It Happens This Week
• Much ado in the charity world: Chelsea Clinton co-chairs the Junior Committee for the School of American Ballet gala (joined by alums like Chita Rivera), while Tina Fey and Conan O’Brien perform at a benefit for the Autism Coalition.
• There’s a citywide census of homeless New York.
• BLT Fish’s much-anticipated third-floor dining hall opens.
• Interpol plays two dates at Radio City.
• And J.Lo is back on the block with Rebirth.

(Photo: Amanda Edwards/Getty Images)

50 Cent Takes the L Train
Williamsburg’s Disco D gets his big break.
No hip-hop blockbuster is complete these days without beats from A-list hitmakers like Timbaland or Kanye West. Which means that 50 Cent’s much-anticipated sophomore album, The Massacre, out March 3, is the rare sure-to-be-multiplatinum project that features a song by an unknown producer: Williamsburg’s Disco D. The 24-year-old D’s real name is David Shayman, and he’s Jewish and from Ann Arbor (far from 8 Mile). Originally, he made the track—which is based on a sample from the O’Jays’ “What Am I Waiting For?”—for his girlfriend, who lives in Brazil. “Just before Christmas, I got a message on my cell phone: ‘This is G-Unit, we want your track for 50,’ ” Shayman says (his publicist had been shopping it). In the end, 50 Cent transformed the lush orchestral track into something called “Ski Mask Way” (think armed robbery, not chairlifts). Shayman doesn’t mind the menacing take on his tune, especially as his relationships with his girlfriend and 50 Cent have blossomed: Shayman’s now engaged, and 50 is interested in five more of his beats for G-Unit artists Olivia and Tony Yayo.
—Ethan Brown