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My 3-Year-Old is Potty Training. He Almost Ended Me
In my house, we are currently potty training my three-year-old. It’s the challenge all parents must face and possibly the most unreasonable of them all. Consider this: You must convince a child that his caution-to-the-wind, carefree, diapered lifestyle is actually inconvenient for him AND that he’d have much more fun if he stopped playing, did…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 30: MAZE featuring Frankie Beverly 'Before I Let Go'
I’m not even sure I need to explain why “Before I Let Go” would be the final song of the 30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB series. If you’re black and have congregated with other black folks and this song comes on you know it signals one of two things: 1) It’s time to…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 29: De La Soul's 'A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays'
De La Soul’s sophomore album, De La Soul Is Dead, was released on May 14, 1991. Sometime in late 1991, while I was in 7th grade, my class went on a field trip, and on the bus ride I sat down next to a friend of mine (whose name I remember vividly but whose business…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 28: SWV 'When U Cry'
I’m a well documented SWV fan. But since I’m feeling generous, allow me to document this again. From a piece I wrote called “An Ode to SWV” in February of 2016: I love SWV. Since 1992, they have been my favorite girl group. For me, all of their songs seem rooted in fun and good…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 27: Junk Yard Band 'Loose Booty'
Washington, D.C., and its culture absolutely changed my life. I was first introduced to D.C.—outside of the national stories about Marion Barry—in a pre-freshman program the summer before my freshman year at Morehouse College in 1997. A few of the students in the program were from D.C. and they all stood out for their fashion…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 26: Roy Ayers Ubiquity 'Everybody Loves the Sunshine'
I don’t know where you are, but where I’m at it’s hot as hell outside. It’s been in the 90s and a weather notification on my phone this morning mentioned the words “heat wave.” Well, you know what song somehow manages to work perfectly in hot ass weather, even if it’s one of the coolest…
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A Black Revolutionary War Hero Finally Gets the Military Burial Honors He Deserved
James Robinson was a black Revolutionary War hero who also served during the War of 1812 under Andrew Jackson. During both of those wars, he was promised his freedom by those who enlisted him (and other black men turned into soldiers); but when it was time to collect on that freedom, he was returned to…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 25: New Edition, 'You're Not My Kind of Girl'
New Edition is one of my favorite groups ever because of course, they are. “Can You Stand the Rain” is one of the greatest songs of all time because of course, it is. There’s a reason why BET’s The New Edition Story was such an event. Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky, Mike, Ralph—and Johnny, too, have been…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 24: Ari Lennox, 'Night Drive'
J. Cole has quietly amassed a hell of a roster over at Dreamville. One of his current artists, Ari Lennox (who in May released her debut album, Shea Butter Baby—seriously, how fuckin’ awesome of a title is that?)—is really starting to make noise, as she should be. Lennox, who is a singer/songwriter from Washington, D.C.,…
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30 Days of Musical Blackness With VSB, Day 23: Deep Cotton, ‘We’re Far Enough From Heaven Now We Can Freak Out’
Have you ever heard a song that totally had you at hello? Well, for me, one of those songs would be Deep Cotton’s “We’re Far Enough From Heaven Now We Can Freak Out.” Deep Cotton is the duo of Nate Wonder and Chuck Lightning, Janelle Monae’s longtime collaborative partners responsible for much of the production…
