For the second consecutive year, I've partnered with BlogWorld & New Media Expo to promote the event on the iFroggy Network.

I have attended and spoke at the conference for the last two years and I believe it to be one of the most beneficial blogging, social and new media based conferences that exists today. I'm glad to be back this year to attend and speak once again as the event moves to Mandalay Bay (where I hope to be staying).

If you create content online or market yourself online in any way, the event is definitely worth checking out, whether you are a blogger, podcaster, online writer, digital or new media person at a label or marketing company, an artist or just someone who wants to improve their efforts online through social and new media.

As part of our partnership, they have provided me with a coupon code that will get you 20% off of any BlogWorld & New Media Expo pass. Through September 16, this will include the already discounted rates. But, the code will be good right up until the start of the conference. The code to use is IFROGGYVIP.

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Over the next 9 days or so, we'll have a bit of a coverage hiatus here at Bad Boy Blog. There may be some news, here and there, but not at the normal rate. We'll be back in action after that period.

Thank you for your understanding and for reading Bad Boy Blog.

Toward the end of April, I highlighted a story from my personal blog about unethical content scraping practices of Global Grind, a social news/blog network hybrid site.

I'm happy to be able to say that I have written a long update to this story and Global Grind has addressed these issues. You can read more on my personal blog.

I just wanted to highlight an article I published today on my personal blog, about the unethical practices that are occurring over at Global Grind, a well funded start up backed by Russell Simmons.

In short, they are copying content from this site, and others, small and large. MTV, BET, the Boston Globe and more. In the article, I detailed what they are doing, how it all works and why it needs to stop.

If you write at a publication in the entertainment space, or any online publication, really, you should be mindful of these practices and take steps to stop them, in order to protect your content and your operation. For more details, please check out the post.

April Fools' Day is almost over, so it's time for us to come clean. The report earlier today about the "Hello Good Morning" remixes is just a joke, in honor of the day. There is absolutely not truth to it; it is completely a prank.

There will be no "Hello Good Late Morning" featuring Red Cafe, "Hello Good Early Afternoon" featuring Rick Ross, "Hello Good Late Afternoon" featuring Pharrell, "Hello Good Evening" featuring Nas or "Hello Good Night" featuring Jay-Z. Reading the titles, it sounds pretty crazy. But, it also sounds just believable enough, right? Especially when you look at the awesome single covers.

When I came up with this idea, I felt the covers would be crucial to the joke. So, I found the font that was used for "Hello Good Morning." It's Friz Quadrata Bold. Unfortunately, this is not a free font. It cost me $29, but it was that important. What can I say? I'm committed.

It was a fun idea, but then something even funnier happened. Rick Ross actually threw a verse over "Hello Good Morning" and released it. Today! No kidding. I had absolutely no advance knowledge of that, but was it ever funny. So, we played that up as part of the prank. Thank you to Mr. Ross for that.

I'd like to thank everyone who read the story for being a good sport and for understanding. I appreciate everyone who spread the word and I hope that you had a fun day. It's that one day of the year... we had to do something! All other stories that we reported today were 100% accurate and our coverage now returns to normal.

Thank you for reading Bad Boy Blog and for sharing a laugh with us.

Four years ago today, Bad Boy Blog launched.

The reason I started this site was to provide an outlet that Bad Boy fans could trust, one not driven by gossip or sensationalism, but by accuracy, fairness and the fan's perspective. As a Bad Boy fan myself, it's been fun to see this vision realized.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who regularly reads and supports Bad Boy Blog. Thank you for being a part of this community of Bad Boy fans.

I look forward to what's in store in year five!

Just a small programming note: I'm in Austin, Texas for South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive. The conference runs from March 12-16 and I'm speaking on March 13, co-leading a Core Conversation titled "Shameless Self Promotion Without Looking Like an @#$%^&!" at 12:30 PM. If you're at the event, I'd certainly like to meet you. You can contact me on Twitter @iFroggy.

During this time, coverage here at Bad Boy Blog should be light, if anything, due to the constant nature of the conference. I appreciate your patience.

Thank you for reading Bad Boy Blog.

My prayers and thoughts are with the people of Haiti and everyone affected by this terrible disaster.

What is apparent in times like this is that everything counts, no matter how small. Can you afford to donate $5? $3? $1? If so, that's great. It may be a small amount to you, all on it's own, but coupled with other small amounts, it becomes a big, powerful amount. You can find a list of charities on WhatGives!?

Can't afford to donate? You can still spread the word. The power of online community and social media has afforded everyone a voice if they choose to have one. If you're on Twitter, Facebook, etc.; you have a community of people and connections. Share worthwhile initiatives with them and help bring awareness. It only takes a few moments to send a link or retweet something on Twitter, but it does help.

An acquaintance of mine, Jim Turner of One by One Media, is taking action and has teamed with Cause Media Group, WS Radio and USTREAM to produce the Haitian Assistant Relief Telethon. Jim will be hosting a myriad of guests, including myself, for 24 hours beginning at 9 PM ET today, January 17 (that's 2 AM GMT tomorrow, January 18). You can watch on WhatGives?! and listen on WS Radio. I am scheduled to appear from 12:00 AM ET through 1:00 AM ET.

Update: Post updated to reflect proper start time.

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Recently, I shared my most played Bad Boy tracks of 2009 and now it's time for my top current and former Bad Boy artists (see 2008).

This data, which comes from my Last.fm profile, takes into account only the top 500 artist combinations from my playlist in the past year, as that is all that Last.fm displays.

Here are the top 10 most played current or former Bad Boy artists, along with the top 5 most played tracks by them or featuring them, if there are that many. If they were ranked last year, I'll include that in a notation following their number of plays.

1. Diddy/Dirty Money - 2,550 Plays (Last Year: 1)

1. "Hottest in the Hood (Remix)" by Red Cafe featuring Jadakiss, Rick Ross, Fabolous, OJ Da Juiceman and Diddy
2. "Angels" by Dirty Money featuring The Notorious B.I.G.
3. "Diddy Bop" by Diddy featuring Yung Joc
3. "Love Come Down" by Dirty Money
5. "Ciroc Star" by Chester French featuring Diddy, Jadakiss and Clinton Sparks

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I've decided that today will be old school Bad Boy music day on Twitter. As I listen to old school Bad Boy tracks, I'm going to tweet them out and use the hash tag #oldschoolbadboy. I'll qualify old school as anything released in the first 10 years of Bad Boy releases (1994 through 2003). It can be a track by a Bad Boy artist (current or former) or featuring one, just as long as they were signed to Bad Boy at the time.

I don't know if anyone else will join in, but I'm going to give it a try, anyway. Join me on Twitter @badboyblog.