NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Lalah Hathaway's smooth alto voice resonates, holding the audience inside the crowded Superlounge at the Essence Music Festival spellbound.

Here, the versatile talent talks about his latest venture, branching into cinema by scoring the soundtrack of "Despicable Me," a 3-D animated adventure revolving around a diabolical villain determined to steal the moon.

With more than 120 performances and the biggest fireworks display in the state, the 2010 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival will be taking over the Tom McCall Park in downtown Portland this weekend.

When rapper and artist V!rtu set out to create his first solo album, he decided to solicit the work of producers using perhaps the world's oldest transaction method.

Skanned This Week for the weekend of July 4, 2010  World Hip Hop Special with rap from Europe, Asia, the Mideast and the Americas. Black American music has influenced musicians around the globe. That's as true of Hip Hop as it was of Blues, Jazz, Gospel and Soul. Travel to any country and you will find young people like Baba Sillah, a Gambian living in Barcelona, Spain, whose prized possession was a gold chain that spelled TUPAC. Baba and his friends are immigrants who left Africa hoping to find opportunities that didn't exist in their village, where everything revolves around agriculture. They love HipHop and they look to the United States for inspiration.

DeWayne Woods set a high standard when he made his debut on the gospel scene with the 2007 hit "Let Go."
He was deemed as the "next big thing" among his gospel peers, collecting three Stellar Awards and one Dove Award.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The estate of Michael Jackson is taking issue with a documentary that is to debut in Japan on the anniversary of the pop star's death on Friday.

With so much gangsta rap out there, what's a young rapper gotta do to get noticed?
For 18-year-old Ray Ray, he jerks.

Local hip hop artist Luck-One is holding a special show on July 1 with performances by Seattle's Grynch, Sole Provider of the group Levelheaded, Matty and Luck-One. House music will be provided by Animal Farm's Gen. Erik and it will be hosted by Kenny Mack.

One of the best first-person, multiplayer shooter games ever made is back. The award-winning classic "Goldeneye 007" has been updated for the Nintendo Wii with new missions, destructible environments and multiple control scheme options.