Music
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Love & Hip Hop Atlanta, Season 5, Episode 7 Recap
The saying goes that all good things must come to an end – fake lesbian relationships, faker hetero marriages, 20/20 vision, etc. Mona Scott managed to bring an end to all of the above and then some with the latest episode of Love and Script Hip Hop Atlanta Season 5. The most recent installment of…
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Beyonce's "Freedom" Is Her First Anthem I Can Appreciate Too, And I Really Appreciate That!
I joked before that the difference between Beyonce 10 years ago and Beyonce today is akin to the difference between regular-sized human being Barry Bonds and head-the-size-of-a-city-street-trashcan Barry Bonds. Even adding that she’s made such improvement as an artist that she’d be suspected of doping if she was an athlete. A better analogy, perhaps, would compare…
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I Wish I Cared About The Frank Ocean Sophomore Album That Will Never Ever Be Released
At a time when many felt like R&B had fallen off — kidnapped by Canadians and let down by Chris Brown — Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange saved us. Not only was the music on point, it was different and inclusive, as multiple songs — “Bad Religion” and “Forrest Gump” specifically — contained unambiguous references to male…
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Yeah, What Lauryn Hill Did Was Wack, But Artists Are ALWAYS Late To Concerts
I’ve been to more concerts in my lifetime than I can remember. But I can tell you which were distinctly the best and worst that I’ve attended. The best was in early 1999, during my senior year of high school. I went to see The Roots at the State Theatre (Now The Fillmore) in Detroit.…
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There's A Video Called "Hoteps Hoteppin" And You Should Watch It Right Now
Why? Well because the first 90 seconds is a great (and hilarious) answer for anyone who asks “What exactly is a hotep? I don’t get it.” And because it was created by Radha Blank, who goes by RadhaMUSprime, writes for Empire, and actually has things like “she’s a GhostFace-meets-Moms-Mabley mash up” and “You can expect…
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Love & Hip Hop Atlanta Season 5, Episode 6 Recap
Just when I thought Mona Scott didn’t have a single lick of respeck to put on our collective names she goes and surprises us with a Mother’s Day gift: The gift of restful sleep. A day early and allegedly in honor of the national celebration of mothers, Mona gave us the TV equivalent of a…
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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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Will There Ever Be A Lemonade Moment For Black Men? (If So, Who Will Create It?)
Last Thursday, I sat on a panel at The New School with Jamilah Lemieux, Johnetta Elzie, Terrell Starr, and Chris Witherspoon to talk about how new media affects and informs social activism, art, journalism, writing, and our understanding of what it means to be Black. Oh, and Lemonade. We definitely talked a lot about Lemonade. Because it…
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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,…