-
The 10 Most Significant Black Cultural Institutions or Entities That Never Actually Existed, Ranked
Ever since Ricky Baker caught a few 12-gauge shells to the legs and back in 1991’s Boyz N The Hood—holy shit it turns 30 this year!!!!!!—and moved on up to that deluxe apartment in the sky, he’s been part of the Black consciousness. Boyz N The Hood plays constantly, even in 2021, on TNT and…
-
Coming to America Questions That Need Answers: Was McDowell's Better than McDonald's? An Examination
This week at VSB, in dedication to and preparation for Friday’s release of Coming 2 America, we’ll be digging deep-ish and having fun with the original, 1988’s Coming to America. I don’t remember the first time I saw Coming to America. Considering that it was released when I was 9 years old and very early scenes…
-
28 Days of Album Cover Blackness With VSB, Day 28: Wilson Pickett's Pickett In The Pocket (1974)
I mean, bruh. If this ain’t one of the Blackest album covers of all time then I don’t know what is. Wilson Pickett is out here rocking a red pleather suit with gold or green shimmery accents. He has beautiful Black women by his side who are clearly about to ruin his shot, or would…
-
28 Days of Album Music Blackness With VSB, Day 27: Public Enemy's It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back (1988)
I don’t need a ton of words to describe the way I feel about the cover for Public Enemy’s sophomore album, 1988’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Mostly, I just need to say how bad ass it is. And especially how bad ass it was to a 9-year-old whose big…
-
28 Days of Album Cover Blackness With VSB, Day 26: Michael Jackson's Off The Wall (1979)
Ain’t no way in the world this monthlong series would pass without a nod to one of the greatest albums ever that also happens to feature Michael Jackson at his Blackest. 1979’s Off The Wall is a certified classic. It’s the album that launched Thriller. But the cover let’s you know it’s about to be…
-
28 Days of Black Joy: The Art of Chuck Styles
It all started over the past year when like many of us, I made a very hard turn into damn near exclusively buying clothing pieces by and for Black people. While I’ve always been very much into F.U.B.U. as a philosophy (while oddly never buying an actual FUBU apparel) my Buy Black meter hit an…
-
28 Days of Album Cover Blackness With VSB, Day 25: Sonny Sharrock's Black Woman (1969)
The cover for jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock’s debut album, 1969’s Black Woman, could have easily doubled as a movie poster for the 1970s version of Queen & Slim. The photo taken by Ray Gibson (with design by Haig Adishian) features Sonny and his wife and frequent collaborator—until their divorce—Linda Sharrock lookin’ like Black love goals.…
-
28 Days of Album Cover Blackness With VSB, Day 24: Leon Thomas' Full Circle (1973)
The cover for Leon Thomas’ 1973 album, Full Circle, does not look like what it sounds like, to me at least. The album cover looks like some “diamond in the back, sunroof top…” vibe jams. But Leon Thomas is both a jazz and blue vocalist and this album is rich with both. Thomas was also…
-
28 Days of Album Cover Blackness With VSB, Day 23: Ohio Players' Honey (1975)
There is no discussion about Black album covers, iconic or otherwise, that doesn’t include the string of album covers the Ohio Players put together in the 1970s. I could have included any album cover from 1972’s Pain to 1981’s Everybody Up and it would be a worthy inclusion to the conversation. But 1975’s Honey is…
-
28 Days of Album Cover Blackness With VSB, Day 22: Max Roach's We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite (1960)
Max Roach was a famed jazz drummer and composer who has countless albums with various configurations of artists. His career spanned decades and if you are up on jazz at all, you know Max Roach even if you don’t know that you know Max Roach. One thing that stands out to me about him is…
