Happy Birthday to:

Rapper Chamillionaire (1979)

It's been a long eight years for America…longer for some than others (see New Orleans). Luckily, we have some very creative musical artists out there suffering along with us. For them, the first amendment is expressed through their music.

Happy Birthday to rapper Chamillionaire (1979), busty model and gold digger Anna Nicole Smith (1967; d. 2007), Daily Show host Jon Stewart (1962), Breakfast Club member Judd Nelson (1959), A History of Violence actor Ed Harris (1950),

Lil Wayne's multi-million-selling album Tha Carter III has been named the Best Album of 2008 in the year's first pop poll.

In today's TV climate, several shows don't even bother with theme songs (Lost, for example). Or the songs are barely a blip on the screen (Grey's Anatomy). That wasn't the case 20 years ago.

Performing live in his old Brooklyn stomping grounds, Barry Manilow's latest DVD is the best sort of homecoming. A wonderfully entertaining television special, Barry Manilow: Songs From The Seventies was filmed in September 2007 at the old Navy Yard in Brooklyn,

Kenny Chesney has co-produced country legend Willie Nelson's new album "Moment Of Forever." Chesney also co-wrote one of the album's songs with Nelson, and duets with him on "Worry B. Gone."

Rapper M.I.A. has beaten out competition from Bruce Springsteen and Jay-Z to land Rolling Stone magazine's coveted Album Of The Year honor. The British star's second disc, Kala, is the publication's top album of 2007, while Springsteen's Magic is at number two.