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8 Very Black Reasons to Check Out Raising Dion on Netflix
Netflix’s original series, Raising Dion, dropped on Friday, October 4, and became my newest binge. I watched all nine episodes over the weekend and now I feel like talking about it. While watching, I made some observations that I’ve turned into very black reasons to check out the series. I wanted to share them with…
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This Is My Third Season Not Watching the NFL. Here's How My Life Has Changed Since I Stopped
Back in 2017, I decided to give up watching NFL games for various reasons. Chief among them was that I didn’t like how the NFL was treating Colin Kaepernick in the wake of his nonviolent protests against police brutality and the (what appeared to me to be clear) collusion among team owners to keep him…
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Filed Under 'Marriage': My Wife Steals My Cool Clothes So She Can Get All the Cool Points
I’m coming up on a year of marriage next month—Oct. 12, to be exact—and the year has flown by. Like I assume most couples do on the eve of that first year anniversary, we’ve both reflected (together and separately) on our journey into marriage and the year we’ve had. It hasn’t resulted in any grand…
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I Am Still a Part of the Rhythm Nation 30 Years Later and That's Alright With Me
I recently saw a Billboard article that ranked every song on Janet Jackson’s fourth studio album, 1989’s Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814 (we’ll just call it Rhythm Nation from here on out)—though I’m sure most folks think it’s her second album after her landmark album, 1986’s Control—and thought to myself that I could never do…
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10 Thoughts About the Upcoming 'A Night with Whitney: The Whitney Houston Hologram Tour'
1. I could understand a Las Vegas residency for “A Night with Whitney.” What happens there, rightly stays there, so it makes sense. Yes, that’s a non-sequitur. But so is ‘Whitney was popular let’s make her a ghost and tour her.’ I’ve been to Vegas and seen things that I have not seen anywhere else,…
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So I Guess Nike Doesn’t Actually Care If I Get the Package They Shipped To Me, Huh?
They may not have the most iconic and recognizable logo of all time (I’m sure the folks involved in that debate argue about this frequently), but Nike is absolutely near the top. Should you decide to look at folks’ feet all day long, I’d wager that you’d see more Nike swooshes (also called the Nike…
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Thanks to My Kids, I Hope to Never Hear ‘Old Town Road’ Again. I’ll Probably Listen to It Again This Afternoon
This is just an estimate, but I’d wager that, to date, I’ve heard Lil Nas X’s smash hit, “Old Town Road,” probably 75 million times. Every time we get into the car, any car, my kids ask to hear “their song.” Their song is “Old Town Road.” In the morning and in the evening. On…
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A Prayer for Whichever Ballhead Scallywag Removed Teedra Moses’ Complex Simplicity From Streaming Services
Let us bow our heads in prayer: Precious Lord—mellifluous maker of the melody, harbinger of the highest Hosanna in the land—a grave injustice has been manifested by a body or bodies for whom the bell obviously never tolls for happiness. Father Gawd, I opened up my Apple Music recently in attempts to get some simple…
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Jidenna's 85 to Africa Is a Musical Road Trip Worth Taking
While August 23, 2019, probably won’t be revered in modern black music release history the same way that September 29, 1998, is—the day that Outkast’s Aquemini, Jay-Z’s Vol. 2, Hard Knock Life, A Tribe Called Quest’s The Love Movement, Black Star’s Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star and Brand Nubian’s Foundation were released—it…
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A Story About Popeyes Chicken (That's Not About Their GOAT Chicken Sandwich) and Also About Nothing at the Same Damn Time
There’s been a whole lot of chicken talk lately. Most of the chicken conversation has centered around the new Popeyes chicken sandwich that had folks, including me and my own family, waiting over an hour for an opportunity to jump into the conversation about its goodness—which is now a thing of the past since Popeyes…
