Rapper Flo Rida is enjoying success with his new hit “Right Round,” which samples the 80′s classic “You Spin Me Right Round.” Even though he just released his second album, he feels it’s important to stay close to his fans, and during a CNN interview gave out his cell phone number (it’s 305-528-2786, in case you were wondering). He says that he answers or responds via text to approximately 30% of the calls.

In an attempt to reach his fan base on a more intimate level, the Floridian rapper has made his personal cell phone number public.

“If they can go out and buy my albums, I can at least make the sacrifice to holler at the few people who call,” he says. “A lot of times I’m busy so they’ll get my voice mail. And if I can speak to them and I have time, I always text back. Because I think that’s very important.”

To prove that the number he shared on camera during our interview was the real deal, he showed CNN his iPhone. The device was on overdrive, constantly lighting up and vibrating with an influx of texts and calls.

“Yo this is your boy Flo Rida,” he said to one caller. “What’s your name? What’s good?”

But it was too much for the person on the other end — he or she hung up before uttering a response.
“Most of them hang up,” says Flo Rida (real name Tramar Dillard). “They don’t think it’s really me.”

So how many calls and texts does a top-selling, in-demand rap star actually respond to?

“About 30 percent,” he says.

[From CNN]

Either he really does want to continue to connect with his fans, or this is a brilliant marketing ploy. The strategy might work for Flo Rida, but it wouldn’t work with a lot of other stars. Can you imagine if Zac Efron’s number got out? Or the Jonas Brothers? There would be some serious tween stalking going on.

He says that most people end up hanging up on him because they don’t believe that it’s actually him – or because they get scared. My roommate actually tried to call the number last night, but it was busy. Don’t know what we would have said if he actually answered the phone.

Wonder if he’ll change his number soon. For a while it might be kind of fun, but eventually he might have to get another private number. Wouldn’t want to miss a call from your mom because you were too busy responding to calls from fans.

Here’s Flo Rida with Wynter Gordon performing on the set of their new music video on Friday. Images thanks to WENN.com .

Wu Tang Clan’s Method Man recently got his Lincoln Navigator repossessed by the government. He’s owed $52,500 in back taxes to the state since 2002. Method admits he knew about the issue – and assures us he has plenty of money. He just neglected to pay the bill. How is that? Well, he says he’s been high. A lot. And he just plum forgot.

Method Man was going to pay his bills … but then he got high. Despite recent reports that the rapper is so broke that his 2008 Lincoln Navigator was repossessed to pay back taxes, Method Man — whose real name is Clifford Smith — insists his cash flow is just fine. In fact, he says, his penchant for marijuana is to blame for the mishap.

Citing the Wu Tang member for being $52,503 in arrears on his personal income taxes, the state Department of Taxation showed up at the Staten Island native’s home at 6 a.m. March 19 with “four NYPD cops and the repo team,” Meth told us. “I knew why they were there. It wasn’t like ‘Oh my God! Noo!! Don’t take it!’ like it is on that TV show [“Operation Repo”]. I was half-dressed, and it was so early that I just said, ‘Okay, you’re taking the truck. … Aight.’”

The back story, according to the rapper, is simple. “Myself, I’m a pothead,” he said on the set of a video shoot for his new album, “Blackout 2,” with Redman. “It’s no secret. Everyone knows that. I go on the road and forget everything else. Sure, [the tax department] sent letters to my house saying, ‘We need this money.’ They started sending them in 2002. Here it is, 2009, and I never paid this s— because I don’t think like that!”

“I could have easily just written them a check for whatever amount, but no — I waited until they knocked on this door and were like, ‘We got your truck and we outta here,’ ” he laughed. “Now I’m thinking we’ve gotta get our truck back, which means I have to get all my paperwork together,” the rapper continued. “That means days of going through mail, ’cause I got mail like woah.

I’ve found checks from 2005 that have never been opened yet. And we’re talking a significant amount of money! But I never opened [the tax department’s] letters … so this is how the tax man came to Meth’s house and took his truck. Not because I was broke! I got plenty of money!” When we referenced the famous Afroman song “Because I Got High,” Method Man just laughed. “Exactly!” he said. “Because I got high, I forgot to pay. It was stupid. I’m an idiot for that.”

[From the NY Daily News]

Well if nothing else, it sounds like Method Man is pretty relaxed about the situation. That thing about finding checks from 2005 is sorta insane though. Maybe he’ll find enough old checks in his mail to cover his tax debt. That’d work out nicely.

I’m a little surprised that Method Man doesn’t have a professional who looks out for his finances. It seems like if you’ve got money and call yourself a pothead, it’s probably a good idea to make sure someone responsible keeps an eye on your cash. Not only do taxes not get paid, but dollars have a way of going missing when you’ve got enough of them that you might not notice. Just a little suggestion as to Method’s next step. After he gets done opening up all that mail of course.

Here’s Method Man performing at the Rock the Bells festival at the First Midwest Bank Ampitheatre in Chicago in July. Images thanks to WENN .

36 year-old Phoenix Suns center Shaquille O’Neal performed an amateur rap at a NY Club on Sunday in which he took pot shots at former LA Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant and suggested that Bryant was responsible for his divorce. The refrain for the song was “Kobe, tell me how my ass taste[s]” and the lyrics included a suggestion that Shaq may have cheated on his wife, Shaunie, with whom he filed for divorce last September. Shaq raps “I’m a horse, Kobe ratted me out, that’s why I’m getting divorced.”

TMZ reminds us that Bryant said in 2003 during his rape trial that he “Should have done what Shaq does … Shaq would pay his women not to say anything.” That was well before Shaq filed for divorce so Bryant must have done something else that he thinks sabotaged his marriage.

