Run DMC's Reverend Run said the group's lace-less trainers stayed on their feet by "magic".

The hip hop vocalist's group started a fashion trend in the 80s when they started to wear their trademark Adidas Superstar trainers without laces, but the singer said there was no danger of them ever slipping off their feet.

He wrote on his blog: "When questioned if I had problems with the sneaker staying on my feet because we sometimes didn't wear the laces I say, 'not one.' It wasn't even a question. The sneaker didn't come off our feet, for whatever reason - it was magic, I don't know."

The Reverend - real name Joseph Simmons - also said although he doesn't know why they wore their trainers in that way, he speculated it was because convicts weren't allowed laces in jail.

He added: "I guess it was the extreme hood-flavor that people knowing that guys coming straight from jail wore them with no shoestrings for whatever reason.

"Then they used to try to call them 'felon shoes' and they recognised that they didn't let you have shoestrings in jail, 'cus you might hang yourself, I heard."

Gorillaz latest album 'Plastic Beach' is likely to be the group's last.

The animated band's bassist, Murdoc Niccals, said with the group's third album their work "feels complete" and it could be the last time the collaborative project comes together.

Murdoc - who is a cartoon mouthpiece for project masterminds, former Blur Frontman Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett - said: "I think it'd be very hard to top this one at the moment. It feels complete... today."

He, however, added: "But every album I enter is made as if it's my first and very last."

'Plastic Beach' sees collaborations from artists including Lou Reed, Snoop Dogg, Bobby Womack and former clash guitarist Mick Jones and rap group De La Soul alongside Damon and others.

Murdoc also said that if he is discontinued he'd like his ashes to be fired into space, or inhaled by Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards.

Murdoc added: "If I ever do die, if I do get a choice I want my ashes ground up with charcoal and sulphur, shoved into a barrel, and then exploded out into the nocturnal sky, among the stars from whence I came. Either that or I'd get Keith Richards to snort them."

Keith famously hinted in an interview that he had mixed his own father's ashes with cocaine and snorted them, a claim he has since denied.

'Plastic Beach' is out now.

Lil Wayne starts his one year jail term today (09.03.10).

The 'Lollipop' rapper was sentenced yesterday (08.03.10) and taken to New York's Rikers Island prison after a number of delays to the start of his imprisonment, for being caught in possession of a loaded firearm found on his tourbus in 2007, which he pleaded guilty to last year.

Wayne - real name Dwayne Carter - was originally due to enter prison in February, but the sentence was delayed as he needed to undergo surgery on his teeth.

The hearing was then put back again last Tuesday (02.03.10) when a fire broke out in the New York court room which led to his case being cancelled.

Ahead of going to jail Wayne tweeted: "Law is mind without reason... I'll return."

Wayne will be held in a separate wing of the prison to the general population of inmates because of his fame, although he will be able to spend time with 17 other convicts - separated for similar reasons - in a TV room.

The prolific songwriter has also vowed to keep working while serving time, saying recently: "I'll be still rapping in there, have a gang of raps ready when I come back home."

Fellow rappers have already begun lamenting the loss of the rapper from the music industry for a year.

Childhood friend and fellow rapper Bun B said: "I feel bad, because I don't think anything like this has happened in music since Elvis got drafted into the Army."

Rap mogul P. Diddy was also reflective, saying: "I think we gonna miss a certain energy that Wayne has. The beauty about it is, he'll be back, and hopefully he'll come back a better person."

Wayne is expected to be released in approximately eight months, with good behaviour.

Paloma Faith is "too mad" to direct her own music videos.

The 'Stone Cold Sober' hitmaker said that although she is enjoying her pop career, she want to branch out into other areas of the media, and direct music videos - although her record company aren't confident enough to let her make her own yet.

She said: "I'd especially like to direct videos I think. I'd like to do my own but my label don't trust me to do it. When you're a new artist they play it safe and I think they think I'm too mad."

The 24-year-old singer - who has had a number of interesting jobs while forging her singing career including a sales assistant in a lingerie shop, a singer in a burlesque cabaret, a life model and a magician's assistant and is also a moderately successful actress - said she hopes she has forged enough of a career not to have to go back to working menial jobs.

She added: "I've never been an arrogant person and I'm not taking any of this for granted - I know a lot of singers are here today, gone tomorrow, so I'm trying to enjoy it all.

"I think I've done enough to never have to go back to working in a bar or something like that. If I could, I'd definitely like to be an artist that sells really well and has a career that has five or six albums in them, but I'm realistic."

Paloma's debut album, 'Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful?' has sold over 100,000 copies.

The Notorious B.I.G's mother has launched a plea to find the murderer still at large over her son's killing.

The rap legend was gunned down 13 years ago today (09.03.10) but his mother, Voletta Wallace, said she is still no closer to justice for her son, with ongoing investigations and lawsuits in the case still open and inconclusive.

Voletta told MTV news: "I thank you for the opportunity to touch my son's fans and for the network's continued support of me and the family, but it's been 13 years, I miss my son, his children miss their father, and the murderer is still at large."

Although there are numerous theories about the shooting of the 'Hypnotize' rapper, who died aged 24, a former detective on the case, Russell Poole - who has since left the New York police force - believes two corrupt police officers were responsible.

He believes the cops - 卢 Rafael Perez and David Mack -were on the payroll of Death Row Records founder Suge Knight, a rap overlord who was embroiled in a feud with Biggie's record label, Bad Boy Records, operated by rival mogul P Diddy.

Referring to the suspects as gangbangers - or members of violent street gangs - Poole told MTV news: "They say some cops become gangbangers; well, these guys were essentially gangbangers who became cops. I've put away guys for life with less evidence than I had on Perez and Mack."

He also vowed not to let the case rest until justice has been served.

Poole added: "I want this thing solved before I die. Every detective has a case that they think about each and every day, and this is the case right there. It'll haunt me for the rest of my life. The day it's solved, I'll be able to relax."