On a macro level and, I think, by most objective measures, 2017 was a fairly shitty year. I don’t have the time or disposition to run down everything that went wrong, but in a nutshell: Our president sucks, Congress sucks, our white electorate sucks, white people keep white-folkin’, we lost a bevy of great people and…

2017 has been a whirlwind for black beauty enthusiasts across the Diaspora. Rihanna came—ferociously—for all of our coins with the launch of Fenty Beauty. Flat-tummy teas were the rage of the year for Instagram celebrities. And we could not get enough of banana powder.

Any time capsule attempting to capture 2017 would definitely include an acoustic cover of “Bodak Yellow,” an American flag with a Colin Kaepernick figurine kneeling on it, a clip of the sunken-place scene from Get Out and an Apple watch, just in case someone in the future discovers a reason for it existing. But the…

To be a person of color in America is to always be tangled between dueling worlds. What was different in 2017, more so than any other year in recent memory, was how those polarities were laid bare for everyone else to see.

Last week, Panama Jackson asked which Bad Boy song was the most quintessentially Bad Boy. Not the best or most important song from that label and that era, but the one that best encapsulated Bad Boy’s general ethos and spirit. I disagreed with his top choice (he chose “Mo Money, Mo Problems”—I would have chosen “It’s…