photos by Marco Torres

Saturday night legal trouble for Boondocks manager and DJs

Saturday night, as we rolled up to Boondocks (1417 Westheimer) for the H-Town Sneaker Summit Pre-Party, something felt strange. There were cop cars on Hawthorne Street, lights blazing, and police officers roaming around. We first assumed that they were ticketing illegally parked vehicles and were waiting for a tow truck. We parked (legally) and proceeded into the party. After a few minutes of hanging out at the DJ booth, Ryan, the manager on duty, summoned DJ Sober to the front door. We followed.

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ibtimes.com

To say that Dr. Conrad Murray had a bad day in court yesterday is probably something of an understatement. In addition to veiwing graphic pictures of Michael Jackson's autopsy, jurors in the involuntary manslaughter trial of the King of Pop's former physician heard damaging testimony from L.A. County Medical Examiner Christopher Rogers, who told the court he found Jackson to be healthier than most 50-year-old men, and not directly responsible for the overdose that killed him.

The pathologist went on to call the basis of the doctor's defense -- that the patient had self-administered the fatal dose of Propofol while Murray was in the bathroom -- highly implausible due to the fact that Jackson was already too heavily sedated to perform the act unassisted, and even had he been able to self-administer, the drug would have taken longer to circulate through his system than the two minute period the physician admits to being out of the room.

Rocks Off learned enough from the Casey Anthony trial to know that juries can be unpredictable, but between the EMT testimony, the audio tapes, the character-assaulting parade of mistresses, and the Murray's questionable behavior immediately following Jackson's death, well, suffice to say things do not look promising for the Houston-based cardiologist.

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lockerz.com/Paul Wall via Twitter

Paul Wall followed in the footsteps of his outlaw country heroes over the weekend... all the way to jail.

Wall, fellow Houston rapper Baby Bash ("Suga Suga") and producer BiggRoy were arrested early Sunday on suspicion of possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana, Billboard reported this morning via the El Paso Times. The trio were nabbed within a "drug-free zone," which if Rocks Off's knowledge of current state law is correct, would be anywhere within the El Paso city limits or the rest of the state of Texas.

Wall and Bash were in El Paso to perform at the 2011 Summer Jam concert, and were arrested about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, according to the Times. Wall seemed to be taking his time in lockup in stride, however. Besides tweeting the above photo of his handcuffed self, he remarked he had been held in the "same tank they held Willie Nelson/Johnny Cash."

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Marco Torres

Nicki Minaj at Toyota Center in April

Nicki Minaj, the colorful (in more ways than one) rapper who is never very far from a headline, has apparently not been charged in a poolside Dallas hotel fight Monday evening.

According to Rocks Off's sister blog in Dallas, DC-9 at Night, Minaj and an unidentified man who was staying in her room got into it in the pool area of the Hotel Palomar, and continued up in their room. DC-9's Pete Freedman quotes TMZ as reporting that Minaj told police she was struck "in the lower lip" and that police and paramedics were called to the scene. By then, though, the man had left the premises, and Minaj chose not to press charges.

The Dallas Police Department told Freedman this evening that the report of the incident was unavailable because no charges had been filed. Rocks Off assumes this means she is clear to open for Britney Spears, both tonight in Dallas and tomorrow night at Toyota Center.

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Groovehouse

Coheed's Claudio Sanchez: Now auditioning bassists.

Sometimes when Rocks Off interviews this musician or that one, we'll ask them what they do to kill time on the road. Some of them read, others take in the local sights if they have time, obviously a lot of them listen to music. The answers are usually pretty mundane, so we don't ask the question much anymore.

Then again, we've never interviewed Coheed and Cambria bassist Michael Todd. Perhaps former bassist might be more appropriate. Either way, Rocks Off is pretty sure no one has ever answered "rob a pharmacy with a 'cell-phone bomb' and take a cab back to the arena, where the cops were waiting for me."

