Russell Simmons/Drew Dixon By Brenda Alexander At just 24 years old, Drew Dixon was a rising A&R executive at Def Jam Records at the pinnacle of rap’s rise. Under the influence of hip hop mogul Russell Simmons, she produced platinum-selling albums, arranged tours and promotions and was responsible for the classic duet between Method Man & Mary J. Blige. But…
Cardi B By Brenda Alexander So Cardi B decided to interrupt the Harper’s Bazaar Party during the fashion industry’s premiere celebration of New York Fashion Week for a full-on old school street fight with Nicki Minaj. I knew nothing of this beef, but I digress. What’s more important here is that I’m disappointed that once again, my people cannot handle…
By Ta-Ning Connai First, I’d like to give my sincere condolences and a heartfelt prayer for all the rappers and rap critics that got slaughtered by Eminem on his unexpected sneak attack album, Kamikaze, on August 31: Continue May you Rest In Peace and know better never to cross that crazy boy ever again. May many of you always be…
Alaya High aka Lay Lay By Ta-ning Connai “Be ready so you don’t have to get ready” is a motivational quote worth repeating. Even Will Smith, Rupaul, Conor McGregor and Snoop have found them worthy of retweeting. 11-year-old Alaya High wasn’t born when those words came together, yet she sure seems to epitomize them nonetheless. Empire Records has some heavy…
Ms. Lauryn Hill Courtesy Photo via TheMiamiTimes By Veronica Wells I was in fifth grade when Lauryn Hill’s Miseducation was released. I don’t think I could overstate what that album meant to me. It changed the game for me (I would learn later, so many other young, Black women.) A year later, during a family reunion—where we ended up in…
Rapper Nelly with video model in his Tip Drill music video By Brenda Alexander After watching BET’s 30-minute digital docu-series “VIXEN,” I was left wondering: was video modeling a legitimate starting point for Hollywood hopefuls that could spearhead a dream career? And did the supposed tell-all ‘Confessions of a Video Vixen’ by Karrine Steffans change the narrative and perception of video…
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and Terry Crews By Ta-ning Connai I use to love me some 50 Cent. Key words: USE TO. I know he got his start as one of the kings of Hip-Hop beefs, but now as a full-grown man with a bunch of kids and a whoooole lotta stuff to do, the beef he instigates on social…
By Devon Mac As I type these words I’m already tired of talking about Jay Z and Beyoncé so please forgive this post. But I was sitting here in the cloud of their media hype and most recently an article about how their joint album, Everything is Love, did not debut at number 1, and a few quandaries began to…
By Mwabi Kaira I have been blessed in the derrière area and fill my jeans out quite nicely. I feel like it is pretty large as is and can’t imagine trying to make it bigger. Making it smaller would be of more interest to me. Even when I was 35 lbs lighter and in a size 8, I lost much…
Tupac Shakur By Ta-ning Connai June 16 was Tupac Shakur’s birthday. And if he was still alive today, he would have been 47 years old. Often hailed as the greatest rapper of all time, he was Passion Manifested! Whether spitting prose like a modern Gil Scott-Heron, making gangsterish threats to a dope beat or dropping knowledge like the late Malcolm…
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