Everybody’s doing it so why not Teyana too? Blogxilla said it better:

The lovely Teyana Taylor got her Single Ladies on in Brooklyn Recently. I swear this young lady is going to be a problem. Check out this young sexy single lady do her thing. Now if I can only get a version of this where the camera person isn’t shaking and screaming I’d be good. (LINK)

Loyal reader Sherri wrote:

Usually I’m a big critic of your unfair postings on Pres. Obama being that I’m proud that we finally have a black president, but for this posting Ms.Sandrarose, I give you major respect for speaking up about this serious situation that will affect all of us in the WORLD!

Because he is choosing to pick what situation he’ll address which makes me feel like he’s already been paid off and sold if you know what I mean. When Russia bomb the country south of them he made a statement that Russia should not use such force against such a small country., But Israel is doing the exact same thing but even worse and he’s sitting there on his ASS while this poor country and people are being murdered.

Don’t get me wrong, I know he’s not president yet but the world is looking at him to make a CHANGE remember all that, while it looks like he (been paid already to stay there and be a good house negro) going to continue the same foreign policies that has the world hating us and which will cause our oil prices to sky rocket again because the oil comes from the the middle east and because of what’s going on in Iraq.

And now Palestine they’re going to make us pay one way or another just because someone is Muslim doesn’t mean they’re a terrorist or just because someone is black doesn’t mean there a gangster, drug dealer and etc. We need to get out of that mind frame of either you’re with us or against us bullshit that we’ve been forced to believe. This is a very very serious issue that pres. obama needs to address. This is a very serious issue these world leaders are fighting a HOLY WAR which can kill us all.

EVERYBODY SHOULD BE DISAPPOINTED IN OBAMA FOR HIM DOING THE SAME OLD SAME. REMEMBER THE YOUTH VOTE GOT HIM IN OFFICE AND WE DON’T WANT WAR WE WANT PEACE WE WANT CHANGE WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HIM? (LINK)

An Indonesian protester wearing a mask of a cigarette-smoking Barack Obama, attended a rally to protest the continued Israeli attacks in the Gaza strip.

Untold hundreds of women and children have been killed by U.S. supplied bombs and rockets so far in the Gaza strip.

Obama, who has plans to make a major speech from a Muslim country as president, is getting flack from Muslims for not speaking out against the war or siding with the Palestinians.

When it suits him, Barack Obama remains silent about pressing matters like Gaza, solemnly intoning the mantra that there is only one president at a time. So why does he plan a major press conference on his economic plans? (LINK)

Well, we now know who won’t be singing at one of 10 “official” inauguration balls in D.C. come Jan. 20:

Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson won’t sing at Barack Obama’s inauguration, according to her rep who says the actress is still grieving the loss of her mother, brother and nephew.

American actress/singer Jennifer Hudson will not be singing at U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration, says her representative.

Rumours that the 27-year-old Hudson would be singing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at Obama’s inauguration have been dispelled by her representative.

“There is no truth to this,” Contactmusic quoted Hudson’s rep as saying. (LINK)

Stars who did receive an invite to perform at one of the special events in D.C. the week of the 20th include Rihanna, Stevie Wonder, Barbra Streisand, and Bruce Springsteen.

Other celebs who haven’t yet received invites are said to be unhappy. We still don’t know exactly which inauguration event Barack Obama will be attending. But we’re guessing it’s the one Rihanna will be performing at. (LINK)

Photos: AP and Wireimage

Some of you emailed asking me to post a picture of my 2008 Jump Off of the Year, Nikki Nicole. Well, here she is celebrating her birthday with friends recently. Isn’t she pretty?

Nikki and Tameka “Tiny” Cottle have been BFFs for many years going back to the heady Xscape days.

This was before T.I. in case you were wondering.

Tameka doesn’t go anywhere these days without Nikki, who is an aspiring rapper. Sources tell me the two friends are tighter than bonding glue on hair weave.

Photo: Myspace

Last year’s jump off of the year, Kim Porter, was spotted leaving LAX after returning from a holiday trip to Spain. In that second photo she looks like she’s thinking why are they shooting me? We’re wondering the same thing too. The funny part is, I was on the phone with a very good friend of hers who made the trip with her, and neither one of us mentioned Kim once.
Photos: Splash News Online

British chanteuse Amy Winehouse was spotted having fun in the sun with friends in St. Lucia. Not sure why the photographer cropped the beautiful kids out of the photo.
Photo: Splash News Online

Singer Akon was spotted at the Lakers-Jazz game sitting with a woman who is not one of his wives. Are Akon’s eyes really that yellow or is that the lighting? I hope not because his sclera looks quite jaundiced. Akon might want to curtail that drinking (and smoking?) just a little.
Photo: Splash News Online

Actress Megan Good threw up the peace sign outside Good Day New York today. She was looking very presentable and wholesome. Megan was in NYC promoting her new movie ‘The Unborn’. We LOVE the leopard spot boots Megan!
Photo: INF DAILY

These photos are not what they seem. That’s because they are all Photoshopped.

