Very Smart Brothas
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Ricky Baker Has Been Dead for 26 Years And I'm Still Not Over It
Apparently I’ve been having an emo few weeks or something. With that in mind, a few weeks back, I was surfing through the channels and saw that Boyz N The Hood was on. As is typical, I decided to watch from wherever it was in the movie. Like 99 percent of all Black people I…
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Babies Aren’t Birth Control. Kids' Birthday Parties Are Birth Control.
In November 2015, I wrote a piece called “Babies Aren’t Birth Control, Day Care Is Birth Control,” where I expressed the myriad frustrations, both financial and psychological, that arise when you lose the battle with prophylactics or fate and are required to find a safe, secure, and healthy place for your child to be when…
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Underground Season 2 Episode 3 Recap
Daniel’s learned a few more words since we saw him last episode. In addition to “love” we can add “strength” to his list of vocabulary words he’d choose to describe the black women in his life. He’s reading Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I A Woman?” speech to his daughter and she can’t believe northern black folk…
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If You Ever See What Looks To Be A Dead Possum On The Ground, Leave That Zombie Possum The Fuck Alone
They say that the best way to make God laugh is to tell Him your plans. I generally agree with this; the universe and His intentions for it are too incomprehensible for mortal understanding. But I do know, with one hundred thousand trillion percent certainty, that God’s plan for me does not involve me seeing…
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Six Tips For Everyone Who's Ever Emailed Me For Advice On How To Start A Blog Or How To Write For A Living
1. Perhaps, because I’ve managed to create a popular blog and etch out a career where people pay me money to write words about things on a computer screen so that people can read them, you’ve assumed that I have unique insights to offer. This is understandable, as you’re not the first and will not…
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What Exactly Does Dave Chappelle Want From Key & Peele?
Approximately midway through one of his new Netflix comedy specials (the one he taped last year in L.A. — I’ve yet to see the one taped in Austin), Dave Chappelle made a shocking allusion to his age. I forgot exactly what he said and how he said it, but I remember being reminded of exactly…
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Iron Fist Is Too Annoyingly And Inappropriately White To Be Any Good
Iron Fist, for all intents and purposes, is televised gentrification pre-equipped with its own heroin addiction. It is painstakingly everything I hate about Williamsburg, Austin, San Francisco, and anywhere else hipsters meet & breed like drugged addicted rabbits in chinos. Honestly, I can break down many issues with the show like this without spoilers: It’s…
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Steve Harvey Is The St. Peter Of The Sunken Place
Imagine, if you can, the sheer terror of watching yourself descend into The Sunken Place. Your body suspended in a perpetual state of hypnagogia. Your mind lucid enough to be conscious of the fright and the dread of what’s happening to your soul but too subdued — too horrifyingly and devastatingly paralytic — do to anything…
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Drake's "More Life" Is Leftover Cooler Water From Last Summer's Trip To The Beach
I hope Drake forgets his flip flops just before he steps in the shower at the gym or maybe he buys a series of Tim Horton’s franchises that get shut down by the health department or maybe he stubs his pinky toe on the OVO office coffee table. I hope that something, anything, significant happens…
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Joi-Marie McKenzie, Author of 'The Engagement Game', Is A Writing Ass Chick We Love
If you don’t know, you gon’ learn today. Joi-Marie McKenzie is the homie. Her website, TheFabEmpire.com is integral to anybody trying to navigate the goings on of Washington, DC, Baltimore, NYC, Atlanta, etc., especially during Washington, DC’s annual Black prom, the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference. Joi-Marie let’s you know the low down on…