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Chicago Man Captures Own Murder on Facebook Live
A Chicago man’s last moments on earth were captured on video and posted live on Facebook, according to ABC7 Chicago. Antonio Perkins, 28, was found fatally shot in a North Lawndale neighborhood on Wednesday. Perkins, also known as Cicero Yayo, was taking a Facebook Live video of himself drinking tequila with friends, and the deadly altercation…
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Prince Be of P.M. Dawn Dead at 46
Yet another ’90s rap icon has gone on to the ancestors. Attrell “Prince Be” Cordes of the rap-pop act P.M. Dawn is dead at 46. People magazine confirms that Cordes died Friday of renal kidney disease from diabetes. The Jersey City, N.J., native is survived by his wife, Mary, and three children. Prince Be started…
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Imma Let You Finish, Hamilton, but Donald Trump Is the Best Politician-Rapper of All Time
The musical Hamilton goes hard. But the Donald Trump Mixtape goes harder. My review: 1. He spits bars. Trump doesn’t give speeches; he freestyles. The Washington Post wrote, “Donald Trump says a lot of things twice.” But he’s not repeating himself. That’s just the hook. He invents whole new parts of speech: the past-tense clueless (“When…
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Watch: Estelle Tells Her Truth and Serves Food for Thought
Grammy Award-winning artist Estelle is a truth-speaking force. The British singer-songwriter first came on the scene in the early 2000s, and with her charming accent and vivacious spirit, she has made her mark on the music industry—stateside and abroad. Estelle has made herself vulnerable through her willingness to sing about life’s complications. Expect for the enchantress’s music…
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What Would It Take to Scare America Into Passing Stricter Gun Control?
It’s been exactly one year since Dylann Roof decided to make himself infamous by walking into Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church—less than five minutes from where I’m sitting now—to, according to prosecutors, commit murder, get his racist merit badge and join the ranks of the worst people from South Carolina ever. He accepted the kindness…
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What Sugar Babies Can Teach Women About the Value of the Emotional Work They Put Into a Relationship
Earlier this week, the New York Post ran one of those “news” stories that come either on slow-news days or shortly after big-news tragedies that have left folks emotionally spent. Sometimes you need some “fluff” as a distraction. Enter the story of Nina Peterson, a 37-year-old, self-described “sugar baby”— i.e., a woman who dates wealthy…
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Racism in Asian Countries and Fear of the Black Male
“Now the Chinese are talking s—t about us, too?” My friend Keba semiwhispered, wide-eyed, leaning into her MacBook Pro. We were sitting side by side in the café, and she had just complained about how much time Facebook was sucking. “What happened?” I asked without turning away from my screen, brow wrinkled, frustrated from my…
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Tell Me More About My Runaway Slave Ancestor
In my father’s family, there is a story about three brothers: Nash, Kush and Hardy. Our surname is Graham. The brothers were slaves who escaped by setting a cotton gin afire in the middle of the night, and during the commotion, they scat. We don’t know where they escaped from, but my family is strongly…
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Watch: Music Innovators King Dish Out Food for Thought
The group King stands tall among this generation’s wave of black musical innovators. “[Black music] is something that we provide to the whole world; it’s something that so much of our culture was founded on,” says Paris Strother, King’s pianist and producer. The trio first emerged in 2011 with their independently released EP, The Story.…
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50 Years Ago Stokely Carmichael Called for ‘Black Power,’ Galvanizing a Movement
Fifty years ago this Thursday, the call for “black power” by Stokely Carmichael in Greenwood, Miss., transformed the black freedom struggle. Frightening white citizens while transforming black identity, the black power movement’s call for radical political self-determination challenged liberal frameworks for racial equality in profound ways that continue to reverberate to this day. Black power…