Initially, I began merging photos together as a way to illustrate my posts — and because I couldn’t find decent photos of those artists together.

Take for instance, this photo of Tameka, Usher and Chilli. This photo was lifted from my blog and reposted — uncredited — on numerous blogs and message boards and even on a news site as a legitimate news photo. But the photo is fake. I Photoshopped Tameka Foster into the photo with Usher and Chilli.

A few sharp eyed readers among you guessed that the above photo of Jay Z and Selita Ebanks was a phony. So I had to step my game up after that one.

But no one guessed that I inserted Jay Z into this infamous pic of Beyonce. Or that I juxtaposed Rocko and his mic into the pic below with his fiancee Monica.

Beware if you lift a photo from my blog this year — it just might end up in my Best Photoshopped Photos of 2009.

Michelle and Barack Obama hug their daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, goodbye as they leave their hotel to begin their first day of school in D.C. The Obama’s were forced to live in a hotel near the White House when Bush refused to give up the White House guest quarters.

Sasha peers out the window after the Secret Service motorcade dropped off her sister Malia at the Sidwell Friends School in D.C. Sasha is in 4th grade at another Sidwell campus across town.

The motorcade bearing Sasha and Michelle Obama leaves the Sidwell Friends school Monday morning after dropping off Malia Obama.

Photos: Reuters

I wonder how Barack Obama sleeps at night, what with all his friends regularly going under the wheels of his bus and all.

Reports are that Obama’s newly nominated secretary of Commerce, Gov. Bill Richardson, has withdrawn his name for the position. Something about a pending investigation for kickbacks he made to a company that donated campaign funds to him.

“Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact,” Richardson said Sunday in a report by NBC News. “But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process.” (LINK)

Hmmm… we wonder how Richardson was able to get nominated at all with this scandal all over the news such as it was? Of course Obama’s team denied that those entrusted with the task of vetting Richardson missed something.

Also in Obama news, Jermaine Dupri who writes a column for the right wing blog, The Huffington Post, is over there now complaining bitterly about the raw deal he feels Obama has gotten so far. (LINK)

Personally I think the media is letting Obama off easy considering all those friends he’s got piling up under his bus — and he isn’t even president yet.

At the risk of sounding negative (which I promised my loyal readers I would not do in the ‘09), I have good news and bad news related to the music industry.

The good news is: Sony/BMG has just signed a promising new singer/songwriter. The bad news is: she fits the standard cookie cutter image established by the other females of color already on Sony’s roster — including Leona Lewis, Jordin Sparks, Alicia Keys, and the standard bearer, Beyonce.

When I finally publish my last post ever on Sandrarose.com (in a decade or so), I want to be remembered as the blogger who coined the term “Beyoncification” to describe the music industry’s current obsession with female artists of color who posses decidedly European features.

I spotted this video on AtlantaUrbanMix last week. It’s a video blog by Sony’s newly signed artist who goes by the name of Nikki Jean. You can feel Nikki’s excitement as she video blogs while giddily signing every page of her bulky recording contract with Sony BMG/ Columbia Records.

I went to Nikki’s Myspace page hoping to hear some of her work in order to dismiss my nagging suspicion that Nikki was signed based on physical appearance only.

Again, so as not to come off as negative, I will reserve my opinion on her musical talent. Apparently, Nikki’s claim to fame is singing the hook on Lupe Fiasco’s 2007 track “Hip Hop saved My Life” which she also co-wrote.

On a positive note, what Nikki lacks in melanin and soul, she more than makes up for with her bubbly personality — a quality that her label mate Beyonce does not possess.

The Beyoncification of the music industry continues.

Rapper T.I.’s New Year’s Eve performance at the Gansevoort hotel in South Beach didn’t go off as planned according to Page Six:

Promoters sold revelers poolside tables for a whopping $10,000, but when partiers got there expecting to see the concert, they were told T.I. would be performing inside the hotel’s small ballroom instead. “The city wouldn’t allow him to perform outside,” a Gansevoort rep said. Even worse, before T.I. could take the stage, the hotel had to get DJ Cassidy off it. “Cassidy thinks he’s a celebrity now,” a spy said. “He refused to stop playing, and then he wanted his assistant and girlfriend to stay on stage with him. It was a mess. He finally shut everything down and stormed off.” The countdown was saved by T.I. doing an a cappella version of his hit, “Live Your Life,” while DJ Jus Ske stepped in to finish the night off. (Source)

According to sources, T.I. demands and gets a minimum of $100,000 for club appearances and even more if he performs. So I’m sure the mix up didn’t phase him much.

