T.I. talks about arrest, lessons learned

Confined to his home since his arrest in October 2007, T.I. has made few public statements about his arrest on weapons charges, save for a video he posted on his social networking site. But the Atlanta rapper took time out to sit down with his hometown newspaper over the weekend, telling the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he's learned to slow down and be patient as he continues to deal with the fallout of his arrest.

T.I. pleaded guilty to weapons charges two weeks ago, agreeing to a plea in the hopes that he can avoid serving any jail time. The rapper spoke to the paper at an Atlanta YMCA after speaking to a youth group for aspiring music producers called FOR ME, Inc. As a part of the rapper's plea deal, he was ordered to complete 1,500 hours of community service.

"GM had to back up off of me," he said of losing a multimillion dollar endorsement deal with General Motors. "There are films that I missed out on. Not speaking of, of course...tours. Tons of business. I've probably lost about $10 to $12 million."

"Sometimes you laugh to keep from crying," he continued. "But you know, I'm blessed to be able to be out here to make $10 to $12 [million] more. Especially considering I brought this all on myself. So you know--minimal injury. Maximum lesson learned."

T.I. is set to record in the studio with Amy Winehouse soon, although he said he was uncertain whether the collaboration will appear on his or Winehouse's album. He plans to debut the first single from his forthcoming album, Paper Trail, through his social-networking site, StreetCred.com.

Wentz, Simpson engaged, not expecting

Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz and pop singer Ashlee Simpson got engaged last week, sending the tabloids into a "she's totally pregnant" tizzy. Wentz denied the reports today in an e-mail to MTV News.

"There is a witch hunt for people to be pregnant whenever they get engaged in Hollywood," he wrote. "This is all news to me. I can't wait for the story about how I'm really in a gay relationship and this is all just a cover. ... I mean really, this is crazy. ... I mean we're engaged, that's true, and happy about it."

Usmagazine.com reported that Simpson, 23, is expecting her first child with the 28-year-old Wentz, quoting an unnamed source. Us Weekly reported that the baby is due in October, offered as "proof" an account of Ashlee dealing with a "fierce bout of what appeared to be morning sickness" during a lunch at Malibu's Chart House restaurant.

The couple confirmed their engagement late last week. "We know there has been a lot of speculation recently about Pete and I and we wanted our fans to be the first to know, because you guys are the best," the couple said in a post on Fall Out Boy's site. "Yes, we are thrilled to share that we are happily engaged. Thank you for all of your support and well wishes--it means the world to us. We consider this to be a very private matter, but we wanted you to hear it straight from us."

Keys spouts theories to mag

Alicia Keys has primarily focused her songwriting talents on love and life, but she's primed to do the same for political songs. In an interview in the May issue of Blender magazine, which hits stores tomorrow, the singer says that Gangsta rap was merely a tag applied to a certain kind of hip-hop as "a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. 'Gangsta rap' didn't exist."

The 27-year-old singer told the mag that she's read several Black Panther autobiographies and wears a gold AK-47 pendant around her neck "to symbolize strength, power and killing 'em dead."

If black leaders such as the late Black Panther Huey Newton "had the outlets our musicians have today, it'd be global. I have to figure out a way to do it myself," she said.

Keys also suggested that the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop beef, which ultimately led to the fatal shootings of rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., was fueled "by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing."

Dupri teams with body spray for label

Launching a label with a deodorant brand might not seem wise if you're trying to put out funky music, but hip-hop mogul Jermaine Dupri is heading down that road anyway. Island Def Jam Music Group is set to team with Procter & Gamble's Tag body spray line on a new joint venture called Tag Records.

Dupri, the president of Island Urban, will run the venture and plans to unveil its first signing in May. The label said it will have a marketing budget 10 times the going rate of $1 million or so for most artists.

"My goal is to find artists that have longevity written all over their face," Dupri told the Associated Press. He added that Tag is expected to launch two artists per year during the course of the three-year deal.

Nugent talks film in column

Most of what we hear from Ted Nugent falls into the "truth is stranger than fiction" category. Now the rocker is set to put that old adage to the test. In a guest column in the Waco Herald-Tribune, Nugent writes that he has just finished shooting a movie called Beer for My Horses.

In the film, Nugent plays a character named Skunk Tarver, an "uppity, defiant, long-haired, over-the-top rock 'n' roll deputy sheriff in Jackson County, Okla., who loves bowhunting and guns. He will do whatever is necessary to keep Jackson County safe from criminal danger."

Nugent said the film originated from his pal Toby Keith, and also stars Tom Skerritt, Claire Forlani, and Barry Corbin, as well as Willie Nelson as a traveling gypsy circus operator.

"So there we were in beautiful Santa Fe, N.M., along with more than 100 technicians, producers, directors, lights, cameras and professionals from Hollyweird and across America, filming this feature-length hoedown gitdown of a movie," Nugent wrote. "It was wild."