Who's Making Money

In a week when Egypt went into a clinch over the new government’s intensions regarding human rights, freedom and higher pay, Libya erupted into what is, to all intents and purposes, a civil war and in Tunisia the body count continued to increase web trends everywhere laser focused on the same thing: Charlie Sheen.

The Oscars themselves became a footnote to the network TV star’s blitz on the media scene. Suddenly it has become impossible to not trip over his name. On daytime TV and endless chat shows reporters and celebrities pour over his every word, offer opinions, views and advice. Popular Radio shows like Howard Stern’s have held phone-in interviews, CNN’s Piers Morgan gave Sheen a full hour and ABC’s Andrea Canning interviewed him at his home and fuelled speculation over his lifestyle and domestic arrangements.

Sheen who had managed, through a public rant on Alex Jone’s Radio Show, to go from TV’s highest paid actor to unemployed has suddenly become the hottest property in the social media stakes. He topped Google trends on March 1st with millions of people across the United States and Europe looking for information on him and just two days later he clocked the fastest time ever to reach a million followers on Twitter. The Guinness Book of Records handed him the award after Sheen’s Twitter verified account (billed by him as ‘unemployed winner’) became the focus of the blogosphere and the real-time web topping the 1 million mark in 25 hours and 17 minutes. At the time of writing it has topped the 1.3 million mark.

With all these crazy numbers being thrown around the sane voice inside us just has to ask, why? Why are we suddenly so fascinated by a man who is not the greatest talent of his generation, whose inner demons, whatever they may be, are not unique, whose lifestyle, however questionable, is not exceptional in his line of work and whose willingness to participate in the media circus which usually surrounds celebrities is not that far removed from Madonna’s or Lady Gaga’s.

We are living in the era of ‘firsts’. It is the first global credit crunch we have ever experienced. Facebook and Twitter are real-time web ‘firsts’. For the first time we can find out news before the accredited news channels give them to us. For the first time institutions we help inviolable seem to have been built on clay. Charlie Sheen is the first celebrity to allow us unpackaged, raw access to his own personal view of the world. Add to it the fact that he gives us a voyeur’s view into the state of mind and lifestyle of a celebrity who’s unconventional even by celebrity standards and you suddenly have a novelty that’s as addictive as the drugs Charlie Sheen admits he used to take.

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The day his fans have been waiting for has arrived, but Lupe Fiasco doesn't appear to be basking in the glow of his latest album, "Lasers."

The Chicago lyricist's third studio album comes after his critically and commercially successful offering, "The Cool." After some delays - and even scheduled fan demonstrations demanding the record's release - "Lasers" eventually leaked a couple of weeks before the official March 8 release date.

In a candid Q&A compiled from two interviews with New York Magazine, the 30-year-old rapper, born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, was asked about his hopes for "Lasers."

"To be blunt, I don't really give a [crap]," Fiasco said. “I've grown very distant from the business, very numb to it...I don't really care about the success anymore. I don't really care about the fame. Three, four years later, I look at my bank account statements, and I haven't made any money with my record label. You start to think a little bit differently about your motivations and why you're doing what you're doing."

Despite his bold claim, Fiasco insists that there is no longer any ill will towards his label, Atlantic Records, calling their current relationship "copacetic." Hopefully, he went on, "we'll get through the rest of our contract without too many big hiccups."

Label issues aside, Fiasco has a different problem with the industry: a lack of creativity.

"I’m guilty of it, too," he admitted. "Hip-hop today — talking solely about the commercial space — it’s the same producers, sound, over and over again. The artist with that particularly poppy song is given the first look as opposed to that ethereal, weird artist with the brand-new music."

Take, for example, the Grammys win that had Beliebers targeting their wrath towards one Esperanza Spalding. "The person who wins Best New Artist is this really abstract left bass player," Fiasco said, "[b]ecause it’s about who’s making music, who’s making something different. Justin Bieber sounds just like everybody else, to be honest. He’s the homie; he’s dope. But he’s no different than Sean Kingston, Usher."

Does Fiasco have a point? If you picked up his album, let us know what you think of it in the comments. To hear more on the latest in pop culture, check out the Hollywood Hangover podcast.

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