On This Date in 2003: Rapper 50 Cent is arrested on weapons possession charges in New York.

The Almanac Advises for January 2: "With the economy in free fall these days, the value of U.S. currency and coins has decreased considerably in the past five years."

"1 box of Cuban cigars (Montecristo)" --50 Cent

Criminal penalties for violation of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations range up to $250,000 for individuals and up to 10 years in prison. Just sayin'.

50 Cent has filed a lawsuit against Taco Bell. The superstar rapper says the fast-food giant used his name without permission in an advertising campaign when it issued a challenge for him to change his name for a day to either "79 Cents," "89 Cents" or "99 Cents" to match their menu prices.

In exchange for his compliance, Taco Bell promised to donate a mere $10,000 to the charity of Fiddy's choice. However, the suit argues that by dragging 50 Cent's name into the marketing stunt against his will, Taco Bell generated millions of dollars' worth of free publicity.

"As Taco Bell intended, many customers believed that 50 Cent had agreed to endorse Taco Bell's products," the lawsuit reads. "Indeed, postings on numerous Internet 'blogs' castigated 50 Cent for 'selling out' by his apparent endorsement of Taco Bell." A spokesman for the restaurant chain stated that the company ran the campaign in good faith and had always intended to donate the money to the charity of 50 Cent's choice.

"I've been in hotel rooms, and girls were already there in the closet naked. Are you kidding me?"--50 Cent

It's not easy being Mr. Cent. The rapper confided to Vibe this month that he's constantly having to stave off sex-hungry chicks. Poor dear.

Emmanuel Jal, like many assessing contemporary hip-hop, believes most of the posturing, boasting and tales of urban warfare in the genre are exaggerated.

"Yeah, everything you see," he says. "That's why it's commercial music. Everything is not real."

So what about the portrayal of strife, bloodshed and horrors in his own hip-hop? It's all-too-real. Much of his new album, 'Warchild,' draws on his own experiences not on an urban battlefront but in actual combat in his home nation of Sudan. Taken from his small village and pressed into service with a rebel army in the late '80s when he was just six or seven (he thinks he was born in 1980 but isn't certain), he spent several years as a child soldier -- one of a generation of Sudanese "Lost Boys" -- in two bloody civil wars, witnessing unspeakable horrors, atrocities and inhumanities before being rescued by a British aid worker. In the songs here he raps of the awful deeds, tortured existence and still-fresh psychic scars of his war experiences ('Forced to Sin'), the economic rape of his homeland ('Vagina'), the ongoing battle with his own understandably accumulated demons ('Bakki Wara'), his struggle to overcome them with his Christian faith ('Shadow of Death') and delivers an emotional tribute to Emma McCune, the woman who rescued him and moved him to Nairobi but died in a car accident not long after ('Emma').

• Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am will star in his first film, 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine,' as a mutant named Wraith, who has the power to teleport.

• 50 Cent was ordered to pay an undisclosed figure to a New York Post photographer after the rapper allegedly attacked editor Jim Alcorn in 2003. Alcorn, as a result, sustained neck and jaw injuries. "It's a legal issue that's been settled," a spokesperson for 50 Cent said.

• British electronica rockers Morcheeba will launch a world tour in support of their latest album, 'Dive Deep.' The North American leg is set to kick off on March 23 in Washington, DC, and will wrap in Los Angeles on April 13.

• Madonna made her directorial debut in Berlin on Wednesday with her film, 'Filth & Wisdom.' The movie follows narrator a Ukrainian immigrant, played by Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hutz, as he seeks superstardom with his gypsy punk band.

• A judge ruled in favor of 50 Cent in his dispute with ex-girlfriend, Shaniqua Tomkins, over child support for their son, 10-year-old Marquis. The rapper took Tomkins to court following her requests for more money. She will now only receive $6,700 a month, as opposed to her initial request of $50,000. (Courtesy of WENN)

• Rapper Prodigy avoided jail for the second time in six weeks after being hospitalized on Wednesday in New York due to complications from sickle cell anaemia. Prodigy entered the facility on the same day he was due to turn himself in to begin his three-and-a-half year prison term for gun possession offences.