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28 Days of Album Cover Blackness With VSB, Day 4: Black Ivory's Don't Turn Around (1972)
Black Ivory—the trio of vocalists from Harlem, N.Y.—is a group that had me at hello. Made up of multihyphenate, do-it-all group members Russell Patterson, Stuart Bascombe and Leroy Burgess, I still remember the first time I heard their single “Don’t Turn Around” because I was digital crate digging and saw this album cover and said,…
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28 Days of Album Cover Blackness with VSB, Day 3: Big Bear Doin Thangs (1998)
Easily doubling as both one of my favorite album covers of all time and one of the worst album covers of all time, Big Bear made sure he’d never be forgotten with the Pen & Pixel gem for his 1998 album, Doin Thangs. He also managed to land a fairly remarkable feat: I have literally…
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So…President Obama Showed Up to the Latest Very Smart Brothas x MahoganyBooks Book Club Meeting. Here's What Happened
Way back yonder—in late 2018—I co-founded a book club with the owners of MahoganyBooks, Derrick and Ramunda Young. This was a no-brainer of a collaboration. For one, all of us are avid readers and they own a physical book store that focuses on books by and for Black people. It was an opportunity to bring…
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28 Days of Album Cover Blackness with VSB, Day 2: A Taste of Honey A Taste of Honey (1978)
If you listen to Black music and disco (or either/or, really) you know A Taste of Honey. They had a monster hit with “Boogie Oogie Oogie,” a song whose hook you can probably sing in your sleep (which I don’t recommend; people freak out over stuff like that). But this album cover for their platinum-selling…
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The Root Presents the 2nd Annual Blackest Awards. Welcome to the 2021 Skippies!
Guess who’s back in the *CENSORED* house with some new awards for the African American crowd!!!?? If you said, it’s gotta be the shoes, then you’re wrong. It’s the Ro-Ro-The Root, bringing back our Blackest Awards for the second time. That makes it official, we can call it an annual award now. We want to…
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28 Days of Album Cover Blackness With VSB, Day 1: Al Green I'm Still In Love With You (1972)
It’s February again, and you know what that means—it’s Black History Month. Well, here at VSB, we like to celebrate Blackness with various monthlong series. We’ve done 28 Days of Literary Blackness (2019), 30 Days of Musical Blackness (2019) and 30 Days of Music Video Blackness (2020). This year—2021—we’re bringing you more celebration in the…
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To Washington, D.C. With Love: The Commes Des Garcons x Nike Foamposite 1 Collaboration Might As Well Come With Mambo Sauce
My first experience with the Nike Air Foamposite One, released in 1997—we called them Penny Hardaways or Penny’s, for short—was on the campus of Spelman College during the summer before my freshman year of college. I watched a dude in one of the summer programs we had running (I was in a program for science,…
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Jazmine Sullivan's Heaux Tales Album Is Amazing AF. Here Are 10 Thoughts About It
On January 8, 2021, powerhouse singer/songwriter Jazmine Sullivan released her fourth project—at a little over 32 minutes in length it’s an extended play that really is a fully realized concept album—Heaux Tales. When I first saw it pop up on my Spotify new releases, I hopped right over it. I like Jazmine Sullivan; she’s easily…
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The Case For and Against Rocking Gear From a College You Didn't Graduate From (Or Attend)
I’m an HBCU (historically Black college or university) enthusiast. There was a time in my life that whenever I went to a city with an HBCU, I tried to get to the bookstore to buy a t-shirt from the institution. My collection of HBCU shits was top notch. And I’d go out and wear them,…
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I Sat on Hold for Almost An Hour and 40 Minutes Only to Be Told The Call Could Not Be Completed And I'm Hoppin' Mad
Have you ever gotten one of those notices from the IRS that says something like, “You owe us $10,000 but maybe you don’t. Fill out this paperwork and tell us why or why not. Kthxbi.”? I didn’t exactly get one of those—I don’t actually owe the IRS anything, much less $10,000; it’s complicated—but something in…
