LIL' KIM's sentencing hearing was scheduled for June 24th but has been pushed back to July 6th. The rapper, who was convicted of three counts of perjury and one of conspiracy in March, faces twenty years in prison, a maximum of five years for each count . . . NELLY and FAT JOE have been added to this year's BET Awards show lineup, along with FAITH EVANS and TONI BRAXTON, who will both pay tribute to GLADYS KNIGHT. Knight, who is this year's Lifetime Achievement Award honoree, will also perform. The show airs live from Hollywood's Kodak Theatre on June 28th . . . EMINEM will perform an opening number at Rockin' the Rooftops, a special fundraising concert to save Detroit fireworks, on June 29th. The rapper will return to Detroit on August 12th with 50 CENT to wrap the Anger Management tour's North American leg . . . ALICIA KEYS has teamed with From Tha Ground Up, a Web-based celebrity mentoring program, to host an online charity auction. One lucky fan will win a date with Keys at this year's Essence Music Festival in New Orleans on July 1st to 3rd. Bidding ends June 30th . . .

Not two weeks has passed since the verdict in the MICHAEL JACKSON trial, and Epic is already set to release a two-disc, thirty-seven-song anthology of the pop star's hits. The Essential Michael Jackson, ranging from his childhood days with the JACKSON FIVE to 2001's Invincible, hits stores July 12th . . . BONNIE RAITT will kick off her North American tour in support of her new album, Souls Alike (due September 13th) in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on October 5th. The trek ends on November 22nd in Costa Mesa, California . . . The NEW YORK DOLLS, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, the FLAMING LIPS, BILLY IDOL, LCD SOUNDSYSTEM, DIGABLE PLANETS and JOSS STONE will join headliner NINE INCH NAILS for the seventh annual Voodoo Music Experience festival in New Orleans on October 29th and 30th . . . The ROLLING STONES, STEVIE WONDER, DAVID BOWIE, PAUL SIMON, JANIS JOPLIN and GEORGE HARRISON will be featured on the DVD The Dick Cavett Show: Rock Icons, due August 16th . . . MATISYAHU will hit the road on July 9th in Philadelphia, finishing up October 1st in Bloomington, Indiana. The Hasidic reggae artist will play some dates with TREY ANASTASIO . . . PATTY LOVELESS will release her fourteenth studio album, Dreamin' My Dreams, on September 13th . . .

A DVD of the 1973 documentary Jimi Hendrix, featuring interviews with MICK JAGGER, LOU REED, LITTLE RICHARD and ERIC CLAPTON, will be released on June 28th. The bonus footage includes a previously unreleased live performance by Hendrix at the 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival . . . NEIL YOUNG will perform -- for the first time since suffering a brain aneurysm -- at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium August 15th to 19th. The five-night stand will be taped for the performance DVD Young is working on with filmmaker JONATHAN DEMME . . . Rhino will release Heartaches and Highways: The Best of Emmylou Harris on July 19th. Harris will hit the road, playing some dates with ELVIS COSTELLO and BUDDY MILLER, on July 6th in Anchorage, Arkansas, finishing up on December 12th in Los Angeles . . . R&B singers ANGIE STONE, KEM and funk/soul collective KOOL AND THE GANG will perform at the Gibson/Baldwin "Night at the Net" charity event at UCLA on July 25th . . .

Sony/BMG will release the double-disc album, The Essential DOLLY PARTON, chronicling the country legend's career, on June 28th . . . Philadelphia rapper CASSIDY's preliminary hearing was postponed to July 19th. He surrendered to police on June 17th and was officially charged the next day with the shooting death of a twenty-two-year-old man. Cassidy's bail was denied, so the rapper will remain in prison until his hearing. Cassidy's new album, I'm a Hustla, hits stores next Tuesday . . . HOOBASTANK will kick off a state and county fair tour on July 28th in Minot, North Dakota, wrapping August 27th in Lincoln, Nebraska . . . The Damon Dash Music Group will release the DVD The B.Coming of BEANIE SIGEL on July 26th. The DVD chronicles the rapper's life, with footage of Sigel recording his most recent album, The B.Coming, before his incarceration . . . California rockers TRAPT will release their second album, Someone in Control, on September 13th . . .

MADONNA is launching the English Roses Web Collection site, englishrosescollection.com. The items available on the site -- formerly available at exclusive specialty boutiques, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus stores -- include girl's apparel, footwear, tea sets and collectible dolls . . . Eagle Rock Entertainment will release the DVD, CD and UMD (compatible with Sony Playstation) TUPAC SHAKUR: Live at the House of Blues in September. The show -- which took place July 4, 1996, just two months before the rapper was gunned down in Las Vegas -- includes performances by SNOOP DOGG and the OUTLAWZ . . . BEN LEE, the FLAMING LIPS, INTERPOL, RILO KILEY, SONIC YOUTH and SNOW PATROL are featured on Seattle public radio station KEXP's compilation CD, Live at KEXP Volume One, due August 23rd at KEXP.org and select Seattle music retailers . . . Rhino Records will release The Word Is Live, a three-CD box set of YES concert material spanning the band's thirty-five-year history, on August 23rd . . .

