Where YOU Been... Lauryn Hill

I don't believe my eyes!!! OMG!!! Is that Lauryn Hill and her tribe of kiddies? Well I'll be John Brown... it is Ms. Hill along with four of her five children .

Lauryn was at the Williams Sonoma store in New Jersey. Martha Stewart was in the store signing copies of her latest book, it isn’t known if the Hill-Marley clan was in the store to see Martha or just happened to be picking up a few things for the kitchen. Either way, Lauryn doesn’t look too happy, she didn’t even bother to crack a fake smile. On the other hand, her children seem to be very happy.

Funny. She’s seen here with 11 year old Zion, 9 year old Selah, 6 year old Joshua, 5 year old John all fathered by Rohan Marley. She didn’t have her 9 month old (who folks also say is fathered by Rohan) with her. I need my FUGEE La Lauryn back... I don't know about ya'll but I do dammit!

Where YOU Been: Kelly Price

Gone from the secular music scene for quite some time now, singer Kelly Price, is still the same girl that was introduced to us back in 1996 with her first album "Soul of a Woman" and belting out notes that would make a grown man cry.

We all know that Kelly Price has one of those voices that gives you chills with every other note sang. There are a small number of singers today possess that down-home soul our parents loved.

Kelly recently sat down with ESSENCE.com to talk about secular versus gospel music, being "too fat" to sell records, and why she still breaks bread with R. Kelly. Check out a portion of the interview below:

ESSENCE.COM: Do you feel that singing R&B music compromises your faith?<br>

PRICE: I'm probably one of the few R&B artists who believe that singing secular music has nothing to do with my faith. I know some traditionalists might disagree, but I feel like my job is my job and what I believe is what I believe.

ESSENCE.COM: What is the craziest rumor you've heard about yourself?

PRICE: When I started losing weight people said I had surgery, but if you pay attention, I lost my weight over a couple of years gradually. It wasn't like I went from being big to small. Heck, I'm still not small and I'm never going to be small. Everyone in my family is big. I fluctuate between 14 and 18, depending on the time of the year and how much soul food I eat (laughs).

ESSENCE.COM: Ron Isley was only one-third of the dynamic trio that made the hip-hopera remix of "Friend of Mine." Do you still keep in touch with R.Kelly who produced the song?

PRICE: Absolutely, I still keep in touch with him. I was with him just a few months ago. We still break bread together. What I always tell folks is, "You might know R.Kelly but I know Robert." I treat him no different. I would call a friend going through a hard time to encourage them and talk to them. Everybody needs those people in their lives. I don't ever need to advertise my friendship with him because we each know who we are to one another and it's always going to be that way between us unless he says, "Kelly, I'm sick of you." I've known him since the beginning of my career when he called up Puffy and asked him, "Who is that girl who writes on all these songs? Can you put me in touch with her?" and we've been cool ever since.

For complete interview in it's entirety, check out Essence.com

Keenan Ivory Wayans Judges HGTV

So I'm up late Sunday night, laying in bed watching one of my favorite stations, HGTV, and I'm completely taken aback by what I am seeing. Keenan Ivory Wayans as a judge on their show Summer Showdown? Are you kidding me? Since when did Keenan become the black Martha Stewart and who's big idea was this?

Any way you slice it, Keenan is a very talented man. He is best known for his work in TV as creator, executive producer, writer and cast member for the first several seasons of the Emmy Award winning Fox series In Living Color, the cutting-edge black sketch comedy show, which also starred Keenen's brothers Damon, Shawn and Marlon. It also launched the careers of many upcoming comedians including Jim Carrey, Tommy Davidson, Jamie Foxx and David Alan Grier.

The show is actually pretty neat. It's the newest show added to the HGTV lineup. The series offers four one-hour specials that have HGTV's top talent going head-to-head against each other in a race against the clock to make over rooms in dire need of an overhaul. The network went to picked homeowners with rooms they felt qualified and then made exact replicas of these rooms and created and placed them side-by-side in the Designer Dome — the mega HGTV design arena. For each challenge, the two teams must redesign the rooms, and then a panel of celebrity judges selects the best makeover. The homeowner who submitted that room gets cash to do the room themselves.