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Detroit Free Press

If you can rap, show Eminem

April 13, 2009

Detroit mic masters take notice. Hometown hero Eminem has teamed up with hip-hop magazine Vibe for its second annual online battle rap contest, dubbed this year as "Vibe Verses Presents No. 1 Stan."

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In the contest's first phase, happening now, all entrants must rhyme for 60 seconds over the beat to Em's classic "The Way I Am" and submit a video clip of the performance on nNumberonestan.com by April 21.

From there, 10 finalists will be selected by VIBEVibe.com users. The finalists will then bust a rhyme, which will then be submitted to Em for review. After Slim Shady selects two, the chosen ones will battle it out in front of a live audience.

"Battling is the way I came up, so it's gonna be interesting to watch a rap battle unfold online," Eminem said in a statement. "MCs better bring it, because I'm watching."

The online battle is tied into Marshall Mathers' Vibe cover story that hits stands May 19, the same day his highly anticipated album "Relapse" drops.

Top cover models

Angelina Jolie, Victoria (Posh Spice) Beckham and Lauren Conrad of "The Hills" are among the biggest stars responsible for the most sales among fashion magazines in 2008.

Among the slumping stars? Nicole Kidman, Carrie Underwood and Rachel Weisz.

But numerous factors play a part in a slow sales month, according to a new report released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. One such trend is that most fashion magazines typically have their worst sales coming off the stressful holiday spending spree.

Example: Jolie's July cover of Vanity Fair and her W cover in November were the titles' best sellers for the year, the report reveals. Vanity Fair's July issue sold 504,785 single copies, while 78,000 issues of her November W were picked up.

"Grey's Anatomy" star Katherine Heigl was Vanity Fair's worst outing of '08, moving 314,000 copies in January.

Hilary Swank was the worst performer for W, also a January issue, selling 27,000 on the newsstand.

'CSI' star Smith weds

The "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" actress Lauren Lee Smith, who plays agent Riley Adams on the long-running crime show, married photographer Erik Steingroever on April 4 outside of Vancouver, British Columbia.

'F&F; 5' revving up

"Fast and Furious" star Paul Walker says the fifth "F&F;" is getting the green light after the fourth "Furious" ran up $72.5 million in its opening weekend. This weekend, its second, it pulled in nearly $29 million.

Top box office

1. "Hannah Montana: The Movie," $34 million

2. "Fast & Furious," $28.8 million.

3. "Monsters vs. Aliens," 22.6 million

4. "Observe and Report," 11.1 million

5. "Knowing," $6.7 million.

6. "I Love You, Man," $6.4 million.

7. "The Haunting in Connecticut," $5.7 million.

8. "Dragonball: Evolution," $4.7 million

9. "Adventureland," $3.4 million.

10. "Duplicity," $3 million




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