Tupac's song makes Vatican playlist

(CNN) -- Music from late rapper Tupac Shakur has been included as part of the Vatican's official MySpace Music playlist.

The seat of the Catholic Church released a list of 12 songs onto the social networking Web site's streaming music service this week when the site launched in the United Kingdom.

Among selections from Mozart, Muse and Dame Shirley Bassey is the slain rapper's song "Changes," which was released two years after his shooting death on a greatest hits album in 1998.

"The genres are very different from each other, but all these artists share the aim to reach the heart of good minded people," the Vatican wrote on its official MySpace Music page.

As of Thursday night, "Changes" had been played more than 4.6 million times on the Web site.

The list was compiled by Father Giulio Neroni, artistic director of church publisher St Paul's Multimedia. He was also responsible for compiling the Vatican's recent Alma Mater album, which combined Gregorian chants and prayers with classical music and the voice of Pope Benedict XVI speaking in five languages.

Shakur, who spent time in prison for sexual assault, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Nevada in 1996.

The lyrics of "Changes" describe Shakur's desire to change a grim life of drugs, crime and violence on the streets.

Lyrics of the song, which is labeled as "explicit," include 'Is life worth living, should I blast myself?" "Give the crack to the kids, who the hell cares, one less hungry mouth on the welfare," and "My stomach hurts, so I'm looking for a purse to snatch."

At another point, Tupac sings: "Cause both black and white are smokin' crack tonight."

In contrast, the playlist also contains selections from the album "Music of the Vatican" such as "Advocata Nostra" and "Causa Nostrae Laetitiae."

Other contemporary tracks on the mix include Muse's "Uprising" from their new album "The Resistance" and "He Doesn't Know Why" by the folk group Fleet Foxes.

The Simpson's Swag

LOS ANGELES -- Ladies' man Ricardo Bomba is bringing his charms to "The Simpsons," and it's all the doing of a hospital operations manager with a vivid imagination.

Peggy Black, 52, of Orange, Conn., won a contest to create a character for Fox's long-running animated series, with her entry triumphing among the more than 25,000 received, the network said Thursday.

"Rrrri-carrr-do Bomba," Black said, extravagantly rolling the "R's" in Spanish-language fashion. "He's someone that all the women love and all the men want to be."

Bomba will be introduced in the Jan. 31 episode featuring guest star Chris Martin of Coldplay. The episode had been mostly completed, with a spot reserved for the contest character.

"Million Dollar Maybe," Homer Simpson is rushing to meet Marge for a date when he encounters Bomba in the episode that centers on a winning lottery ticket.

It's possible Bomba could appear again, said executive producer Al Jean, who helped judge the contest. He described the contest, part of the show's celebration of its 20th year, as a thank you to loyal fans.

Black, who counts herself among them, was encouraged to enter by Dwight Vann, 42, a colleague at the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven, Conn., where she is operations manager for the cancer center and a radiation therapist.

Her favorite character is Bart Simpson, she said, "because he's such a bad boy. He's so misunderstood."

In pondering her contest entry, Black decided there was a void on "The Simpsons" and that Springfield needed "something like a Casanova," she said.

Bomba, a handsome, smooth-talking South American nicknamed "La Bomba," works at the town's nuclear power plant by day and "by night, works Springfield's singles scene," as Fox describes him.

So is Bomba the man of her dreams?

"I'm married to the man of my dreams," Black replied.

She'd bounced ideas for her creation off co-worker Vann, and then rewarded him when she won the grand prize of a trip to Los Angeles to work with the show's producers: She invited Vann to join her.

A highlight of the visit was watching Bomba brought to life by animators.

"I described the character and they drew him so I could see if that was my vision of him," she said. "It's amazing to see how they captured what I imagined. He's over the top."

Black, who's still marveling at her sudden brush with Hollywood success, brushes away a question about the lack of a cash prize.

"I'm going to be immortalized forever by making a `Simpsons' character," she said.

World premiere Beyonce & Lady GaGa

Wayne's World

Lil Wayne graces the cover of Billboard Magazine for there new issue.

Given earlier leaks from the project, did you make many changes to the final version?

As of now Rebirth is coming out as a double disc with a [disc of songs] by Young Money. I had to add new cuts because a lot of things leaked, making people think they had an idea of what I was doing with Rebirth and what it would sound like. And I hated that because I never want anybody to think they know what I¹m doing until I present it. So what I did was make it totally different I flipped it.

Does the album still lean toward rock?

Yes, the album is still rock. I play guitar on 80% of the songs and there’s a lot of rock influences and rock beats. I also have Travis Barker on the album. But I don’t want people to think I’m trying to do something I can’t do. Don’t think you’re going to put on the album and hear me screaming and singing . . . Don’t worry about that [laughs]. When people hear me say rock, they may get a little scared like, Oh, God. What is he going to do? When I said I was doing a rock album, it was about doing a freedom thing. This album isn’t hip-hop. When I do my Carter albums, I know I’ve got to rap, I know I’ve got to spit. I know the words I’ve got to say and the subjects I’ve got to talk about. I also know the things I shouldn’t say, the things I shouldn’t talk about. There’s none of those limits on this album. I say what I want, how I want. That’s what this album is: a freedom album. And rock is the avenue that gives you that freedom. I’m just having fun, that’s all. Trust me: People will like these songs. It’s my job to make them love them, but I know for a fact they’ll like them.

Chris Brown...He's back