As I told you in a previous post, T.I. and his longtime girlfriend, Tameka “Tiny” Cottle, rang in the New Year together on South Beach. Over the weekend, I received word that information contained in that previous post was causing some confusion. So I would like to clear that up.

I told you that Tiny arrived at Rocko Da Don’s birthday party last weekend at Straits and was seated in the upstairs VIP dining room. I also wrote that rapper Shawty Lo, with whom T.I. has been beefing for months, arrived sometime later and he and his wife were seated next to Tiny.

Here’s what I want to clear up: Tiny and her friend were seated at the table first. At that time Shawty Lo was not in the room. I’m told that Monica made the seating arrangements and she seated Tiny.

In my previous post, I indicated that “Tiny could have easily been seated anywhere else in the room besides right next to T.I.’s arch enemy” since it was a large table.

But some of Tiny’s friends mistook that to mean Tiny chose to sit near Shawty Lo and his wife. That is incorrect. My point was Shawty Lo could have been seated anywhere else in the room instead of near Tiny. Especially when you consider the fact that Lo and Tiny’s man have had words in the past.

Everyone is questioning the seating arrangement which was: Shawty Lo, his wife, Tiny’s friend, then Tiny along with about 15 other couples at a big table. That should not have happened.

T.I. had every right to get his lady up out of there when he found out that she was seated two seats away from a man who has disrespected Tiny in the past.

The ideal situation should have been not to invite two warring rappers to the same event. T.I. got the heads up early on and decided not to attend the party to cut down on the drama.

But some people within the industry invite drama to bring attention to their events. They do this by inviting enemies to their events and hoping some drama pops off.

T.I. and Tiny already have enough problems without having to deal with intentional set ups.

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T.I. will begin serving a year sentence in prison on weapons charges in March.

Photos: Wireimage/Getty

Despite the tough economic times we’re in, I think this old school song is appropriate for my first Throwback video of the new year.

This song certainly captures the mood I’m in right now: I wanna be rich! At the same time, I am well aware that money isn’t everything.

An investor who lost more than $1.4 billion to Bernard Madoff’s elaborate Ponzi scheme took his own life the day after Christmas (LINK). The man’s brother called his suicide “an act of honor.”

At the risk of sounding too opinionated, I think valuing money over a man’s life is preposterous.

I interrupt my vacay to bring you new music from Ciara: this is the “official” first single off Ciara’s overhauled CD Fantasy Ride. The song is titled “Never Ever” featuring Young Jeezy. “Never Ever” is produced by Polow Da Don and goes to radio tomorrow (1/5).

My loyal readers demand less negativity from me in 2009 and I plan to comply with their wishes. As Gandhi said, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”

So I won’t give my usual negative opinion on this track. But I know Philana Wiliams has to be somewhere laughing!

Thanks Charles aka, BrandyKluxKlan!

I’m just poking my head in for a minute to wish you a Happy and joyous New Year, and to thank you for continuing to visit Sandrarose.com!

I’m taking today and the rest of the weekend off for a much needed rest. While I’m off I’ll be thinking about changes I can make so my blog will be bigger and better for you this year.

Below is a poll listing some of the changes I’m contemplating.

Tell me what you think. You can select more than one answer. I’ll be checking in throughout the day on my laptop.

Have a great weekend!

The man charged with beating celebrity trainer Darius Miller into a coma has committed suicide, according to his attorney.

Apollo Holmes, 25, took his own life at his home on Christmas Day because he was despondent over being wrongly accused said his attorney, Bruce Harvey.

At least 10 thugs set upon Miller in the parking of a midtown nightclub as he walked Mayor Shirley Franklin’s two daughters to their car on Dec. 26, 2007 (LINK).

Miller had asked the men to stop videotaping the women.

The brutal beating left Miller in a coma that he has yet to recover from. Miller receives round-the-clock care at his mother’s home after being discharged from a rehab facility. His complex medical care is paid for partly by donations from friends, celebrity clients and money raised through fundraising events.

Holmes was the only man charged in the beating.

Thanks to loyal readers Malcolm Lee and Tabatha for the tip.