When Ne-Yo, real name Shaffer Smith, was booted from R. Kelly’s recent tour, Ne-Yo claimed that it was because he was big enough now that he was upstaging R. Kelly.

Well, a judge seemed to agree that may have been the case, and Ne-Yo was just awarded a $700K payout yesterday after R. Kelly’s promoter Rowe Entertainment failed to respond to Ne-Yo’s lawsuit.

According to Rowe, when the incident initially occurred, the reason Ne-Yo got dropped was because he failed to return a “finalized” contract.

When Fantasia Barrino left the hit Broadway Musical The Color Purple, all kinds of rumors were swirling around regarding her departure, chief among them that she was pregnant.

She has now revealed that it was a tumor on her throat that caused her to miss several shows and eventually pull out of the show for her own health reasons.

Fantasia told Sister 2 Sister magazine, “I couldn’t get enough sleep and sometimes onstage, I could taste blood… every now and then.

“They (producers) would send me to the hospitals and they would say, ‘Well, she’s dehydrated; that’s what’s making her tired.’ They would put IVs in me. But it just wasn’t enough.”

Eventually a top Los Angeles doctor put a camera down her throat and discovered the tumor.

She’s healthy again, but is still hurt by all of the bad press she received for leaving the show.

It’s possible that Bobby Brown could have a wedding on his mind again.

After divorce from Whitney Houston in 2007, he has now confirmed that he and his mangager, Alicia Etheredge, are officially an item.  He recently toldy Sister 2 Sister magazine, “That one (relationship) is gonna work ’cause I’m gonna make it work.”

In a 2007 interview, Etheredge said, “I think that Bobby is a big romantic and really does believe in love.

“His parents are still married after all these years and I think that he will find that again.”

Complaining of the high gas prices, Sean Diddy Combs has announced that he will no longer be using his private jets.

He recently told photographers while boarding a plane, “I’m actually flying commercial. That’s how high gas prices are. Tell whoever the next president is we need to bring gas prices down.”

Lil Wayne knows a lot about gold and so does Olympic swimming champion and winner of 8 Olympic gold medals Michael Phelps.

So it’s only fitting that when interviewed by The Today Show, Michael Phelps revealed that just before winning his third gold medal, he was listening to Lil Wayne’s “I’m Me” on his iPod. “I’m Me” also happens to be produced by 102 JAMZ’s DJ Nasty.

Listen to Phelps below.

Listen

And now they’re teaming up. Michael Phelps will be the guest host on the season premiere of Saturday Night Live on September 12th and Lil Wayne will be the musical guest.

TMZ is reporting that the lawyer of DMX, Bradford Cohen, may have just struck a plea deal, even after the outburst yesterday by DMX, which you can view below.

According to TMZ, the plea deal includes time served, along with a $483 fine.  Of course, there are still all of those charges waiting for him in Arizona!

DMX, real name Earl Simmons, was not happy with the news he learned yesterday…that he would have to stay in jail in Miami until October.

When it was revealed in court, DMX let loose on Judge Lawrence Schwartz saying, “I’m not going back to f–king jail”.

Judge Schwartz then responded sarcastically saying, “Oh, well that just ingratiated you to me. I’ve never heard the F-word before, so it’s OK.” He then warned DMX that there was to be no more cursing in his courtroom.

Check out the video below.

Andre Young, Jr., the 20-year-old son of Dr. Dre, was found dead over the weekend.

Earlier reports had come in that he had gone out Friday night and not returned home until 5:30 AM, but a TMZ source says that he was home by 12:30 AM and in bed shortly after that. His mother, Jenita Porter, found him the next morning around 10:00 AM. He was unresponsive.

A rep for the rapper told TMZ, “Dr. Dre is mourning the loss of his son Andre Young, Jr.”

The cause of death is pending completion of a toxicology report.

Rihanna and Chris Brown were spotted out in California this weekend, holding hands.  Word is that they were in town to film Brown’s latest music video.

Michelle Obama opened up the Democratic National Convention last night with a speech honoring her father’s memory and her daughters’ future.

She said that her husband, Sen. Barack Obama, will make an “extraordinary president” and added that “[her children’s future] and all our children’s future is [her] stake in this election”.

Click here to watch Michelle Obama’s speech and other video fron the DNC