Prince To Headline Essence Music Festival Next Year — Tha Wire [VIDEO]

The 20^th anniversary of the Essence Festival is just around the corner and people are already scrambling to get tickets, as it was just announced that Prince has been tapped to headline next years event live in New Orleans July 4^th weekend.

The last time Prince performed at the Essence was in 2004, for the festivals10th anniversary and I was there as the purple one turned it out.

As you know, Essence is a party with a purpose and Prince is going to helping out in a big way.  Get more details on how inside Tha Wire below.  In the meantime, Essence Communications President, Michelle Ebanks said,  “The Essence Festival is where we come together to connect to both our culture and our community, so we are pleased to support Prince and the Rebuild the Dream Innovation in advocating for our youth.”

Tickets for the Essence festival, which takes place July 3 – 6, are on sale now. Click here for more information.

In other news, PBS Digital Studios has embarked on a new bi-weekly series called, ‘Blank on Blank,’ which brings monumental stories from “American newsmakers” back to life including “previously unheard interviews that would otherwise be lost forever.” This week, the will feature the life and death of Tupac Shakur.

The never-before-heard animated remake of Tupac’s March 1994 interview with Entertainment Weekly writer Benjamin Svetkey. Giving ‘Pac fans insight onwhat was going on in his mind surrounding events that took place that year like  the sexual assault charges against him, his relationship with the press, and Dan Quayle’s attack on his music.

For even more details about this series, listen to Tha Wire below.

Finally, the 2011‘GQ’ Menswear Designer of the Year, Alexander Wang has collaborated with Beats by Dre to create limited-edition Beats Studio headphones, Beats Pill portable speakers and Urbeats earbuds.

Now Wang a new set of  Beat’s headphones and launching them just in time for Christmas.  Wang’s new Beats by Dre collection highlights his signature pale gold accents and matte black finishes featured on all three Beats x Wang products.

If anyone is familiar with the New York designer, nothing ever comes cheap, these studio headphones will set you back $449 and his Pill speaker will retail at $299, while the Wang Urbeats earbuds will cost $149.  Listen to Tha Wire to find out when the trendy headphones will be available.

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