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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February > 25 > Entry
Busy LaBelle’s attitude great for ATL fans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
R&B legend Patti LaBelle was the anti-diva Saturday at a Super Wal-Mart in College Park.
She was the queen of accommodation, signing autographs and posing for pictures for hundreds of boisterous fans, dozens of Wal-Mart employees and even the four Fulton County cops who watched over her for the afternoon. She spent extra time with kids and the handicapped. And she didn’t require people to buy her CDs or cookbooks to get her signature.
“A lot of people don’t have the money to buy CDs, so they just come and see me!” she told the media later in the Wal-Mart break room. “I’ll sign anything!” She scribbled on backs of bank deposit slips and dollar bills.
As her greatest hits played in the background, she even sang along at times. “Even ‘New Attitude’ sounded good to me,” she said later. (One diva concession: Her son Zuri Edwards fanned her with a sheet of paper when she got warm in the break room.)
After 45 years in showbiz, she’s still incredibly busy, touring, taping her TV One reality show, promoting diabetes awareness and making cameos in films, including an upcoming comedy starring Will Ferrell. (She was also in OutKast’s “Idlewild.”)
Currently without a major label, LaBelle said she finally was able to finish her recently released gospel CD, with proceeds going to cancer research. And she’s working on a reunion album with her old group LaBelle. Lenny Kravitz is helping out, and she hopes her buddy Prince — who she dubs “Purple Magic Man” — can produce a song or two.
LaBelle also plans to open a “comfort food” restaurant in Atlanta, following in the footsteps of Gladys Knight. “I love Atlanta,” said the Philadelphia native as she left Wal-Mart. “I could move here!”
Rapper results
Timothy Rasmussen is a local 24-year-old graduate of Salem High and the University of Georgia who recently managed a Quiznos. He’s also known as Shamrock, the Irish white rapper, who might just walk off with $100,000 tonight on VH1’s “Ego Trip’s (White) Rapper Show.”
Shamrock’s rapid-fire delivery evokes Houston rapper Paul Wall, and he loves to flash his “grills,” or gold teeth. He doesn’t believe the show mocks him or other white rappers. “I know at least in Atlanta, I’m not a joke,” he said. “The people I work with in Atlanta are showing love.”
During the finale, taped last summer in Harlem, N.Y., Shamrock faced off against John Brown, a Los Angeles resident and self-proclaimed “king of the burbs.”
Shamrock said he’s not about dissing rivals and respects Brown’s skills: “His wordplay is pretty sick at times.”
Shamrock grew up in Atlanta with a cleft palate and spent his early years home schooled while he got surgeries to fix it. The radio was his friend. He would ape rappers such as Naughty by Nature and House of Pain. The rapping, in fact, greatly improved his speech when he finally attended regular school at age 12.
Nowadays, he said he practices his craft regularly at local black hip-hop clubs such as Frequency, Chocolate Night Club and Club Crunk.
And the ATL is always close to his heart. During a visit to New York hip-hop station Hot 97, the jock asked him to free-style rap and he accidentally dropped “107” instead of “97.” He admitted that he was thinking about Atlanta’s Hot 107.9.
“It’s been my dream to be on 107.9, to be on the ‘A Team’” morning show, he admitted. “That was my subconscious talking!”
‘Road’ debut set
ABC last week finally set a launch date for “October Road.” The new drama, produced in Atlanta, is set to debut at 10 p.m. March 15, subbing out “Men in Trees” in the plum spot after “Grey’s Anatomy.”
The show features Bryan Greenberg (“One Tree Hill”) as an author who returns to his small New England town after writing a fictional best-seller that thinly veils the friends and family he left behind, including a former girlfriend played by Laura Prepon (“That ’70s Show”). Buzz will be receiving advance episodes soon, and we’ll report whether Atlanta can pass for New England.
Random bits
Sharon Stone didn’t get any Oscars on Sunday night, but she did win a Razzie, the not-so-coveted worst-of award, for her performance in “Basic Instinct 2,” which was also crowned worst film of 2006. The Wayans brothers Shawn and Marlon shared worst actor and worst screen couple for “Little Man.”…
Racy photos of Antonella Barba, a top 20 finalist on “American Idol,” have surfaced on the Net in recent days, fueling speculation producers might boot her. Executive producer Nigel Lythgoe told People on Friday he had not yet seen the pictures.
Random silly joke
“We’re in the space shuttle, and they’re on land.”
— Louis J. Horvitz, who directed Sunday night’s Oscar telecast from a high-tech production truck in the parking lot at the Kodak Theatre. Horvitz watched the show on 85 screens at once.
On the iPod
Miss J. Alexander/’America’s Next Top Model’
The flamboyant judge and runway model coach returns for Tyra Banks’ popular CW reality show, which launches edition No. 8 Wednesday. He said last month at a party for TV critics in Pasadena, Calif., that this batch of girls didn’t look promising at first, but he’s happy with the winner. (The show is taped.)
His iPod, not surprisingly, includes Christina Aguilera, Fantasia and Justin Timberlake. He loves Sarah Vaughan. Plus, he has classical cuts from “Tosca” and “Carmen.”
“What else have you been downloading lately?” Buzz asked.
“Porn,” he replied. No point getting into details there.
Celebrity birthdays
Singer Fats Domino is 79. Singer Michael Bolton is 54. Singer Erykah Badu is 36. Singer Corinne Bailey Rae is 28.
Contributing: news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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