Evidently that's what happened Sunday, when Todd decided he really, really needed some OxyContin - six bottles' worth - before C&C opened for Soundgarden at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, Mass., about halfway between Boston and Providence, R.I. What happened next is something so smack-your-head stupid even Family Guy wouldn't touch it. (Maybe.)

From Rocks Off's Village Voice Media sister blog True Crime Report:

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Mark Britain

Whether or not you believe Willie Nelson mailed in his most recent Houston-area performance at Verizon in April, one thing is sure: The singer and Texas icon won't be mailing in the fine and court costs stemming from his November 2010 pot bust in West Texas, where six ounces of marijuana was found on his tour bus.

Earlier this year, Nelson had agreed to a plea-bargain that reduced the charge from a felony with mandatory jail time if convicted to a misdemeanor, and to pay the $500 fine and $280 in associated court costs.

Today, though, presiding Hudspeth County judge Becky Dean-Walter has overruled the plea bargain, telling The New York Times she believes prosecutor Kit Bramblett's fondness for Nelson's music influenced his willingness to lighten Nelson's possible punishment.

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"I got dirt on you, doggy!"

Pac and Biggie... Nas and Jigga... Bill O'Reilly and every rapper who has had some commercial success. You can't exclude O'Reilly from battle rap, he is a heavy-hitting contender in the hip-hop arena. Remember when he insisted that people boycott Pepsi products because Ludacris endorsed it? Luda got fired the next day. Bill-O even tried to interrupt his holiness Cam'ron and Dame Dash; at least we got a pretty decent meme out of it.

O'Reilly's most recent attack was on Lupe Fiasco for claiming that President Obama - and all previous Commanders-In-Chief - are terrorists. In a matter of three days, O'Reilly called Lupe a pinhead, invited him on the show, and "debated" with him for five minutes. Of course it wasn't a true debate; not much can come from a discussion with someone who interrupted the President almost 50 times in an interview.

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keepittrill.com

Tow Down (left) and Big Pokey

The Bubba Sparxxx of Fort Bend County, Tow Down, was arrested Wednesday for using three houses as weed nurseries, where he and several associates including his older brother cultivated more than 600 marijuana plants, the U.S. Attorney's office announced today. As our sister blog Hair Balls noted earlier, this is not the first time Tow has been locked up for his green thumb; he was also arrested in 2008 and 2010.

Tow has never made much of a secret about his activities. Several songs on the Screwed Up Click associate's 2000 LP By Prescription Only practically did the DEA Agents' job for them, in fact. Eleven years ago. Here's a hint: "Slant Eyes" is not a racial slur, at least not the way Tow uses it.

"You ever get so high you smoked yourself sober?" he asks. He may have now.

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SugarHill Studios

Huey P. Meaux (left) at SugarHill in the 1970s

The death of legendary - and genuinely kinked-up - record producer Huey P. Meaux is a time of mixed emotions for SugarHill Studios co-owner and chief engineer Andy Bradley. Bradley began working with Meaux in 1984 and eventually bought the studios with a group of investors.

"Like so many people, Huey gave me maybe the biggest break I ever had when he accepted my proposal to come work for him, and we did some cool stuff," says Bradley, "But on the other hand, I've never forgiven him for the pedophile business."

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Readers will recall that Willie Nelson, red bandana and all, was stopped last November and arrested on charges of marijuana possession. We wrote a little something about it. Let's try to forget that arresting Willie on possession charges of what officially amounts to under three ounces is ridiculous.

What's even more ludicrous about this case, now, is that the prosecutor, one C.R. "Kit" Bramblett, has offered Nelson and his lawyers a plea deal of appearing in court personally, paying a small fine - and performing "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain" in the courtroom.

This is a clear case of favoritism and fandomonium, irresponsible, and should be decried as unacceptable. Hopefully, the fact that the County Judge, the honorable Becky Dean-Walker, has stated that her court is "not a jester court" will ensure that this circus move never unfolds.

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