90s
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Living Single's Erika Alexander Reveals She Almost Wasn't Cast in Role of 'Maxine'
“Maxine Shaw, Attorney-at-Law” is one of the beloved main characters from the hit ‘90s sitcom Living Single, as portrayed by Erika Alexander. The show would be entirely different without Max’s playful energy, and a new Facebook video interview with Alexander reveals that at one point, she wasn’t sure if the role would be hers to…
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9 Thoughts about Mobb Deep and Their Classic Album, The Infamous, That Just Turned 25 Years Old
Mobb Deep’s sophomore album, The Infamous, recently turned 25 years old, having been released on April 25, 1995. Produced largely by Havoc and featuring notable additional production from Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest—an integral part of their story—and featuring stellar, vivid lyricism from Prodigy and Havoc, this album is an indisputable hip hop classic.…
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It Turns Out, Hip-Hop Will Probably Always Be the Love of My Life
A few weeks back, I attended an album talk for noted hip-hop lyricist and producer Pharoahe Monch’s 1999 album, Internal Affairs (released on seminal label, Rawkus Records), at The REACH, the new arts and culture center that’s part of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The talk, part of…
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10 Thoughts About the Wu-Tang Clan and Their Showtime Documentary Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics & Men
1. I got into the Wu-Tang Clan very late to the game. It’s not because I didn’t think they could spit—I did, but the sound was just too dirty for me. I was a very big fan of Dr. Dre and DJ Quik and they both produced very cleanly, so to speak. And also, one…
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Please Me Music Video by Cardi B and Bruno Mars— You'll Be Pleased
Want to be pleased? Join the club. Or… you can join Cardi B and Bruno Mars who dropped the music video for their ultimate “got me in the mood” single, “Please Me.” From the moment Cardi teased the single art on her Instagram, I knew this would be a hot one. The chemistry between the…
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Love, Peace and Soul (and a Little Faith): The 2018 Soul Train Awards Was a Night of '90s Nostalgia
All eyes and (marketing strategies) may be on millennials and Gen Z, but despite artists from those generations leading the pack in nominations, by all appearances, it was “grown folks music” that dominated the 2018 Soul Train Awards. For those of us of a certain age, Saturday night’s annual awards ceremony in Las Vegas was…
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Cardi's Next Collab? Kicking Up a Revival for Reebok
You may be shaking your ass to her feature on the newly released “Mi Mami” right now, but Cardi B has already moved on to her next collab—this time, as an ambassador for legacy sneaker brand Reebok. Infusing new energy into the brand’s iconic Aztrek sneaker and a few other classics, Cardi plays the ’90s…
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Right On! A Cultural Classic Makes Its Comeback
Every so often, those of us of a certain age at The Root will mention Right On! magazine—and inevitably, someone much younger will say, “What’s that?” But if you were a black child coming of age between the early ’70s to the mid-’90s, Right On! was likely a cultural touchstone, covering the African American entertainment…
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How Janet Jackson’s janet. Made a Man Out of Me
Janet Jackson’s janet. could not have come out at a more critical time in my life. It was the summer of 1993 (the album was released 25 years ago today, May 18), and I was 11 years old going on 12, and puberty was having the time of its life in my body. Since this…
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Call It a Comeback: J.Crew Returns to Its Roots With the Heritage Collection
In college, my favorite item of clothing was a chocolate-brown wool J.Crew roll-neck sweater, an item I’d borrowed (but never returned) from my still-bestie, who had, in turn, nipped it from her then-boyfriend. The year was 1994, and it was a single item that looked and felt great on all of us, pre-Sisterhood of the…