black music
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Ladies First: Essence Fest 2018 Took Over NOLA, and We Had FOMO
We wanna be down! While The Root’s own Danielle Young made her way to New Orleans from July 5-8 to party with our sister-girls at the 2018 Essence Music Festival, alas, The Glow Up stayed home to attend to other pertinent business. But that didn’t keep us from catching a major case of FOMO. After…
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Nicki Minaj Losing Her Mind Over Chanel Redefines ‘Fashion Obsessed’
Here at The Glow Up, we’re crazy for fashion, but rapper Nicki Minaj clearly has us beat—by a mile. The artist, who recently told Elle magazine “All I do is wear Chanel,” had a Christmas morning moment in July when gifts arrived from the famed French fashion house, filled with as-yet-to-be released goodies from its…
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Does Drake’s Scorpion Album Have Any Sting?
Drake needs a woman who’s going to make him happy. Drizzy Drake’s Scorpion album has caused a lot of chatter in the Twitter world already. The album was released Friday, with an A and a B side, where basically one side is hip-hop, while the other is R&B. Much like any album, it has received…
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You Gotta Put Me On: For the Artists Who Haven’t Quite Reached Mainstream Success but Are Killing the Game
When black people who are musically inclined choose to pursue a career as an artist, they are proclaiming that they not only believe in their talent but also don’t subscribe to the conventional ways of making an American dream a reality. These people are dreamers with thick skin. Rejection is palpable when you choose to…
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Blakanda and the Beautiful: The Best, the Boldest and the Bad(dest) Looks of the 2018 BET Awards
“Blakanda” was the theme, and black Hollywood didn’t disappoint at the 2018 BET Awards Sunday night, when black excellence took center stage at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Since several of our Root crew were in attendance, we left it to them to fill you in on all the details about the show, while…
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Fade 2 Focused: Why Teyana Taylor Turned Off IG to Turn Up for Her New Album
Fun fact: We still haven’t gotten used to the idea of Teyana Taylor being grown. Yes, we know she’s a 27-year-old wife and mother to toddler Iman Tayla (aka “Junie”). And of course we also vividly remember feeling sick with envy over her sleek and slicked-up post-baby body (and ridiculously sexy dance moves) in the…
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Freedom Over Fear: Janelle Monáe Covers Allure’s Freedom Issue
You strip away the makeup, the costumes and everything you know about Janelle Monáe the artist, and I’m still the African-American, queer woman who grew up with poor, working-class parents. When I walk off a stage, I have to deal with these confrontations. I have to deal with being afraid for my family. The artist…
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Lizzo Covers Teen Vogue and We’re in Love (Again)
Fun fact: Every few months, I play this game with my co-workers where I excitedly mention the singer and rapper known as Lizzo, and they all play like they have no idea who I’m talking about, despite likely hearing her music on about half a dozen commercials daily (“Worship,” anyone?). Then I hit them with…
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The Pop Up: Once You Hear the Voice of Roc Nation’s Darling, Victory Boyd, You’ll Realize Why Jay-Z Loves Her
Victory Boyd is Roc Nation’s newest darling. She’s a young black queen from New Jersey by way of Detroit. In fact, Victory’s dad, John Boyd (who came with her to The Root’s office) founded the Boys and Girls Choirs of Detroit. Why am I telling you about Victory’s dad before I tell you more about…
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Chloe x Halle Cover Teen Vogue and Take Us through the Playlist of Their Lives (and Ours)
It’s fun proving people wrong. Even with our music, early on when we were even much younger, people sometimes said our music should be more simple, more digestible, but my sister and I, we just pushed through together and we’re like, “Bam. We’re gonna do what we want to do.” — Chloe Bailey Chloe and…