N.W.A. win Rock and Roll Hall nod

Cheap Trick, Deep Purple among inductees

NEW YORK, Dec 17, (AFP): Gangsta rap pioneers N.W.A., who shocked white America with their no-holds-barred denunciations of police brutality, won recognition Thursday for their historical role as they were named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The museum to popular music said it will also induct Midwestern US rockers Cheap Trick and Chicago, British hard rock forbearers Deep Purple, and psychedelic bluesman Steve Miller as its 2016 class.

N.W.A had been nominated three previous years without winning approval, but the group enjoyed renewed attention in August with the biopic film “Straight Outta Compton,” which opened at the top of the US box office.

The film was named for N.W.A.’s debut 1988 album that featured the track “Fuck tha Police,” a searing indictment of officers’ treatment of young African-American men like the group members, who grew up in the rough Los Angeles-area city of Compton.

N.W.A. -- which stands for Niggaz Wit Attitudes -- set the stage for the genre of gangsta rap and raised the political profile of hip-hop, now a frequent means of protest around

parliamentary House Speaker Laszlo Kover said at a congress of the ruling right-wing Fidesz party.

A Facebook group set up soon after urged women to mail negative pregnancy tests to Kover’s parliamentary address as a protest.

Less than 10 percent of lawmakers in Hungary’s parliament are women, compared to an EU average of around 23 percent, while there are no women in Orban’s 13-member government cabinet. (AFP)

NEW YORK:

The Grammy Awards will celebrate a lot of new music, but its ceremony will have a familiar face up-front in host LL Cool J.

The Recording Academy announced Wednesday that the rap artist and actor will be the master of ceremonies for the fifth consecutive year. The Grammys will the world.

“N.W.A.’s improbable rise from marginalized outsiders to the most controversial and complicated voices of their generation remains one of rock’s most explosive, relevant and challenging tales,” the Hall of Fame said in its announcement.

The induction comes amid renewed criticism of police tactics after a series of killings of AfricanAmericans.

N.W.A. gave rise to the solo careers of Ice Cube, the late Eazy-E and Dr Dre, who went on to become a multimillionaire entrepreneur employed by Apple.

“Our impact is to show the people that you have a voice. You can say something; you don’t have to just sit back and let it happen,” Ice Cube told AFP ahead of the movie’s release.

Public Enemy, arguably the rap group best known for turning hiphop into a political tool, entered the Hall of Fame in 2013.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame determines inductees through voting by more than 800 music figures, with a fan poll contributing one ballot.

The Cleveland-based museum will honor the new members at an April 8 ceremony in New York

be telecast Feb 15 from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Somewhat unique to awards shows, the Grammys traditionally focus more on performances than trophy delivery. The host tends to have a lower profile than on other awards shows.

Recording Academy President Neil Portnow says LL Cool J’s personality and energy set the perfect tone for the show. (AP)

LOS ANGELES:

Although this property gossip can’t imagine she actually straps waxed sticks to her feet and slides down a snowy mountain, Oprah Winfrey has, just in time for the winter ski season, added a $14,000,000 ski chalet in the Mountain Village area of Telluride, CO, to her already impressively tumescent property portfolio. Originally listed in late that is sure to renew talk of a longrumored N.W.A. reunion.

N.W.A. performed together in June in Los Angeles, but Dr Dre did not join.

Deep Purple still tours but without 70-year-old guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, who parted in 1993 and has since pursued folk music.

Blackmore is the force behind one of rock’s most distinctive openings -- the blues riff adapted to electric guitar that begins “Smoke on the Water.”

“Only Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony gives it a run for the money as far as recognizability and badassedness,” the Hall of Fame announcement said.

Deep Purple joins two other British groups already in the Hall of Fame -Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath -that together spawned hard rock.

Chicago, who won the fan ballot, grew out of the jazz tradition of the band’s namesake city, bringing the genre’s free-flowing melodies to pop.

While initially taking up political themes, Chicago turned into the quintessential soft rock band with a slew of radio-friendly ballads such as “If You Leave Me Now,” “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” and “You’re the

2009 at $15 million, the privately sited residence was re-listed in June 2014 at $13.75 million and removed from the open market in September of this year. Presumably the property, sold fully furnished, was acquired by the billionaire media tycoon as a ready-made place to shack up when she’s in town to oversee the construction of a custom estate on a nearby 66-acre undeveloped tract she scooped up in March 2014 for $10.85 million.

Set on 3.23, densely wooded hillside acres, the stone, glass and wood structure is a decidedly contemporary take on a classic, faux-rustic Rocky Mountain ski chalet and measures in at a considerable if not exactly mega 8,706 square feet with five bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms. Custom built for the seller, tech executive Bob Wall, and completed in 2001, the sturdy-looking three-story residence is outfitted with an avalanche of high-tech luxuries and a raft Inspiration.”

Cheap Trick, also from the state of Illinois, developed a style of heartland rock with guitar-driven anthems such as “Surrender.”

Cheap Trick discovered an early fan base in Japan where the band recorded a classic 1978 live album at the Budokan arena.

Steve Miller, while born in Wisconsin, became a leading force in the cultural mix in San Francisco in the 1960s as he experimented with jazz, blues and other American roots music.

But the Steve Miller Band also achieved commercial success, notably with 1973 song “The Joker.”

Miller, Cheap Trick and Chicago all won the first year they were nominated.

Other first-time nominees, including pop star Janet Jackson and Mexican-American trailblazers Los Lobos, were passed over.

Disco sensations Chic maintained a losing streak after a record 10 nominations.

Chic’s co-founder Nile Rodgers recently told AFP he did not want to “get weird” about the lack of recognition but added, “I’ve written more hit records than almost everybody in the Hall of Fame. Come on, guys!”

of whackadoodle amenities that includes Finnish-style spa and a heated driveway and motor court that makes access easy even under the snowiest of conditions. An unusually comprehensive home automation system that can be operated by smart phone from anywhere in the world, incorporates 40 miles of wiring and controls heating, cooling and security systems, window coverings, and even the watering and fertilization of indoor plants. The primary living spaces include a double-height living room with wood burning fireplace, formal dining room, sky-lit eat-in kitchen, and a family room that quickly converts to a screening room with motorized black out shades and a screen that drop down out of the ceiling. (RTRS)

DETROIT:

A 15-year-old boy has been convicted of murder in the fatal shooting in Detroit of a 23-year-old French street artist.

Juvenile Court Judge Christopher Dingell convicted the teen Wednesday. The Detroit News says the boy ran to the rear of the courtroom while wearing handcuffs.

He says he wanted to say goodbye to his sister. The judge alerted security and deputies responded.

Bilal Berreni of Paris was killed in July 2013. He had no identification, and it took months to identify him through fingerprints. (AP)

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado:

Actor James Woods says he’s happy to be alive after crashing on an icy highway in Colorado.

The accident happened Monday on Interstate 70, where it cuts through the scenic Glenwood Canyon in western Colorado. The stretch of road has steep cliffs on either side.

In a series of tweets, Woods said another person driving over 75 mph spun out and that he hit a wall along the highway to avoid that driver.

Woods said that after hitting the wall on the other side of the road, he slid backward going 60 mph. He said a guardrail kept his Jeep Grand Cherokee from dropping 100 feet to the Colorado River below. (AP)