Jemblog

You thought slavery was dead? Try again. A new campaign by a fashion designer has people shrieking with disdain, since the designer seems determined to prove that slavery can be brought back into style. Pakistani designer Aamna Aqeel is being criticized for a new campaign called “Be My Slave,” with a shoot showing a white woman being waited on by a dark-skinned child.

The shoot is expected to appear in DIVA, a Pakistani fashion and lifestyle magazine. The images were placed on the designer’s Facebook page, leading fans to express their anger.

The images are described as being beyond tasteless, and it’s difficult to know what the designer was thinking. Experts speculate that it may have been thought that the edginess and controversy of the shoot would reap more rewards than losses. But while international attention has been placed on the publication, most fans do not find the shoot to be appealing. It also has branded both the designer and the fashion magazine to be racist. They’ve both been asked to apologize.

The designer says that the appearance of the child happened just by chance. She said that the boy “works in a garage and wanted some work.” But maybe she could have let him do a job behind the scenes instead of humiliating himself in front of the camera. At the same time, there may be a deeper explanation for why she chose to shoot this scene in this way.
In her defense, Aqeel says she is involved with a children’s charity and used the images to bring awareness to the use of child labor around the world. She also says that she wasn’t trying to build her brand with controversy and only meant to raise public awareness on this issue. Do you buy it?

Fans on her Facebook page don’t seem the least bit satisfied with what she said. But if she is telling the truth, maybe it does mean that child labor problems should be confronted more directly. Many of the most popular products sold in America are made by five year olds who can’t go to school. Awareness might be necessary.

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It’s now getting to the point that debtors prisons are growing. People are being put in jail for not being able to make payments on time or owing too much money. Two Atlanta women have a story that is a cautionary tale and nightmare for anyone who has ever borrowed anything on credit. It might also make you think twice about going to Aarons for anything.

A woman who doesn’t want to be identified, says that when she couldn’t make payments on a washer and dryer that she’d bought from Aarons, they had her arrested.

“They should think of the consequences it’s going to have on your life on your family,” the Loganville woman said, asking not to be identified.

The woman says that she knows she fell behind and accepts the responsibility. But one thing she says she didn’t deserve was to be taken to jail over something like a late payment. When she offered to give the appliances back, the company refused to take them. That’s when she was hauled off the jail.

Shantel Jackson has filed a civil suit against Aarons for false imprisonment. “It was traumatizing. I cried a lot. I spent most of my time crying,” Jackson said.

Jackson says that she was attacked by Aaron’s after she stopped making her payments on a television that was broken. She says that the company refused to replace the TV, but demanded high payments anyway. Aaron’s makes its money by charging high rates of interest on consumers who can’t afford credit. Many of these consumers are African American. The woman also called the company to tell them that the TV was stolen during a burglary.

“They told me I was lying. They know the TV was in my home,” Jackson said. Jackson’s attorney Cary Wiggins, said it’s a civil matter not criminal.

“You do not have them arrested. There is no debtor’s prison in this country. Hasn’t been that way since the 19th century,” Wiggins told Artz.

Aaron’s released a statement on the matter, “Aaron’s, Inc. cares about our customers and for 58 years has been building solid relationships with our customers and communities. Our culture is to work with each and every one of our customers to ensure that every effort is made to bring them to full lease-ownership of our products. We cannot comment on specific customer situations, but we do work diligently with all of our customers and undergo exceptional efforts, fostering communication with them to understand individual situations.”

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Every year, there are dozens of kids who turn down scholarship offers from the Michigan State football program. But most of them do it because they decide to attend a different school. Wide receiver Jay Harris from Downingtown East High School in Downingtown, Pa. just turned them down for a much different reason. Rather than accept a scholarship offer from the Spartans, Harris told an MSU assistant that he is going to pursue a rap career. That’s right. Despite being ranked 17th overall in the senior class in the state of Pennsylvania according to ESPN, Harris is trading in his football cleats for studio time.

“I’ve been thinking about doing this for a couple of years now,” says Harris, who goes by the rap name Jay DatBull. “I’ve always had this in the back of my head but never had the courage to tell my parents that this is what I want to do.”

Sigh. We can’t really hate on the kid for following his dreams. If he doesn’t really want to play football, then he shouldn’t do it. But we sincerely hope that he understands what he’s getting himself into and what he’s giving up to do it.

You can check out his latest music video for his song, “DatBull 4 Life,” below:

The on-again off-again couple finally seem to have called it quits last week.

But Rihanna, 25, and Chris Brown, 24, have taken to Twitter to voice their mutual contempt for each other.

The music superstars sent out thinly veiled tweets on Thursday and Friday seemingly accusing each other of playing the field while they dated.

Rihanna started it off, uploading an Instagram picture on Thursday with the words:

‘If I drop all my hoes for you and we still don’t work out you owe me some hoes.’

