NEW YORK — Here's a concert lineup you don't see often: Sheryl Crow with special guests Lupe Fiasco and Hawaiian ukulele player Paula Fuga. But that was the bill at Terminal 5 for Tuesday night's Joyful Revolution, a benefit for the Joyful Heart Foundation, an organization to help victims of domestic violence founded by "Law & Order: SVU" star Mariska Hargitay.

The usually bare-bones concert venue was transformed into a fancy catering hall, and instead of hipster T-shirts and sneakers, this time the crowd was clad in "joyful" attire, as in cocktail dresses and suits. The evening honored "L&O" creator Dick Wolf, and the entire cast of "SVU" was there to support their boss, including Ice-T, Stephanie March and Chris Meloni. "Dick Wolf is the man. We all work for him," Ice-T told us.

While everyone was posing for pictures and mingling during the cocktail party, I went up to Lupe Fiasco and asked him if he'd do a back-flip onstage, like I saw him do at Lollapalooza last year. He said he would try, but with all the amps and mics, he never got the chance.

After a 20-minute video about survivors of sexual assault and the retreats that they go on to begin the healing process (courtesy of Joyful Heart), the night's entertainment kicked off with Lupe getting the crowd going with his hit "Superstar." Then he handed Mariska an IOU for a $20,000 donation to her organization. Ice-T, the host of the musical portion of the evening, hopped onstage and brought back his OG persona with a rap about redemption. Then Fuga played the ukulele and sang a traditional Hawaiian song. When Sheryl Crow took the stage and went right into "Every Day Is a Winding Road," Mariska and the gang all sang along in the front row.

For the grand finale, all the musicians joined Sheryl Crow, who was now slapping the bass for the Bob Marley classic "One Love." Sure, that's kind of a cheesy and obvious choice, but it was moving to see all those celebrities and the audience joining in the chorus. And after all the extensive media coverage of Chris Brown and Rihanna's alleged altercation, it felt good to be in a place where musicians and actors were making a positive effort to help victims of abuse and violence.

Justin Timberlake better watch his back when he climbs Mount Kilimanjaro with fellow musicians Lupe Fiasco and Kenna. If Timberlake doesn't make it back down the massive mountain, we'll know who to blame. Fiasco jokingly warned the New York Daily News that [If things go bad out there], everybody's dying!

"I'll go psychopath, freak out and murder everyone for the sake of none of us suffering!" he said. "It would be like the ending of a Stephen King movie by the time the rescue helicopter comes."

Calm down JT fans, Fiasco hasn't gone completely insane. The rapper promised that he only has Timberlake's best interests in mind.

"I wouldn't euthanize Justin unless he was really suffering," he laughed.

The news first broke that the trio would trek up the massive mountain in an effort to raise awareness for the worldwide water crisis last month when Kenna, Fiasco and Timberlake opened up to Elle magazine about their upcoming charity effort.

Fiasco was already joking about the mission when he told the publication why he decided to partake in the climb. "Part of the motivation is beating Kenna to the top. Sabotaging his tent, taking the lining out of his coat, lacing it with ants or something like that," he said.

It may be harder than Fiasco thinks to take Timberlake down. The pop star talked to GQ about his hardcore training efforts to prepare for the fall endeavor. "I've been training four times a week to get my VO2 [oxygen consumption] levels up to expand my lungs," he said. While JT may be taking the trek a little more seriously than Fiasco, both seem to agree that it won't be easy.

"It's going to be intense," Timberlake said. "But it's going to be so rewarding. Plus, we're going to be ready for it."

Lupe Fiasco is really upset. He's not quite typing-in-all-caps upset, but he is putting three exclamation points at the end of his sentences on his blog. He is so upset that he decided to postpone the release of his third — and reportedly final — album, LUPE.N.D, indefinitely.

Lupe broke the news on his blog in a post titled "Breaking News… Listen Up Ths Affects You!!!"

"Due to circumstances beyond my control...the album roll out has changed radically," he wrote. "LUPE.N.D. has been postponed indefinitely!!!"

He doesn't explain why, though. The Grammy-nominated rapper has also been masquerading as Percival Fats, the lead singer for Japanese Cartoon, and it's not entirely clear what's going on there, either. He said that the rumor mill and certain cowards were going to have a field day speculating, but few outside his blog have really seemed to notice.

