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Birdman in Louis Vuitton Striped Pocket T-shirt and Red Evidence Sunglasses

The YMCMB family all came out to for Mack Maine (President of Young Money Ent.) and Cortez Bryant’s ( Lil’ Wayne & Drake’s manager) birthday celebration in New Orleans. Birdman was seen wearing a Louis Vuitton Striped Pocket t-shirt ($415) with Louis Vuitton Red Evidence sunglasses ($675). Check out video & more pics below

Blacklist’s Cheetah overcame brain surgery

Female hip hop duo Blacklist has been earning much popularity lately, even being dubbed as the second Tashannie. Their title track STOP was produced by rookie production team, 24K, and is classified as Southern hip hop. Their boyish, charismatic performances and outstanding talent has earned the praise and admiration of netizens.

However, a recent reveal of a surprising event from Cheetah’s (Kim Eunyoung, age 20) life has left many shocked. When Cheetah was 17 years old, she quit high school and moved to Seoul in order to pursue her dream of becoming a singer. While preparing for her GED, she got hit by a car while crossing a street. Having been immediately rushed to the emergency room, Cheetah underwent brain surgery and had to stay in the intensive care unit for a year.

Brain surgery is an extremely dangerous type of surgery with a low survival rate, and it’s one that anesthetizes the entire body, excluding the heart.

Cheetah explained “For a month, I had to use a respirator in my throat, which harmed my vocal cords.

Consequently, my voice changed. At one point, no matter how hard I screamed, no sound came out, so I just kept crying and screaming. I went up to the hospital roof every night and sang until my voice gave out. Rumors started circulating amongst the patients that I lost my mind after receiving brain surgery.”

Cheetah was finally able to debut with fellow member Lucy (Park Sohyn, age 18) after preparing for a year and six months.

Are modern girl groups too sexy?

With hot pants, butt dances, and provocative lyrics dominating the Korean music industry, girl groups have been focusing on a ’sexy code’ amidst the heated battle to the top.

4minute’s Hyuna recently performed a stimulating dance at 2010 Mnet 20’s Choice wearing rather revealing black hot pants while dancing on a chair. Every time her long legs swayed in movement, the crowd went wild over her sexy image. Broadcast cuts of the performance soon swept across internet portals, and included comments such as, “The first thing I saw was her legs” and “Enchanting eyes that seduce men”. Hyuna is actually just 18 years old though, and a senior in high school.

GP Basic, boasting an average group age of 15, came out on MBC’s Show! Music Core on the 21st ,and sang lyrics such as, “I steal your two eyes and heart. You’re already mine. Just look at me.” As they appear on screen thirsting for love, viewers must be once again reminded that these girls are merely four junior high school students and an elementary school student.

With girl groups taking the spotlight, sexually suggestive controversies have also been on the rise. Girl groups in the teens wear mini-skirts and hot pants like they’ve become staples of their generation, and wearing revealing see-through garments that give peaks of their underwear have become much too common. What’s unfortunate is that TV programs are actually encouraging such behavior.

Although public broadcast companies have shown movements in attempting to restrict the amount of exposure, they still give camera closeups to particular parts of the body, and they remain focused on the physical aspect of groups on shows.

Is the excessive market competition the issue?

Out of the four girl groups that appeared on Show! Music Core on the 28th, three of the teams showed off what is now deemed as a sexy concept. Nearly all of them wore hot pants and performed sexy dances in a race to the crown. Unlike groups such as Wonder Girls and 2NE1, who generally focus on their own unique color and style, most groups these days tend to focus on how to appear the sexiest.

Music, naturally, has taken the back seat.

Some experts believe that it’s the intense competition between girl groups that has caused such a situation to arise. There’s no longer any drastic differences in looks, outfits, and concepts between girl groups. Therefore, in order to survive, it’s crucial for them to attract as much attention as possible.

Show! Music Core’s Kim Yugon PD stated, “Girl groups have been earning more attention than boy groups lately ,and so the competition is fiercer than ever. They’re all trying to find one more reason to get in the spotlight. A ’sexy code’ is a weapon for them to rise to stardom.”

A change in the way viewers actually watch the shows has also changed.

Music Bank’s Seo Sumin PD stated, “Girl groups wearing sexy outfits and dancing in such ways do not actually give a direct influence on our viewer ratings.”

Instead, a recent phenomenon are the blogs run by teens. These blogs are the ones capturing broadcast images and spreading it on the internet. If they attract enough attention, articles begin pouring out from the press and suddenly attention is earned and the team’s worth goes up.

Agencies have been using the ’sexy code’ as an actual system too. A girl group representative revealed, “Putting out eye-catching sexy concepts helps earn a lot of attention on the internet.”

Brown Eyed Girls were always loved as the singers that sang well, but they only earned their explosive popularity once they switched to a sexier concept with Abracadabra. Rookie girl group Secret has also been on the rise with Madonna.

Variety programs like Bouquet and Sebakwi also consistently request girl groups to show off sexy dances, although such behavior has recently earned backlash from netizens for the middle aged panelist men staring in awe at such performances.

By strengthening the ’sexy code,’ requests for physical exposure has also been strengthened. In a recent survey by the Ministry of Gender Equality & Family, results have shown that 10.2% of the celebrities and trainees questioned were under the age of 19 when exposing a body part such as legs, breasts, and bottom. 33.3% were also forced to expose a body part.

A representative of a music program revealed, “We’ve never seen a girl group member refuse to wear an outfit because of pressure or because she didn’t want to expose too much.”

