Monday Memo

The film "Lee Daniels' "The Butler" topped the weekend box office once again, earning over $17 million. "We're the Millers", "Mortal Instruments: City of Bones", "The World's End" and "Planes" round out the top five films of the week. Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis were among the winners in the hip hop category at last night's MTV Video Music Awards. Other winners include Kanye West. 2 Chainz, Drake, Justin Timberlake and Miley Cyrus.  All in all, it was another exciting ceremony fans won't soon forget. Actor/singer Tyrese is doing well after fainting inside a Washington D.C. nightclub while performing with the group TGT injuring his wrist in the process. A rep for the singer said in a statement that the reason for the fainting spell is exhaustion. The singer took to Twitter to thank fans for their support and concern. He and his group mates can look forward to another exciting night. Their collaboration album, "3 Kings", is slated to sell 65,000-70,000 copies in its first week and debut at No. 5 on the Billboard Top 200. Rapper Fat Joe is scheduled to begin a four month prison sentence for tax evasion today. He plead guilty to the charges last  December and was sentenced earlier this month. He tweeted a farewell message to fans promising to return by New Year's Eve. Before checking into prison he released "The Darkside 3 ", a 10-track album featuring production from DJ Premier, 9th Wonder, Cool & Dre and more. Singer and reality star K Michelle graces the cover of the latest issue of Sister 2 Sister magazine. She discusses her new album, her career, the music industry and what's next for her. Sister 2 Sister magazine is on newsstands now. More Kanye West news. West is known for extravagant performances on the MTV Video Music Awards, and he didn't squander an opportunity to make a statement last night. What appeared to be West's silhouette  rapping in front of a random tree, was actually him rapping in front of an image of an actual relic from a dark era in American history. At the last minute during his performance the G.O.O.D. Music rapper swapped out "Black Skinhead" for "Blood On The Leaves", which samples Nina Simone's cover of Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" and added a lynching tree as a visual interpretation of Holiday's 1939 recording, lyrics of which are inspired by the post-slavery treatment of African-Americans in the South. Interesting indeed. On the tube: "Raising Hope" on Fox, "How I Met Your Mother" on CBS, "Shark Tank" on ABC and "American Ninja Warrior" on NBC. Happy Monday!