He wrote that Japanese Cartoon's debut album, In the Jaws of the Lords of Death, will be released on the same day in June as his next LP, The Great American Rap Album. If you think that title is interesting, here's the tracklisting:

1. Song #1
2. Song #2
3. Song #3
4. Song #4
5. Song #5
6. Song #6
7. Song #7
8. Song #8
9. Song #9
10. Song #10
11. The Greatest Rap Song Ever Made

He concludes by writing, "I hate the music business ... but I love music ... Grammy's Here We Come!!!"

"What are you talking about?" he asked quite seriously, while standing outside of the studio. "What remix? Remix to what? 'Everyone Nose,' that's the N.E.R.D. record. ... It's a remix? Who's on it?"

It's OK. Lupe has a lot on his plate. Fresh from playing shows in London, he's spent much of the year on the road with Kanye's Glow in the Dark Tour (which he described as real good). "I was kickin' it with N.E.R.D., Rihanna, Chris Brown and Kanye. It was love."

He also recently received a gold plaque for his second album, The Cool. But Fiasco isn't just a one-trick pony. He had much to discuss about expanding his empire — musically and otherwise.

So what's on Lupe's agenda?

· He proudly joined the ranks of Barack Obama and "a bunch of other rich bastards" as on of Esquire's Best-Dressed Men in the World for 2008. "I'm not that rich," he explained, "but I was on the list."

· He's been discovering new and upcoming talent, recently signing a group from Chicago called He Say She Say (they boast a sound Lupe described as "amazing" and "dope"). When a homeless man interrupted Lupe's interview with an alcohol-infused freestyle, the rapper put on his mogul hat and said, "That's my next artist there too, you know what I'm sayin'! Just signed him 15 minutes ago!"

· He's soon be rolling out the video for "The Cooler," the next single off of The Cool.

· He also plans to begin working on his last album. What? Last album? Well, that's when Lupe decided to really get demure, switching the subject completely and finally responding to the original question that he had dodged so vehemently. "My last album — that's later though. Right now it's about CRS' 'Everyone Nose' remix!" Touché, Lupe. Touché.

Do you think Lupe's serious about releasing only one more album? Tell us!

Luckily, some flights opened up Wednesday morning, and thousands of college students gathered around the stage on the beach at 1 p.m. to hear the first performance: Lupe Fiasco featuring Matthew Santos. Telling the crowd, "This is what a Grammy sounds like," Lupe performed five of his tracks, bringing Santos out for most of them. Afterwards, Lupe and I talked onstage about his new album, The Cool, and how much he likes playing with a full band.

Later on, I was able to catch up with him backstage. While he didn't want to "talk politics," we did talk about his music. I noticed that, between songs, Lupe talked about how sometimes his label asks him to "dumb it down" and stop using so many big words in his lyrics. If you listen to The Cool, you'll find that not only do its tracks have a rich vocabulary, but they also cover a wide range of issues. Lupe told me that "the point" is to make an album that has the music to appeal to a mainstream audience, while at the same time "sneaking" powerful messages into the lyrics. We also talked about his book and Kanye West's "Glow in the Dark" tour, featuring Rihanna, N.E.R.D. and, of course, Lupe himself.

Then I was back onstage interviewing Flo Rida, who'd just gotten the news that "Low" had gone triple platinum. Flo was excited to be performing in his home state for the spring-breakers and told the crowd that he looked forward to having not only hits with "Low" and "Elevator," but also a #1 album (Mail on Sundays comes out on March 18). Flo has already had longtime success on "TRL," and his new album features Timbaland, Lil Wayne, Will.I.Am, Yung Joc and Sean Kingston, just to name a few. I told Flo that his album seemed like it was missing female rappers, and he said he'd like to collaborate with Eve and Lil' Kim in the future.

Movies and music seem to be getting closer every day, so I asked Flo and Lupe if acting was in the cards for either of them. Both said that directors and producers have approached them to appear in films and that they're seriously considering offers, so you might want to keep an eye out for the MCs' big-screen debuts in the next couple of years.