Very Smart Brothas
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Dear Jayceon "The Game" Taylor: We Know You're Not Gangbanging Anymore, So Stop Pretending
Hey there, Jayceon. Can I call you Jay? J.T., perhaps? Let me start by saying that I love your music. You’ve been consistent for a decade now, your ear for beats is impeccable, your industry connections are amazing, and I’ve looked past your hackneyed conspiracy theories and the fact that you drop names on wax…
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Announcing The Launch Of 1839
For the past several months, I’ve been working with a number of people — including writer Deesha Philyaw, janera solomon of the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, and VSB’s own sarah huny young — to create 1839, a Pittsburgh-based magazine that takes a nuanced look at the intersection of race, politics, the arts, community and culture in…
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Things Drake Does In The "Hotline Bling" Vid That Men Not Named Drake Can Never Do
Yesterday, Drake released a video to “Hotline Bling.” The song, the video, and the reaction to the song and video is quintessential Drake. It is perhaps the most quintessentially Drake thing Drake has ever done, which is saying something because everything Drake does is quintessentially Drake. What exactly does quintessentially Drake mean, you ask? Well, quintessentially Drake means that if literally…
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Anthony Mackie: The Unlikeliest Hotep
I should know better. I know that movies and television shows are movies and television shows and contain actors who are acting and not being themselves. Again, I know this. I know Joe Morton isn’t really the sociopathic head of a shadowy government agency. I know Kimberly Elise has an emotion other than “depressingly distraught.” And I know that Michael Beach is…
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An Investigation: Are Donald Trump And Al Sharpton Really The Exact Same Person?
After hundreds of interviews, thousands of hours of exhaustive research and an illegal DNA test performed by genetic scientists at the laboratories abandoned by The Ricki Lake show in the late 90’s, I’ve concluded that there is a significant statistical probability that: Donald Trump is probably Al Sharpton. The origin of this investigation began in one…
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VSB Partners With Tees In The Trap
VSB is excited to announce that Tees in The Trap will now be the exclusive retailer of our Bougie Black apparel and all other VSB-related products. We’ve long appreciated and admired the work they do and the products they sell, and this partnership is long overdue; a fact this picture… …reminded us of every time we’d…
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The Game's "The Documentary 2" Is The Album I Wish Kendrick Lamar Would Have Released
I know that sounds absurd. But follow me. Kendrick Lamar dropped a seminal work in To Pimp A Butterfly, a work so full of Blackness and filled with so many musical styles and elements that even if you don’t love it you have to appreciate and respect his ability to articulate his worldview in his…
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I Just Saw The November Cover Of EBONY Magazine, And…Well…Holy Shit
It was October of 2011. I was in New York City do to a shoot for a story in Essence Magazine. While walking to Essence, I happened to randomly bump into Jamilah Lemieux in the street. Which, considering that New York City has 21 billion people and I happened to literally walk right into one of…