192 Search results for "cousin"

What happens when you take one of the illest mc’s of all-time and put him on a track with a “toasting” reggae sensation? You get distant relatives. I’m not referring to your typical long lost cousin kind of distant relative, I’m talking about the family member who you never met but instantly click with. Although […]

“If I’m in yo city, I’m signing them tig-o-bitties.” –Nicki Minaj, 2010 When Kanye called for a sort of moratorium on gay-bashing he was simply talking about blatant disregard (i.e. calling a man a “bitch” or a “faggot.”) What he wasn’t doing is starting a revolution in hip hop to love thy neighbor as his […]

How the Black Eyed Peas shamelessly sold out…and why it was the best idea EVER.

So as it stands, Love & War is more than a respectable debut for Merriweather. It may not separate him from the pack the way a truly classic release would, but it’s impossible not to at least like.

A few years ago, I took on the unbelievably complex and daunting task of constructing the maternal branches of my family tree. My first step was to sit down with my grandmother and listen as she recounted the names of her grandparents and their parents. Granny relayed some wonderful, albeit slightly inaccurate information. Beyond my […]

When I was young I had horrible dance moves. If Urkel and Carlton Banks could be synthesized into one super nerd they’d still be cooler than me. Whenever my mom would turn on the song “electric slide” in the living room I would always bump into her because my turn wasn’t that smooth. But that […]

City Schools’ New Criteria for Diversity Raise Fears Crystal Yednak and Darnell Little, The New York Time, December 20, 2009 Violence leaves family facing grim holidays; Murders of son, cousin shatter happiness — but not faith Mary Mitchell, The Chicago Sun-Times, December 20, 2009 Health gap kills 3,200 black Chicagoans a year; African Americans miss […]

Like most people who do not live in the same city with their biological family I look forward to the Christmas’ holiday with sheer delight and seethed dread. Yes, I use the five letter word dread because it seems as if all the unfinished family’s drama from the previous year is dysfunctionally packed away in […]

This past weekend I took a break from the monotony of the “ivory tower”. I threw down my books and pushed aside my assignments so I could be entertained. My friends and I decided that with midterms rapidly approaching we needed a few good laughs to maintain our sanity, so we decided to go see […]

a “prominent black scholar with reams of scholarship on bookshelves” couldn’t be distinguished from “Cousin Pookie.”

  As a youngster my father always told me to never make excuses. He stressed that habitual “excuse making” leads to defeatism. He spoke of defeatism so pejoratively that I began to think it was some sort of plague. When he even uttered the word excuse his face would contort in an ugly cringe as […]

My weekend was amazing and bittersweet. Everywhere I went, people were celebrating Michael Jackson. Friday night, my 21 year old cousin and I went to the Lupe Fiasco concert at the Chicago Theatre. Lupe is one of the most high energy rappers. He danced, jumped, and preened onstage – a couple of times jumping so […]