Shots fired! Former Roc-A-Fella artist Beanie Sigel, who Jay-Z helped break onto the scene, has just dropped a diss against his former boss.

It took an extra 24-hours, but Brooklyn native Jay-Z and Harlem’s own Alicia Keys got to perform their hit hometown anthem, “Empire State of Mind,” before Game 2 of the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies in the Bronx on Thursday night.

Hov and A. Keys had been due to take the stage at last night’s World Series kickoff, but their performance was delayed due to inclimate weather.

Here’s a sneak peek at what the Jay-Z/Alicia Keys “Empire State of Mind” Music Video will look like….

Alicia Keys and Jay-Z were scheduled to perform before Game 1 of the World Series between the storied New York Yankees and the defending champs the Philadelphia Phillies, but will now perform before Game 2.

The superstars will sing their song “Empire State of Mind” off Jay-Z’s album, The Blueprint 3, and then Alicia will sing the national anthem. Their performance was moved to Game 2 due to bad weather predicted for Wednesday, which could make for wet conditions that will make performing dangerous.

Who knew hip-hop mogul Jay-Z was such a Fergie fan? Hov loves working out to the Black Eyed Peas singer’s hit single, “Big Girls Don’t Cry”

“I would sing it really loud no matter where I was at in the gym, and I know a couple other guys were singing and they won’t say it,” he told HuffingtonPost.com while promoting DJ Hero in New York Monday.

Jay-Z and Alicia Keys are set to perform their hit anthem “Empire State of Mind” as the New York Yankees take on defending World Series champs, the Philadelphia Phillies, in Game 1 of the World Series this Wednesday night. Better not tell, Lil Mama! The Bronx Bombers have been blasting the Hov/A. Keys collabo during their playoff run. Now, the team is having the duo perform the song live.

“Thank the good Lord for making me a Yankee,” an excited Jay-Z said of the pending performance in an interview on Monday

The hip-hop impressario calls the opportunity a “once in a lifetime experience.”

Mark your calendars for Sunday, Nov. 22 on ABC: Superstar Jay Z and hubby-snatchin’ songbird Alicia Keys are set to perform the charttopping collabo “Empire State of Mind” at the 2009 American Music Awards next month. The duo performed the single — featured on Hov’s Blueprint 3 LP — at the MTV VMAs last month, but irksome rapper Lil Mama crashed the stage during the performance.

Show producer Larry Klein is excited to have booked the duo for a redux: “We are thrilled to have Jay-Z and Alicia Keys on stage together, both are such talented artists, it’s sure to be a memorable performance.”

Jay-Z is concerned that fame has gone to Rihanna’s head — so he’s hired a bodyguard to keep an eye on his protege, The National Enquirer has revealed.

The hip-hop heavyweight plucked the Barbados-born beauty from the island in 2004 and “invested his heart and soul into transforming Rihanna into a superstar,” but her behavior in the months since her brutal brawl with ex Chris Brown has concerned Hov so much that he recently assigned one of his bodyguards to look after the 21-year-old.

Read the rest of this entry »

In a chat with Hot 97’s Angie Martinez on Friday, 50 Cent addressed recent comments Jay-Z made during a radio interview on the BBC last week.

Jay-Z defended rapper Kanye West in an interview conducted by DJ Trevor Nelson’s BBC radio show last week and irritated when Nelson suggested that West would not have stormed the stage at the 2009 VMA’s, had 50 Cent been an accepting an award instead of country singer Taylor Swift.

“No one is scared of 50 Cent. I want everyone to be clear. No one is scared of 50 Cent,” Jay-Z told Nelson firmly.

Although 50 Cent claims he does not have any problems with Jay-Z, he stated that no one would storm his stage.

“It wasn’t 50 Cent [who made the comments],” 50 told Angie Wednesday. “Hip-Hop has cool punk and Jay is the coolest punk in Hip-Hop. He’s big. And his take on it is [he’s] bigger than the art form and he won’t actually and compete. Battling has been a part of the culture.”

50 added, “When he [Jay-Z] has to say no one is scared of 50 Cent, it’s because the public is responding to his punk presentation. Kanye wouldn’t take the trophy from me and neither would Jay-Z.”