There are no guidelines for such cases, although broadcast companies try to be careful when handling such matters. SBS recently set up some rules for the production of variety programs, and stated that overly sexually suggestive performances, excessive exposures, and the casting of celebrities that drops the overall class of the show will be restricted.

A representative of SBS‘ promotion team stated, “We’ve decided that showing sexually suggestive scenes and material in programs brings about too many problems.”

Although MBC and KBS do not have any distinct guidelines, they have revealed that they make an effort to check outfits before going on air. Show! Music Core’s PD, Kim Yugon, stated, “The directors, PDs, and associates try to check outfits and dances during rehearsal. We also make requests for any changes if necessary.”

KBS Music Bank’s PD, Seo Sumin, stated, “With girl groups getting heat for sexually suggestive material lately, most of the groups make a separate set of outfits for public broadcasts. They also listen to our requests when we ask that they make changes to an overexposing outfit.” It was also mentioned that they try to pay attention to the types of camera angles used.

Still, there’s the issue of freedom of expression versus an invasion of it. Many have voiced the opinion that a new generation calls for a new set of standards.

A representative for a public broadcast company stated, “Before, stars actually paid attention when we deemed that belly button exposure was not tolerated. But after a while, it just kind of disappeared naturally. There’s a lot of circumstances where restrictions are made depending on the situation.”

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Ivy undergoes an intense diet for lingerie photoshoot

Having recently been chosen as the model for Guess underwear, Ivy underwent a two month long diet to prepare herself for the amount of exposure.

Ivy’s agency stated, “After accepting Guess underwear’s model offer, Ivy began managing her body.”

Ivy’s already known for her impressive S-line body in the celebrity industry, but was said to have still gone through great pains for the lingerie photoshoot, paying especially close attention to her abs.

The diet plan Ivy chose includes a meal of chicken breast and vegetables along with health training. Her agency went on to reveal, “After the photo shoot dates were scheduled, she stuck to the meal plan for two months and stopped by the health club whenever she had time after her musical.”

Ivy has recently expressed her potential as a musical actress with Kiss Me Kate.
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It Happened to Me, It Could Happen to You

by Lau Chee Kin on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 11:42am

The typical Merdeka Eve night started with an urge to watch the fireworks celebration in KLCC ended up in a racist attack by a group of teenagers. So, me and a friend of mine thought of a good solution to avoid the traffic jam in that area by walking from the office in Jalan Imbi through Pavillion, to Jalan Kia Peng through Convention Center to KLCC.

Sounds like an ideal plan as the path is a frequent walkway and is even advertised in Pavillion as 'Bridge to KLCC'. (Just to note that we didnt go into any dark alley)

At 10.15pm, we started walking towards Pavillion, stopped to get a drink at Starbucks and proceeded ahead. As we walk, we came across people from various races and foreign tourists along the way.

On Jalan Kia Peng, we walked past Novotel Hotel, Hakka Restaurant, Menara HLA and was reaching the junction of Jalan Pinang when a group of about 10 teenage Malay youngsters walking from the opposite direction. They looked like typical youths, giggling and talking to each other.

As we walked past them, suddenly one of them turned around and started to make a flying kick to my friend. Noticing the 'fun' he is having, his other friends started to do the same to me. It was so sudden and all I was thinking at the moment was, "What the hell did we do to them?"

Both of us ended up kneeling on the ground for a moment before more kicks and punches came flying in. Even though both of us had our tripod strapped across our shoulder, we were too shocked to react to it. Eventually one punch landed right on my right forehead and I started to bleed profusely. Seeing that they eventually stopped and walked away.WALKED AWAY, damn it. They were not even afraid to run but just WALKED AWAY like winning a game or something.The last thing I remember hearing from one of them was "Baliklah ke negara asal"

Imagine hearing this statement on Merdeka Eve.

I knew I was bleeding but I didnt know how bad. I could feel the right side of my head swollen and wet but I did not try to look at myself through a mirror. My friend also suffered bruises on the body and face. By that time there were more people walking around us but they did not stop to see what was wrong. I don't blame them, it was a poorly lit area just in front of Menara Pinang. We recovered and continued walking towards the Convention Center. The guards were symphatetic to let us in to use the washroom to clean up. It was then I saw my bloody face.

I did not take a picture of myself then as it is not my intention to send a horror message. This is not a message of sympathy. It's a account of a random person walking on a street.

Eventually after cleaning up, we walked back to the Police Booth in Pavillion to relate the incident. The response from the officer: "This cannot happen, we have all our men on the streets" (Well, not on the street we got beaten up ...)

Apparently informing the police booth stationed in a public area is NOT MAKING A POLICE REPORT. WTF? Apparently we have to go to a Hospital, get some treatment and make a complain/report at the police counter there. I would be dead by then, ain't I?

Is this how the police maintained that they have improved street crimes? By not noting down petty crimes like gang bang which did not result into hospitalization? Would we be taken seriously if only we landed in the hospital?

What we did was, we went back to the office, rested til this morning, went to a nearby clinic to get some bandages and medic.What else to do? I can't identify my assailants, and my wounds are not death-threatening.

If I had not wanted to celebrate Independence Day, would I walk or drive to the venue?

If I was not thirsty would I stop for 5 mins to get my drink and missed them completely?

If I had held my tripod as a defensive weapon earlier, would I save myself or get more beating instead?

If I'm not Chinese, would I get the same 'treatment'?

All I want to say in the end is ...
Forward this to your friends (so that they will be careful on the streets)
Forward this to your 'friendly police' (so that they know the procedure is wrong)
Forward this to any politician/newspaper (so that he/she can be the champion for highlighting this to the government)