THISDAY Music Festival: the passion, the romance

Beyonce Knowles

American music diva, Beyonce Knowles has celebrated her 25th birthday two weeks ago. With this anniversary came the international release of her latest album, B'Day. Born in 1981 to Tina and Mathew Knowles,
It ha s been a busy weekend for Beyonce. She stole the show at the MTV Music Video Awards with a jaw-dropping performance of her new record. Not only that, the R&B Queen won Best R&B Video award for Check On It. Beyonce showed an aptitude for music before she could even talk. As a young girl, she would drown out everyone, including the church choir.

A normal childhood was not in the books for Beyonce. At 8 years old, she met LaTavia Robertson while auditioning for a girls musical group and Matthew Knowles, Beyonce's manager and father, later paired the two with LeToya Luckett. In 1992, cousin Kelly Rowland joined the group, and they performed together on Star Search.
Small gigs and much label-shopping later, the four beauties cemented their relationship by calling themselves Destiny's Child. In 1997, "No, No, No" became their first official single, and they got off to a big start as the track went multi-platinum. The girls were instantly popular in the media and impressed all with their self-titled debut.

Destiny Child, led by the incomparable Beyonce, had three top ten hits within the year: "Jumpin, Jumpin," "Say My Name" and "Bills, Bills, Bills." They became one of the best-selling female groups of recent memory after this second album sold more than nine million units worldwide. At the same time, it was announced that their single "Independent Women Part 1," off the Charlie's Angels soundtrack, had reached the largest audience ever in the recorded radio airplay -- 140.4 million pairs of ears.

Beyonce displayed a versatile style with this solo effort, creating the club hit "Baby Boy," the pop success "Crazy In Love" and the soulful "The Closer I Get To You" with Luther Vandross. Like her work in Destiny's Child, Beyonce wrote or co-wrote many of the tracks and performed her heart out on award shows to get the word out to a huge audience. She has emerged as a diva, making the best videos, catchiest songs and creating the most headlines. At 2004's Grammy ceremony, Beyonce took away five awards and was the biggest winner of the night. Rumors have swirled that she is involved with rapper Jay-Z, and talk of another Destiny's Child album has surfaced.

Busta Rhymes
'Trevor Tahiem Smith, Jr. born on May 20, 1971, better known as Busta Rhymes, also Busta Bus or simply Bust, is an American hip hop musician and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the name Busta Rhymes (from former NFL football player George "Buster" Rhymes) after watching him perform.
Trevor was born in Brooklyn, New York, and is of Jamaican heritage. At the age of 12, his family moved to Uniondale, a suburb of New York City on Long Island, where he was raised and eventually met up with other rappers from the growing New York area hip hop community.

He graduated from George Westinghouse High School Downtown Brooklyn, the same high school attended by famous MC's Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z. He has a son named T'ziah born in 1993.
Busta Rhymes' musical career began as a member of the Hip Hop crew Leaders of the New School along with fellow Long Island natives C. Brown, Dinco D and Cut Monitor Milo. They began recording in 1991 with the album A Future Without a Past (Elektra Records), and soon gained an amount of fame.

Busta Rhymes' performance on "Scenario" is thought of by some as the performance which led to his becoming a fan favorite and eventually going solo. The Leaders Of The New School released their last album T.I.M.E. in 1993, after which Busta Rhymes began his solo career.

Busta Rhymes' debut solo album The Coming was released by Elektra Records in 1996. The album was a mix of ragga and hip hop, and it included the US and UK top 10 single "Woo-Hah!! Got You All in Check." His follow-up, When Disaster Strikes... was successful in the US and sold well overseas. The album produced two hugely popular singles and videos in America, "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See" and "Dangerous". The same year he released The Imperial as part of the Flipmode Squad, a collaborative project with rappers Rampage, Lord Have Mercy, Spliff Star, Rah Digga and Baby Sham.
1998 brought Extinction Level Event (Final World Front), the theme of which was an assertion that the world would end in the year 2000.

