The growing Latino presence in Major League Baseball is a story of exploitation and opportunity. Club owners set up baseball academies in countries where future prospects can be signed in their early teens for pennies, then fired with little cost if they aren't good enough to play in the big leagues. As one player said to me, "The options in the Dominican Republic are jail, the army, the factory or baseball."

Produced for BET and THE CHOP UP by Emmy Award-winning journalist, producer and author P. Frank Williams, the segment entitled “Long Kiss Goodnight” peels back the layers on the nine years since Biggie Smalls was gunned down in Los Angeles. In her first television interview since winning a multi-million dollar wrongful death suit against the city of Los Angeles, Biggie’s mother Voletta Wallace shares striking details about the FBI investigation of her son’s murder. Also for the first time on television, Lil’ Cease, a member of Biggie’s Junior Mafia crew, shares a chilling eye-witness account of what happened inside the car where Biggie was riding when the fatal shots were fired. Hosted by Jeff Johnson and Jina Jinay.

"If all the dying traditions are valuable, does that also mean all the valuable traditions are dying? If a genre doesn't need saving, does that also mean it's not worth saving? If New Orleans rappers seem less lovable than, say, Mardi Gras Indians or veteran soul singers, might it be because they're less needy? Cultural philanthropy is drawn to musical pioneers--especially African-American ones--who are old, poor and humble. What do you do when the pioneers are young, rich and cocky instead?

Believe it or not, that question brings us back to the Smithsonian, which has come to praise hip-hop. Or to bury it. Or both. The genre is over 30 years old by now, and while its early stars now seem unimpeachable (does anyone have a bad word to say about Grandmaster Flash or Run-DMC?), its current stars seem more impeachable than ever. From 50 Cent to Young Jeezy to, well, Juvenile, hip-hop might be even more controversial now than it was in the 80's; hip-hop culture has been blamed for everything from lousy schools to sexism to the riots in France. In a weird way, that might help account for the newfound respectability of the old school. To an older listener who's aghast at crack rap, the relatively innocent rhymes of Run-DMC don't seem so bad. If the new generation didn't seem so harmful, its predecessors might not seem harmless enough for the national archives."

The FCC's action comes amid New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer's pay-for-play probe, launched in 2004, which has alleged wrongdoing by both music and radio companies. In February, Spitzer sued Entercom, alleging that high-ranking executives had implemented scams to trade cash for airplay of songs by such artists as Avril Lavigne, Liz Phair and Jessica Simpson.

Entercom has denied the allegations.

The other three radio companies are also under investigation by Spitzer, who has shared his evidence with the FCC.

Radio programmers at stations around the country say that fear of regulatory scrutiny has scared them into airing fewer new songs. Instead, many stations are sticking to less diverse playlists.

"In an era when rap videos aren't supposed to be political, 'Get Ya Hustle On' is dreamlike street theater. Yet it's also a document: Months after Juvenile shot the video with director Ben Mor in December, the Lower Ninth Ward looks pretty much the same. On the afternoon of February 27, my girlfriend and I drive over the bridge on North Claiborne into what looks like a ghost town. There are cars on fences, houses blown into the middle of the street, and no working stoplights for miles. Spray-painted signs include: 'No bulldozing,' 'No trespassing,' 'R.I.P. Fats: You will be missed.'"

"...some of the album's most powerful moments are etched with post-Katrina pain: Willie Tee's 'First Taste of Hurt,' John Boutte's version of Annie Lennox's hit 'Why' and Cyril Neville singing Curtis Mayfield's 1968 civil rights anthem 'This is My Country.'

'That song taught me that we, the people, have a right to change the [expletive] that's going on,' says Cyril, 57. He's sipping Tazo Calm tea, but it doesn't seem to work. 'We have a right to be pissed off--and to say whatever I feel, even if other people get pissed off at me for saying it.'

He speaks from experience. First, he came under attack for wearing a T-shirt that said 'Ethnic Cleansing in New Orleans' during a hurricane benefit show in New York. Later, he became a target for The New Orleans Times Picayune's Chris Rose, who devoted two columns to 'The Bitter Neville Brother From Austin Who Besmirches Our Name.'

'Cyril, baby, the storm is where it's always been: In your head,' Mr. Rose wrote. 'Leave us behind, if you want. But don't trash us. Not now. Not ever.'

Mr. Neville admits the columns stung: 'When I start thinking about Chris Rose, I have to put on Jay Z's '99 Problems' and sing along.'"

"Is [the Selig investigation] racially motivated? The question is too simplistic. The fact is that Bud Selig is deflecting criticism off the owners by putting the heat on the most prominent player in the game who happens to be Black. Whether this is conjured up in some back room or not is beside the point. MLB owners seem willing to sacrifice Bonds if it keeps Congress and the public off their backs."