"Hustle hard" — punch harder? Brooklyn MC Maino was quick to refute rumors that he was jumped in Poughkeepsie, New York, while performing at a show over the weekend. He called up to radio show Power 105 on Monday and spoke to host Ed Lover.

"I'm out here without a scratch on me," Maino insisted. He described the incident as a case of a fan getting out of pocket, overstepping the line between performer and audience member, and going so far as to threaten him.

"He was talking crazy, so I smacked him," Maino said. "He was trying to get onstage; he was a little too aggressive. I wanted to calm him down and smack some sense into him. … I didn't get jumped, but we had a good brawl, though."
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Additional reporting by Ashley Mastronardi

We asked a lot of celebs about "love you long time" recurring in pop culture — thanks to Mariah's new single — and now we're asking you: Do you find the phrase offensive or empowering?

Here's a sample of what some New Yorkers had to say:

Valerie Stahl: "It was used as derogatory in the film, and it's a sort of sexual joke, I'd say. It's more derogatory towards Vietnamese culture than women in particular, because of how it was used in the film, but it's also a shot at a woman as a sexual object. It's kind of ironic that a majority of these pop singers using it are women, so in a sense, it could be a term of empowerment of sexual freedom."

Catherine Sharp: "I think it's degrading, absolutely. To me it means someone, usually someone of Asian descent, in an area where prostitution is more common and where they're treated worse, even worse than they are here. I think it refers to that. I think a lot of people will just listen to the songs and not really notice it, but when you hear it, it's kind of a ridiculous thing to hear."

Sunjeoung Lee: "I feel like it's an issue of freedom of expression. It's OK to use it, but you have to be responsible. When you use whatever phrase, you have to know what kind of impact you're going to have on other people, especially if it's going to be Asian people, Asian women listening to that music."

Kai Kuroiwa: "Among Asian-Americans, it's kind of like a running joke, like something you might see in a pornographic film. I didn't even know it was being used in these songs. Among males, it's a different issue, but it is a race issue."

Cassy Wheeler: "I wouldn't listen to Mariah anyway. It seems like every time you turn on the radio they're talking about slamming women, just treating women without respect."

Join the debate — tell us what you think!

By John Ochoa

Is it possible that MTV has launched an all-out war between crazed fans of the Jonas Brothers and Tokio Hotel?

When our sister blog Buzzworthy published an entry seemingly comparing JB fanatics with TH devotees, the site's dear readers almost killed each other (in the blog sense, that is). The original Buzzworthy post was actually talking about the official addition of the word "fanboy" to the Merriam-Webster dictionary and hinted that JB and TH fans may be the ones to thank.

But then things got out of hand ... really out of hand. Karleigh and Katie Santry, who run JonasBrothersFan.com, even say that angry Tokio Hotel fans started posting inappropriate material on their forums, including pornography and violent photos. "Morbid stuff," as the girls described it.

The Jonas site has removed all the nasty images, and Buzzworthy even tried to reconcile the fighting fans. After much trash-talk, it looks like a peace may have been forged. Come on, gang. We're all in this together. Can't we all idolize in peace?

We've heard what Executive VP Megan Jasper considers to be Sub Pop's best albums, but now it's our turn to weigh in. Here's what folks around the newsroom had to say about their personal picks.

Dan "Monty" Montalto — Sunny Day Real Estate's Diary
Undoubtedly one of the most influential indie records of the '90s, Diary is one of the few albums that I have kept in constant rotation over the years. The brand of "emo" that this album represents (and essentially created) made for some of the best punk/indie/emo records of the late '90s (the Get Up Kids, Braid, Piebald, Texas Is the Reason). Any fans of those artists — and all those that followed — owe much to this album. Even lo-fi rockers No Age recently told us that Diary is one of their all-time faves. For a band with a short and frequently troubled lifespan, Sunny Day Real Estate's discography continues to shine 14 years later.

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Sub Pop's Seattle office is plenty nondescript. It's located above a restaurant in a swank part of the city. There's no sign on the door. The concierge of my hotel didn't even know where it was located, and it was directly across the street.

But once inside — up a single elevator to the third floor — you sort of understand why they've got to be discreet. If they flew a flag out front, the place would be inundated by excited music geeks like me.

As the label celebrates its 20th (official) year in business, there's so much history on display here, it's simply mind-boggling. (For a look back at the label's history and a list of 21 quintessential Sub Pop albums, check out this week's Bigger Than the Sound column.) The walls are lined with original mockups for album covers (like Mudhoney's Superfuzz Bigmuff EP and the banned artwork for Tad's 8-Way Santa), early design concepts for Sub Pop's iconic "Loser" T-shirt (complete with handwritten instructions from founder Bruce Pavitt that read, simply, "Make it BIG") and original Charles Peterson photographs of young bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden. There are Polaroids of Beck, Greg Dulli and Stephen Malkmus clowning around at the old Sub Pop store. And there are gold and platinum records in the bathrooms.

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By Sarah Muller

OK, guys, I thought about it over the weekend. I read all of your comments. Maybe Tokio Hotel isn’t so bad, right? Unless you're the messenger ...

(By Sarah Muller)

For twentysomething Germans, the love might not extend past the Hoff.

Three friends from Hamburg recently came to New York for a visit. (Lovely bunch of people. Very open-minded, always up for anything.) One night during dinner — and somewhat out of the blue — their chief pop-culture export of the moment came up: Tokio Hotel.

On this side of the Atlantic, the boy band has been gathering both
buzz and rabid, tween young fans. (Hey, we already apologized for that one!) But my friends aren't buying into the hair, the eyeliner or the hype.

Words like "embarrassment" and "lame" were thrown around a lot. One woman said Tokio Hotel only appeal to "kids and teenagers between 6 and 12 years old" or those "too young to realize what kind of stupid phonies these boys are." My guy friend begged Americans like myself to "take them off our hands." He added, simply, "They suck."

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