JAY-Z LEAVES DEF JAM | FANTASIA BARRINO FORECLOSURE AMERICAN IDOL WINNER TALKS ABOUT EVICTION VIDEO

Jay-Z is officially an independent artist and has left Def Jam.
ShowBiz Minute: Penn; Jay-Z; Green Day

With rumors swirling around Jay’s Def Jam contract buyout, Hov exclusively spoke to Rap Radar to confirm the speculation.

“I can honestly say, working with Doug Morris and LA Reid has been a unique and fulfilling experience and I respect them immensely. I’ve been in the family for almost my entire career.

Doug and I spoke directly and had one of the most unique “negotiations” ever. Doug won the toss but, we both won in the end..

I thank him for allowing me to be a completely independent artist. Not every artist can say they own or are given the opportunity to own all of their music.” [RAP RADAR]

AMERICAN IDOL WINNER FANTASIA BARRINO TALKS ABOUT FORECLOSURE & EVICTION

American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino talks about how she felt after she almost lost her home to foreclosure.

There is harmony once again in Fantasia Barrino’s Charlotte house — the one she shares with her mom, her young daughter and many other family members.

That harmony is, in part, from Barrino herself. She and her mom often break out into song.

But the harmony was hard to hear this time last year.

“I feel like I overcame a lot of things,” Barrino said. “It’s very hard as a young woman to feel like they’re actually coming to take away my home that my family lives in.”

The “American Idol” winner says she was just a day away from losing both of the south Charlotte homes she owns.

“I put my life in other people’s hands that didn’t quite take care of it like I would have,” she said.

She says she always had the money, and when a judge realized that the near foreclosures — and the people she used to have working for her — went away.

“I put my trust in other men — people that said they cared about me, that they said they loved me, that they would do anything for me,” Barrino said. “I felt like all I had to do was get the mike, get on the stage and sing and everything else behind me would be taken care of but it didn’t happen that way.”

Now, she says, it’s about moving on.

“I’m excited to be back. It’s been a long time coming,” she said.

She has a new CD in the works.

“I want to reach back out to the audience I had from Idol. What I want is a timeless record,” she said.

She’s also making another run at “The Color Purple” — a role she says she wasn’t sure she could handle at first.

“People see more in me than I see in myself,” she said.

Barrino’s own reality show is shooting now. It will air on VH1 beginning in January.

Right now she’s an open book about everything from her teen pregnancy to not being the best reader, to what she wants in a man.

“It’s not about what a person can do for you but show you genuine love, care about you, know when you’re sick, just be there for you. That’s the kind of man I’m looking for,” Barrino said.

And Barrino says she’ll always come home to Charlotte.

“I come home to good sweet tea, fried chicken and people that come outside and wave — ‘Hey, how you doing’ — that keeps me going,” she said.

And at 24, she says, that’s exactly what she’s doing. She is keeping going.

“What I have is something very special and I won’t let nothing get in the way of that,” she said.

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