Pollstar recently released their annual Top 50 Tour of North America where they calculate the top tour earners of the year based on gross ticket sales. Lil Wayne comes in at #26 grossing over $32 million in ticket sales and is the top earning urban artist for the year. Beyonce was #34 earning $26.4 million.

Although the gross numbers get chopped and screwed many different ways between the ticket broker (i.e. Ticket Master), the venue, the tour agency, tour manager, the crew, etc. Lil Wayne still gets a large chunk of that $32 million not to mention the large profits from merchandise which is where the real money is made. That’s where you have fans paying $35 for a t-shirt at a cost of $2 for fabric and silk screening.

If only “History” was off a Black Star reunion album. But at least this is close enough as Talib makes a featured appearance on Mos Def’s single. Check the video after the jump.

Continue Reading…

Snoop Dogg x One Life to Live. Snoop loves his some day-time soaps as he makes his second appearance on “One Life to Live.” Check the behind-the-scenes vids courtesy of his PR company. Push that Malice in Wonderland!

Snoop Dogg x FUSE. As part of their Hip Invasion series FUSE kicks off 2010 with an exclusive Snoop Dogg interview which airs this Wednesday, January 6th, tune-in at 8pm ET. Snoop discusses everything from why he got in the business to his personal life.

Best thing we like in this preview clip? Snoop states “I never stopped being Snoop Dogg no matter what I do.” Now that’s brand consistency for ya. Aspiring artists take note…Snoop is a branding wizard by staying true to his image in every business deal he takes part of.

McDonald’s can’t get enough of using rap and urban music in their ad campaigns. We all remember, and want to forget, those McCafe ads but now McDonald’s rolls out the red mini-van carpet for some lesser known artists such as WordSpit and Joya Bravo as they rap in a van about the new Dollar Menu.

Props to them though…hope they can handle the millions of dollars in publicity they are getting from this ad campaign. Check the “making of video” here and Joya’s full :30 TV spot after the jump. I’m lovin’ it.

Continue Reading…

Although urban music print magazines are drying up faster than Wale’s fan base, at least artists are still finding ways to get on other publication covers. Here 50 Cent graces the Feb 2010 issue of Muscle & Fitness. 100% natural. No Mark McGwire plan here fella. Via: RR

Rihanna x Rizzoli Publishing. Rihanna and New York based Rizzoli Publishing have just announced her first book called “The Last Girl on Earth.” Book will feature contributions from Simon Henwood, Rihanna’s #1 art director who created her Rated R album cover and creative designer for her tour.

Although some sites are already stating this will be a autobiography of sorts, WoooHa can confirm that “The Last Girl on Earth” is NOT an autobiography but rather a collection of Rihanna’s thoughts based around photos, art, tour memoirs, etc. “The Last Girl on Earth” will be hardcover with 144 pages and will retail for $50 on June 29, 2010. Pre-order that ish now over at Amazon.

Lil Wayne x T-Pain x Cartoon Network. Lil Wayne is teaming up with T-Pain in the Adult Swim cartoon special “Freakniks.” Weezy is set to play Jesus Christ in the cartoon and and will be creating a mock music video to accompany the role called “The Ghetto Commandments.”

“Basically it was a Black Spring Break that went down in Atlanta and got shut down back in ’98 or ’99. So the show is going to resurrect that, and it’s going to be starring T-Pain and Lil’ Wayne and all these other artists like David and some other dudes,” said Adult Swim creative director Jake Escobedo. “It’s all drawn, and T-Pain plays the ghost of spring break, the Spirit of Freaknik. He brings this party back to Atlanta and the artists have done all this music for it, and it’s amazing.”

T-Pain and Adult Swim have formed a solid relationship as T-Pain previously played Frylock in the live-action version of “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” and is also a big fan of many Adult Swim programs.