This week the legendary Apollo Theater celebrated the 13 years of its star-studded annual Spring Gala. Every year the iconic Harlem landmark gathers every ounce of black excellence it can find to raise funds for its year-round artistic- and community-programming initiatives.

A lot of eyes in the black community will be on this Sunday’s 90th Academy Awards. Thanks to films Get Out and Mudbound, several black folks are in the running for a coveted Oscar on the movie industry’s biggest night.

On March 17, 2017, terrible human being-turned-terrible human being plus chicken-wing savant, Rick Ross, dropped his ninth studio album, Rather You Than Me. The first song on the album is called “Apple of My Eye.” As I listened to this song for the first time, a very familiar voice, one I’ve been listening to since I…