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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…
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Queen Sugar's Latest Episode Brings Addiction and Trauma Front and Center
There’s a scene in the latest episode, “Oh Mamere,” of season 4 of Queen Sugar that is maddening to watch. In it, Darla Sutton (I legit had to look up her character’s last name; I’m not sure I’ve heard it uttered a single time on the show), played by fountain of youth-er Bianca Lawson, is…
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I Got a Ring Video Doorbell and Now I Pretty Much Want to Move
I don’t know when, exactly, I decided to get a Ring video doorbell, but I do know that one day I got it in my head that I needed some minor surveillance around my door, after a series of unfortunate events. Events like the various times both UPS and the USPS claimed to have delivered…
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My 4-Year-Old Did One of Those Things Kids Do to Remind You Why Being a Parent Is Awesome
Parenting, in practice, is a lot of work. Sure, it’s work that most of us who have the privilege of being parents love, but there are days when everybody can use a break. Especially when you have little ones, which I do. I have three children, aged 3, 4 and 10. As kids get older…
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Travels With Panama: The Trying to Get to Miami for NABJ's Conference Edition
I’m not saying that somebody has it out for me when it comes to air travel, but I’m not saying somebody doesn’t either. I’ve made several trips in the past two months and they’ve all come with their fair share of shenanigans. I wrote about the one that ended my on-again, off-again relationship with American…
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VSB’s Absolute, Yet Debatable List of the 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time…Definitely, Maybe
You’ve probably seen a ton of lists circulating on social media lately ranking the 50 greatest rappers of all time. I don’t know who did the first one, but somehow Joe Budden—an extremely talented and gifted wordsmith—ended up in the No. 3 slot ahead of arguably, at minimum, 10 rappers easily better than him. Because…
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We Belong Together: Mariah Carey Records the Theme Song to Mixed-ish
You know how sometimes two things seem so sympatico and perfect in theory that they’re basically a union waiting to happen? Well, today, we—the universal we … ya know, me and you, your mama and your cousin, too—got word that such a union will be realized. Because sometimes 1+1 = 2, it turns out that…
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Rapsody's Upcoming Album, Eve, Pays Homage to Black Women; 1st Single 'Ibtihaj' Keeps It All the Way Live
Rapsody, the North Carolina lyricist known in hip-hop circles as a rapper’s rapper, has consistently delivered on both her individual releases and features. In 2017, Rapsody (born Marlanna Evans) dropped her critically-acclaimed and Grammy-nominated album, Laila’s Wisdom (Jamla/RocNation). The first record on the album—the title track—has been in my personal rotation nonstop ever since and…
