Jamie Foxx Defines The Music

Now on his second tour, award-winning actor, comedian and singer Jamie Foxx says he's having fun with fans performing his club songs while crooning the good "old love songs" from his sophomore CD Intuition.  Touring through mid-October around the country, Foxx 41 tell Jet Mag how he's gained a young audience and what one needs to have staying power in the industry.

Q, As a triple-threat, how would you describe your love for music?
A. It's beyond anything.  That's why on this tour,  we picked so many cities to just go out and define the music.  Gold Digger, a party, fun song brought me the music game in a young way because the problem I had at first was that nobody believed in my singing because I was Wanda from in Living Color.  Then when young kids would see me they were like you're the cat with Kanye.  They had no idea of the older stuff.

Q.You said fans will be able to see the crafty production and excellent musicianship during this tour.  How has the show grown?
A.  Now the music is starting to make sense to where I'm shedding the skin of comedy and doing mostly music. I'm going to drop another album this Christmas and then another album the following Christmas and then I'll have the music secure.

Q. You have always said you went to Hollywood to be a singer, but "fell' into acting.  If you could would you change your journey:
A.  No.  If I would have started in music.  I wouldn't be relevant now.  I came to (California) in 1986 when I went to college in San Diego, and I just wanted to do slow ballads-Brian McKnight,Lionel Richie Boyz II Men.  If I would have started then, I don't know if I would have had the ability to catch what I have now.

Q. What are you doing to cement yourself in the music industry?
A.  There's one thing in having a record but to be able to tour with music is a completely different animal.  You have to put a stamp on all your shows.  Especially now, the internet either helps you or ruins everything that you do.  There is no hiding.  So if you always try to maintain and know that there is a person out there with a video camera that is putting you on YouTube tonight, everything you do on the show has to be fly...the stuff on the internet live forever.

AKA Leader Responds To Wax Figure Controversy

Barbara McKinzie, international president of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, says the recent allegations that she asked  for a $900,000 was figure statute of herslf are not true.

"The most outlandish misrepresentation is the so-called $900,000  wax figure of me," McKinzie said in a press statement.  " That amount was allocated by the AKA Board of Directors to help defry overall expenses for  our 2010 convention."

She said two wax figures-one of her as president at the time of the centennial and one of the sorority's first international president- were purchased for a total of $45,000 "to complement the wax figure of our founder created in 1996."

The issue stems from a lawsuit filed in June by eight AKA  members, alleging financial improprieties by McKinzie.

Edward Gray, the plaintiffs attorney, could not be reached.

Joanne Martin co-founder and CEO of th Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore, said the museum created the figures for the AKA.  But she said it cost a total of $45,000, not $900,000, as reported.

"My theory is somebody got confused, doubled the wrog figure, and got a decimal point in the wrong place," she told Jet Magazine.