King of Pop Memorial Services Confirmed for July 7

Los Angeles, CA – Preparations for Michael Jackson’s public memorial services are still being finalized as July 7th draws close. The Staples Center has confirmed that the funeral will take place as reported. Registration for the free tickets was available this past Friday online at the StaplesCenter.com and lasted until Saturday evening. According to reports, the site suffered numerous amounts of crashes due to the constant amount of activity that the site was taking in. This past Sunday, fans received email notifications on where to pick up their tickets when they become available today.

The Jackson family had already estimated thousands in attendance for Michael’s memorial. The family stated that they were only giving away 17,500 tickets with 11,000 available for entry into the building. The remaining 6,500 will be ushered across the street at the Nokia Theater for viewing of the ceremony via widescreen televisions. It was initially stated that there will be no guarantee that each fan will receive a ticket as the selection was computer generated. It was later reported that millions of people logged on to the site in order to secure tickets for the ceremony. Each computer selected fan will receive two tickets and two wristbands. The family issued a statement to the press about the decisive process. According to representatives for the family, over 1.6 million from around the world registered for the 17,500 tickets that were available.

These were their comments to the fans:

“It was our wish to allow as many of Michael’s fans to be a part of the memorial, and we wish to thank everyone for their support and understanding at this difficult time.”

Since the arena could only hold occupancy of 20,000 people, the family did what was necessary in fairness to the fans and the artists that have scheduled to attend the service. Both parties stress that if fans did secure tickets, the best place to view the ceremony is from their home. They urge fans without tickets to stay away from the area on Tuesday as no one will be allowed entry without tickets.

At press time, MTV, VH1, and VH1 Classic have confirmed that they will air the King of Pop’s memorial services live beginning at 1pm ET on Tuesday, July 7.

It was evident that the ceremony was going to attract thousands to close to millions of people. To be quite honest, I don’t think there is a venue large enough to cater to the millions of fans that Michael has collected over the four decades that he reigned in music. I guarantee that this will be the most watched event on MTV and VH1’s television running history. With all the artists, celebrities, and political icons in attendance for the ceremony I can imagine a huge media frenzy of immaculate coverage. Check back with 24hourhiphop.com with a full coverage of the funeral that takes place tomorrow.

50 Cent Releases ‘Forever King’ Mixtape

New York, NY – While people are still mourning the loss of Michael Jackson and preparing for his memorial service, you would think that 50 Cent would be doing about the same thing, that doesn’t seem to be the case. 50 hasn’t necessarily stated whether or not he will be attending the memorial services held for Michael tomorrow, however while recently speaking to MTV News, he did have time to preview his new mixtape he apparently titled ‘Forever King.’

According to 50, the mixtape has already been in the works for quite some time now, except under a different title. At first, the mixtape was previously entitled ‘Sincerely Southside Part 2,’ but in light of the passing of Michael the dubbed King of Pop, 50 apparently took an idea he saw online and ran with it. If Michael is the King of Pop, then according to 50, he is the King of Rap.

These were his comments to MTV News about his newest mixtape:

“It was Sincerely Southside Part 2, but I changed it to Forever King because of the content. I wanted to not just make all ’90s music, I wanted to switch up the content a little bit. Also, calling it Sincerely Southside would cause an expectation based on Part 1. So I called it Forever King. In the past, you’ve had artists, when they feel they’re on top their game, say they are, or would be considered, the King in New York City. So I feel on top of my game. It’s actually one of the laws of power: Act as if you’re a king to be treated like a king.”

50 even discussed the artwork that was put into the front cover of the mixtape:

“When Michael Jackson passed, there was a piece of artwork that had ‘King of Pop, King of Rap’ with me and his pictures. That’s what gave me the concept of the artwork. There’s a real human skull that’s got diamonds embedded in it, I saw the photo in Dubai. It’s an artifact, it’s priceless. That’s a real skull they see. We used the effect to make it feel like it’s a skull inside my face. And the Yankee hat would be my crown.”

The mixtape is apparently a reflection of his past and that of music’s past. He incorporates old school tracks from the 90’s with lyrical inserts from his come ups from the streets.

Here is the official tracklisting

1 Paranoid
2 Respect It or Check It
3 Suicide Watch
4 Things You Do
5 Get Money
6 Funny How Time Flies
7 If You Leave
8 Dreaming
9 Where You Are
10 London Girl 2
11 Touch Me
12 Put Da Work In

‘Forever King’ was released this past Friday and available for download on his site ThisIs50.com.

Keep posted to 24hourhiphop.com for a review of ‘Forever King,’ whichever one of our writers can get to it first.

Didn’t 50 just release ‘War Angel,’ how much material is he going to release before we don’t even anticipate the arrival of ‘Before I Self Destruct?’ And to call himself a King is sort of farfetched, he still has a long way to go before he can even reach that status, he shouldn’t even compare himself to Michael, he had four decade, 50 is still working on the one. In all honestly, I think he should accept Game’s apology and get back to the music. ‘This is How We Do’ and ‘Hate It or Love It’ was some interesting bangers, mixing West Coast’s Game and East Coast’s 50, both of which worked well with each other.

Video: Michael Jackson Final Concert Rehearsal

Los Angeles, CA – Just two days before his death, Michael seemed to be good standing condition as the video that was recently released of his final concert rehearsal shows him as an active Michael we were once use to. He was preparing for his 50 London concerts that were suppose to kick off on July 13. Here is the short video clip that has been airing all over CNN, MSNBC, and MTV that was released by AEG from the Staples Center.

Here is the Video of the King of Pop’s final concert rehearsal: