Jay Z

EXENE CERVENKA was upset to miss Mount Airy native Santigold 's performance Sunday during the Budweiser Made in America festival. Cervenka, whose band X performed right before Pearl Jam on Sunday night, was delayed getting to the concert but did listen online to Santigold's set. Despite more than 30 years fronting Los Angeles punk pioneers X, Cervenka told us she was too shy to introduce herself to Santigold, born Santi White, daughter of late lawyer and...

On a stage outside a North Philadelphia theater where some of the greatest R&B artists once performed, Jay-Z and other members of the hip-hop elite exhorted 10,000 young people yesterday to become part of history by voting for Sen. Barack Obama. A throng of energized young people, many of them Temple University students, gathered in front of the historic Uptown Theater on Broad Street about 1 p.m. to hear rappers Jay-Z and Sean "Diddy" Combs and singer Mary J. Blige urge them to cast ballots for the senator from Illinois.

Everybody loves a gangster movie, but a rapper loves a gangster movie more than most. That's not only because Hollywood has long provided a second career path for charismatic sorts who went to school on their own music videos, including T.I., Common, and the Wu-Tang Clan's RZA, the troika who hold down secondary roles in American Gangster, the Denzel Washington-Russell Crowe cops-and-mobsters drama that topped the box office last weekend....

Jay-Z fulfilled his vision of bringing an electric and eclectic music festival to the heart of the city on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Saturday, headlining the first day of what he called the "first annual Made in America festival. " Jay-Z's razor-sharp and supremely confident performance, in which he enlisted the assistance of his partner in rhyme, Kanye West, as well as President Obama (in a prerecorded video), capped a nine-hour day filled with top-shelf performances from a range of rappers and electronic music acts and a smattering of indie rockers, giving Made in America a running start in carving out a niche as a uniquely urban-electronic mega-event in the crowded music festival season.

Rihanna goes on Ellen DeGeneres ' show Monday. Poor Ri! "I'm not necessarily happy being single," she tells the world. "It's not really that cool. " So she's not with baseball deity Matt Kemp , or Irish boxer Dudley O'Shaughnessy , or Drake . Or, boo-hoo, us. It ain't fair. . . . Jay-Z , to become a parent with Beyoncé in February, says he's "a little paranoid" about it. His dad walked out when Jay-Z was just a kid, and that, he says, makes him want to do better.

Hip-hoppers have never been shy about self-promotion. At the Sprite Liquid Mix Tour's Tweeter Center stop on Tuesday, the infomercial tone of Jay-Z and the Roc-a-Fella Family's 75-minute headlining set - in which a new album or collaborative joint was hawked during dead spots - was a bit much, even by rap's braggadocio standards. But it was the only infomercial you'll ever encounter with beats gargantuan enough to keep fans at the near-capacity pavilion on their feet. The shilling started before Jay-Z and his extended crew, including Memphis Bleek, Pharrell Williams of N.E.R.

Does it have to be this bad? The Spring Hip-Hop Explosion, which failed to blow up the First Union Spectrum on Friday, was just another uninspired multi-act rap show, replete with a muffled sound mix, a brief appearance by the biggest attraction, and a stage show that consisted of 100 or so hangers-on, bobbing heads to the beats. Back on his 1999 album The Life and Times of S. Carter, Jay-Z (whose real name is Shawn Carter) suggested fellow rappers put in extra practice, because, obviously, no one approaches his greatness.

Jay-Z stepping down as Def Jam chief After an unusual three-year turn in the corporate suite, rap superstar Jay-Z said this week that he would step down from his post as president of Def Jam Recordings, one of the world's best-known record labels. Jay-Z made the announcement with Def Jam's parent, Universal Music Group, as his employment contract was expiring. Under a separate long-term recording deal with Def Jam, Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, still owes the company one or more albums.

DID ANYONE really think this Jay-Z, R. Kelly tour was a good idea? The 40-city "Best of Both Worlds" tour came to a screeching halt Saturday when Kelly was booted from the remaining Madison Square Garden shows by promoter Jeff Sharp. The boot followed a Friday night incident in which a a member of Jay-Z's entourage allegedly blasted Kelly with pepper spray, said his publicist, Allan Mayer. Jay-Z, with special guests, will do tonight's show alone. Kelly's lawyers, meanwhile, were considering legal action against the sprayer and against the promoter for removing Kelly from the tour.