The late Elliott Smith [ tickets ]'s final album could be issued later this year, the singer/songwriter's father wrote on a fan site.

"We are beginning the final mixing and production phase in mid-May and are planning for a September or October release," Gary Smith wrote on sweetadeline.net. "We will know the name of the label by the end of the month and I'll let you know just as soon as the final decision is made."

Smith died in an apparent suicide last year. He reportedly had been working on a double album.

Rapper Rakim [ tickets ] was arrested on a 2001 paternity warrant on Tuesday night (4/27), just before he was to perform a concert at New York City's Roseland Ballroom.

According to published reports, the rapper--whose real name is William Griffin--was freed on Wednesday after he paid $2,000 in child support, pending resolution of the case.

Griffin's attorney told the Associated Press that Griffin has been paying child-support for his 14-year-old son since he was born, and that the rapper wasn't aware that a warrant had been issued.

The live DVD "Cat Stevens [ tickets ]: Majikat Earth Tour 1976" is scheduled to hit stores on May 18. Among the DVD's features is an interview with the singer, who now is known as Yusuf Islam.

The Recording Industry Association of America announced this week that it has filed lawsuits against another 477 alleged file-swappers. The suits are the RIAA's first since it announced that it is ending an amnesty program for file-swappers who removed illegally obtained music from their computers and pledged to stop downloading illegal material.