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Female rap star Remy Ma pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and
other charges today after she surrendered to authorities for allegedly shooting and seriously wounding a childhood acquaintance during a dispute outside of a Manhattan bar early Saturday
morning. Remy was being held on Rikers Island but a judge sided with prosecutors and she was released on a bail request of $250,000.

Officials claim that Remy Ma shot 23-year-old Makeda Barnes-Joseph twice in the torso, after the two argued in front of The Pizza Bar, over $2,000 that had allegedly been stolen from Remy Ma. The rapper and several unidentified males fled in her Blue Cadillac Escalade, but all of the
occupants fled on foot, after the SUV crashed into a parked car a few blocks away.

Barnes-Joseph, labeled as a childhood friend of Remy Ma’s, is in Saint Vincent’s Hospital recuperating from two gunshot wounds that narrowly missed her uterus, kidneys and other vital organs. She’s listed in stable condition. All occupants in Remy Ma’s Escalade were eventually apprehended and questioned, while Remy Ma turned herself in last night (July 14)
around 8:00 PM.

Again, Remy Ma has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder, possession of a weapon and assault. She is due back in court on August 14.

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It’s official. Remy Ma has lost her damn mind!!

Less than 24 hours after the news first broke of a young woman in the Bronx being shot and left for dead, with Remy’s Cadillac Escalade to be found crashed about three blocks down the street from the shooting scene, Remy reported to police on Saturday evening and was formally arrested and charged with not just attempted murder but assault and criminal possession of a weapon,  too, police said.

According to reports, the story goes something like this:

Remy Ma had stomped into the trendy Pizza Bar on Ninth Ave. near W. 14th St. with an entourage just after midnight. This entourage included her close friend, Makeda Barnes-Joseph and the crew was celebrating a mutual pal’s 25th birthday. Remy Ma and Barnes-Joseph grew up near each other in the Bronx and were introduced by the birthday girl. After filling up on thin-crust pizzas and expensive drinks, Remy - best known for her Grammy-nominated verse on the Terror Squad summer anthem “Lean Back” as well as her minor solo single “Conceited” and underperformed debut album, There’s Something About Remy (less than 200k sold to date) - left the eatery’s VIP section and piled into the Cadillac with three men. Makeda followed and slid behind the wheel of her Nissan Maxima, a college graduation gift from her mom.

About 10 minutes later, witnesses say Remy pulled alongside the Maxima, got out of her SUV, got into the Maxima and shot Makeda twice in the midsection. Her motivation? According to reports, Remy accused Makeda of stealing $2,000 before the shooting because, the rapper said, her pal had been the last person to hold her purse.

At press time, police were still searching for the gun and reviewing surveillance footage from nearby buildings. And despite all the testimony from witnesses, Remy’s legal team vehemently asserts her innocence. “I ask everyone to keep an open mind,” attorney Scott Leemon said. “Things are not always as they seem. These are merely allegations and Remy denies them adamantly.”

As for the victim’s family, Makeda’s mother, Christina Barnes, justifiably wants justice to be served. “Justice should be done. She had no right to do this to my child”, Barnes.

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Back in 2000, Kelly Rowland - as part of R&B supergroup Destiny’s Child - proclaimed that she was a member of a new league of “Independent Women”. 7 years later, she finally asserts that proclaimed independence with the release of her sophomore solo album, Ms. Kelly. Where her debut solo album, Simply Deep, faltered was in, combining Kelly’s powerful 3-octave voice with mostly half-baked, watered-down, standard R&B tunes. Not to say the album was a complete dud because there were a few records that showcased Kelly’s talent and highlighted her potential. But now Kelly is stepping out solo once again and this time, it’s as a confident and assured woman not just in charge of her music career but her life.

One of the album’s strengths is the sequence; the order of the tracks causes the album to flow so smoothly that it could almost be mistaken for a concept album about the evolution of a woman. On “Like This”, Kelly smoothly uses the song’s title as a double-entendre to both brag about her feminine charm as well as kiss-off all of her critics. She keeps the momentum going on the Scott Storch-assisted - and much more direct - “Comeback”. Here, Storch darkens and dirties up the groove with his patented synths and strings while Ms. Kelly turns up the swagger with her “comeback…hubba hubba…runback…run back and tell ya mother”, almost daring you to say otherwise. Then she shows off the sexier side of her persona, and putts her slinky falsetto to use, on the Tank-produced, Snoop Dogg-assisted “Ghetto”, but quickly turns the heat back up with “Work”, another Storch-led swagger-pumped tune that has Kelly laying down the ground rules for any guy who’s interested in getting (and keeping) her attention (she prefaces the entire song with “this ain’t gon be easy”).

Once she’s gotten our attention, Kelly quickly transitions the album into a record that speaks about what’s really on her heart & mind - love, heartbreak, heartache, and healing. The tense and emotive production of “Flashback” really connects with Kelly’s vocal, which here sounds both stunned from the initial pain of an ended relationship and desperate for a chance to relive it, and makes you feel the gravity of the situation. Call “Every Thought Is You” a moment of reflection on the beginning of that failed love or a moment of lust/infatuation with the dreaded “rebound”; either way Kelly tempers her seduction with just the right amount of vulnerability to keep herself in perspective so that she doesn’t completely fall.

Then, for exactly 3:36, Kelly lets her hair all the way down and unleashes her inner freak for the sensual, sexual, damn-near erotic “The Show”. A duet with Tank, the duo exchange the hottest & steamiest promises of a night of unrestricted passion with such precision that you just might blush with embarassment from listening. But label such ecstasy “breakup sex” because Kelly quickly reverts back to the pain of this failed romance on the self-explanatory “Still In Love With My Ex”.

The pinnacle of this album smartly comes with the closing trio of songs. As audacious a statement as it might be, “Love” is probably the best song that Kelly has ever recorded. Nowhere on the album does Kelly sound as passionate; her heart has finally broken completely in two and she’s taking out all of her anguish, frustration, and pain on “love”. Her lyric is strong (thank you Solange), her vocals are packed with emotion and her position is solidified, not as a woman scorned but, as a force to be reckoned with.

“Better Without You” is just as emotional. The production is heavy yet hushed and Kelly’s vocal is vulnerable, almost shaky, but still powerful as she struggles to push herself to move on. And the uncertainty of her vocal is really what strengthens the impact of the song; the hook is almost chanted like a mantra to serve as reassurance for herself that she in fact did the right thing. And serving as a finale is the album’s lone ballad. A bruised and heartbroken woman she may be but Kelly is intent on making sure she’s as far removed from bitterness and resentment as possible. The lyrics may border on corny and cliched but the earnest vocal delivery more than compensate. No doubt is left that Kelly is still hopeful and willing to discover that moment when she can confidently say “This Is Love”.

As Kelly sings on “Like This”, “the girl that they used to know done changed”. And she couldn’t be more right. The girl we knew as Kelly Rowland has changed. She’s now a woman. And more importantly, her own woman.

Hi, Ms. Kelly. It’s nice to meet you.