NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Gil Scott-Heron, godfather of rap, dies

NEW YORK

Long before Public Enemy urged the need to “Fight the Power” or N.W.A. offered a crude rebuke of the police, Gil Scott-Heron was articulating the rage and the disillusionment of the black masses through song and spoken word.

Scott-Heron, widely considered one of the godfathers of rap with his piercing social and political prose laid against the backdrop of minimalist percussion, flute and other instrumentation, died on Friday at 62. His was a life full of groundbreaking, revolutionary music and personal turmoil that included a battle with crack cocaine and stints behind bars in his later years.

Lohan settles lawsuit over chase

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.

Lindsay Lohan has settled a lawsuit filed by a woman who was chased by the actress in a pre-dawn pursuit that has haunted the actress in civil and criminal courts for nearly three years.

The starlet on Wednesday settled the lawsuit filed by Tracie Rice, who claimed she was traumatized and lost a well-paying job because of the incident, court records show.

Rice was a passenger in a car driven by the mother of Lohan’s former assistant, who the actress pursued down the scenic Pacific Coast Highway in July 2007. The chase ended with Lohan’s arrest in the parking lot of the Santa Monica Police Department; Rice has said she thought the actress was trying to carjack her.