News

Sad news... Hip-Hop manager Chris Lighty was found dead today at his home in The Bronx, NY, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Lighty's talent roster at his Violator Management management firm was consistently a who's who of hip-hop stars: 50 Cent, Diddy, Busta Rhymes, Fat Joe, LL Cool J, Missy Elliott, Soulja Boy and way too many more to name here.

If you've worked on hip-hop videos than you've probably had some contact with the man. And a search on Twitter confirms how much he'll be missed by those who knew and knew of him.

Nominations are out for the annual MTV Video Music Awards.  This years slate could have some extra drama since the leading nominees Rihanna and Drake have some history, and there's also a Drake vs Chris Brown rematch in the Best Male category. Expect at least one joke at the awards to involve bottles.

Stay tuned for director credits. See below for the nominee list:

2012 MTV VMAs Nominations:

Video of the Year 

Katy Perry, "Wide Awake"

Gotye, "Somebody That I Used To Know"

Rihanna, "We Found Love"

Drake feat. Rihanna, "Take Care"

M.I.A., "Bad Girls"

Best New Artist 

Fun. feat. Janelle Monae, "We Are Young"

Hundreds & Thousands Repping Division Paris

Lana Kim's director agency Hundreds & Thousands is now representing the Division Paris roster for the U.S. Directors include:

2012 BET Awards video category winners are:

Video of the Year:

• The Throne (Jay-Z & Kanye West) "Otis" (Spike Jonze, dir.)

Video Director of the Year:

Acclaimed video performance series From The Basement is back, and like most sequels: It's in 3D. 

From The Basement makes its return to the US airwaves in 3D form this July on 3net, a 24/7 3D network from Sony, Discovery and Imax. It will also be availble in 2D come August on Sony's Crackle entertainment network, which is available online and the device of your choie (iPad, Android, Roku, Xbox 360, etc, etc).

Originally launched in 2007, "From The Basement" is still overseen by its founders: record producer  Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Paul McCartney, Beck), video comissioner and series producer Dilly Gent, and fellow producers James Chads and John Woollcombe.

The Vimeo Awards were last night, taking a unique slant over most over award galas: No fan voting after the shorlisting phase. No anonymous pool of voters. No Academy.

Each category had three special judges who decided the winner from a small pool of finalists. In the music video category, the judges were Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood and directors Chris Milk and Andy Bruntel.

Cool.

The winning video for 2012 is Manchester Orchestra "Simple Math," directed by Daniels.

Unless you were at Cannes, chances are good that you haven't seen the new Kanye West short film Cruel Summer. As such, I have not seen it. And I have a feeling I won't be able to catch the Doha Film Fest screening in Qatar.