Check out these images from the Giant magazine photo shoot with Keshyia Cole.

For more Keyshia, check out an exclusive exerpt from her GIANT feature here!

Common is known for his creativity and underrated rap skills. With a name like Common you would think his music would be average, but to the contrary there’s nothing mediocre about it. For this week’s upcoming episode of Current TV’s music series Embedded, Common gave his fans the opportunity to direct and produce their own music video to his track “Make My Day,” featuring Cee-lo.  The rapper judged the entries and picked a winner, which premieres on TV tomorrow and can be seen below.  In the episode, he also takes the camera on his tour around the country and on a trip back to his old neighborhood.  Artists like will.i.am, Pharrell, and Mos Def also talk about Common’s influence on their own music. Embedded airs November 4th, at 11 pm on Current TV.

For more info about Embedded, click here.

It is rumored that Chanel Iman, busy catwalking this week, will appear on an upcoming episode of Gossip Girl but there is no word on whether it will be an ongoing role, or just a breeze-through.

Also, we’re still waiting for confirmation of her post as the new host of MTV’s revised House of Style, a position that Leo DiCaprio’s lady, Bar Rafaeli, is supposedly up for as well.

Looks like Chanel Iman is preparing to invade the small screen in a big way…

Click here to read an excerpt from Chanel’s GIANT feature!

And for more Chanel, click here to see her sexy GIANT photo gallery!

And take a peek behind-the-scenes for her GIANT shoot!

No matter how thin or light you think that fancy HDTV you got over the holidays is, it’s still too thick and heavy.

Well, at least compared to  JVC’s upcoming 32 inch Prototype TV.

Weighing in at a waif-y 11 pounds, and measuring just over 7mm thick, this model will be the envy of all of the other chubby flatscreens on storeshelves and will most likely inspire all of the other TV manufacturers to put their future releases on a strict diet.

If it was popping in 2008, we covered it! Check out list to end all lists here. It’s the GIANT 8 of ’08… We’re kind of a BIG deal.

MUSIC

Goodbye, and hello

My 8 Favorite Albums of 2008: #8
My 8 Favorite Albums of 2008: #7
My 8 Favorite Albums of 2008: #6
My 8 Favorite Albums of 2008: #5
My 8 Favorite Albums of 2008: #4
My 8 Favorite Albums of 2008: #3
My 8 Favorite Albums of 2008: #2
My 8 Favorite Albums of 2008: #1

10 Best Albums You Missed in 2008: #10
10 Best Albums You Missed in 2008: #9
10 Best Albums You Missed in 2008: #8
10 Best Albums You Missed in 2008: #7
10 Best Albums You Missed in 2008: #6
10 Best Albums You Missed in 2008: #5
10 Best Albums You Missed in 2008: #4
10 Best Albums You Missed in 2008: #3
10 Best Albums You Missed in 2008: #2
10 Best Albums You Missed in 2008: #1

Missing Notes Best of ’08 Mixtape, Vol. 1
Missing Notes Best of ’08 Mixtape, Vol. 2

MOVIES
Best Movies of ’08: #8
Best Movies of ’08: #7
Best Movies of ’08: #6
Best Movies of ’08: #5
Best Movies of ’08: #4
Best Movies of ’08: #3
Best Movies of ’08: #2
Best Movies of ’08: #1

Worst Movies of ’08: #8
Worst Movies of ’08: #7
Worst Movies of ’08: #6
Worst Movies of ’08: #5
Worst Movies of ’08: #4
Worst Movies of ’08: #3
Worst Movies of ’08: #2
Worst Movies of ’08: #1

Best Actors of ’08: #8
Best Actors of ’08: #7
Best Actors of ’08: #6
Best Actors of ’08: #5
Best Actors of ’08: #4
Best Actors of ’08: #3
Best Actors of ’08: #2
Best Actors of ’08: #1

Best Actresses of ’08: #8
Best Actresses of ’08: #7
Best Actresses of ’08: #6
Best Actresses of ’08: #5
Best Actresses of ’08: #4
Best Actresses of ’08: #3
Best Actresses of ’08: #2
Best Actresses of ’08: #1

Worst Actors of ’08: #8
Worst Actors of ’08: #7
Worst Actors of ’08: #6
Worst Actors of ’08: #5
Worst Actors of ’08: #4
Worst Actors of ’08: #3
Worst Actors of ’08: #2
Worst Actors of ’08: #1

