All praises to Photoshop and a good makeup artist for the Rolling Out cover featuring Lil’ Kim that has her looking pretty and still African American. Inside the book, the Queen B talks about her return to music. Yes, she’s still talking about that. I know, I know—her new album and mixtape have both been coming out forever. Whatever.

Lil’ Kim says: “I just think that my fans — not even just my fans, but even potentially new fans — are ready to hear some new Lil’ Kim music and everyone knows that … I put a lot of my reality into my music [that] people can identify with. People are ready to hear real rap — real s— coming from a female. Because I’ve always been different, no matter what. My music has always been very sexual and very pro-women. Now I get to do that through my new artists. I have my label coming out, which makes me very driven.”

Okay, girl. Good luck and God bless. [Rolling Out]

Idris Elba is quite the lucky man after making out of a car accident without a scrap. The actor was behind the wheel when his car lost contact with the gravel road as he filmed a racing documentary for BBC2. Elba explained what happened: “I never want to do that again. It’s the first time that I have ever rolled a car. I wasn’t going fast, the car just had a mind of its own when it hit the bank. I cut the corner and then we rolled. Suddenly it all came together.” [Atlanta Black Star]

 

 

Clearly, Kanye West had a great time spending the holidays with Kim Kardashian and the rest of that family. Meanwhile, there are rumors that the holidays are a bit hostile over at the Kardashian/Jenner house due to Kanye allegedly pushing Kim to move to Paris. A source claims, “Kanye isn’t budging. He’s forcing Kim to change her whole life and move. He doesn’t want to bring the Kardashian machine to Europe. That hasn’t sat well with Kris.” [Radar]

 

 

 

In part of three of her mini-documentary series, Beyoncé says, "I'm trying to rebel against perfection…..It's really about fun, art….you can't plan it.  If it was my choice, I would never have a permit.  I would just get in the car and just shoot.  Trust me, I tried."

Diddy has recently sang King Bey’s praises – arguing she will be remembered alongside the biggest names in music:

“I would just motivate more artists and more producers to create a body of work, man. You know what I’m saying? You don’t have to do 20 joints. Create a body of work that stands for something and that you want to see stand for yourself 10 years from now. And I think that she didn’t go after making radio records. Like we got, I think, one of the best albums from Beyoncé. And also just from an innovation level she’s a different type of artist. She’s up there with the great ones. And everybody should aspire to be up there. Her name will be said with Diana Ross. It will be said with The Rolling Stones.” [Hip Hop DX]

Karreuche Tran spoke on her relationship with Chris Brown, saying of her relationship: “It’s different and it’s something that a lot of people won’t and will never understand, which is why I get so much flack and so much hate because looking from the outside in it looks messy. Nobody knows the real story and nobody knows what I went through.”

As for her public heartbreak: “Sometimes I hold back from tweeting certain things. Sometimes you’re emotional and you want to tweet a lyric or whatever it may be, sometimes I can’t do that because if I do it’s, ‘Oh this means this and that and she must be going through this…’ It’s like, what the hell.” [Necole Bitchie]

Dwyane Wade can thank his sons and nephew for making sure his proposal to Gabrielle Union went without a hitch. His son, Zion held a sign with her name. Nephew Dahveon Morris that held one that said “Will you” while Zaire held one that said “marry us.” Then Union turned around to see Wade down on one knee with an 8 ½-carat cushion cut diamond. Insert aww here. [Yahoo! Sports]

Evelyn Lozada is officially engaged to the father of her baby, Carl Crawford, only there’s already a bit of scandal brewing – at least on the Internet.

As legend has it: “Carl Crawford did have a baby recently, but he’s no cheater and Evelyn is no homewrecker. According to our source Carl was single when Amy, who is mother to his 10-year-old son, became pregnant with their newest baby. The two were not dating and according to our source, Crawford believed Amy was on the pill — because that’s what she told him! Carl and Amy have not dated or lived together in over seven years, and this latest child was the result of an offhand, one-time incident where the pair were just being consenting adults having sex. Evelyn didn’t even come into the picture until much later.” [Bossip]

Mathew Knowles skipped his child support hearing – causing his baby mama to once again bash the hell out of him. A source closer to her (doing the dirty work on her behalf) claims, “Alex says she feels like saying to Mathew, ‘If you’re telling the truth, just show up!’” the insider explains. “If he’s as broke as he claims, show up and prove it. Stop taking the cowardly way out.” [Rhymes With Snitch]

On his maybe-pregnant fiancé, Ciara, Future says: We get along; she understands me. We fit each other. I feel like we were destined to be together, and it happened. I wasn’t hurrying up and rushing toward something. I took my time and love came to me. We’re both Scorpios—Scorpios over-love. So we’re just loving each other as hard as possible. I had great relationships before this one. But it’s hard to find somebody you just wanna wake up to every day. Finding someone you really get along with—you wouldn’t even imagine it could be that hard, but it is. [Fader]

Michael Arceneaux is from the land of Beyoncé, but now lives in the city of Master Splinters. Follow him at @youngsinick.