paper boi

  • Donald Glover's Atlanta Was A Love Letter To Black People, And The Year's Best And Most Important Show

    Three moments from Atlanta keep coming back to me when attempting to gather and articulate my thoughts about this show. 1.  Black Justin Bieber pitted against Paper Boi in the celebrity basketball game, calling for the ball and unsuccessfully trying to get his teammate’s attention with “Nigga! Nigga!” And then, fed up that he’s being ignored, breaking…

  • Atlanta Episode 10 (Season Finale): "The Jacket" Recap

    I mistakenly walked into the season finale of Atlanta with the idea that we more or less knew what was to be expected of this episode. A couple of hat-tips to the quirkier aspects of Black American culture, some behind the scenes insight to the struggles of the rap game, a moment of tenderness between…

  • Watch: ‘Name That Trap Song’ With Atlanta's Brian Tyree Henry

    Just because Brian Tyree Henry plays Paper Boi, a budding rapper in the FX series Atlanta, doesn’t mean that he actually knows trap music IRL. Atlanta, whose 10-episode season ends Tuesday (and which has been renewed for a second season), has done a phenomenal job depicting the vastness of the black experience, including the role of rap…

  • Atlanta Episode 8: "The Club" Recap

    When FX first announced their partnership with NBC workhorse Donald Glover for their new show about the inner-workings of an up and coming rapper and his manager, I assumed scenes like the ones that take place in Atlanta’s “The Club” would be par for the course. Club appearances and popped bottles are, after all, much…

  • Watch: Brian Tyree Henry Is All About That Paper Boi

    Brian Tyree Henry is Atlanta’s Paper Boi. The Morehouse man and Yale Drama alum had his big break on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning play The Book of Mormon. And now he’s in homes across the nation as one of the stars of Donald Glover’s unapologetically black comedy, Atlanta. Henry’s character, Alfred—also known as Paper Boi on the show—is…

  • Atlanta Episode 7: "B.A.N." Recap

    “Most people don’t realize their chakras are in another universe.” Does the black community have a problem with the LGBT community, specifically the trans-community and if so is it merely a by-product of oppression fatigue? This question and many others (such as why an Arizona iced tea is ringing up at the register as $1.29…