Sharp Notes July 03 2002
GOODIE BAD. Goodie Mob rapper Khujo (real name Willie Knighton) is recovering from the loss of his lower right leg and other injuries he sustained last week in a car accident. According to Dee Dee Murray, a friend and manager of Khujo's producers, Organized Noize, Khujo was returning home from a recording session early in the morning June 25. Unconfirmed reports suggest that he had fallen asleep behind the wheel.
While some questioned the future of Goodie Mob after the release of a solo album by group member Cee-Lo, the quartet has never indicated any intention of breaking up. In fact, the group was together as recently as the weekend before Khujo's accident, performing with fellow Dungeon Family members OutKast at the Hot 107.9 Birthday Bash. And Khujo has been working on new material recently — both solo and for the next Goodie Mob album.
The night after the accident, OutKast was given a BET Award for best group at a ceremony in Los Angeles. While OutKast's Andre 3000 stayed behind in Atlanta in support of Khujo, Big Boi accepted the award, saying, "Khujo, we riding with you."
According to Murray, Khujo's wife is eight months pregnant with their fourth child. Because they have no health insurance, Murray says, Goodie Mob's record label, Arista, is going to take care of the family's medical bills. An Arista spokeswoman could not confirm that.
WASTE NOT. The B-52's used their concert last week at Chastain Park Amphitheatre to speak out against a proposal to use trucks — including over 13,000 that would travel on Atlanta highways, as well as trains using six Atlanta rail lines — to transport nuclear waste to a site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. At a press conference prior to the group's June 22 show, the members joined local activists in urging Georgia's senators to vote against the proposal, which is up for a vote later this month. They argue that transporting the material puts local residents at risk if a truck or train accident occurs, and that the waste can be safely stored for decades at the sites where it was created. For more info, visit www.georgiapirg.org.