Think digg or netvibes aimed specifically at one demographic-hip-hop culture. Imagine RSS feeds and widgets geared to meet the needs of consumers, not necessarily the tech savvy. Take CEO and President Navarrow Wright, former web designer, programmer, and chief technology officer for BET, and combine his know-how with the experience, knowledge and ideas of hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons. The end result is Global Grind, a website specifically aimed at the hip-hop demographic and culture in hopes of getting them to gather, collect, share and find data relevant to them in one place-globalgrind.com.

What is Global Grind?

In their own words, Global Grind says that, “it’s the global view of all the content that is relevant in the hip-hop community.” The website, modeled after and pulling components from such social networking sites as Facebook, Netvibes, and digg, is the vision of Navarrow Wright and Russell Simmons. However, unlike websites that are hoping to appeal to the masses, the intended audience for Global Grind is clear. Because they aren’t trying to reach everyone, they have more freedom with their design and features. Wright informed Lindsay Campbell in a recent Wallstrip interview that there isn’t one place online that meets the needs of the hip-hop community, and that he and Simmons feel that Global Grind can be that place. Wright defines himself as part of this demographic, and is working hard to have the site meet his needs, too. His vision is clear.

*Christmas Day became an unexpected surprise for Lil’ Wayne fans. Without fanfare, the Cash Money/Universal artist slipped out a five-song digital EP on Dec. 25 dubbed “The Leak.”

      The project is only available as digital downloads from Amazon.com, iTunes and Rhapsody. It should hold fans over until the scheduled February release of his next full-length album, “Tha Carter III.”

      As previously reported, Lil Wayne told Billboard.com he was pushing the release date for “Tha Carter III” from Dec. 18 to February due to widespread leaks, including “Gossip,” which appears on the digital EP.

      The other four tracks on “The Leak” include “I’m Me,” “Kush,” “Love Me or Hate Me” and “Talkin About It.”

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The Los Angeles County coroner’s office was scheduled to conduct an autopsy Wednesday on Donda West, mother and manager of hip-hop star Kanye West, amid reports that she died of complications from cosmetic surgery.

A statement issued by the family late Monday offered no details about how West died, but the coroner’s office cited a recent surgical procedure as a possible cause. A California surgeon said through a spokeswoman that he had declined to perform cosmetic surgery on West months ago because she had a pre-existing condition.

West, 58, who stopped breathing at her home in Los Angeles on Saturday, was brought to the Centinela Freeman Regional Medical Center in Marina del Rey by paramedics, hospital spokeswoman Cyndee Woelfle told the Tribune. Woelfle said it was her understanding that West had had some cosmetic surgery, and that her “problems were a result of the surgery but it was not done at this hospital.”

On Monday, Patricia Green, a publicist for Donda West, told news media she understood West had undergone cosmetic surgery; later, Green backed away from that statement.

Reports of 50 Cent’s retirement have been greatly exaggerated.

“No, I’m not retiring,” Fitty told me, in the wake of his Kanye West feud. You will recall he pledged to bow out if his album “Curtis” didn’t outsell West’s “Graduation,” which opened nationally at No. 1.

“[My album] was No. 1 internationally the week it came out,” he said at Philippe. “It was the No. 1 European album!”

Indeed, while West trumped Fitty stateside, “Curtis” scored both the top album and single on the Billboard European Hot 100.

Says Fiddy: “It’s all about the numbers at the end of the day.”