Jasiri X and Pharoahe Monch at the Brooklyn Bowl for the Sandy Relief Concert (Photo by Paradise Gray) On “Our World with Black Enterprise“, hosted by Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, we discussed the current state of Hip-Hop and it’s future, with Hip-Hop artist Pharoahe Monch, Dr. Tricia Rose, chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Brown University and myself. […]
It’s New Year’s Eve, and tomorrow many of us will start making resolutions we will inevitably break. I don’t make resolutions; I’m also not into composing “Best of…” and “Worst of…” lists mostly because I don’t choose to dedicate my memory to cataloging such things. Since my blogging day has coincided with the event, however, […]
Megan Piphus, an upperclassman at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, recently appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She’s using music, ventriloquism, and puppetry, to inspire youth to dream big and in color!
BET’s new documentary ‘Murder to Excellence: Life & Hip Hop in Chicago’ spotlights our youth, the challenges they face, and the multi-faceted art to which their struggle has given birth.
At this point, even his fans know that rapper Rick Ross is far from the image he manufactures for his songs and videos. Slate Magazine even went as far to label the success of Rick Ross, in the face of his correction officer past, as the end of street credibility being necessary to Hip-Hop fans. So the news that Rick Ross canceled […]
A few weeks ago I threatened to record an album of me performing Christmas carols as spoken word pieces. It seemed like a genius idea at the time until: 1. While trying it in the privacy of my own home I realized that although initially funny, it gets annoying really quickly, and 2. DMX performed […]
For many, today marks the beginnings of finals week, a slew of tests given at the end of the semester wherein students attempt to coherently regurgitate everything they learned last night while cramming. In this tradition, I’d like to assign several essay questions to a few folks who have some explaining to do. You know […]
While I’m excited about the fact that a network created particularly for Black America is taking a stance and focusing on analyzing and potentially solving Black issues, I’m bothered because I feel the network is afraid to bring this program in with full-force.
Yesterday we told you about the shooting of 17 year-old Jordan Davis, who was gunned down in an SUV by 45 year-old Michael Dunn after an argument about loud music. Dunn’s attorney says this case is nothing like Trayvon Martin, and that Dunn is no vigilante. What do you think?
Nicki Minaj says Steven Tyler’s recent criticism of her ability to be a judge on American Idol is racist. Tyler says Nicki is ill-equipped to judge, and would have kicked Bob Dylan off the show. Is that assumption racist? Does Nicki have what it takes to judge Idol?
“I can help you with the brand new technology / You can help me with the age-old philosophy.” –Better People, India Arie It repeatedly comes to my attention that many adults of our society suffer from an ironic form of cognitive dissonance when it comes to their politics on aiding youth. Many hasten to advocate […]
Remember a few months back when Lupe Fiasco dropped “Bitch Bad” and magazine and scholars came out of the woodwork to diss Lupe for “mansplaining”? Spin Magazine took it the farthest calling it “reckless social commentary” and asking, “why must we continually endure Lupe Fiasco’s half-baked conscious hip-pop?” A few weeks later 2 Chainz and Kanye dropped the video for “Birthday […]