ESPN reminds us that the Lakers without Shaq lost the NBA Finals 4-2 to the Boston Celtics, which seems to be what Shaq is referring to when he says “last week Kobe couldn’t do without me.”

Here’s a transcript of Shaq’s rap if you can’t listen to the video above:

You know how I be, last week Kobe couldn’t do without me
I call myself big but I’m not as good as Biggie.
I call myself big because I live next to Diddy.
Excuse me, Diddy live next to me, so in the hood dog I feel like B I G
Because if Biggie was still here… [unintelligible]
It’s like a white boy trying to be more nigga than me…
It’s like Patrick Ewing having more rings than me..
It’s like Kareem saying to himself he’s better than me.
Now stop, think about that, it aint about that, it’s about B I G aka big Shaq
Now that’s the difference between first and last place
Kobe, nigga, tell me how my ass tastes
Ok, Kobe, tell me how my ass tastes
Ok everybody, Kobe, tell me how my ass taste
I’m a horse, Kobe ratted me out, that’s why I’m getting divorced
He said Shaq gave a bitch a meal
I don’t do that, because my name’s Shaquille
I love ‘em, I don’t leave ‘em.
I got a vasectomy, now I can’t breed ‘em
Kobe how my ass taste?
Everybody, Kobe how my ass taste?
Kobe, you can’t do without me
Everybody, Kobe how my ass taste?

[Transcribed from video originally posted on TMZ and shown above]

I love how he says “I got a vasectomy, now I can’t breed ‘em.” Shaq says he was just freestyling and that it was all meant in jest.

Reached by ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith on Monday, O’Neal issued the following statement: “I was freestyling. That’s all. It was all done in fun. Nothing serious whatsoever. That is what MC’s do. They freestyle when called upon. I’m totally cool with Kobe. No issue at all. And by the way, don’t forget, six albums, two platinum, two gold. Anybody who knows me knows I’m a funny freestyler. Check the NBA DVD when I was rapping about Vlade Divac during my first championship run. Please tell everybody don’t make something out of nothing.”

O’Neal and Bryant do have a history of feuding, however, which started even before the Lakers split them up. Bryant bristled when O’Neal called him his “little brother.” At one point, Bryant questioned O’Neal’s conditioning.

Soon after being traded by the Lakers, O’Neal didn’t hide his disdain, calling Bryant a “clown” and a “joke.”

In recent years, however, the war of words has quieted, and O’Neal even went on record as saying that Bryant should have won the 2007 MVP award.

[From ESPN]

I totally forgot that Shaquille O’Neal had a rapping career in the early 90s. According to Wikipedia, he put out Shaq Diesel in 1993, which reached platinum status and was #10 on the Hip Hop chart, Shaq-Fu: Da Return in 1994, which went gold, You Can’t Stop the Reign in 1996, also gold, and Respect in 1998. He also had a greatest hits album, The Best of Shaquille O’Neal, which came out in 1996 along with music on the soundtracks of Kazaam and Steel. Do you this guy would not have a rap career if he wasn’t a basketball superstar?

Here’s You Can’t Stop the Reign from 1996. Most of his songs seem to center around how great and how rich he is:

Every so often some interview will come out where a celebrity really over shared. Sometimes it’s their own personality quirk, and sometimes it’s because they had a very cunning interviewer. With singer Chris Brown, I’m going to have to say it was the former. The 18 year old gave a very revealing interview to Blender. And by revealing, I don’t mean insightful. I mean revealing too damn much. And seeing that I found it to be kind of odd and over personal, I’m going to share it with all of you too, in the hopes that you’re intrigued by people saying things they shouldn’t, just like I am.

The “Run It!” singer sat down with Blender and answered a series of questions. On the one hand, you have to blame the interviewer for asking in the first place. On the other hand… Chris answered.

What did your 10th-grade report card say?
A’s, A’s, A’s. Straight A’s, all through kindergarten, elementary school, middle school …

Have you ever been arrested?
Yeah, but it’s not on my record. I got arrested for fleeing from the police on a little minibike. When I was living in New York, my homeboys wanted to ride through the park. The police caught us, but all they did was take the bikes from us, so we didn’t get in trouble.

But you’re only 18. What vices do you have?
Basketball, my music and women.

What personal habit do you have that other people find annoying?
I like picking the nails off my toes.

What do you look like naked?
Pretty damn good.

What do you refuse to eat?
Chitlins. My grandma used to cook them, and she’d be like, “These are good, boy!” I never would eat them. They smelled like feces.

Underwear or commando?
Underwear. I wear a new pair of drawers every day. I won’t wash my drawers and put ’em back on. I just throw them away.

If we talked to an ex-girlfriend, what would she say about you?
That she f*^#ed up!

[From Blender]

Yeah I was impressed too. Chris Brown strikes me as a very young 18 year old, in terms of emotional maturity. Or like he’s trying to answer in the way he thinks a guy in hip hop would/should. His responses are all a bit too stereotypical. Women/sex/sports. Though that could also be attributed to being 18. Chris elaborated on his underwear policy to Starpulse, noting, “He says, “I’m not a germophobe, but I don’t feel like washing them ‘cos I’m always moving, so I buy different packs. I buy like five or six packs… and I’m good for, like, a week and (then) I gotta get a whole lot of new drawers.” Alright. Well we all have our thing. That one might be particularly wasteful… I mean assuming Chris keeps up the underwear habit for… let’s say 10 years, before someone talks him out of it. That’s 3,650 pairs of underwear, more or less. You know how you hear those stories of wealthy musicians who blew all their millions and can’t seem to account for it? I think I just figured out where it’s really going.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Chris Brown is shown in various “aw shucks” poses at Movies Rock on 12/2/07, thanks to PRPhotos.