This year has seen the release of his seventh studio album, The Big Bang. The CD became his first Number 1 album of his entire career. The CD sold over 209,000 copies in its first week to earn the top spot on the charts.
The album also became his highest charting album in the UK, peaking at Number 19 there. Some of the album was leaked on the internet, and as a result several songs were left off the album and new ones added. The Big Bang featured more production by Dr. Dre than Busta's previous releases and appearances by Raekwon and Nas. The singles that have been released from the album are, "Touch It", "I Love My Bitch", featuring Kelis and Will.I.Am of The Black Eyed Peas, "New York Shit" and "In The Ghetto". Busta also had a stint opening for Carey's Adventures of Mimi Tour.

Missy Elliott
Melissa Arnette Elliott is her birth name, but that name has since been submerged with her showbiz nomenclatures, Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott, Missy Elliott, Misdemeanor. Born on July 1, 1971 in Portsmouth, Virginia, United States, Missy is one of the leadingn stars of Hip-hop/R&B. She is an established singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer.
Missy hit the headlines in 1996 and has remained a force to reckon with ever since. She dropped the "Misdemeanor" from her stage name in 2003, and now simply goes by "Missy Elliott". Missy Elliott is the biggest selling female rapper of all time, with record sales of 17 million total including US, worldwide, and single sales.

Elliott is one of the first female hip hop artists known for a series of hits including "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)", "Hit 'Em Wit Da Hee", "Get Ur Freak On", "One Minute Man", "Work It", and "Lose Control". In addition she has received recognition as one of the most successful songwriters of the modern music era, having crafted a number of hit records for artists such as Melanie B, Aaliyah, 702, Total, Ciara, Nicole Wray and Tweet, often with production-partner and childhood friend Timbaland.
She was the fourth female rapper to ever go Platinum, behind Lil' Kim, Foxy Brown and Da Brat.

Her debut album, released in mid-1997, was Supa Dupa Fly, which included "Da Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)", a blockbuster hit that established Missy as a major force in popular music. Other singles included "Beep Me 911," which featured 702, Timbaland, and Magoo; "Hit 'Em wit da Hee," featuring rapper Mocha and Lil' Kim and Timbaland; and "Sock It 2 Me," a moderate hit which featured rhymes from Da Brat and a cameo by Lil' Kim in the Mega Man-inspired music video. The critical acceptance of Supa Dupa Fly was mixed, though generally positive; many critics commented that the album tracks, some of which sampled Missy / Mosley hits such as "Can We" and "One in a Million", were far inferior to the singles. 1997 also saw Elliott perform on Lil Kim's girl-power anthem, a hit remix of her song, "Not Tonight".

Elliott's second album was just as successful as the first. Da Real World (1999, see 1999 in music) included the singles "All N My Grill," a collaboration with Nicole Wray and Big Boi (from OutKast), "Hot Boyz [Remix]" and "She's a Bitch".
Respect M.E. - The Greatest Hits is Missy Elliott's greatest hits album featuring hits such as Get Ur Freak On, Pass That Dutch, Lose Control and her lastest single We Run This. The ablum is due for a September 4, 2006 release.

Also Missy Elliott won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Special Effects in a Video with her single, 'We Run This'. During the MTV VMA's 2006 she performed alongside with Timbaland, with her first single The Rain (Supa Fly), during a tribute to music video director Hype Williams. Elliott appeared in the same outfit as she did in her first single video; a big plastic suit filled with air.

Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter, popularly known as Jay-Z, (or by a variety of nicknames including S. Carter, S.Dot, Jigga, Jay-Hova, Hova, and Young Hov) is an American hip-hop artist and current president and CEO of Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella Records. He has been one of the most prolific and successful American rappers of the past decade. Due to this sucess, he is sometimes considered to be the greatest rapper of all time.

He is admired for his ability to craft lyrics from memory, without the use of pen and paper; he claims his critically acclaimed album The Blueprint was written in only two days.
He is one of the founders of Roc-A-Fella Records, a hip-hop record label which also launched the careers of artists such as Beanie Sigel, Kanye West, Memphis Bleek, Young Gunz, Freeway, and Teairra Mari.

