PICS: CELEBRITIES AT NE-YO'S 'CIRQUE DU SOLEIL' THEMED BIRTHDAY BASH #1 IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA.

Ne-Yo first birthday bash celebrating his 29th birthday was held at the Mason Murer Fine Art Gallery in Atlanta on October 18th during BET's Hip Hop Awards week. the bash, which had a Cirque Du Soleil theme included celebrities such as: New Edition member Ronnie DeVoe, Chilli of TLC, Kandy Burress (former member of X-Scape), Jermaine Dupri, Bow Wow, Nelly, Keri Hilson, Fabolous, former Danity Kane member D. Woods, Flo Rida, and The Real Housewives of Atlanta castmates Lisa Hartwell, Nene Leakes and Sheree Whitfield.

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PICS: PEPA & RICK ROSS @ FLO RIDA'S B-DAY BASH; TONI BRAXTON @ MR. CHOW; SALT & PEPA

Rick Ross, DJ Khaled and Pepa from Salt 'n Pepa helped Miami rapper Flo Rida celebrate his 29th birthday last weekend at the Cameo Theater Nightclub in South Beach. Check out more pics from Flo Rida b-bash over at CelebrityBlackMan.blogspot.com.

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Pepa was also spotted with her rapping partner Salt (real name Cheryl James) at the grand opening of Cabana One Pool Club And Lounge At The Mayfair Hotel And Spa in Miami, Florida last week.

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Dancing with the Stars favorite, well at least my favorite, Toni Braxton was spotted by the paparazzi as she and her husband Kerry left Mr. Chow restaurant after celebrating her 41st birthday.

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NEW PICS: DJ KHALED, RICK ROSS, FLO RIDA @ CD SIGNING IN PEMBROKE PINES, FLA.; YOUNG JOC CELEBRATES 28th B-DAY IN NYC WITH SHAY 'BUCKEEY' JOHNSON.

South Florida rappers were in full effect down at Best Buy in Pembroke Pines earlier this week. Flo Rida and Rick 'Pubic-Hair Beard' Ross joined DJ Khaled as he signed copies of his new CD We Global. Comedian and Miami personality Benji was also in attendance.

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Rapper Young Jock celebrated his 28th birthday with a big 'Joc of Spades' bash at Club 595 in New York City last week. As far as celebrities that attended: none that I could identify. However, Flavor of Love 2 contestant and lower case h-list (because she's nowhere near being even a D-List celebrity) semi-celebrity Shay 'Buckeey' Johnson was in attendance. Peep the pics below. And if you see any celebs in the images, feel free to point them out.

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SOULJA BOY TELL 'EM SNAGS TOP SPOT ON FORBES MAGAZINE HOTTEST NEW MUSIC STARS LIST.

Some recording artists toil for years without ever scoring a big hit. Then there's the fortunate few who skip all the dues-paying hardships and skyrocket straight to stardom. That pretty much sums up the experience of Soulja Boy Tell 'Em and other new music acts on Forbes' list of music's hottest new stars. Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, whose Crank That (Soulja Boy) was one of the biggest hit songs of the year. Soulja Boy (DeAndre Way, to his mom) got his first exposure by posting songs and videos on his YouTube and MySpace pages, which helped attract the attention of hip-hop producer Michael "Mr. Collipark" Crooms and eventually landed him a contract with Universal Music Group's Interscope Records.

To refer to Crank That as a mere "song" would probably underplay its multi-platform ubiquity. The official video racked up tens of millions of hits on YouTube and spawned a dance craze that prompted Soulja Boy to shoot an instructional video that generated more than 30 million hits of its own. Then there were the countless spoofs and imitations that featured mashups of SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora The Explorer, Alvin and the Chipmunks and others. "Crank That" has also sold more than 3 million song downloads and more than 2 million ringtones. With that kind of reach, it was hard to escape the song's catchy refrain of "Yoooooo!/Crank that Soulja Boy, now watch me/Yoooooo!"

AFTER THE JUMP, TAKE A PEEK AT THE OTHER UP AND COMING ARTISTS (INCLUDING TWO FROM FLORIDA) THAT MADE THE CUT & WHAT STEPS FORBES TOOK IN ORDER TO COMPILE THEIR LIST.

To compile a list of the hottest new stars of music, we examined several measures of popularity and success. To start off, we looked at the top searches and downloads on peer-to-peer networks during the past 12 months as measured by BigChampagne, as well as press mentions as measured by Factiva. Then we looked at U.S. digital track downloads and album sales in 2007 and the first two months of 2008, as measured by Nielsen SoundScan. Finally, we took a look at "mastertone" ringtone sales during the same period, as measured by Nielsen RingScan (mastertones are ringtones that play a snippet of the actual recording of your favorite song).

Other artists who made the list include: Sean Kingston, Flo Rida, Plies, J. Holiday, Hurricane Chris and American Idol winner Jordin Sparks.

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