Worst Actresses of ’08: #8
Worst Actresses of ’08: #7
Worst Actresses of ’08: #6
Worst Actresses of ’08: #5
Worst Actresses of ’08: #4
Worst Actresses of ’08: #3
Worst Actresses of ’08: #2
Worst Actresses of ’08: #1

VIDEO GAMES
Best Video Games of 2008

DVD
Best DVDs of ’08: #8
Best DVDs of ’08: #7
Best DVDs of ’08: #6
Best DVDs of ’08: #5
Best DVDs of ’08: #4
Best DVDs of ’08: #3
Best DVDs of ’08: #2
Best DVDs of ’08: #1

SPECIAL
The Epic Fail That Was 2008: #8
The Epic Fail That Was 2008: #7
The Epic Fail That Was 2008: #6
The Epic Fail That Was 2008: #5
The Epic Fail That Was 2008: #4
The Epic Fail That Was 2008: #3
The Epic Fail That Was 2008: #2
The Epic Fail That Was 2008: #1

You know it’s tough times for music when Andy Samberg’s Saturday Night Live skits make for some of the best music out. Eat your heart out, Kanye!

Samberg has done it again. This weekend’s Digital Short, titled “Jizz In My Pants,” is already a viral sensation. Featuring Molly Simms, Jamie-Lynn Sigler (this chick is everywhere!) and Justin Timberlake, the video is posted below. Expect your friends to be singing this all week!

(Thanks, Alyson!)

Following one of the most important weeks in American history with the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency, TV-One celebrates The Blacklist: 100 Greatest Black Power Moves. A look back at the most important and extraordinary moments in history that have liberated African Americans like Halle Berry and Denzel Washington both winning Oscars in 2002 for Best Actors. Tune-in to TV-One tonight Sunday, November 9 at 10:00 p.m. EST and watch and listen to freedom ring throughout history. Your favorite actors, scholars and pundits offer commentary and comments on history, culture and change. Check local listings for channel and times in your area.

Japanese technology may excel at making things more compact, but Mitsubishi is bucking that notion with their new 65″ LaserVue HDTV.

Retailing for $7,000, the set utilizes laser technology and consumes less power than conventional LCD and plasma screen TVs. Of course if you get this big-big screen, you’ll need a  wall big enough to mount it on.

Then again, if you’re dropping seven stacks on a 65″ flat panel, your crib can probably handle it, right?

Source

We beat down the block with the cast of TV’s best drama.

Some have risen.  Some have Fallen.  Some have been locked up and others bagged up.  The characters who posted up on West Baltimore blocks in HBO’s The Wire told a million stories about life in America’s black urban centers.  With the show in its final season, GIANT presents a tribute to television’s best-ever dramatic series.

With its flawed characters, intertwined story lines and brutaly honest portrayal of Baltimore’s most impoverished ‘hoods, HBO’s The Wire is the most uncomfortably accurate depiction of black urban America on television.  Hardly a show for escapists, The Wire provides poignant social commentaries while keeping us at the edge of our seats.  Taking a cue from the dedicated street hustlers they created, series masterminds David Simon and Ed Burns cook up strong medicine every week-and what they serve is a harsh look at reality.  With the fifth and final season just begun, this is your last chance to witness television’s best-ever drama.

“I hope people walk away with some rage and the need to have some questions answered,” says Michael Kenneth Williams, who plays Omar Little, the gay, shotgun-toting outlaw’s outlaw that roams the shadows of West Baltimore.  “Like, ‘Why the fuck is our ‘hood looking like that?’ That’s a chocolate city.  Why they pump all that raw dope into that little-ass city?”

Since the series debuted in 2002, it has been an unapologetic and nuanced reflection of urban America.  The show began as an examination of the drug trade-with it’s desperate addicts and notorious dealers, namely Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris) and his crew-and the cops’ futile attempts to stem its spread via wire taps.  With each subsequent season, Simon unfurled a more complex picture of what ails a modern metropolis by tackling its corrupt institutions: the desolate ports and the struggling, working-class longshoremen who tend to them; the frustratingly corrupt and bureaucracy-laden local government; and the underperforming public-school system.  The final season follows the reporters and editors at the local newspaper, the Baltimore Sun, revealing how the media covers-or fails to cover-the city’s social and political aspects.  It also depicts how the paper’s own cost-cutting initiatives mirror the resource-related struggles of the begleagured city.