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Music industry to Prince: Drop dead. PHOTO: AFP

Hip hop king Snoop Dogg's home and work lives will be on display in a new reality series, E! Entertainment Television said.

The series, scheduled to debut later this year and described by the US cable channel last week as "hilarious and heartwarming," will show the hip-hop heavyweight trying to balance his different worlds.

"The juggling act that Snoop faces day-in, day-out between career and family is certain to resonate with our viewers," said Ted Harbert, president and CEO of Comcast Entertainment Group, which operates the E!

channel.

The rapper, whose real name is Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr., has three children, is active in community causes and is involved in a youth football league he founded, E! said.

He has also had court-ordered obligations on his plate. In April, he was sentenced to five years' probation and 800 hours of community service after he pleaded no contest to felony gun and drug charges.

The charges followed his arrest last year at an airport in Burbank for investigation of transporting marijuana. Police later found a gun at his home.

Also recently, in 2006 he and five other men were arrested on charges of violent disorder and starting a brawl when some in his party were denied entry to British Airways' first-class lounge at Heathrow Airport.

His platinum-selling albums include his most recent, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment. He's also a producer and actor.

In other hip hop news, Grammy-nominated rapper Remy Ma was arrested on charges of attempted murder in a shooting outside a trendy Manhattan nightspot, police said. The 26-year-old rapper, whose real name is Remy Smith, had been sought for questioning in the shooting of a 23-year-old woman early Saturday after a verbal dispute near a bar in the Meatpacking District. She reported to police Saturday evening and was also arrested on charges of assault and criminal possession of a weapon, police said.

The rapper's manager said Saturday that she could not talk and referred calls to Remy Ma's attorney, who was with the rapper as she reported to police.

"I ask everyone to keep an open mind," attorney Scott Leemon said. "Things are not always as they seem."

An emergency call reporting gunfire led police to a woman with a gunshot wound. Three blocks away, officers discovered a luxury sport utility vehicle owned by Remy Ma. The vehicle had been involved in a single-car crash and abandoned, police said.

Remy Ma was nominated for a Grammy as part of the Terror Squad for the 2004 summer smash Lean Back. She also earned the Best Female Hip Hop Artist award at the 2005 BET Awards.

She went on to a solo career, releasing last year's There's Something About Remy. She has appeared on recordings with best-selling performers including Fat Joe, Eminem and R. Kelly, according to a biography on her Web site.

Chris Landry, president of Sure Shot Recording, which is releasing Remy Ma's latest album, The BX Files, in August said he did not know anything about the shooting incident. "I don't really keep in touch with her," he said.

Meanwhile, pop superstar Prince has angered the music industry and stirred up trouble among UK retailers by giving away his new album for free with a tabloid newspaper this weekend.

Prince's decision to hand out Planet Earth to anyone who bought the Mail yesterday for £1.40 (US$2.80) - before the 10-track album officially goes on sale - has been roundly condemned as a gimmick that is a major blow for an industry already facing rapidly declining CD sales. The newspaper deal has also led Sony BMG UK, Prince's local label, to pull the plug on its own sales release of the CD in the UK.

Paul Quirk, co-chairman of the Entertainment Retailers Association, said Prince's gift to British readers ahead of the international sales launch on July 16 and the US launch on July 24 "beggars belief." "The Artist formerly known as Prince should know that with behavior like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores," he said, referring to a period in the 1990s when the singer, born Prince Rogers Nelson, famously stopped using his name to protest a binding record deal.

"It is an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career," Quirk added.

Fueling retailers' ire further is what they see as a traitorous move by one of their own. After initially harshly criticizing Prince and the deal, music and books retailer HMV - which does not normally sell newspapers - has decided to sell the Mail on Sunday in its 400-plus stores across the country.

- Agencies

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