point lob from well over 40 yards into the back of the net. Hammers keeper Adrian, who had strayed off his line, was left scrambling back in vain, his face sporting a look of stunned disbelief.
   Cue photographers pointing their cameras up to the boxes where a watching David Beckham smiled wryly.
   

   

   What they said: "What a goal by Wayne Rooney!!! Everyone in the stadium was looking at each other in disbelief!! How...what the...no way....wow!!!" - Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand.
   Hull manager Steve Bruce was conducting his post-match media conference when he saw the goal on a monitor: "What a goal. You've gotta see that. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. You're never gonna see anything like it again.
   Wait till you see this. That's more important than me. Wait till you see this. Wow. It's a Beckham. It's another Beckham one. [Long pause] Awwww, no! Look at the goalie! He's run the wrong way.
   Wow Wazza. Wow. Wow. Wow. Jesus! Jesus!
   

   David Beckham (Manchester United)

   Wimbledon 0-3 Manchester United, Premier League - 17 August, 1996
   

   

   In United's opening match of the 1996-97 season at Selhurst Park, Beckham spotted goalkeeper Neil Sullivan off his line to score a famous goal in United's 3-0 victory.
   His response was to raise both hands in the air and understandably, smile smugly.
   It was a goal that would instantly turn the young, floppy-haired midfielder into a household name.
   What they said: "He just picked it up and hit it. I just realised it was going beyond me and it dropped under the crossbar and that was it. The whole Manchester United team at the time were special but but I didn't expect anything like that. I made that boy, but I still think he would have done all right without me!" - former Wimbledon goalkeeper Sullivan.
   

   Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden)

   Sweden 4-2 England, international friendly - 14 November, 2012
   

   

   Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the scorer of many stunning goals but perhaps none more so than his fantastic overhead lob against England in November 2012.
   With the game against Sweden entering the closing stages, goalkeeper Joe Hart headed away a long ball on the edge of his own area but was caught out as Ibrahimovic reacted instinctively.
   

   
   

   

   Ibrahimovic goal was work of art - Hodgson

   Turning his back on goal, Ibrahimovic tracked the descent of the ball before executing a perfectly-timed overhead volley, sending it into the unguarded net from over 30 yards to round off a 4-2 win for Sweden.
   What they said: "I shouldn't begrudge Zlatan a fantastic goal. It was masterful, a work of art. I'd go as far as to say if Zlatan had not played in the game we would have won it." - England manager Roy Hodgson.
   

   Nayim (Real Zaragoza)

   Arsenal 1-2 Real Zaragoza, Uefa Cup Winners' Cup final - 10 May, 1995
   

   

   Few goals will be both as spectacular and decisive as Nayim's for Real Zaragoza against Arsenal in the final of the 1995 European Cup Winners' Cup.
   With the score 1-1 and the game drifting into the final stages of extra time, Nayim, 45 yards from goal and out on the right touchline, hit a swirling, looped effort that dipped under the Arsenal crossbar as goalkeeper David Seaman backpeddled helplessly.
   The goal was all the more special for Nayim, who had spent five years at Arsenal's local rivals Tottenham before joining Zaragoza in 1995.
   What they said: "I was going to pass to a team-mate but I looked up and I saw David Seaman coming out so I just kicked it. I was very lucky. It's my first goal against Arsenal after playing against them half a dozen times. For me it's something special as a former Tottenham player." - Nayim.
   

   Xabi Alonso (Liverpool)

   Luton 3-5 Liverpool, FA Cup third round - 7 January, 2006
   

   

   With Luton trailing 4-3 in an FA Cup tie and with their goalkeeper in Liverpool's half, Xabi Alonso took the ball past the keeper and shot from 65 yards, inside his own half.
   The ball trickled in to seal a 5-3 win for Liverpool, who went on to win the FA Cup later that season.
   What they said: "I was watching the Luton match on TV with my family and I saw the keeper off his line. I was shouting 'Shoot!' and he did. It seemed to take an age to hit the net but when it did, I just went berserk." - Adrian Hayward, a football fan who won £25,000 on a bet that Alonso would score a goal from his own half.
   