The family of the late singer ELLIOTT SMITH has set up the Elliott Smith Memorial Fund. Money donated to the fund, at groups.yahoo.com/group/esmemorialfund, will aid children who are victims of abuse . . . Songs by KENNY ROGERS, the JUDDS, LEANN RIMES, MARIE OSMOND and KIMBERLY LOCKE will be featured on Salute! The World War II Tribute Album, due June 28th. A portion of the proceeds from the CD will be donated to the American Experience Foundation to benefit veterans . . . The CAESARS will hit the road in support of their latest release, Paper Tigers, on July 9th in Atlanta, wrapping up on July 25th in Los Angeles . . . DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE, the DECEMBERISTS and BUILT TO SPILL will perform at the first Summer Camp festival on August 6th in Bend, Oregon . . . VHS OR BETA will kick off their summer tour on June 23rd in San Francisco . . . NATALIE MERCHANT will release an album of hits and rarities in the fall. The compilation will also include new recordings . . . MACY GRAY's CD/DVD Live in Las Vegas will hit stores July 26th . . .

R&B diva MARIAH CAREY will perform at the annual Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular in New York. The show will broadcast live on NBC . . . TORI AMOS will take her latest album, The Beekeeper, on the road this summer, beginning August 10th in West Palm Beach, Florida. The trek will wrap on September 17th in Los Angeles . . . BLUES TRAVELER will release their eighth studio album, Bastardos!, on September 12th . . . NAS will begin a multi-city tour of House of Blues venues on July 14th in Chicago. The Queens rapper will perform at the Rock the Bells festival, alongside REDMAN, GHOSTFACE and DJ CUT CHEMIST, on July 30th in San Bernardino, California . . . LISA MARIE PRESLEY will kick off her North American tour, in support of Now What, on June 28th in Dallas . . . Country singer MARTINA McBRIDE gave birth to her third daughter, Ava Rose Kathleen McBride, on June 20th . . .

FAITH HILL will release her new album, Fireflies, on August 2nd. The first single, "Mississippi Girl" was co-written by JOHN RICH of BIG AND RICH . . . LOS LOBOS, the NEW YORK DOLLS, COHEED AND CAMBRIA, G. LOVE AND SPECIAL SAUCE, the BRAZILIAN GIRLS, JOHN HIATT and NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS, and TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS will perform at the Comerica Michigan Tastefest, June 30th to July 4th in Detroit . . . MARTHA WAINWRIGHT, JOHN PRINE, STEVE EARLE, MARY GAUTHIER, TIFT MERRITT and SONNY LANDRETH are among the list of nominees for the fourth annual Americana Honors and Awards, taking place September 9th in Nashville . . . RUFIO will release their third album, The Comfort of Home, on July 12th. The Orange County rockers will join the Warped Tour on July 6th in Pomona, California . . . BOW WOW, OMARION, MARQUES HOUSTON and BOBBY VALENTINO will launch the fourth Scream Tour on July 20th in Trenton, New Jersey. The trek wraps on September 4th in Miami . . . R&B singer FAITH EVANS will hit the road on June 28th in Anaheim, California, finishing up on August 5th in Columbus, Ohio . . . TEAM SLEEP, the electronic side project of DEFTONES frontman CHINO MORENO, kick off their North American club tour on July 2nd in New York . . .

The GAME will launch his sneaker line this week in New York. The West Coast rapper and former G-UNIT member will also play at the notable Rucker's Basketball Tournament in Harlem alongside star NBA players . . . MADONNA will release her tenth studio album, a dance record, in late November, with plans to hit the road next summer. In other news, the Material Girl's upcoming Reinvention Tour documentary will be titled I'm Going to Tell You a Secret . . . Although MICHAEL JACKSON was not in attendance at the invitation-only party his family threw last Friday at the Chumash Indian Casino in Santa Ynez, California, his mother Katherine and brother TITO were there. Jackson's defense attorney Robert Sanger and a member of the jury also made an appearance . . . AEROSMITH guitarist JOE PERRY will promote his line of hot sauces -- Rock Your World Boneyard Brew and Rock Your World Mango-Peach Tango -- at the Fancy Foods Show at New York's Jacob K. Javits Center on July 10th to 12th. The two sauces are being considered for awards to be announced at the show . . . PAUL WELLER will release his new solo album, As Is Now, in October. Weller will kick off a tour in support of the new album on September 16th in Los Angeles . . . JOHN LENNON memorabilia -- including an oil painting and a handwritten All You Need is Love manuscript -- will be up for auction on July 28th at the Cooper Owen auction house in London . . .

ELVIS COSTELLO will release the twenty-seven-video compilation DVD, The Right Spectacle: The Very Best of Elvis Costello, on September 5th. The DVD features audio commentary from Costello for each video . . . SHOOTER JENNINGS will make his big-screen debut this fall in the JOHNNY CASH biopic Walk the Line. Jennings will play his late father, WAYLON JENNINGS, in the film . . . RONALD WINANS, of the Grammy award winning gospel quartet the WINANS, died June 17th of heart complications. He was forty-eight years old . . . SLEATER-KINNEY, SONIC YOUTH, the BLACK KEYS, OLIVIA TREMOR CONTROL and COMETS ON FIRE will perform at the inaugural ArthurFest on September 4th and 5th at Barnsdall Art Park in Los Angeles . . . LISA "LEFT EYE" LOPES' mother has filed a lawsuit against Mitsubishi, claiming that the automotive company failed to warn consumers about the susceptibility of their vehicles to rollover. The TLC singer/rapper died in 2002 in Honduras, when her Mitsubishi Montero Sport tipped over. The remaining members of TLC will star in the new reality show R U the Girl, in which they search for a third singer, premiering July 27th on UPN . . . ESTHERO will release her new album, Wikked Lil' Girls, on June 28th. The Canadian singer hits the road in support of the release on July 2nd in Seattle, wrapping up July 31st in Detroit . . .