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Can We All Agree that DJ Khaled is the Best Human Being in all of Hip-Hop?
It’s been established that I’m a Super Saiyan-level hater (h/t Panama), especially when it comes to contemporary mainstream hip-hop. Let’s keep it a buck, though – there’s a lot to hate on in hip-hop right now: We have a XXL Freshman Issue with 10 rappers whose combined bars couldn’t get a cell signal from a…
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If You Paid Ja Rule $10,000 for Anything In 2017, You Deserve Whatever The Fuck Happens To You
How exactly would Ja contribute to your good time at the Fyre Festival?
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I Dont Know How I'm Supposed To Feel About Kanye
This piece started off quite differently. You see, after years of skating around the margins of the sentiment, I’d finally leaned into full-on “Fuck Kanye West” mode. It followed years of annoyance at his trend of constantly obnoxious and solipsistic behavior. Even his admission during a recent concert that he didn’t vote at all Nov. 8 but…
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A Vote For Jill Stein Is A Vote In The Trash
Cornel West recently continued down his long, winding road to breaking my heart. He returned to his recurring role as a panelist on Real Time with Bill Maher, where he was even more overbearing than usual. He battled with Barney Frank and barely let my future second wife Alex Wagner get a word in edgewise;…
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A Dummy's Guide To Chicago Gun Violence From Somebody Who Lives There
I have a friend moving to Chicago this fall to start a master’s program at the University of Chicago. As she prepares to leave from her Washington, D.C.-area home, many people in her life have expressed some degree of fear for her safety following her move. As if the moment she steps out into clear…
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Hip-Hop’s Best Year Ever Can Almost Buy You A Drink
It should come as no surprise to most of you that I wasn’t the most popular kid in high school. During my 1995 – 1996 freshman year, I endured an awkward post-pubescent, pre-growth-spurt phase that had me looking like the love child of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and Associate Bob from Demolition Man. Making matters…
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What A Time For Cultural Appropriation To Be Alive
Much as it pains me to admit aloud, maybe there’s something to all those stupid-ass memes that your “woke” Facebook friends like to share that compare real-life “ignored” atrocities to the asinine shit that makes Buzzfeed headlines. That Blake Lively’s delusional Instagram post dominated an entire Wednesday lends credence to their gripes. Even I couldn’t…
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Why Won't Hollywood Let Black Movies Be Great?
I’ve long been of two minds about Kevin Hart. On the one hand, I appreciate that he’s a seemingly bonhomous young brother who’s built an empire for himself by selling out shows and racking up receipts at the box office. There’s little more gratifying than a black man starting from the bottom (the actual bottom, Drake) and making…
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Fuck This Entire Election Cycle
When Donald Trump was scheduled March 11 to stump on the University of Illinois Chicago campus, I was driving to Detroit with the goal of getting out of town before the inevitable protests began. I openly questioned on Facebook the purpose of protesting Trump, as if making a scene in public wouldn’t just embolden his…
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Complex’s “Best of” Lists Are Garbage
The media company never seems to get their rankings right…I wonder why…