As of 2006, he was estimated to be worth around $320 million.
Carter was known as "Jazzy," a nickname which eventually developed into his stage name, "Jay-Z." The moniker is also a homage to his musical partner Jaz-O (a.k.a. the Jaz, Big Jaz) as well as to the J-Z subway lines that have a stop at Marcy Avenue in Brooklyn.
On November 25, 2003, Jay-Z held a concert at Madison Square Garden, which would later be the focus of his film Fade to Black. This concert was his "retirement party." All proceeds went to charity. Other performers included collaborators like The Roots (in the form of his backing band), Missy Elliott, Memphis Bleek, Beanie Siegel, Freeway, Mary J. Blige, Beyonce, Twista, Ghostface Killah, Foxy Brown, Pharrell and R. Kelly with special appearances by Voletta Wallace and Afeni Shakur; the mothers of Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur respectively.

There is still heavy speculation that he may come out of his "retirement" to record & release a new album in 2006, ten years after his first album was released.
Apart from being President and CEO of Def Jam Recordings, Jay-Z is also one of the owners and founders of the Roc-A-Fella empire, which includes Roc-A-Fella Records, Roc-La-Familia, Roc-A-Fella Films and Rocawear.
Jay-Z was featured on Beyonce's hit single "Crazy In Love." He made yet another appearance on Beyoncé's 2006 hit, "Deja Vu". The couple never publicly discuss their relationship and have been together for almost four years.

Last month, Jay-Z became the latest superstar to help the United Nations create awareness on a major crisis in the world. He has teamed up with the United Nations and MTV to get children involved in the fight against the worldwide water crisis. He cited statistics that 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water and 2.6 billion lack proper sanitation.
Now, the rap superstar has a new favorite drink: water.

Majek Fashek
Majek Fashek is one of Reggae and Nigeria's most unique and important artists. We were with Majek at some of his first shows in the US, and we've been at some of his more recent concerts. He's had fans come and go, but there is a circle of us who have always been there. We've stuck it out with Majek though the thick and the thin, times good and bad. The road has not been straight… indeed it has meandered, and it has, the truth be told, been a bit rocky. Yet Majek is still singing and still believing. We often find ourselves fascinated by Majek perception of the world around him. He sees things in a unique light. Here is a man who has convictions and strong beliefs.

We prefer to think of it the following way. On some days, the stars align themselves, and things click. We've seen this happen with Majek both onstage and off. We've seen some of the best moments in live music come from Majek. The best are the moments we like to hold on to, the moments that burn into our memories. With Majek, you've got to know why he wrote the song, and what he was getting at. Sometimes, you have to push, dig deeper, to get the real meaning.
We found ourselves digging deep for the meaning of Majek's songs, philosophy and his view of the world around him.

I'm talking about Job, I dedicated that song to my late brother who was a Biafra soldier – you know he believed in God and things happened. At the same time, I start to realize life in its redefinition. Referring to the song lyrics "We are not fighting against flesh and blood, but spiritual wickedness in high and low places." So what I am trying to say is that Job was the son of God in the Bible. Job heard everything. Man, he was tempted by the devil to give up Jah will…Job tried, you know…
Just like what has happened to me in my career – because before I had a very big contract with Interscope Records, you know what I am saying… things happen and I was on some spiritual experience. Things like that – losing all the bucks, just like that… but still surviving!

CIARA
Ciara Princess Harris was born on October 25, 1985. She is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter, actress, and dancer. Ciara made her debut in the summer of 2004 with the Billboard number one single Goodies. She is now set to release her second studio album The Evolution on November 14, 2006.
Ciara was born in Austin, Texas, and grew up in army bases in Germany, New York, California, Arizona and Nevada, since her father was in the United States Army. Her mother figured out that she wanted to pursue a career in music when she picked her up from daycare, and sung every song that was played on the radio. Ciara moved to Atlanta, Georgia when she was 8 years old.
One day, when she was 14, she came home from school and told her mom that she would like to become a singer, but her mom wasn't sure if she really wanted to do this.
She has said that it was seeing a televised performance by Destiny's Child while staying home from school one day that inspired her to pursue a career in music. In her early teens she formed the goal to become a professional singer. She once was a cheerleader for her North Clayton high school team, until she quit. She then joined a girl group called "Hearsay", worked on her songwriting, eventually left the group, got a publishing deal, and found a "musical soulmate" when she met producer Jazze Pha.