   Matthew Taylor (Portsmouth)

   Portsmouth 2-0 Everton, Premier League - 9 December, 2006
   

   

   Matthew Taylor struck a first-time volley high over Everton keeper Tim Howard from 45 yards at Fratton Park.
   The ball sat up perfectly for Taylor, but no-one expected a left-foot volley from near the halfway line that left Howard motionless as it dipped into the net.
   What they said: "It was a fantastic, individual strike and I don't think the goalkeeper saw it. It was just instinctive. Matty has confidence in his ability and a lot of power, you need confidence to attempt that from that distance." - Portsmouth assistant manager Joe Jordan.
   

NEWSFLASH:Flight 370 passenger's relative: 'All lives are lost'

Flight 'ended in southern Indian Ocean'

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Some relatives wheeled out on stretchers after hearing from airline officials
• Prime Minister says analysis of satellite data shows the plane went down in ocean
• "They have told us all lives are lost," a relative of a missing passenger tells CNN
• Search crews still trying to recover possible debris spotted in the water

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went down over the southern Indian Ocean, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Monday, citing a new analysis of satellite data by a British satellite company and accident investigators, and apparently ending hopes that anyone survived.

A relative of a missing passenger briefed by the airline in Beijing said, "They have told us all lives are lost."

The Prime Minister based his announcement on what he described as unprecedented analysis of satellite data sent by the plane by British satellite provider Inmarsat and the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch. He didn't describe the nature of the analysis.

But he said it made it clear that the plane's last position was in the middle of the remote southern Indian Ocean, "far from any possible landing sites."

Photos: The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

Families told all lives are lost

Are found objects part of MH370?

He begged reporters to respect the privacy of relatives.

"For them, the past few weeks have been heartbreaking," he said. "I know this news must be harder still."

The Prime Minister's statement came after the airline sent a text message to relatives saying it "deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those onboard survived."

Reporters could hear wailing from a briefing for relatives of missing passengers in Beijing. Some relatives were wheeled from the conference room on stretchers, and one group of relatives smashed the lens of a reporter's camera. A woman walked out of a briefing for relatives near Kuala Lumpur crying.

A Facebook page dedicated to the only American aboard the flight, Philip Wood, said of relatives that "our collective hearts are hurting now."

"Please lift all the loved ones of MH370 with your good thoughts and prayers," a post on the page said.

Sarah Bajc, Wood's partner, canceled all media interviews after the announcement.

"I need closure to be certain, but cannot keep on with public efforts against all odds," she wrote. "I still feel his presence, so perhaps it was his soul all along."

Debris spotted in Indian Ocean

The announcement came the same day as Australian officials said they had spotted two objects in the southern Indian Ocean that could be related to the flight, which has been missing since March 8 with 239 people aboard.

One object is "a grey or green circular object," and the other is "an orange rectangular object," the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.

The objects are the latest in a series of sightings, including "suspicious objects" reported earlier Monday by a Chinese military plane that was involved in search efforts in the same region, authorities said.

So far, nothing has been definitively linked to Flight 370.

A look inside the search for MH370

Source: Flight 370 turned, dropped

Two objects located in ocean

Earlier, Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia's acting transportation minister, said only that "at the moment, there are new leads but nothing conclusive."

A reporter on board the Chinese plane for China's official Xinhua news agency said the search team saw "two relatively big floating objects with many white smaller ones scattered within a radius of several kilometers," the agency reported Monday.

The Chinese plane was flying at 33,000 feet on its way back to Australia's west coast when it made the sighting, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.

But a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft, one of the military's most sophisticated reconnaissance planes, that was tasked to investigate the objects was unable to find them, the authority said.

With the search in its third week, authorities have so far been unable to establish where exactly the missing plane is or why it flew off course from its planned journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

China has a particularly large stake in the search: Its citizens made up about two-thirds of the 227 passengers on the missing Boeing 777. Beijing has repeatedly called on Malaysian authorities, who are in charge of the overall search, to step up efforts to find the plane.

Malaysian and Australian authorities appeared to be more interested Monday in the two objects spotted by a Royal Australian Air Force P-3 Orion aircraft.

The Australian's navy's HMAS Success "is on scene and is attempting to locate the objects," the Australian maritime authority said.

Hishammuddin said Australian authorities had said the objects could be retrieved "within the next few hours, or by tomorrow morning at the latest."