Although the meaning isn’t clear, the picture insinuates that Rihanna either dropped all her friends when she was with Chris or that he was unfaithful to her.

Chris then upped the nastiness factor by tweeting on Friday: ‘She’s not mine if she’s everybody elses.’

She started it: Rihanna uploaded this picture to her Instagram account on Thursday, which perhaps alludes to Chris cheating

The ex couple also sent out tweets on Wednesday that appeared to be directed at each other, with Chris tweeting:

‘Sometimes loving someone is too much! So loving from a distance will help everyone grow! Be blessed. Live ya life!’

Rihanna then tweeted her own message a short while later, stating:

‘Settling is not an option! Nothing less than 100% loyalty, honesty, and respect!! Love ain’t for kidz #butimsleeptho’.

Chris’ Friday tweet comes after reports that Rihanna was partying with ex JR Smith on Tuesday after her show in New York.

But the rapper isn’t blameless himself after he spent his birthday celebrations last weekend partying with ex-girlfriend Karreuche Tran.

The rapper recently made some kinder comments about the break-up during an interview on the Kyle and Jackie O radio show

‘I’m always going to love that person … [but] I can’t be focused on wife-ing someone that young — I need to step forward and be a man and be the best Chris Brown I can be,’ he said.

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It’s not the first time the popular deejay, real name Calvin LeBrun, has been cuffed for playing with prostitutes. This time, the man he allegedly tried to solicit for sex was an undercover cop.

Popular Hot 97 deejay “Mister Cee” was busted trying to pick up a male prostitute in Brooklyn, cop sources said.
But Cee, 46, whose real name is Calvin LeBrun, didn’t know that the gigolo he approached at Madison St. and Broadway in Bushwick just before midnight on Thursday was really an undercover cop, the sources said.

The music man — who emerged into the hip-hop world as Big Daddy Kane’s deejay and later produced Notorious B.I.G.’s first album, “Ready to Die” — was charged with patronizing a prostitute. He was waiting to be arraigned on Saturday.
It’s not the first time the deejay has been cuffed for playing with prostitutes.

Cee pled guilty in 2011 to a charge of loitering for the purpose of engaging in prostitution after he was arrested for receiving oral sex from another man in a parked car.

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The drama continues between Mariah Carey & Nicki Minaj. The two ‘American Idol’ judges have been going at it all season and continued during last night’s show. Nicki and Mariah got into it while arguing about the contestants, with Minaj waving a cotton swab at Carey and advising her to clean out her ears.

Nicki was not done, because she just unleashed on Mariah on Twitter:

Very Disrespectful!!!

Authorities speculate a drug overdose claimed Kelly’s life though no official cause of death has been determined.

ATLANTA — Chris Kelly, half of the 1990s kid rap duo Kris Kross who made one of the decade’s most memorable songs with the frenetic “Jump,” died at an Atlanta hospital on Wednesday of an apparent drug overdose at his home, authorities said. He was 34.
“It appears it may have been a possible drug overdose,” said Cpl. Kay Lester, a spokeswoman for the Fulton County police.
This, Lester said, is based on statements received at the scene as well as evidence turned up at Kelly’s home in south Atlanta.

According to Lester, police were called to Kelly’s home at around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. He was transported to the south campus of the Atlanta Medical Center.
Investigator Betty Honey of the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office said Kelly was pronounced dead at the hospital at around 5 p.m. Wednesday.
No official cause of death has been determined, pending an autopsy.

Kelly, known as “Mac Daddy,” and Chris Smith, known as “Daddy Mac,” were introduced to the music world in 1992 by music producer and rapper Jermaine Dupri after he discovered the pair in an Atlanta mall. The duo wore their clothes backwards as a gimmick, but they won over fans with their raps.
Their first, and by far most successful song, was “Jump.” The hit, off their multiplatinum 1992 debut album “Totally Krossed Out,” featured the two trading versus and rapping the refrain, the song’s title. The duo had surprising maturity in their rap delivery, though the song was written by Dupri. It would become a No. 1 smash in the United States and globally, and one of the most popular of that year.

Their success led to instant fame: They toured with Michael Jackson, appeared on TV shows, and even had their own video game.


The group was never able to match the tremendous success of their first song, though they had other hits like “Warm It Up,” and “Tonite’s tha Night.”
In 2009, after photos surfaced that showed him with bald spots on his head, there were rumors that he had cancer. But in an interview posted on YouTube by Straight from the A TV, he said he suffered from alopecia, a condition in which people lose their hair.
“My health is good, I just got alopecia, I don’t have cancer, not other sort of diseases,” he said.
Earlier this year, the group performed together to celebrate the anniversary of Durpri’s label, So So Def.

watch the video here

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