News: A little more drama for Hp Hop

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Mixtape kings DJ Drama (Tyree Simmons) and DJ Don Cannon (Donald Cannon) were arrested on felony charges stemming from a Magistrate's warrant under the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act following a Tuesday raid of their Atlanta-based Aphilliates Music Group. Morrow County Sheriff's Joint Vice Task Force and the Clayton County Police confiscated more than 81,000 mixtape CDs, to be destroyed, along with computers, recording equipment and four cars. The company's assets were also frozen. As of press time, both DJs were being held on $100,000 bond. "We have a partnership with a joint vice task force working pirated tapes in the country," says Chief James Baker of the Morrow Police Department. "We found an outlet in Morrow for the criminal sale of recorded material, breaking the OCGA, Official Code of Georgia Annotated, no. 16-8-60, which specifies that CDs must list the true name and address of their office, which these CDs didn't, nor did they [list] copyright permission. People were able to make purchases over the Internet and these guys sold the pirated discs for profit."

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Jacob "The Jeweler" Arabov is calling on some of his famous customers to appear as defense witnesses in his upcoming trial for federal money laundering. Court documents reveal that Jay-Z, Sean "Diddy" Combs and Mariah Carey are among the celebs tapped to testify as character witnesses. Arabov, urban America's go-to guy for bling, was arrested in June and charged with helping the Black Mafia Family (BMF) crew of drug dealers launder over $270 million in drug proceeds. He is also accused of failing to file the proper tax forms in an attempt to hide the source of BMF's drug money. Arabov was released on $100,000 bail and has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

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Publishers of The Source magazine have taken legal steps to stop rival magazine Hip Hop Weekly, run by former Source co-owners David Mays and Ray "Benzino" Scott. According to Allhiphop.com, The Source Enterprises sent a cease and desist notice to the pair on grounds that their publication's header - which reads in bold above the title "brought to you by the founders of The Source" - is misleading to readers. "It creates some confusion as to whether or not the magazine has an affiliation with The Source," The Source's attorney Andy I. Corea told AllHipHop.com. "If you saw a restaurant and it had on the sign 'from the creators of the Big Mac, you would have every reason to think the company had an affiliation with McDonald's." The letter also states that Hip Hop Weekly is benefiting from an association with The Source that could possibly dilute The Source brand name.

Benzino and Mays released a statement Thursday responding to the cease and desist letter.

"The fact is that Hip Hop Weekly is a magazine from ‘the creators of The Source,' which Ray and I developed from a one-page newsletter in 1988 into the biggest-selling music magazine on newsstands in the world," said Dave Mays, co-founder of Hip Hop Weekly. "When we left The Source last year, we set out to create a more up-to-date, exciting and faster-paced format that reflects the drastic changes in media and in hip hop in recent years."

"It's a shame that they just can't move on, because we are the creators of The Source," said Ray Benzino. "It's not our fault their magazine looks cracked out."

Added Mays, "No matter how anyone may feel about myself or my partner, the truth is that we made it possible for an urban monthly to sit on newsstands next to other mainstream magazines. We were also the first to show corporate America the tremendous influence and buying power of the hip hop audience. Hip Hop Weekly signals the beginning of a new era in hip hop media, and will lead to a whole new category of magazines over the next few years, just like we did with The Source."