It’s a sad day for hip-hop: Heavy D — the emcee who smashed onto the rap scene in 1987 and made phrases like “Money-Earnin’ Mt. Vernon” and “The Overweight Lover” catchphrases of the era — has died.

According to Rolling Stone, the lyricist, whose real name was Dwight Meyers, was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital from his Beverly Hills home around noon Pacific Time on Tuesday and was pronounced dead at the hospital at 1 PM. Police are investigating his death, but there are no signs of foul play.

“Heavy D, born Dwight Arrington Myers, broke into the music industry with Living Large, his first record with the Boyz, in 1987. He went on to even greater success with the hit “Now That We Found Love” in 1991, and recorded theme songs for the television series In Loving Color and MADtv. In recent years, D recorded a series of reggae fusion albums.”

Heavy took the stage at the BET Hip-Hop Awards in October and guest-starred on the 13th season premiere of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit earlier this year.

“Turn My Swag On” hip-hopster Soulja Boy is facing a drug charge after police stopped his rental car in the West Georgia community of Temple this morning and found marijuana.

Lots of marijuana.

Temple Police Chief Tim Shaw tells The Associated Press that police stopped the rented Cadillac Escalade early Tuesday and found a “substantial amount” of marijuana and guns inside. It’s unclear if any of the men had the proper licenses to be in possession of the firearms.

“We’re told an investigation is underway. One source with knowledge of the situation tells us there was roughly $70,000 in cash and drugs in the car.”

The artist and four other men were arrested and brought to the Carroll County Jail on a felony charge of marijuana possession. At press time, the rapper is still being detained in Carrol County Jail.

Beyonce’s Bey-By Bump wasn’t the only thing poppin’ behind-the-scenes of the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards over the weekend. Bay Area hip-hopster Kreayshawn — the self-professed “White Girl Mobster” of “Gucci Gucci” fame — may be new to rap, but she’s already getting a tough lesson in one of the oldest parts of the game: Beef.

Wethinks Kreayshawn bit off more than she could chew when she decided to diss correctional officer-turned-emcee Rick Ross in a flurry of Ustream videos and radio freestyles. All Hell broke loose when the musicians ran into each other backstage at Sunday night’s VMAs, prompting Rick to confront her for talking reckless about him. Luckily for Kreayshawn, her security team wouldn’t let Ole Ricky Rosay anywhere near her. (Phew!)

We wonder if Ricky knows anything about those nude pics of Kreayshawn that are floating around the Interwebs?

Eminem has been crowned the new “King Of Hip-Hop” by Rolling Stone Magazine — beating out heavyweights like Kanye West and Jay-Z for the honor.

Eminem narrowly beat Lil’ Wayne and Drake for the top spot — with Kanye and Jay-Z roundiung out the Top 5. The Music Bible remarked that Eminem’s position in the ranking is bolstered by his epic comeback was.

“Sure, if we’d done a similar three-year survey of rappers back in 2002 or 2005, Eminem would have won, probably,” read the article accompanying the list. “But as recently as three years ago, Eminem winning a survey like this was unthinkable; his nearly half-decade hiatus from recording made any comeback unlikely, let alone one in which he took back the charts as if he’d never left.”

Badass rap babe Nicki Minaj was a surprise appearance on the list at No. 6, with the magazine saying they “like to think of ‘King’ as a gender-neutral term.”

Do you think Eminem is the “King” of hip hop?

Oh Boi! Rhyming ATLien Big Boi — one-half of the Grammy-winning rap duo OutKast — has been arrested in Miami on charges of drug possession.

Miami-Dade County cops caught the 36-year-old hip-hopster transporting ecstasy tablets, Viagra (for which he didn’t have a prescription), and MDMA, the main ingredient in Ecstasy, as he exited a cruise ship. The rapper, whose real name is Antwan Patton, was booked into jail at 1:35 PM EST Sunday and slapped with three counts of possession of a controlled substance and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia, according to the Miami-Dade County Corrections Department. He’s being held on $16,000 bond.

Big Boi is best known as half of the groundbreaking group, which includes Andre 3000. The Atlanta-based group won six Grammys and churned out six platinum-plus albums, including their 2004 smash Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, which sold over 10 million copies.

Well…this is embarrassing. Femcee Nicki Minaj joined the infamous “Wardrobe Malfunction Club” during her performance on the Good Morning America “Summer Concert Series” Friday. Hundreds of “Barbies” gathered at Central Park’s Rumsey Field got more than they bargained for when the “Roman’s Revenge” hitmaker’s tata made an impromptu cameo mid-song.

Awkward!

Even the almighty Parents Television Council (PTC) has something to say about the snafu. The media watchdog group is taking GMA to task for not using the five-second delay, which would have prevented the rapper’s left nip slip to be broadcast.