US Embassy Opens Abuja Consular Office

The United States Embassy in Nigeria yesterday opened the Abuja Consular Office with a call on Nigerians to avail themselves of a new window of opportunity for easy consular services. The US. Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. John Campbell, stated: "The goal of the consular section is to facilitate travel between Nigeria and the U.S. –to encourage Nigerians to work, to seek business opportunities, to study in and to visit the U.S. for whatever their own private purposes, and then return home to share their experiences and to help build their own country."

According to him, the consular section is about facilitating people-to-people contact as well as a means of broadening bilateral relationship between the two countries.
"The United States and Nigeria are important partners in international diplomacy, African regional peacekeeping, promotion of democracy through the conduct of free and fair elections, alleviation of poverty through economic development, and energysecurity."

He said over 1200 regular student visas were issued to Nigerians students in 2006 stressing that the hope of the US. government was that educational travel to the US from Nigeria would increase. "The U.S. values its international students and seeks talented youth and adults the world over to contribute to our multicultural student base."

Ambassador Campbell assured that "We will strive to process all visa applications with efficiency and security, minimising the time and trouble needed apply for a visa."

Work Based from Home and Those Misleading Ads

When it comes to business opportunities, work based from home options should be considered. Work based from home has a many perks including tax advantages and there are solid business opportunities available. Work at home ideas, as they are advertised, may seem a bit confusing or overwhelming at first, but don’t need to be.

You need to sort through advertisements touting themselves as either “Business Opportunities: or Work at home”

You’ve seen them, especially in the classified sections of newspapers that read: “Business Opportunities: Work at home.” Like most people, you are probably skeptical when you see these ads in the paper and you should be. Unfortunately, there are always those out there who try to take advantage of your dream of having your own work based from home business. Single mothers struggling to take care of their children are often victims of this scam. There are a number of these ads that you should avoid. • Envelope stuffing is among the biggest scams out. With this scam, unsuspecting individuals are fooled into believing they can make a great income by simply stuffing envelopes. While a limited number of people will actually make money off of this, most don’t. Then of course there is the issue of ethics. • Assembling complex items that can take a very long time to put together, resulting in far less than minimum wage when broken down into an hourly rate. What’s more you will often not see any money unless the crafts or other objects you have assembled happen to sell.

These scams are certainly not worth your time considering that there are plenty of legitimate work based from home opportunities out there. Sound work based from home ideas simply require using your common sense and not falling for scams that are simply too good to be true.

Once you realize that these Business Opportunities: Work at Home ads are not the way to go when trying to establish your own work based from home business, it is time for the serious work to begin. Starting your own work based from home business is not necessarily an easy task and it does take time and work to get it going. Therefore, you need to start considering what type of work based from home business is right for you.

Take an honest look at your personality. Do you want to be your own boss, or do you prefer someone else take on responsibility for the business? Do you enjoy spending time on the computer, or would you rather be outdoors. Work based from home does not necessarily mean you have to stay inside the house, so consider all possible avenues to find the one that is best for you.

If you wish to start your own work based from home business then brainstorm. There are numerous types of work one can consider, among them:

• Freelance data entry • Freelance writing • Freelance graphic artist • House cleaning, janitorial, window washing or laundry services • Online translation • Online surveys • Plumbing, carpentry, electrical or other handyman services • Driving services • Snow or leaf removal • Landscaping • Phone answering services

The list of work based from home ideas could go on and on. It is limited only by your imagination.

