hip-hop
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Hip-Hop Has a Woman Problem
Let’s go down memory lane for a bit. Twenty-eight years ago marked the release of MC Lyte’s seminal debut album, Lyte as a Rock. It was hip-hop’s first meaningful album from a female emcee. Twenty years ago marked the release of Bahamadia’s Kollage, the best hip-hop album ever from a female rapper. With the help…
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If NYC Top Cop Bill Bratton Wants to Discuss ‘Thugs,’ He Should Start With the NYPD
New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, one of the architects of New York’s racist stop-and-frisk policy, has weighed in on the fatal shooting that took place at a hip-hop concert at Manhattan’s Irving Plaza Wednesday night, and his statement was as prejudiced and hypocritical as one would expect from New York City’s top cop.…
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Black Music Month Means Studio Sessions at The Root
June is almost here—that means sunny skies, warm weather and black music, of course! For Black Music Month, The Root and McDonald’s will honor and celebrate the music (and musicians) of the African Diaspora with Studio Sessions at The Root. This video series will feature contemporary artists from a gamut of genres: global, hip-hop, soul—we’ve…
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Nia Long Said That J. Cole Isn’t Too Young For Her and I Got Hype!
To say that Nia Long is a national treasure is an understatement. Long has been a part of most of our lives since at least the mid-’90s, when she played Beulah “Lisa” Wilkes on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and when a visionary Ice Cube saw fit to cast her in cult classic Friday. Thank you, Ice…
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Rest In Power Afeni Shakur, You Are Appreciated.
We are having what could be considered one of the Blackest years on record. Larry Wilmore dropping the n-word at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner is peak Blackness no matter what side of the “appropriate” aisle you sit on. In fact, in any other year it’s the runaway winner, except moments prior to that moment,…
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An Ode To SWV
I grew up in Frankfurt, Germany, as a military brat in the mid-’80s and early ’90s. Those of us who grew up overseas had one channel to watch on television: AFN, which stands for the Armed Forces Network. We all watched the same cartoons, the same soap operas (General Hospital was followed by Guiding Light), and the…
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Complex’s “Best of” Lists Are Garbage
The media company never seems to get their rankings right...I wonder why...
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The Hip-Hop Dalmatians Are the Greatest Rap Group That Never Was. Probably. Maybe.
As far as late-’90s and early-2000s black cinema goes, Brown Sugar is probably my favorite movie. The Wood is as close a second as you can get, much in the way thatReasonable Doubt is my favorite Jay Z album but I can listen to The Blueprint all day every day. In fact, The Wood is…