Fraud suspect Andrew Wilson  aka Drew Dazzle.

To society, he was a high roller who bought flights for his friends and family, lived in high-end condos and had a nice set of wheels.

The only problem, police say, was that the life was a fake.

“He tried to create the persona of a high roller, someone who made lots of money and was very free with it and perhaps people just accepted it that he was a generous guy,” Toronto Police Det. Al Verwey said Monday. “Part of being a good confidence man is making people believe in your image.”

In the entertainment world, Andrew Wilson presented himself as the leader of several companies specializing in promotions and celebrity management — companies that, for the most part, didn’t exist, Verwey said.

The 39-year-old man who has been accused several times over the past decade of using fraud to fuel a lavish lifestyle is now accused of vagrancy, laundering proceeds of crime, fraudulently obtaining food and lodging, theft of telecommunications — the list goes on.

His two high-end condos, his expensive clothes, his vacations, his 2006 Range Rover and even his furniture were all paid for, Verwey alleged, through fraud.

“There’s no evidence that he earned a living,” Verwey said. “Our allegation is that he is supporting himself by crime.”

The accusations are the latest in a long list.

Since 2001, Peel Regional Police have accused Wilson — also known as Drew Wilson, Ken Jackson and, when posing with Bill Clinton on Facebook, Drew Dazzle — of using fraudulent credit cards for a private flight to Miami and limousines; they said he fraudulently lived in a Toronto condo and rented out visitor suites in the same way; and they said he used someone else’s debit card to steal $6,000.

On Nov. 29, when police allegedly caught him in the driver seat of a car not registered in his name — a breach of a release condition pending a trial in Toronto — they allege he gave them a false birthday.

That Wilson was even out of custody to allegedly commit the crimes he now stands accused of says something about the justice system, Verwey said.

“I think it kind of reflects the type of sentences that the courts hand out for white-collar crimes and it’s also a good lesson for both private landlords as well as business operators and financial institutions that when somebody’s applying for something, whether it’s a loan or a credit card or the rental of an apartment, that you have to go beyond the information that they put down on the application form and actually do some legitimate background checks,” Verwey said.

Verwey began investigating Wilson about two years ago during a routine traffic stop, he said. Wilson had no car insurance and Verwey later realized Wilson had allegedly given the wrong home address for a court summons.

“I’ve been keeping an eye out for him through different methods,” Verwey said, adding further charges are pending.

Anyone with information about Wilson, especially landlords who believe they were taken by him, were asked to contact Verwey at 416-808-1348 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-8477, 222tips.com, or by texting TOR and your tip to CRIMES.

With a new album and a video on MuchMusic, hip-hop artist Joey Stylez thinks that the reason that his freewheeling style appeals to so many is that it comes out of the tension and challenges of the hardscrabble native communities that he and his peers grew up in.

Long a powerful voice for activist First Nations youth, native hip-hop is poised to blow up outside of the underground and grab all ears.

The artist leading the way is Saskatchewan-born, Vancouver-based Moosmin First Nation MC Joey Stylez. His track “Sugar Cane” is in rotation on MuchMusic’s Rap City and won an Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Award for best music video.

The single is just one killer cut on Stylez’s debut album, The Black Star, which was named after his traditional Plains Cree grandmother’s last name. The disc veers from the geeky punk testimonial “Jail Byrd” and Weezer-y taunt “Mr. Milkman” to the Dirty South vibin’ “Living Proof” or bent rap “She Luvs Me.”

Just like his chameleonic fashion sense, Stylez’s music is able to stand up in any genre. It didn’t happen overnight.

“I’ve been going strong the last 10 years full-on,” says Stylez. “But winning that People’s Choice Award up against the likes of Buffy Ste. Marie and Crystal Shawanda was pretty surprising. I didn’t have a speech prepared because I didn’t think there was any chance of it happening.”

Obviously, his music speaks to the listeners. But he thinks that the reason that his freewheeling style appeals to so many is that it comes out of the tension and challenges of the hardscrabble native communities that he and his peers grew up in. He says that the plains areas are still a bit more old-fashioned and “cowboys ‘n’ Indians” in much of the social structure and it leads to native youth finding an outlet in the street level truths of rap.

Through family and friends, he himself is no stranger to what he calls “the jail culture,” but didn’t want to let his music dwell there.

Still, Stylez can’t go far from the urban music he came up with, but now can talk about other things relevant to his community, too. Like travelling to the Louvre or the MOMA to see great art, or about the wild cities in Japan.

“I’ve been very fortunate, very blessed to see a lot of the world and that has really given me a much more worldly sound,” he says.