Work At Home By Lucy Rodgers

Online Business | How to Start an Online Bankruptcy Forms Processing Service

Due to the dramatic increase in technology, business professionals now have the ability to outsource their skills and earn extra money working from home as a bankruptcy forms processor. Unlike an attorney or notary public, a bankruptcy forms processor does not have jurisdictional limits. In other words, a bankruptcy forms processor could live in Yellow Springs, Ohio and prepare bankruptcy petitions, pleadings, Motions and other court documents for attorneys practicing in California, New York or any other U.S. state.

In fact, a bankruptcy forms processor can set up a bankruptcy business in their home with very little money and earn a full-time income very quickly. This concept has also opened the door for attorneys practicing in other areas of law to open a sideline bankruptcy practice, and many of these attorneys seek a freelance forms processor to process their paperwork for them.

This is where you as a bankruptcy forms processor can fill a need that is becoming more popular as electronic filing procedures become more the norm. In fact, some states now require electronic filing of all court documents. Paper documents are only accepted by the court from consumers or in other rare circumstances. It will not be long before all the states will have electronic filing procedures in place and those resisting the change will be left behind.

A typical bankruptcy forms processing business might operate like this:

1. Client either downloads or is emailed a set of Client Intake Forms in PDF format to print and fill out at their leisure.

2. Client will fax or email their completed forms to the attorney or forms processor for review. If the attorney decides to accept the bankruptcy case, the forms processor can begin drafting the bankruptcy petition from the information provided on the Client Intake Forms.

3. Areas of the Client Intake Forms that are not properly completed by the client or containing statements that require a more detailed answer would be easy to take care of. The forms processor or attorney will simply call up the client and obtain the information. No appointment would be necessary.

4. After the drafting of the bankruptcy petition, the forms processor saves the document in PDF format and sends it to the attorney as an attachment on an email.

5. At this point the attorney may wish to meet with the clients to review their bankruptcy petition before filing, but it is not absolutely necessary. Some attorneys I worked for never meet the client face-to-face except when they showed up at court. They communicated with the client by email or telephone.

Note: Electronically filed documents do not require the client's signature so it is not necessary to meet the clients face-to-face before filing the bankruptcy petition. An attorney is provided with an electronic signature by the court that he uses to sign all electronic documents filed on behalf of the client he or she represents.

6. After the attorney receives the bankruptcy petition by email, he or she will save it on their computer under the client file name and begin the review. The attorney can either print out the bankruptcy petition and make changes with an ink pen, or review it on the computer screen and note any changes in an email to the forms processor.

7. After the attorney has approved or made changes to the bankruptcy petition, he or she will email it back to the forms processor. The forms processor will make the changes and prepare a final bankruptcy petition ready for electronic filing. The forms processor emails the final petition to the attorney for final approval.

8. Upon approval by the attorney, the forms processor will electronically file the bankruptcy petition with the proper court or email to the attorney for printing, copying and filing.

As you can begin to see, it would be very easy to start a forms processor service working from home. So if you were like me and are tired of the office politics and playing the mental games, you now have the opportunity to work from a peaceful home environment where you can focus more on each case and give your clients the personal touch that will set your business apart from the big companies.

** This article is a book excerpt from, "How to Start a Bankruptcy Forms Processing Service" by Victoria Ring, Certified Paralegal. More information is available online at http://www.50statenotary.com/bankruptcybook

Victoria Ring is a Certified Paralegal and Notary Signing Agent. She started the first electronic bankruptcy paralegal service on the internet (The Lawyer Assistant) to serve attorneys nationwide. Visit her website at http://www.50statenotary.com/bankruptcybook

Nigeria News: Investment Fund to Manage Excess Crude Proceeds - CBN

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said it is working on the establishment of a National Investment Fund (NIF) that will manage the excess crude proceeds account for the future benefit of the economy, especially when oil prices drop.

Speaking yesterday in Kaduna at the ongoing CBN seminar for finance correspondents and business editors, the apex bank's Director of Foreign Operations, Alhaji Mohammed Nda, also disclosed that between January and July this year, a total of N465.982 billion ($3.675 billion) crude oil revenue, accrued to the Federation Account, was monetised and shared among the three tiers of government.

