Exclusive: The Honey Pot Co. CEO Beatrice Dixon Shares Her Ancestral Recipe for Empire Building in New Memoir
Rapper Lil Jon Break Silence After His Son’s Tragic Death
The Tale of Vanity, Prince’s True Love Who Couldn’t Escape Her Demons
New Black TV Shows To Watch In 2026
-
Popular Financial Literacy Podcast Earn Your Leisure Joins The Black Effect Podcast Network
I wouldn’t consider myself an expert at surviving global pandemics, but in my 10 months (and counting) of practice, there are two recommendations that I always make to people who constantly complain about how bored or miserable they are thanks to COVID-19. The first is to be hyper-vigilant about escaping your apartment and going outside.…
-
Exclusive: I Spent a (Lady) Day on the Set of Lee Daniels' The United States vs. Billie Holiday
On a brisk day in Montreal, Quebec in November 2019, I entered the sound stage for the production of The United States vs. Billie Holiday. In turn, I also entered the eccentric world of director Lee Daniels, who noted that he chose Montreal because it was the closest resemblance to a past Harlem that doesn’t…
-
'Blinding Lights': Let’s Talk About The Weeknd’s Super Bowl LV Halftime Show, Shall We?
On Sunday night, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers faced off against the Kansas City Chiefs at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, Fla. for this year’s Super Bowl LV. Though the Bucs ultimately walked away with the victory, the true champion of the night was arguably The Weeknd, who performed at the Pepsi Halftime Show. In…
-
28 Days of Album Cover Blackness With VSB, Day 8: Guy Warren of Ghana's Afro-Jazz (1969)
I’ll bet if that if I didn’t tell you that this album cover was for an album by a Ghanaian artist in 1969, I’d bet good money that you might assume this was a reference cover for a Kool Moe Dee album in 1989. Or for some gangsta rap artist out of Compton in the…
-
28 Days of Album Cover Blackness with VSB, Day 7: Miles Davis' On the Corner (1972)
I mean, I don’t even have to say it, but do you see this cover?? Look at all that animated Blackness permeating that bright yellow background. I like to think that yellow represents the sun, and everybody on the cover is the Black gold of the sun? This cover is for Miles Davis’ 1972 album…
-
28 Days of Album Cover Blackness With VSB, Day 6: Queen Latifah's Nature of A Sista' (1991)
The album cover for Queen Latifah’s sophomore album, Nature Of A Sista’, is a much better take on the album cover for her debut, All Hail the Queen. Where All Hail the Queen had her standing in a stately, militaristic-ish fashion with the album’s title surrounding a silhouette of the African continent—it was a little…
-
Angela Bassett Reflects On One of Her Most Iconic Roles: 'Nothing Has Been as Difficult as Tina Turner'
I don’t think I’ve gone a month of my life without hearing somebody yell or text, “Eat the cake, Annie Mae!” That quote, of course, comes from the 1993 cult classic, What’s Love Got to Do With It, in which a courageous Angela Bassett embodies the legendary songstress Tina Turner. She would win a Golden…
-
Van Jones Goes on The View and Gets Roasted Like a Two-Faced Potato Because Ain't No Such Thing as Halfway Activists
Sis, you ain’t have to do Van like that. You didn’t have to bring that man on your show and call him out for flip-flopping more than a fish out of water. You ain’t have to pull that man’s hoe-card and tell him that the fence is not a Dodge Challenger so NEGRO, YOU DON’T…
-
'A Lot of My Favorite Hip-Hop Writers Have Been Women': The Root Presents: It's Lit! Hits The Motherlode With Clover Hope
The first rule of working with Beyoncé is: You do not talk about working with Beyoncé. But that didn’t stop us from asking—after all, our sister-in-writing Clover Hope has now worked on not one, but two projects with Queen Bey. Last year, she was one of the writers behind the summer’s gorgeous Black Is King…
-
Nick Cannon Tests Positive for COVID-19, Restores Relationship With ViacomCBS After Anti-Semitic Comments
Nick Cannon—and his turban and mask—have been spotted supporting COVID relief, Black Lives Matter and underserved communities in recent months. Now The Masked Singer host could use a little support of his own, as it was announced this week that Cannon has tested positive for COVID-19, causing him to miss the first several episodes of…