“It’s true about my fashion sense, too. I make sure to focus on my look and give up a look that can attract a lot of people to my music. It’s a very cosmetic world, sadly, and you’ve got to pay attention to this.”

The other thing he insists must be followed to the letter is to keep on making music that matters to him.

“I went through a lot of ups and down and grew up in tune with the prison life and I wanted to show the world what goes down in the tiny little speck of the planet I grew up in,” Stylez says.

“If it wasn’t for music, I’d be just another statistic from there. I think a lot of people would be interested in that modern native experience.”

http://swaggnewsradio.podomatic.com/

Mayor Sheila Dixon listens during a news conference on Friday. A Maryland grand jury indicted her on 12 criminal counts, including theft and perjury, for alleged official misconduct beginning when she was a councilwoman.

Prosecutors say Dixon received a number of gifts from developers and didn’t properly disclose them. Additionally, for four years she misused holiday gift cards intended for needy families to buy herself clothing and electronics and as gifts for members of her staff.

In a statement, Dixon said she’d been unfairly accused and that she wouldn’t step down as mayor. “I am confident that I will be found innocent of these charges. I will not let these charges deter me from keeping Baltimore on the path that we have set, or from carrying forward the significant progress we have made thus far,” she added.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich was impeached Friday by the Illinois House of Representatives. It sets the stage for a trial in the state Senate that could remove him from office.

Jermaine Dupri is no longer President of Island Records Urban Music.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source close to the situation confirmed to AllHipHop.com that Dupri has in fact been terminated effective immediately.

A formal announcement of his departure from the position, which he has held for nearly two years, is expected later this week.

Kid Sister, spotlighted over a year ago, is still waiting to release her debut album.

Tentatively titled Dream Date, the album has been pushed back several times since the original July 2008 release date. She says, though, that she’ll turn the album in when she’s ready and assign a date then.

“I turned in the record initially because I was pressured by deadlines, but I didn’t feel good about it because it wasn’t done. I found myself saying, ‘I wish I hadn’t done that or this’,” Kid Sister tells Billboard.com. “So, I petitioned the label heavily to take it back and do it the way I wanted to do it, and they were supportive of it. I want a body of work that really has my stamp on it, so, release dates be damned, I’ll turn it in when I’m ready.”

Death Row Records, once home to some of the biggest West Coast rappers, will head back to the auction block on January 15 as part of a Chapter 11 proceeding.

Death Row filed for Chapter 11 protection in April 2006, which allows a company to continue business operations while restructuring, listing debts of $137.4 million and $4.4 million in assets.

Since July of that year, companies such as Warner Music Group and Koch Records have bid for the label, but both say due diligence showed that inadequate record keeping made it difficult to ascertain the label’s valuation, let alone whether it was worth the $25 million bid both had made.

In a recent LA Times feature, Prince announced that he would release three albums this year.

He’s in final negotiations with “a major retailer” to distribute the music in physical form, and a highly interactive website will also provide an opportunity to buy. He’s not working with a record label. “The gatekeepers have to change,” he said several times throughout the evening.

Prince also added that he’s ready to revive the Quiet Storm with his new protege, Bria Valente, who was spotted with him at the Lakers game a few weeks ago. “We got sick of waiting for Sade to make a new album,” he said of that project. I feel you on that one, Prince.

Biggie’s mother, Voletta Wallace, was among the many known faces, including Jay-Z, Beyonce, Ciara, who appeared in style last night for the New York City premiere of Notorious.

Joined by the likes of actors including Tyrese Gibson, Anthony Mackie and Derek Luke, the stars reportedly dressed for the occasion.

Angela Bassett proved she was no Bassett Hound in a Polka Dot Dress. The dress had a really busy pattern but the star pulled off the look in spades, with simple hair and jewelry. P. Diddy represented the boys club in a very dapper suit with some serious bling on each ear and to top the night off a casual Mary J. Blige showed up in a cognac leather Jacket, adding a casual twist to the premiere. (Holly Scoop)

Also in attendance was Brooklyn-bred rapper Jamal “Gravy” Woolward who recently explained how he got into character as Biggie.

“I was at 285 [pounds]. I went up to 340. I didn’t have a second chin. I needed that. [As] Notorious he was his heaviest so his patterns of movement was different,” Gravy said.” “[As a younger] B.I. he was harder so he was always snarling. He was younger so he moved faster.” (SOHH)

The film’s director, Bob Teitel, recently said the biopic will aim to offer new perspectives on the late rapper’s life.

“With Sean Puffy’s character and Notorious, you get to see how these two kinda rose to the top with each other, definitely Puffy needed Christopher Wallace and Christoper needed Puffy and as a team they were unstoppable.” (National Public Radio)

Notorious is slated to hit theaters Friday, January 16.