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  • Yo, 2000 Was a Really Good Year for Soul Music

    Yo, 2000 Was a Really Good Year for Soul Music

    If you are reading this, there’s probably a better than 50 percent chance—and probably closer to 75 or 80 percent, really—that you were one of the, apparently, 8 trillion (Swizz’s math might be a little hyperbolic) people who tuned into the Jill Scott versus Erykah Badu Verzuz on Instagram Live on Saturday evening. Topping out…

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  • The Root Jams Weekly Playlist (5/8/2020): 'Bring Me Peace'

    The Root Jams Weekly Playlist (5/8/2020): 'Bring Me Peace'

    May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and in honor of that fact, the playlists this month will all be dedicated to it. Our first one, titled “Bring Me Peace,” is a list of songs from staffers of TheRoot.com that are used to bring a peaceful mental state. “Bring Me Peace” (5/8/2020) Panama Jackson Maxwell “Ascension…

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  • An Interview with My 11-Year-Old My Daughter, Who Has Been Out of School Since Super Bowl Sunday

    For many of us, 2020 has been a year we’d prefer to fast forward through. From losing Kobe and Gianna Bryant in late January to the onset of the coronavirus that has brought much of our normal lives to a halt, most of us in this country (and across the globe) have had to make…

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  • The Way My Kids Are Eating Snacks at Home, I'm Starting to Wonder If They Were Starving at School

    I have a curiosity that I’ve been pondering since schools shuttered and our kids have been home around the clock: were my kids starving at school? I think my parents will probably feel me on this one right here. If you are a parent and find yourself so compelled to throw your hands in the…

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  • Even 20 Years Later, Lucy Pearl's Sole Album Is Still as Perfect as Ever

    Even 20 Years Later, Lucy Pearl's Sole Album Is Still as Perfect as Ever

    As is typically the case whenever I’ve undertaken a project of some sort that requires me to carve out a sizable block of time to complete, I try to queue up a few albums that I know I love with high replay value so I don’t have to spend a lot of time skipping tracks.…

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  • That Awkward Moment When You're The Only One Who Shows Up to an IG Live

    I’d wager that a lot of us are spending significantly more time on social media these days. I know my phone—where I consume, probably, 80 percent of my social media—is always near which means I’m scrolling through news, sales, hot takes, Michael Jordan truther takes (truly a subgenre unto itself), fake news, unfriendable statements, art…

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  • The Root Jams Weekly (5/1/2020): 'Guilty Pleasures'

    The Root Jams Weekly (5/1/2020): 'Guilty Pleasures'

    We all have them. Maybe you don’t want the homies to know that you love that song. Based on your understood level of music appreciation, there’s no way you’d love that drivel. A person like you would never listen to that. Except you would because you do and every time it comes on, you buss…

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  • I Think I've Been Using Retail Therapy to Break the "Stay-at-Home" Monotony and Didn't Realize It

    I don’t remember exactly what date it was that a general, nationwide “stay your ass at home” proclamation happened, but if memory serves correctly, it was sometime in mid-to-late March. According to school emails for two of my kids, their last day of in-building instruction was Friday, March 13th, which is amazing because it feels…

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  • 9 Thoughts about Mobb Deep and Their Classic Album, The Infamous, That Just Turned 25 Years Old

    9 Thoughts about Mobb Deep and Their Classic Album, The Infamous, That Just Turned 25 Years Old

    Mobb Deep’s sophomore album, The Infamous, recently turned 25 years old, having been released on April 25, 1995. Produced largely by Havoc and featuring notable additional production from Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest—an integral part of their story—and featuring stellar, vivid lyricism from Prodigy and Havoc, this album is an indisputable hip hop classic.…

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  • The Root Jams Weekly Playlist (4/24/2020): 'Move Your Body'

    The Root Jams Weekly Playlist (4/24/2020): 'Move Your Body'

    This playlist is in honor of Breyon Prescott, Teddy Riley’s homie/hypeman during his initial social-distancingless Verzuz battle against Babyface that never really happened. For Breyon’s dedication to the jam, this week we chose songs that make you move as soon as you hear them! “Move Your Body” (4/24/2020) Playlist Monique Judge Montell Jordan “Get It…

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Panama Jackson is the Senior Editor of Very Smart Brothas. He’s pretty fly for a light guy. You can find him at your mama’s mama’s house drinking all her brown liquors.


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