SHOWTIME SAYS…

Bobby has a V-Day treat for the ladies. Here is the cover for his new mixtape which drops in a few days on February 13th.

If you have been wondering what Pharrell Williams has been up to these day, well he’s been right under your nose crafting some of the hottest joints that you’ve heard in the last few months.  P. sat down with GQ magazine for a brief interview.  Here is an excerpt.

GQ: On Rick Ross’ Rich Forever mixtape you rap, “Black boy scoring his life/ I’m scoring the Oscars.” How excited are you for this opportunity—especially since you’re still essentially a music nerd from Virginia who made it big.

Pharrell: I’m just very thankful. And I say that a lot because that’s the most important message. I answer questions the best I can. But most of the answers usually feel the same. And that’s just me being very appreciative of the opportunity, because, like you said, I’m from Virginia Beach, VA. I’m glad that I can exhibit what we can do.

GQ: Are you working on any new music with N.E.R.D.?

Pharrell: Not so much the N.E.R.D., because I’m in producer mode. But I’m definitely in the studio producing shit, though.

GQ: Lupe Fiasco recently announced that you’re working on an album together? You two and Kanye West were working on a project once upon a time, too, your crazy schedules interfered. Think this one will pan out?

Pharrell: I can’t talk about that. Lupe is my man and whatever we’re talking about we can’t really discuss and get into right now. We’re talking about some very interesting things.

GQ: Well, let’s talk about something that’s done and out now: Jay-Z’s “Glory.” You produced it. What did it mean to you to assist in making a song for Jay’s first born? It’s like rap’s “Isn’t She Lovely.”

Pharrell: Uh, that was awesome. But again, that was another covert operation. GQ: Did you guys record that in the hours after his daughter was born or was it recorded in advance? Obviously, her first cries were added after she was born. Pharrell: That was, uh… That was, um… Everything was by design. That’s all I’ll say.

Garcia, a Raleigh resident, is from Honduras. Apparently he worked as a dump truck driver in North Carolina, according to police reports. In December 2011 he was charged with possession of marijuana, breaking and entering, and resisting a public officer.

No federal immigration detention request has been filed for either man.

Read more here:

Rozay celebrated his birthday at Club Amnesia in Miami last weekend. The party attendees included the usual Miami suspects like DJ Khaled, Diddy, Wiz Khalifa and Amber Rose along with Meek Mill and more. Of course the special guest of the night was Dr. Dre. Dre and Ross have been down in Miami working on some things. Once Ross arrived at the party he was greeted by The D.R.E. and a nice gift…A $100,000 Hublot watch

New watch alert…

Leon Stanback, who was a judge from 1989 until his retirement in 2009, was appointed today by Gov. Bev Perdue to serve as the interim DA in Durham.
Stanback also is a former member of the state’s parole board, and was an assistant district attorney in Guilford County in the 1970s. He has also been in private practice as a defense lawyer. He retired in late 2009, and has been a court mediator since.
“Judge Stanback has served North Carolina and the Durham community with distinction as a prosecutor, parole commissioner and Superior Court judge,” Perdue said in a statement. “He is the ideal person to bring strong leadership to the district attorney’s office at this challenging time.”
Stanback said in a brief interview that he did not have much to say about the appointment because he did not yet know what his approach would be in the office.
He said he would not seek the office permanently if it were to open up.
“I’m not going to run for the office,” he said. “I’ll serve at the pleasure of the governor as long as I am needed.”
He said he did not yet know when he would be sworn in, but thought it would take several days.
State law required Perdue to appoint an interim DA after a judge last week suspended Cline on a finding of probable cause that she has engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice which brought her office into disrepute.
Over the past three months, Cline launched attacks in court documents against Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson that legal scholars and lawyers have described as unprecedented and beyond acceptable. Reports in the News & Observer have shown substantial errors of fact by Cline in the filings.
Citing Cline’s writings and actions, a Durham lawyer filed an affidavit to begin a removal process under state law, leading to review of the issue last week by Superior Court Judge Robert H. Hobgood of Franklin County.
Hobgood suspended Cline on Friday and set a hearing for Feb. 13 to make a final decision about her removal from office. Separately, the state agency that regulates lawyers has been obtaining the filings made by Cline.
The appointment of Stanback is through at least the Feb. 13 hearing.
If Cline is removed, it is expected that Stanback would remain as the acting DA until voters choose a new district attorney in November.
According to state law, Stanback would hold the office on an interim basis as a replacement district attorney until the next election is held for members of the General Assembly, which is in November this year. (This assumes that all appeals of any removal decision are final within 60 days of the November election.)
An election would be held to fill out the rest of Cline’s term — which was to run through 2014.
When Stanback retired, he was praised for his depth of experience, including spending two decades in legal roles prior to becoming a judge.

Read more here:

Check out the exclusive HotSpotAtl.com interview below.

A newly discovered letter from a freed former slave to his onetime master is creating a buzz. Letters of Note explains that in August of 1865, a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee wrote to his former slave Jourdan Anderson, requesting that Jourdan return to work on his farm.

In the time since escaping from slavery, Anderson had become emancipated, moved to Ohio where he found paid work and was now supporting his family. The letter turned up in the August 22 edition of the New York Daily Tribune. Some excerpts:

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin’s to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

On the “good chance” offered by the former slave owner:

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, “Them colored people were slaves” down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

And then Jourdan explains that anything his former master could offer, he’s already earned on his own. Other than some back wages:

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor’s visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams’s Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

And after a few more jabs about how his children are now happy and receiving an education, Jourdan concludes his letter with:
Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

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