Nda who was represented by a deputy director in his department, Mr Olu Adaramewa, said a NIF was necessary to manage the account into which the windfall realised from the ever rising oil prices in the international market would be deposited so that the country would be prepared for future fluctuations.

He disclosed that "the establishment of such a fund in Nigeria can serve the twin objectives of stabilising the volatility of fiscal revenues and creating a pool of capital that can provide an alternative source of foreign exchange earnings."

He also explained that, "it is a known fact that the build up in the nation's external reserves was attributed mainly to the upsurge in oil prices which is not sustainable. Indeed, high oil prices are already driving research into the exploitation and utilisation of alternative energy sources.

"Consequently, there has recently been a call for the nation to establish a National Investment Fund in which to invest excess earnings from oil in order to shield the nation from the uncertainty and volatility of oil prices."

According to him, "many countries have successfully established such a fund including Botswana, Venezuela, Norway and Sao Tome and Principe, to mention a few. In fact, most of these countries sterilise the proceeds from oil and other minerals and finance their budgets through other sources."

Also speaking further, Nda disclosed that between January and July this year, a total of N465.982 billion ($3.675 billion) crude oil revenue, accrued to the Federation Account, was monetised and shared among the three tiers of government, namely Federal, State and Local Governments.

The figure, he added, represented 20.98 per cent increase over N385.156 billion ($2.920 billion) recorded in the corresponding period of 2005.

He disclosed that, the un-monetised and unshared portion of the nation's burgeoning foreign reserves, (that is, the excess crude proceeds) meant for the Federation, as at the July 31, this year stood at $8.18 billion.

The apex bank's Foreign Operations director put the total value of the foreign reserves in the month under review at $38.07 billion, which also included $2.71 billion of Federal Government's component and $27.18 billion, representing CBN component.

He said the figure of the monetised and shared crude oil revenue for 12 months (January to December) in 2005 stood at N694.042 billion ($3.675 billion) as against N860.123 billion (N6.503 billion) of the corresponding period of 2004.

A breakdown of the figures showed that, in 2006, the amount monetised and shared in January totaled N75.188 billion ($589.714 million); N101.007 billion ($788.476 million) monetized and shared in February; N54.286 billion ($430.162 million) in March; N68.739 billion ($544.820 million) in April; N44.888 billion ($355.719 million) in May; N60.793 billion ($482.103 million) in June; and N61.078 billion ($484.521 million) in July.

Nda explained that the Federation component consisted of Sterilised Funds (un-monetised) held in the excess crude and petroleum profit tax (PPT)/royalty account at the CBN belonging to the three tiers of government.

This portion, he added, has not yet been monetised for sharing by the federating units. Adding that it "is ignorantly referred to as the reserves of the country."

He also said the Federal Government component consist of funds belonging to some government agencies such as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), for financing of its Joint Venture expenses; Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and Ministry of Defence, for Letters of Credits (LCs) opened on their behalf, amongst others.

Similarly, he explained that the CBN portion consists of funds that have been monetised and shared and constituted 71.4 per cent of the reserves. This, he said, arose as the bank received foreign exchange inflow from crude oil sales and other oil revenues on behalf of the government.

According to him, "such proceeds are purchased by the bank and the naira equivalent credited to the Federation account and shared each month, in accordance with the constitution and the existing revenue sharing formula. The monetised foreign exchange thus belongs to the CBN. It is from this portion of the reserves that the bank conducts its monetary policy and defends the value of the naira."

While pointing out that the much-talked about accumulated reserves was dominated by the foreign exchange equivalent of the amounts that have been shared monthly among the three tiers of government for their annual budgets, Nda charged the Nigerian public to find out "how the monthly allocations of the federations reserves have been utilised as on the foreign exchange counterpart with the CBN."

"As the saying goes, you can eat your cake and have it. The criticism that the CBN is accumulating foreign reserves in the midst of poverty and unemployment is therefore misplaced," he said.