Get up to speed

Satellites focus search

Recent information from satellites identifying objects in the water that could be related to the plane has focused search efforts on an area roughly 1,500 miles southwest of the Australian city of Perth.

A total of 10 aircraft -- from Australia, China the United States and Japan -- were tasked with combing the search area Monday.

The aerial searches have been trained on the isolated part of ocean since last week, when Australia first announced that satellite imagery had detected possible objects that could be connected to the search.

Since then, China and France have said they also have satellite information pointing to floating debris in a similar area. The Chinese information came from images, and the French data came from satellite radar.

But Australian officials have repeatedly warned that the objects detected in satellite images may not turn out to be from the missing plane -- they could be containers that have fallen off cargo ships, for example.

On Saturday, searchers found a wooden pallet as well as strapping belts, Australian authorities said. The use of wooden pallets is common in the airline industry, but also in the shipping industry.

Hishammuddin said Monday that Flight 370 was carrying wooden pallets, but that there was so far no evidence they are related to the ones sighted in the search area.

The investigation into the passenger jet's disappearance has already produced a wealth of false leads and speculative theories. Previously, when the hunt was focused on the South China Sea near where the plane dropped off civilian radar, a number of sightings of debris proved to be unrelated to the search.

How they're searching for debris

Plane said to have flown low

The sighting of the objects of interest by the Chinese plane came after a weekend during which other nuggets of information emerged about the movements of the errant jetliner on the night it vanished.

Military radar tracking shows that after making a sharp turn over the South China Sea, the plane changed altitude as it headed toward the Strait of Malacca, an official close to the investigation into the missing flight told CNN.

The plane flew as low as 12,000 feet at some point before it disappeared from radar, according to the official. It had reportedly been flying at a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet when contact was lost with air traffic control.

The sharp turn seemed to be intentional, the official said, because executing it would have taken the Boeing 777 two minutes -- a time period during which the pilot or co-pilot could have sent an emergency signal if there had been a fire or other emergency on board.

Authorities say the plane didn't send any emergency signals, though some analysts say it's still unclear whether the pilots tried but weren't able to communicate because of a catastrophic failure of the aircraft's systems.

The official, who is not authorized to speak to the media, told CNN that the area the plane flew in after the turn is a heavily trafficked air corridor and that flying at 12,000 feet would have kept the jet well out of the way of that traffic.

Malaysia disputes reprogramming

Also over the weekend, Malaysian authorities said the last transmission from the missing aircraft's reporting system showed it heading to Beijing -- a revelation that appears to undercut the theory that someone reprogrammed the plane's flight path before the co-pilot signed off with air traffic controllers for the last time.

That reduces, but doesn't rule out, suspicions about foul play in the cockpit.

Last week, CNN and other news organizations, citing unnamed sources, reported that authorities believed someone had reprogrammed the aircraft's flight computer before the sign-off.

CNN cited sources who believed the plane's flight computer must have been reprogrammed because it flew directly over navigational way points. A plane controlled by a human probably would not have been so precise, the sources said.

Malaysian authorities never confirmed that account, saying last week that the plane's "documented flight path" had not been altered.

On Sunday, they clarified that statement further, saying the plane's automated data reporting system included no route changes in its last burst, sent at 1:07 a.m. -- 12 minutes before the last voice communication with flight controllers.

Analysts are divided about what the latest information could mean. Some argue it's a sign that mechanical failure sent the plane suddenly off course. Others say there are still too many unknowns to eliminate any possibilities.

CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien called the fresh details about the flight a "game changer."

"Now we have no evidence the crew did anything wrong," he said. "And in fact, now, we should be operating with the primary assumption being that something bad happened to that plane shortly after they said good night."

If a crisis on board caused the plane to lose pressure, he said, pilots could have chosen to deliberately fly lower to save passengers.

"You want to get down to 10,000 feet, because that is when you don't have to worry about pressurization. You have enough air in the atmosphere naturally to keep everybody alive," he said. "So part of the procedure for a rapid decompression ... it's called a high dive, and you go as quickly as you can down that to that altitude."

Authorities have said pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah was highly experienced. On Monday, Malaysian authorities said Flight 370 was co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid's sixth flight in a Boeing 777, and the first time when he was not traveling with an instructor pilot shadowing him.

"We do not see any problem with him," said Malaysia Airlines CEO