March 2011

Celebrity Apprentice 2011!

Who is Lil Jon and why is he famous?

[Mar. 31]

Lil’ Jon (a.k.a. The King of Crunk) is a celebrated rapper from Atlanta, GA. He’s known for Get Low, a nightclub hit featuring The Ying Yang Twins, and for chart-topping R&B hit Lovers and Friends with Usher and Ludacris. In 2008, he auctioned a 12-pound pendant he was known for wearing, a portion of the proceeds of which went to Russell Simmons’ Rush Community Affairs. He will be playing to benefit the United Methodist Children’s Home of the North Georgia Conference (similar to a diocese).

As the King of Crunk, Lil’ Jon already knows a little something about raising awareness and getting into the business side of things. He has brought the style of what used to be known as rap back to its roots.

Bryan Leach, A&R for TVT Records described in an interview his introduction to Lil’ Jon. “Jon used to be an A&R at So So Def, and he is a DJ, producer and artist — he does it all. He put out an album in 2000 called ‘We Still Crunk’, which was selling independently in three to four markets. […] It was like early Beastie Boys, when they had the energy of a rock group but they were rapping and it was just so different. Jon and I even referred to Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz as the black Beastie Boys because that energy is what crunk music is all about.”

Celebrity Apprentice 2011!

Who is La Toya Jackson and why is she famous?

[Mar. 29]

La Toya Jackson, sister of Michael Jackson and the first of the Jackson girls to have a solo music career, is most famous for her Playboy centerfold issue of April 1989, which became the magazine’s best selling issue to date with over 8 million copies sold. Her dance hit Free the World in 2005 was inspired by the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers in New York City and became a national icon for the green celebrity. As a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice, La Toya is playing for AIDS Project Los Angeles, one of the largest nonprofit AIDS service organizations in the United States.

Sister of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, and Janet “Miss Nasty” Jackson, of Superbowl “wardrobe malfunction” infamy, La Toya Jackson has plenty of spark of her own. La Toya is no stranger to green celebrity status and charity. She performed on the single We Are the World, to help with the starving citizens of Ethiopia.

The green celebrity also starred in a lesser-known video for Stop the Madness, with an anti-drug message. She had a track, Just Say No, which she wrote for Ronald Reagan’s anti-drug campaign, in 1988, on her self-titled album. But it was around this time that she began to show a less conservative side, under the management of her husband, Jack Gordon, who La Toya says her father forced her to marry, according to IMDb.