“For the umpteenth time in recent memory a morning news show has included inappropriate content for children and families,” says Tim Winter, President of the PTC.

Meanwhile, ABC says the network did indeed have a five-second delay this morning, but the boob flash was just too quick to catch.

A spokesperson for the network tells TMZ: “Although we had a five-second delay in place for the Nicki Minaj concert on ‘GMA ,’ the live East Coast feed of the concert regrettably included certain fleeting images of the performer that were taken out of later feeds of the broadcast in other time zones. We are sorry that this occurred.”

Things had been going well prior to the nipple slip. Dressed in one of her signature over-the-top ensembles, the audience cheered as Nicki turned in a medley of hits from her 2010 LP, Pink Friday — including “Super Bass,” “Where Them Girls At,” and “Moment 4 Life.”

Oh Mama…Can we get a hand claps for Lil Mama? The “Lipgloss”-wearing femcee joined Buffie Tha Body Cassie in the “Charlamagne Made Me Cry Live on the Radio” Hall of Fame on Wednesday after a tense interview that aired on Power 105.1 FM NYC’s “The Breakfast Club.” The America’s Next Dance Crew judge — and hip-hop’s best know stage-crasher next to Kanye West — dropped by the AM radio show to chat about her new buzz single “NY, NY, LA, LA” when she unwittingly found herself on the receiving end of some biting criticism from Wendy Williams’ acid-tongued former sidekick.

A group of Internet hackers, livid over a PBS documentary about the WikiLeaks Scandal, hit back at the public broadcaster by posting a fake story on its website claiming rapper Tupac Shakur was “alive and well” and living in New Zealand.

The faux story appeared on PBS’ NewsHour site over the weekend and claimed that the famous rapper, who was shot and killed in Las Vegas in 1996, had actually been found living in a small New Zealand town, along with friend-turned-bitter adversary The Notorious B.I.G.; he was murdered in 1997.

The hackers wrote: “Prominent rapper Tupac has been found alive and well in a small resort in New Zealand, locals report The small town – unnamed due to security risks – allegedly housed Tupac and Biggie Smalls (another rapper) for several years. One local, David File, recently passed away, leaving evidence and reports of Tupac’s visit in a diary, which he requested be shipped to his family in the United States.”

PBS pulled the story, but not before is was archived by Google News and spread quickly through Facebook, Twitter, and smaller blogging sites.

“Again, our site has been hacked — please stay with us as we work on it,” read one of the NewsHour’s several Tweets regarding the incident.

Hacking group LulzSec has already claimed responsibility for the sting in retaliation for a PBS report critical of WikiLeaks and suspected leaker Bradley Manning aired May 24. The hackers also posted a list of email usernames and passwords for PBS staff.

“We just finished watching WikiSecrets and were less than impressed. We decided to sail our Lulz Boat over to the PBS servers for further… perusing. Anyway, say hello to the insides of the PBS servers, folks.”

Gil Scott-Heron passed away at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City on Friday. The pioneering poet, musician, and activist enjoyed a string of thought-provoking hits throughout the 1970s and was nicknamed the “Godfather of Hip-Hop” thanks to his powerful lyrics on tunes like “The Bottle,” “Angel Dust,” and the spoken word piece “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”

Scott-Heron struggled publicly with substance abuse in the 2000s, and spent the early part of the decade in and out of jail on drug possession charges. He began performing again after his release in 2007, and in 2010 released a new album, I’m New Here.

Scott-Heron was 62. The cause of his death has not been disclosed.

The Hip-Hop World is mourning the loss of Cali Swag District member Montae “M-Bone” Talbert. The lyricist rose to prominence when his 2010 summer anthem “Teach Me How to Dougie” became a national dance, mimicked by everyone from CNN correspondent Wolf Blitzer to First Lady Michelle Obama. Police in Inglewood, California say Talbert died early Monday after falling victim to an apparent drive-by shooting. M-Bone was standing next to his car in front of a local liquor store at approximately 11:32 PM Sunday when the bullets rang out, several of which hit Talbert. Witnesses say the suspect pulled up in a red Mustang and opened fire on M-Bone. The rising hip-hopster, 22, was fatally wounded.

“Our sources say the shooter was driving down La Brea Avenue alone in his car when he fired. Inglewood detectives are investigating, but right now it looks like M-Bone was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” TMZ.com wrote Monday.

Speculation of Talbert’s death first hit the Interwebs when fellow Cali Swag District member, Smoove, Tweeted: “Ma life changed drastically in the. Blink of an eye rip mbone.”

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Inglewood Police Homicide Section at (310) 412-5246, or the 24-hour anonymous hotline number “888-41-CRIME” (888/412-7463).