NEW YORK (AP) _ Since the collapse of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, many people have helped rebuild New York City in different ways. Rapper Jay-Z did it his own way: headlining a star-studded concert at Madison Square Garden...

A benefit concert will be held in September for renowned Portland musician Johnny Sanders. The talented keyboardist has been diagnosed with liver cancer. The benefit will be held from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Sept. 27 at the M&M Lounge in Downtown Gresham, on 5th and Main. Proceeds from the concert will help Johnny with medical bills. . . .

The six-time Grammy-winner is not only a hip-hop icon, but also an entrepreneur, philanthropist, restaurateur, pitchman, columnist, and of course a gifted actor. He parlayed appearances on the NBC drama "Law and Order SVU" into major motion pictures roles in such hits as the Academy Award Best Picture-winning Crash and the critically-acclaimed Hustle & Flow.

Over hundred performed at the 39th annual Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival. Despite a year when heavy rains made a bumbershoot a handy item to have, thousands of music fans streamed into the Seattle Center over the Labor day weekend to see a variety of music and entertainment including performances by The Blackeyed Peas, comedians Wyatt Cenac and Eugene Mirman and appearances by writers like Melvin Van Peebles and SE Hinton.

Held at the Curious Comedy theater, Cherry's show will offer a live music venue for late-night entertainment. The Los Angeles transplant says he grew weary of discovering late night establishments only to find they featured nothing but booze and conversation.
"I couldn't find any late night music," he said. "It's really for the neighborhood people," he told The Skanner. "And it's not just a jazz thing, we have a whole world of music.

On Jan. 12, 1959, assembly line worker and songwriter named Berry Gordy Jr. used an $800 family loan to start a record company in Detroit. Fifty years later, Motown Records Corp. and its stable of largely African-American artists have become synonymous with the musical, social and cultural fabric of America ...

NEW YORK (AP) _ Addiction specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky said Saturday that pain medications likely led disc jockey DJ AM, a former drug addict who died suddenly Friday, away from his sober path...

The head of the Louisiana NAACP is calling on the state Supreme Court's chief justice to intervene in the case of rap artist Corey "C-Murder" Miller, who was sentenced earlier this month to life in prison for killing a youth in a nightclub.

Winning the race to produce the first posthumous Michael Jackson DVD is this unauthorized biography which spends as much time trashing the recently-departed King of Pop as it does praising him.

With the help of local artists such as Mic Crenshaw, this year's Peace and Unity Fest raised $500 for the 4th Annual Youth Summit, slated to be held in February 2010. Next up for the hip hop community, Jesse Sponberg will be holding the second annual "Hot Nights/Warm Coats" coat drive from 2 to 9 p.m. on Sept. 13 at the Jupiter Hotel, 800 E. Burnside St.